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Voice Card Navigation

Voice Card  -  Volume 5  -  Paul Card Number 5  -  Tue, Feb 21, 1989 8:22 PM







This is a response to volume 4, Robert Card Number 4 ("John Voices Suggestion")...

_I_ have found that the best way to navigate through the voice cards is to option-click on the arrow key after reading each card without a response. There are at least two problems with this method:

Up till now I have never been able to remember the magic keystroke sequence from one issue of Archipelago to the next. Thus, for the last few issues my first task on entering the Voice Card stack has been to find that card from way-back-when which describes this technique. As the cards pile up, this has been getting harder and harder (Side note: isn't it about time to update the Voice card manual?).

(Second Problem) John's responses to cards, being in the same volume as the cards they are responding to, tend to throw me off my stride. Here's an example which should make the problem clear:

Sitting somewhere in the current voice card stack, I option-click on the right arrow to find the next unread message. Holly Card 2 comes up; it has one reply, from John. I read Holly's card, then click on reply 1, which brings up John's reply. I read this, then option-click on the right arrow (again, to find the next unread message). What I see is John's reply to Holly Card 5, which I have not yet read. This is annoying...

Note that in this scenario, simply clicking on the right arrow likely brings me to the same *wrong* place. I realize that there are straightforward ways for me to avoid this situation: After reading John's reply I can click on the downarrow to resume my previous context, then ask for the next unread card. Or I can click on the bent arrow, returning me to the Voice Card table of contents screen. (Both of these solutions work only so long as John orders his cards last on the stack.)

SO, how big a problem is this? I haven't decided. Is anyone else annoyed by this behavior?




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