(8) How to … store the same set of thorts in multiple alternative Arrangements and switch effortlessly between them
I’m not sure whether these thorts should stay where they are or go into a group on their own …
… and perhaps this thought just isn’t helping and I should get rid of it. Thortspace Arrangements can help me here.
Open the Arrange tab.
Tap (or click) this button to add a New arrangement.
Type in a name for your new arrangement. [Types “Alternative” ]
A new arrangement is created.
While working in the new arrangement, I’ll move these thorts into a separate group and call it “Where shall we go?”
And I’ll delete this thort.
I’ve made some other changes in my new arrangement.
Now I can switch back and forth between my original arrangement …
… and my new arrangement.
Go into Do mode.
Arrangements can help me here too.
The steps above are demonstrated in the video below:
One Desktop machines you can cycle through Next and Previous Arrangements on a sphere by pressing Control+p or Command+p on Mac (“p” standing for Previous) and Control+n or Command+n (“n” standing for Next).
Also if you’re feeling adventurous try Control+L / Command+L ! (Press it again to turn it off.) You can use the Arrow Keys, Left and Right, to cycle through each of your groups of Thorts (bringing each one in turn to front and centre) while you are in this mode (and also while you are not in it).
Another example of using arrangements is discussed in this article:
A user question about Arrangements
“Dear Thortspace… it would be helpful if you can explain what changes and does not change when you make Arrangements. For example, if content of a thort is changed, it will change in other arrangements too…”
Thanks for the great question. Yes, the text within thorts is the same across all arrangements.
A thort only has one text, and if you change it, that’s what the thort text now is whenever that thort is shown.
Everything else on the sphere (all of the following) can be different in each arrangement:
(1) The text assigned to thort-groups ie. the names of groups
(3) The positions of thorts, which groups they are in, and whether they are on the sphere or not. Eg. if you have multiple Arrangements on a sphere, deleting a thort in one Arrangement only hides it in that Arrangement. You have to delete the thort in every Arrangement to get rid of it completely
(4) The ordering of thorts in the thort list and on the Do mode lists
(5) The layout of path-steps including whether a given path-step is showing or not showing
(6) The size of the sphere
(7) The link-locations of linked spheres including whether or not they are linked
Essentially, everything apart from the text in thorts is susceptible to being changed by the Arrangement (which we initially called the “contexts”).
Whereas if you update the text in a thort, that text appears to be updated in all arrangements. (I say “appears”, because there aren’t actually different versions of the text in the first place.)
EDIT: Please note, at one point the list above included the following:
(2) The applied category set, and the application of categories to thorts
This was an error. The applied category set is not stored as part of the arrangement, although both the category set, and the current arrangement can be stored together as a journey step. See:
I think the thing that is perhaps not obvious about Arrangements, and is perhaps something we need to fix, is that when you are editing in Thortspace, you are always editing an Arrangement.
Before you start creating additional Arrangements, you are always just editing the one default Arrangement of the sphere.
Once you have more than one Arrangement, then whichever Arrangement is currently selected, that is the one you are changing.
If you want to leave an Arrangement unchanged, you need to select a different Arrangement (ie. some other Arrangement that is not the one you want to keep unchanged) before you make any editing changes !
The last thing that may not be obvious, is that when you save a Viewpoint to a Journey (in Present mode), you are always saving:
(1) The current Camera Position (or else the Camera Position associated with the current item ie. Thort or Group — which keeps tracking that item if it is moved) pointing at whatever sphere is the current Sphere
(2) The currently applied Arrangement
(3) The currently applied CategorySet
(4) The Name of the viewpoint
(5) The Description of the Viewpoint (if any) ie. the first three of these currently applied things get saved into every viewpoint, whenever you create or update a viewpoint.
