Variables
August 5, 2016 12:00 AM
In a project i have to create dozens of variables, and change actions to target those variables.
Allthough i do like variables in Lectora, i do think the way of working with them can be improved quite a bit.
Several things i would like to see in a future version for working with variables:
- Create a range of variables with some input. Eg. a slider stating create VariableRange, with inputs for the naming options... and the initial value and retain or not.. Actually being able to use Arrays would even be better. In fact a variable can be an Array as is, but what cannot be done now, is set a single entry for an array, or get a single entry.
- Order your variable window in the tools better. Make some folder setup there, so you can arrange and set it better...So if you have a list of 100 variables or more..you donot need to scroll and search when your setting your actions. Variable groups or something like that might be nice. When setting an action to a variable group...it autopicks the next not used variable in that group. When copying and pasting that action, it just uses the next free variable in a specified group.
Hope you guys do think these are improvements.. i do :-)
Discussion (4)
I've pass along your suggestion to our development team.
My little lifehack with variables is to name them with an underscore at the front: _ScoreCount, _LastPos, _bt_status2, etc. This will bring them to the top of any dropdown list so they are quicker to access and don't mix in with the standard Lectora variables.
Although I haven't used hundreds of variables, when I had to manage a few dozen, I'd change the prefix to something else, so e.g. I'd have a group of variables starting with an underscore, with two underscores and with a zero. All of them would be sorted above the standard variables, and also by their prefix.
Also, it'd be easier if all variables were initialized on all pages, or there was a checkbox in Variable Manager to force a variable to be initialized on all pages.
Indeed doing this too... but working on a project where i got 130 variables... and allthough it works..some better interface would do wonders...
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