Collections

Thanks for the clarification Emma... I wasn't sure what that was... I thought it was only on my end. Thanks again, Markos

oooh nice - this will work great with my topic areas!!!  Thanks!
-Paym

Thanks Emma.  I greatly welcome this addition to the topic tools. 

Tel

Thank-you, Emma. This will be wonderful!

Just saw it. This is nice!

Thanks Emma - it will take forever for sort all my articles into collections - are we under any pressure to do it quickly?

Great - I think it will be a very helpful tool. Thanks!

Frances, I don't think you need to worry about sorting your articles. I think the concept is to create a collection on a theme. The articles selected could come from anywhere on Suite, by anyone. It's not a matter of reorganizing all your articles.

Does that answer your concern?

I don't know what the expectations are for who will use this tool, how often, but it is not yet fully functional as far as I know. It's all brand new.

It is a great idea!!

Thanks for the explanation.  I was wondering about it when I first saw it on the MY Topic tab this morning.

For those of you who have begun "collecting," I'd love to see how you've used this new tool... please post a heads-up here!

I expect this will be a very useful tool for me. I have a few other collections besides those in Caregiver Support.

This looks like a fantastic and useful feature! 

TE Extreme Sports

I noticed the Collections tab today, and like my colleagues, I was wondering what it was for, so thank you for the information. It sounds like a good tool.

Just finished the first collection in photography, it seemed to go together without any real problems.  It was a learning experience as somethings did not appear as I first thought they would.  But a bit of additional work and it it works.

I imagine you can include your own articles in the collections. Is that other people's impression?

I just tried to create a collection and gave up. The first time I did it, I decided to leave the existing headline and descriptions and not put anything new in. The collection then appeared with just the picture and no explanation or heading at all for each article. I tried to go in and edit this and it wouldn't let me. So I deleted the collection and tried to start again. The first article I added, it wouldn't let me write anything in the alternative heading box or description field at all. So I gave up. I am willing to try again if someone could explain please what I was doing wrong.

I am trying the collections tool. I have made 2 collections but I don't see them anywhere. Where did they go?

When you find yours, Francine, see if mine are hiding in the same place, will you?

they are all hiding - If you have a look at your topic information page under the topic tools  menu they are there in available collections.

I saw two from Francine and one from Mari.   Everybody's collections are all in the available collections box. You  then add these, or anybody else's collection to your topic main page. 

The system  needs a little bit of work.

Philip

duplicate post 

I have played with this feature. 
First I added Elizabeth Batt's one about wildlife preservation:
http://www.suite101.com/why-wildlife-preservation-is-important-c4 then tried making one for myself (using four of my own old articles about whales): http://www.suite101.com/whales--how-intelligent-are-they-c32 on my topic page http://www.suite101.com/marinebiologyoceanography.

At this stage I am only 'playing' to see what the tool is like - but I think that with careful planning it could become a very good way of further highlighting a topic and driving the topic editor's particular 'slant' home.

I have not yet tried (there are not enough collections available anyway) but I was also toying with the idea of 'collections of collections' in the future.

I tried the collections feature, but couldn't see how to save more than one article under my heading.  Help, please.  Thanks.

Just checking that this works from my (new) iPad 2!

Lorraine, I found more answers on this discussion link -- http://community.suite101.com/forums/collections

I already posted this under "Reply" to Steve Rogerson who had a similar problem, but my post went straight after Steve's, out of sequence. So here it is again:

 I created my collection, with all descriptions etc. except like Steve, the article titles did not appear.  So having saved everything else and feeling quite pleased with my list, I went back into edit and tried typing one title in the "alternate" window.  Saved it - and now the whole lot has disappeared. Everything except the collection summary. These things happen, I know, but I am devastated having read through all the guidelines and thread and spent hours reading articles and summarising them.  Will try again when the tool is fixed but not until then.

OK, I've created one collection so far, and I'd like to comment on my experiences in regards to technical issues. I'm running Firefox 8.01 and it's not possible with that browser to do the alternate heading. The box is not accessible. I brought up Internet Explorer (don't like that browser, but you gotta do what you gotta do) and used it to accomplish that task. Running the latest IE, by the way - well, the latest they had out a few weeks back when I had to reinstall everything after a virus. One complaint remains, though, several times I've added articles and hit save only to find out that a little while later those articles were gone from the collection. While you can go back in and add them later, it's frustrating to have to do the same task repeatedly because the changes don't remain.

I'm using Firefox too, so thanks for that Gary. Could try again with IE once I've got my enthusiasm back for the task.  I assume that with IE, maybe the title comes up automatically along with the picture.  Is this what happens or do you have to type it in?  And where? - at the top of the description or in the "alternate heading" window? Why is it called "alternate"?  Is in the sense of "alternative."  I don't understand, as surely the title belongs to the writer and not for a TE to change by producing an alternative.

I am so confused. I don't mind experimenting but hate losing all my work while I'm trying to work it out.

The actual titles don't seem to show up at all - that's the point of the alternate heading, I think - to give the article a title that will show up in the list. Or at least that's my experience.

double post.

Right, thanks Gary. I think the best thing is to experiment with a short collection to start with.

Cool, I finally have an opportunity to check out collections.  Excellent idea.

OH YAY, OH YAY! I spent most of the day working on ideas for collections. They show up on your article pages that are in the collection. VERY cool!

I don't see the title showing up automatically yet (yes, I think it is supposed to), so I pasted in my titles, etc going back and forth in my computer windows. Took a while (hoping that will be more automatic soon too?), but I am so thrilled! We gotta brainstorm the best use of this awesome tool, folks! Can you say PAGEVIEWS?? I can!

Here is one of my collections. Click on an article name to see how the collection box shows up on the page.

http://www.suite101.com/sweet-little-girl-birthdaOy-party-ideas-and-themes-c125

I started with 2 articles in a collection and it published OK.. but when I went to edit the collection and add more articles they don't save UNLESS I omit the Alternate Heading. If I add articles and try to enter an Alternate heading and hit Save everything new disappears. (tried this several times and had to re-enter several times trying to get it to work - very frustrating).

So now I have a collection with the first 2 articles having a heading & the other ones on the list with no heading... looks kind of silly, but the alternative is having only 2 articles in the collection (which doesn't look like much of a collection). 

Very good idea, especially in topics that get a lot of articles that are on similar subjects. A collection of articles that have complimentary information would be great for readers. 

I tried establishing a collection with four items but only the first one saved. The other three disappeared when I published, which was irritating after the time and effort put in. Perhaps it is best to wait for the problems to be ironed out before I try again.

I tried establishing a collection with four items but only the first one saved. The other three disappeared when I published, which was irritating after the time and effort put in. Perhaps it is best to wait for the problems to be ironed out before I try again.