i2Brain: Hiding items (visual database)

Hiding items (visual database)

This function allows you to hide items depending on their links (arrows) to other items. This is one of the most advanced functions in i2Brain, and makes your visualised information into a database.

"Filters" have essentially the same effect as "hiding" in that they cause items to disappear, but the two functions are nevertheless fundamentally different. Filters use aspects, whereas hiding uses the arrows.

"Parts" is a very simple version of the hiding which is described here.

Use

A right-click on an element causes its context menu to open. "Show/hide connected items" opens this dialog:

Alternatively, you can press F7 while one or more items are selected.

Since this function is more powerful than most, its usage is more complicated.

The dialog is divided into three sections:

	whether you want to hide or show the items which are selected,
	which types of arrows are considered and in which direction they point,
	if two or more items are selected, the third section determines how the results of the first two are combined.

In the example "Movies" I want to see who was involved in making "Notting Hill". I'm using this column view:

I right-click "Notting Hill" and choose "Show/hide connected items" and fill out the dialog like this:.

Here's the result:

These three people were involved in making "Notting Hill". Please note that the result has nothing to do with aspects, but purely with links.

Hiding is rescinded in the view's menu: "View | Revoke hiding".

Another example: I want to see which films Julia Roberts and Richard Curtis have worked on together.

I select "Julia Roberts" and "Richard Curtis", then right-click on one of them (it doesn't matter which), then fill out the dialog thus:

The result:

NB Neither "Pretty Woman" nor "Bridget Jones" are shown because we wanted to know when Ms. Roberts AND Mr. Curtis worked on a film. Try out what happens when you activate the "or"-option.

In this example it doesn't matter whether there is a tick next to "Part-Of links" and "Precedes links" because there aren't any links of that type on the screen.

The bottom two lines in the dialog are only active when two or more items are selected. A rule of thumb: the "or" combination always selects the same number or MORE items than when the "And" button is activated.

In all cases the selected items remain visible.

Using this dialog twice or more has an accumulative effect so long as you don't activate "Show all others" or "Hide all others".

The results of the Hiding are NOT stored to disk. That means that after storing and reading, no items are hidden.

F7 opens the dialog. Shift-F7 repeats the hiding, which only makes sense if you have selected different items in the meantime. Ctrl-F7 revokes the hiding, so it has the same effect as "View | Revoke hiding" in the menu.

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