[Russell Ault]

Hi all!

I use MobileSheetsPro for choral music. I like to use the linking function to skip over pages where my part is not present (e.g. if the tenors are tacet from pages 10 to 14, I'll link from the end of page 9 to the beginning of page 15). This works very well, except that in larger works (e.g. St. John Passion) I quickly hit the 10 link limit and have to start making choices about which breaks get links and which I have to flip through manually. I had been using the old MobileSheets for years and had hoped that this limit would go away with Pro, but to no avail.

Ideally, it would be great if there wasn't a limit at all on the number of links. If this isn't feasible, a significant increase in the number of links would be greatly appreciated (for me, I can't see needing more than 50 or so, even in something like Messiah).

Thanks!

-Russ

[Zubersoft]

The biggest issue here is coloring. The only reason there is a limit at all is because I set up the colors in a static fashion. I defined a fixed list of 10 different colorings for both the normal viewing mode and night mode. If I eliminate the limit, then I need to have a dynamic way of determining what colors will be assigned to each link point depending upon it's position in the list (and whether night mode is active). If you have ideas about how to overcome this limitation by devising an algorithm for assigning colors based upon their index that still allows them to be easily distinguishable from each other, please let me know. While I could just repeat those 10 colors over and over, I think that could get confusing if link points 10 indices apart happen to overlap on the same page and they have the same color. Regardless, this may still be the easiest path forward as I have to change very little to get this to work. The other option would be to do something like, after the first 10 link points are used, I invert each color for the next 10, and then after that 10, I offset all the colors from the first 10 by a fixed amount, and the ten after that are those inverted, and so on. I'm open to any ideas.

Mike

[Skip]

Would partitioning the dots into section/contrasting colors work, ie., upper/lower halves, left/right w/red-yellow would give 4 options and six including the two solids.

[Zubersoft]

That confused me a little Skip - are you suggesting I determine the color for the link points based on what section of the screen it is on?

[Skip]

Nope. Take the current colored dots [red, blue, etc], use these as is, indicting the first 10[?] links, for links 11 to ?, use dots that have a vertical line dividing the them so the left half is one color and the right half is another. If more links need to be made use a horizontal division of the dots with different colored halves. You can get a whole xxxx pot of links then, each with its own color[s] for identification. IE., link 1 dot is blue, link 2 dot is red, link 11 dot is red on the left/blue on the right, link 30 dot is red on top half/blue on lower half, etc.

As a note, you might even be able to include the appropriate number inside the colored dot.

[Zubersoft]

That's definitely an interesting idea. I'm not sure exactly how I would determine the color pairs, but it could be as simple as:

11-20: Use color for left half, next color in list for right half
21-30: Use color for left half, color at index + 2 for right half
31-40: Same but index + 3

And so on. When index is +10, I could switch to splitting the dots horizontally instead of vertically, but I'm not sure how many people are going to have well over 100 link points...

I can also draw the number, but I'm not sure it's really necessary, and would probably be distracting visually.

Thanks for the idea Skip, I think I can run with this. The nice thing about this approach is I can use the translated color descriptions (link 11 just combines the translations for Blue and Red, and lists it as Blue|Red)

[Skip]

You're welcome.

[Russell Ault]

Hi all!

Now, I'm coming from a place where two links on a page are a lot of links (usually it's one link every couple of pages in scores that can be a couple hundred pages long), so I'd guess my needs and Skip's are probably different, but I'd like to suggest three alternatives to the split-colour idea. I'm afraid that split-colour links might be as visually distracting (to me, anyway) as including the numbers...

1. (probably easiest) All links are the same colour, which is an app-wide setting. (If I need to distinguish between links, I'll scribble some notes in.)

2. (probably somewhat more difficult) The first "from link" (the one to be tapped on) to be placed on a given page is colour #1, the second "from link" to be placed on the same page is colour #2, the first "from link" to be placed on the next page goes back to colour #1, etc. A maximum of 10 "from links" can be placed per page. Multiple "to links" (the ones where you wind up when you tap the "from link") of the same colour on a page should not be a problem since they flash when you link to them anyway.

3. (likely the most difficult, but probably the most useful) All links start out as a default colour (which can be set in the app-wide settings). A link's colour can then be changed to one of the other colours from a colour-selection dialogue accessed from the link menu. (Conversely, the user could be presented with this colour-selection dialogue when they create the link; ideally whether or not a user is asked for link colour upon link creation would also be a configurable setting.)

Thanks for considering my idea, and for making such a great app!

-Russ

[Zubersoft]

Suggestions #2 and #3 present too much difficulty for the value gained, so let's go back to the drawing board. I don't think all link points need to be the same color, but I can just wrap around after 10, so that link 11 is the same color as the first link. If that's sufficient, then I can implement that fairly easily.

[Russell Ault]

Suggestions #2 and #3 present too much difficulty for the value gained, so let's go back to the drawing board.  I don't think all link points need to be the same color, but I can just wrap around after 10, so that link 11 is the same color as the first link.  If that's sufficient, then I can implement that fairly easily.

That would certainly be sufficient for me (although I'm the one who suggested they all be same colour, after all, so perhaps I'm not the best person to answer that question). It is a solution that doesn't regress the existing linking feature at all (by taking away colour differentiation from those who rely on it) while expanding linking options for users like me who just need more links, regardless of colour.

Thanks!

-Russ

[Lyratorg]

I'd like to revive this topic. I'm adding link points to a score for the purpose of navigating between a list of singers and the sections of a song I need to play (this is for theater auditions). I only learned of the 10 link limit when I got to it but I need 14. Repeated colors is not a huge concern in this case but I would like more links; perhaps 20 would be enough. If the links had, in addition to colors, predefined text in them (numbers 1-20), that might help differentiate them more.

[Zubersoft]

I have issues in my bug tracking system to both support more link points (hopefully an unlimited amount either by repeating colors or by using an algorithm to generate them based on position in the list), and to support configuration of their appearance (including a number in the center, a border to make it stand out more, etc). It's not that I haven't wanted to make these changes - I just haven't had time yet. Having said that, once the iOS version is released, I should be able to start working off far more issues at a much faster pace than I did in the past. I realize that the original request occurred a very long time ago, but the main difference now is that I'm working full time on MobileSheets which should help speed things up a great deal.

Thanks,
Mike

[Lyratorg]

I have issues in my bug tracking system to both support more link points (hopefully an unlimited amount either by repeating colors or by using an algorithm to generate them based on position in the list), and to support configuration of their appearance (including a number in the center, a border to make it stand out more, etc). It's not that I haven't wanted to make these changes - I just haven't had time yet. Having said that, once the iOS version is released, I should be able to start working off far more issues at a much faster pace than I did in the past. I realize that the original request occurred a very long time ago, but the main difference now is that I'm working full time on MobileSheets which should help speed things up a great deal.

Thanks,
Mike

Fantastic. Thanks for the update.

[martinpaterson]

I just came across this limit, and then this thread. My use-case is similar to some of the previous contributors. My area of music is musical theatre,  where a "song" is the vocal score for a whole show. There, links are useful for cuts and numbers with verses, but one would rarely have more than one or two links on a page. So while having different colours on a page is nice, it's not essential (especially in cases where you can use the pedal to step through links with the 'next link or next page' option).

I have found a workaround if you need more links, you can use buttons as well. One of the button options is 'Load or go to song'. You can pick the same song as the one you're in, and you can pick a page number. Because you haven't left the song, the links visited are still remembered, so altough you have to press the button manually, it doesn't mess up the behaviour of the pedal with existing links.

[pedro]

Why stick to colour identification?
Why not use an icon with a number in it?