View Style Naming

As mentioned in the thread about viewing all books rated five stars by the user, I don't use my various view styles very often, primarily because I can never remember what they ARE in order to use them effectively.

Would it be possible for users to be allowed to name them, and then to display the names rather than letters IF they are named? For example, if I have a view style that has only those fields I need to view for the purpose of creating MLA citations, I could name it (wait for it...) MLA. Then, either the button would display the text "MLA," or the button that currently reads, "Style" would become a functional drop-down menu with the names of my styles.

Another option might be for the names we've given our styles to appear when we mouse over the respective letter button, but I don't know if mouseover text can be different from one user to the next.

I think that this is a great idea. Given that the buttons are now just big enough to hold a single letter, the tooltip idea is probably the way to go.

I'm guessing that much of that blue bar where Styles currently reside will be used once Collections come on the scene, but if not, there's quite a bit of blank real estate between the editing boxes and the search box that could make way for some wider buttons than the single-letter ones, as well...

Yes, they used to be bigger, and the sort, power-edit and print preview buttons used to have words too. All have been abbreviated to leave room for collections related controls.

That still leaves the tooltips though!

I'd love it. I currently have it set up so that the letters are (kind of) mnemonics - D view has all the Dates, for instance, and C has Comments and CK. But a real naming system would be great.

This is on my radar, but it's not very high up. The goal should be defaults most people are happy with, which I don't think can be named. Most people aren't going to want to make special customize ones, or to name them. Some will, of course.

But as you know Tim, those most people are the ones who don't post and some will are the ones who post like crazy! Squeaky wheel = grease.

I would love to have something remind me which of my styles is for what purpose. Now I cycle between them until I find what I want, or discover that I have to create it (yet again) because I did something else with that style.

(signed) another squeaky wheel

I've asked for this before, still hoping some day it will be a small project Tim decides is worth an hour or two when he wants a change of pace.

Heh. It's not an hour or two. A day, I'm guessing. I know, sounds hard to believe.

I think the name thing would be cool, but I wouldn't want to be forced into generic defaults that fits most people.

FicusFan, exactly - I think we use our catalogs in vastly varying ways, and there are far too many combinations available to presume that certain views are most deserving of default status.

I like this idea

8> I list the uses of mine on my profile page
A - for finding books (cover, tags, series, subject)
B - ?? undefined
C - Crit - ratings and reviews
D - Data entry - date entered, tags, collection
E - Editing - ISBN, CK

ETA:typo

I use B for "Bibliographic" and include all stuff I'd want for a bibliography: publisher, orig date published, date, separate columns for authors ... etc.

I too use C for "Common Knowledge".

14> I'm stealing your "B" !

6

This is on my radar, but it's not very high up. The goal should be defaults most people are happy with, which I don't think can be named. Most people aren't going to want to make special customize ones, or to name them. Some will, of course.

So give them default names like "Style A", "Style B", "Style C" ...

I also just use mnemonics - right now mine run:

Main
Book (work data)
Copy (book/edition data)
Dewey (and other subject info)
Edit (frequently edited fields)

Just wanted to speak up to say that 8 years later, this is still a feature I would love to see! It would be great to give the style views specific names, and would make them much easier to use.