Do I have to complete the Subject field?
Well, it's not mandatory that you do so, but we recommend that you always complete the subject field. It can never hurt. Plus, as you are building more an more sophisticated systems, you will find that having pre-planted a subject, even in your early documents, will be very useful to you.
Maybe this will help you to decide. Think of the purpose to which you are going to put the various pieces of your dis-assembled document. If you don't plan to recall terms using the Alt-G hot key, and plan only to recall terms via a DropDown List or Clause Selection screen, you can get away with not attaching a subject. (When you don't assign a subject, Pathagoras will still do it for you, attaching the documents name, sans the .doc or .docx extension, as its subject.)
Let's assume the following. The document you want to disassemble is a list of names and addresses. (Remember, Pathagoras can handle anything!) Here is a sample list.
John Q. Adamson
Suite 232
12345 Main Street
Jamestown, VA 23696
George P. Washburn
443 Apple Tree Lane
Mt. Vernon, VA 23876
Thomas W. Jeffers
543 Independence Blvd.
Monticello, VA 23567
What names do you want to assign to each address? Of course you could call the first one "Adamson, J.Q. Address" and you will know exactly what it is, but that is a lot of typing for a supposed 'shortcut.' Even better: 'jqadamson', or 'adamsonjq' or even better still: 'jqaadd' (the latter reflects the initials plus the suffix 'add' to indicate an 'address'. (Following this pattern, you could use 'jqaph' to represent a phone number.)
It is simple to type any of the above to the screen and press the hot-key combination <Alt-G>. Instant address!
But how will you or others in your office recall all of your addresses. Some you will memorize. Others you will need a list. And that's where the Subject line comes in. Pathagoras can maintain the relationship between the 'short' name and the 'complete' subject. So, while the document or glossary term name might be jaqadd, you can display the subject "Adamson, JQ." in any DropDown List or Clause Selection screen. It really is the best of both worlds.
Note: The '(*)' method of marking up text to show major section breaks is used in several modules within Pathagoras. It is used within TermWorks! (discussed in this section, within the Bulk Add routine (next) and within the Instant Book routine (second next). Keep in mind that '(*)' (or whatever character set you choose) is just text. It is definitely not 'code'. It has no special meaning to Pathagoras beyond marking a begin and end point where these functions might look to perform their respective functions. |