Auto-update in Parallels and Synoptic Windows

[MortenJensen]

Hi all,
Is it possible to have the Parallels and Synoptic windows to auto-update what ever is displayed in the browse-window?
I am not able to get BW to do that.
In Parallels, you do have a Syncronize-button - but it will not auto-update more than once.

It would be really nice to be able to leave those two windows open to the right and have them to follow what ever I look up from the Command Line.

Morten

[DavidR]

I just did a little experimenting with having the Synopsis window open and using the Command Line in the main BW window to change verses. Wow. I tried a couple of different combinations of clicking (a) a radio button to designate the "Active Window" and (b) the checkboxes to "link" and "unlink" windows. I discovered two things: (1) I can't figure out what the connection is supposed to be among these actions; and (2) if I keep trying I will lose either my mind or my Christian control over my tongue, or both. The Command Line does seem to affect the verse displayed in the Synopsis window, but it also seems to want to make the same verse in the same book display in all columns of the Synopsis window, which of course defeats the whole purpose of it.

For instance, with the Browse Window (and browse tab in the Analysis Window) displaying Luke 9:28, the beginning of the Transfiguration, I open a Synopsis window, using the aland-nrs_grk.sdf database. The window displays sec. 161 of this synopsis, texts beginning at Matthew 17:1; Mark 9:2; Luke 9:28; and the tangentially related John 12:28. OK. When I click the Luke radio button to make it "active" (and leave all 4 checkboxes checked), then go back to the Command Line in the main window -- the "Active Window" radio button jumps to the Matthew column! Back to the Synopsis window, click the Luke button again, back to the Command Line and this time the Luke button sticks. (However, any time I click back on the Synopsis window, the "Active Window" button switches to Matthew.) With the Luke column selected as active, I type 9:37 in the Command Line to go to Luke 9:37. In the Synopsis window, all four columns show Luke 9:37 (and nothing else).

So yeah, there is a serious problem with syncing or auto-updating the main window Command Line and Browse Window to a Synopsis window. Then there's this, not really related to what you're asking: when the Synopsis window opens to sec. 161, the titles of the columns are, respectively, Mat 3:17; Mar 1:11; Luk 3:22; and Joh 12:28. Those texts come from the baptism narrative (sec. 18 of the synopsis), specifically the voice speaking from heaven, which is reasonably included among the texts in sec. 161. Apparently what displays as a title above each column is the last, not the first, verse shown in that column. Odd behavior, IMHO.

I can't get any sync at all between the main window and a Parallels window, other than that when you first open a Parallels window it goes to the verse currently showing in the Browse Window.

I agree, some synchronization here would be good. However, I say that without knowing how these things communicate with each other within BW's neural system, so to speak. But frankly, I'd rather have no sync at all between the main window and Synopsis window than the inscrutable oddities currently in place. Of course, I may just need someone more adept than I with the Synopsis window to explain it to me.

[MortenJensen]

Thanks,

It would be great to have one from the BW-team to comment on this.

I would say that it would be a really great thing to have implemented - especially for synoptic studies - if you would always have an "updated" synoptic window on top of the text, you are studying!

Morten

[Mark Eddy]

