Collex

New feature: footnotes

After the most recent wave of Exhibit Builder development in Collex, the NINES development team experimented with a number of exhibit types, including annotated bibliographies, essays, presentations, and thematic tours of our partner sites. In doing so, we determined that footnotes were a crucial feature of academic argument, and required even outside the confines of the codex.

Hyperlinks often serve the purpose of footnotes in online publishing, precisely because they allow an author to direct the reader to a full resource instead of a mere citation. However useful, links cannot fully supplant the discursive footnote or endnote, in which the author is able to cite a reference and also provide additional information about those sources outside of the main body of the text. Collex now allows users to add footnotes to their documents in Exhibit Builder, which can be read precisely where they are placed in the text (by pop-up dialogs) or as endnotes.

From the text editor, simply choose the the icon with the asterix under ‘Insert Item’ to create a footnote. Once you’ve finished, you’ll be taken back to your original section. Only after you submit the changes to that section will Exhibit Builder number the notes for you. This way, wherever you insert a note, the software will re-number the list for you.

Once you’ve added a note, your document will automatically add an endnotes page, seen here as a diamond. If you decide to print out your exhibit, the notes will be printed on the final page, along with a comprehensive list of links used in your work as well.

As always your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Add comment August 18th, 2009

New and improved exhibit setup

The development team at NINES has been investigating ways to make the Collex exhibit building process easier and more streamlined. We’ve come up with a new Exhibit Wizard to guide each user through the creation of a new exhibit.

From your My 9s page, just click the link to “Create a New Exhibit” from the column on the right. Collex will then ask you for the title of the new exhibit.

The next step is to choose your resources from a list of your collected objects. Gone are the days when you had to toggle back to the ‘Search’ and ‘My 9s’ page before you could associate objects with a new exhibit!

Once you’ve personalized your exhibit with your own durable URL or thumbnail, you’ll be taken to the exhibit editing page which has gotten a facelift of its own.

Editing mode looks more like the Preview mode, to give users a better sense of the finished product as they author their exhibits. Hovering over a section will bring up the editing toolbar, where you’ll find all the options you’ll need to polish your presentation.

As always, we appreciate your feedback! Please contact us at inquiries [at] nines [dot] org or join the Collex dev list to let us know what you think!

1 comment April 24th, 2009