The command line affects whichever window you have made the active window. If you click on the synopsis window, the command line will change the synopsis window. If you click on the main browse window, the command line will change the main browse window and not the synopsis window. That way you can look at a different verse in the browse window and not lose your place in the synopsis window. I personally like it this way. Perhaps you could make a suggestion for future programming to make it optional to have the syopsis window move in sync with the browse window. But I would uncheck that option and leave it the way it is. Until such an option is made available, if you want to change the synopsis window with the browse window, you either have to close the synopsis window, then change the browse window, then re-open the synopsis window, or else you have to click on both the main browse window (to change it) then click on the synopsis window (to change it).
Realize too that the synopsis windows you are using are arranged so that Matt. is in the first column, Mark in the 2nd, Luke in the 3rd, and John in the fourth. If you make the Luke column the active search window, then type something on the command line from any other book, there will be no synoptic match, because there is never any other book in the 3rd column. That is why all three windows may display the same verse: you have overridden the synoptic file. So, just be sure that when you click on the Synoptic window you click in the column for the book you intend to search. If you do so, it should work fine.
Also realize that some of the synopsis files contain only NT references, so if you switch the browse window to OT, they would not be able to sync with it. Other synopsis windows contain non-biblical references (e.g. Apostolic Fathers), and those of course could not be in sync all the time. This fact might make your suggestion harder to implement.
There are a few bugs in the synoptic window. I have been working on a synoptic file comparing the Bible and Josephus, and I have exceeded the capability of the program and produced some wierd results. But if you use only the synoptic files which ship with BW, you should not have problems, as long as you remember which column is your active search column.
I hope this helps.
Mark Eddy

[MortenJensen]

Thanks, Mark,

I just tried to reproduce, what you describe. However, when I type in new references in the C.Line, the synoptic window only displays that text in all of the columns. Really strange. Like: If I open the synoptic window at Matt 1:1 - and the go to C.Line and type Matt 7:1 - the texts displayed will all be Matt 7:1.

hmm

Morten

[DavidR]

The command line affects whichever window you have made the active window. If you click on the synopsis window, the command line will change the synopsis window. If you click on the main browse window, the command line will change the main browse window and not the synopsis window. That way you can look at a different verse in the browse window and not lose your place in the synopsis window. I personally like it this way. Perhaps you could make a suggestion for future programming to make it optional to have the syopsis window move in sync with the browse window. But I would uncheck that option and leave it the way it is. Until such an option is made available, if you want to change the synopsis window with the browse window, you either have to close the synopsis window, then change the browse window, then re-open the synopsis window, or else you have to click on both the main browse window (to change it) then click on the synopsis window (to change it).

Thanks, Mark. I'm afraid I don't find my experience to be quite the same as yours. I understand the value of having one verse in the main Browse Window and another in the Synopsis window. On the other hand I usually have the Browse Window in multiple-version mode, and I might want to switch to a different verse in a way that allows me to compare multiple versions of that verse in one gospel in the Browse Window while also comparing the other gospels' renditions of the same saying or story in the Synopsis window. As you say, that requires mulitiple openings and closings of the Synopsis window.

Realize too that the synopsis windows you are using are arranged so that Matt. is in the first column, Mark in the 2nd, Luke in the 3rd, and John in the fourth. If you make the Luke column the active search window, then type something on the command line from any other book, there will be no synoptic match, because there is never any other book in the 3rd column. That is why all three windows may display the same verse: you have overridden the synoptic file. So, just be sure that when you click on the Synoptic window you click in the column for the book you intend to search. If you do so, it should work fine.

This is where problems come in. Making Luke the "active window" and going to the command line resets the active window to the first column (Matthew) the first time I do it. I have to return to the Synopsis window, select the Luke radio button again, and then go back to the command line. And when I do that and type in a new reference, in Luke, on the CL, all the columns in the Synopsis window display that new reference in Luke. In fact, when I type anything in the CL, all the radio buttons in the Synopsis window are cleared. Perhaps this is why all the columns now show the new Luke reference. It is probably also why, when I type an actual search on the CL after changing the "active window" in the Synopsis window, the search runs in the main Browse Window and, as usual, the Synopsis window doesn't change. If I manage to get a column other than the first one as the "active window" and keep it that way when I go to the CL and perform a search, clicking on a result of the search once again shows that verse in all columns of the Synopsis window. I don't see at what point here I have "overridden the synoptic file," unless that means that I can only use the CL for operations on the book showing in the first column of the Synopsis window.
So, at this point I'm saying (not speaking for Morten!),

1. There seems to be some flaw in the workings of the Synopsis window that doesn't allow, or at least doesn't like, choosing a column other than the first as the "active window."
2. I need to go back to the Help system and see if I can understand how the "active window" radio buttons and link/unlink check boxes are supposed to work, and whether they're actually working that way.
3. I still don't get why the title about each column refers to the last reference in that column rather than the first.

Thanks for your response, Mark, and I'll be glad for any further light you can shed.

[Mark Eddy]

This is where problems come in. Making Luke the "active window" and going to the command line resets the active window to the first column (Matthew) the first time I do it. I have to return to the Synopsis window, select the Luke radio button again, and then go back to the command line. And when I do that and type in a new reference, in Luke, on the CL, all the columns in the Synopsis window display that new reference in Luke. In fact, when I type anything in the CL, all the radio buttons in the Synopsis window are cleared. Perhaps this is why all the columns now show the new Luke reference. It is probably also why, when I type an actual search on the CL after changing the "active window" in the Synopsis window, the search runs in the main Browse Window and, as usual, the Synopsis window doesn't change. If I manage to get a column other than the first one as the "active window" and keep it that way when I go to the CL and perform a search, clicking on a result of the search once again shows that verse in all columns of the Synopsis window. I don't see at what point here I have "overridden the synoptic file," unless that means that I can only use the CL for operations on the book showing in the first column of the Synopsis window.
So, at this point I'm saying (not speaking for Morten!),

1. There seems to be some flaw in the workings of the Synopsis window that doesn't allow, or at least doesn't like, choosing a column other than the first as the "active window."

Mia culpa. I was answering your question from memory, without actually doing it. With the synopsis file you are using, I get the same results as you. Apparently we are trying to do something with the synopsis window which it was not designed to do. It was designed to open to the verse you are in originally in the bwose window, but then we are supposed to advance the synopsis window by picking one of the pre-arranged synopsis lines, not by using the command line to pick whatever verse we want. The synopsis window is based on a floating browse window, so that apparently is why it works with the command line--sort of. But picking a verse in the synopsis window via the command line does wipe out the synopsis, and instead the verse from the command line appears in all the columns. Apparently the synopsis window would have to be made much more complicated than it currently is, if we want BW to search through the synopsis file, find a verse inside a range listed there, and then choose that synopsis line. Currently it is programmed only to go to the synopsis line you actually choose from within the list.

3. I still don't get why the title about each column refers to the last reference in that column rather than the first.

I do not see what you mean here. On my computer the heading for each column is the first verse displayed in each column.
Mark Eddy

[Mark Eddy]

I usually have the Browse Window in multiple-version mode, and I might want to switch to a different verse in a way that allows me to compare multiple versions of that verse in one gospel in the Browse Window while also comparing the other gospels' renditions of the same saying or story in the Synopsis window. As you say, that requires mulitiple openings and closings of the Synopsis window.

You can edit your synopsis files to display multiple versions in the columns of the synopsis window. That way you can see the synoptics all in multiple version mode. At the upper left hand corner of the Synopsis window, click on "File," then choose "Edit." On the line titled "Display" add the version abbreviation for the versions you wish to display (in the order in which you want them displayed). Then click "File" and choose "Save." Again click "File" and choose "Run." Now you should see your synopsis columns in multiple version mode. Of course, if the section in the synopsis is many verses long, you will have to scroll down to see your other versions. So this probably is not exactly what you want. But it might help a bit.
Mark Eddy

[DavidR]

Ah yes. I was aware of this, but hadn't thought of it in this context.

[DavidR]

Originally Posted by DavidR
3. I still don't get why the title about each column refers to the last reference in that column rather than the first.

I do not see what you mean here. On my computer the heading for each column is the first verse displayed in each column.

Here's a screenshot to show what I mean. It depends, of course, on what section of the synopsis one has open. I'm using just the Aland NRS synopsis here, for simplicity's sake. As you can see, since in the Transfiguration passage the synopsis also includes material from the baptism narrative for each of the synoptic gospels, there are multiple passages in each column, and for some reason the "title" (as I'm calling it) for each column references the last passage, not the first one.