M7_Shannon's dashboard

Thanks for the explanation Shannon.

I had never even thought about it until I got on a call with a paying client. Then all of a sudden, in his mind he's asking me "well since we're looking at the same script...can I just start making changes here?". I didn't really know how to respond and told him to just let me make changes on my side that we both agreed to on the phone.

The way you guys have designed the "cells" to be individual sounds very intelligent and intuitive. That was my next thought on the phone with the client. I told him we might be able to work out a way for each of us to pick areas of the script to work on separately, yet on the same version. That scenario would work well for us. As a future feature request, it may be good to be able to track who is working on what part of a script and lock others out of editing ability with permissions of some sort to keep all this collaboration bullet proof...future requests of course.

The only strange thing we experienced based on your explanation above is that my client didn't see any of the updates I made, even after reloading the page in his browser.
He was using Firefox on a PC (don't know what version). I was on Firefox 3.0 on a Mac. I made some changes we discussed on the phone and he wanted to see the changes. I asked him to reload the page, navigate to another area of M7 (file secction) and then back to the Script. He never saw the changes occur on his side. I wonder if it was something as simple as a browser cache on his side...that would be a bit of a bummer though, to ask a non-technical client to dig into dreaded preferences and dump the browser cache in a conference call situation to see updates. I don't think a corporate vice president would think fondly of their production partners in that scenario.

If some AJAXish type method of instant updates to the script "cells" could be implemented, it would be pretty freakin awesome to not have to deal with browser settings and have stuff update upon a page refresh while on the phone with a client.

Thanks guys...just a couple suggestions to throw in the pot.

AO, would you want the comments inline (a highlight that displays the comment in the form of a 'tooltip') or a reference in the comment like a footnote (in the text, there might be a superscript "1" and then in the comments at the bottom, it would be tagged as "1"). What would be acceptable?

Brent, we are working on how to fix this issue.

Brent, Each cell is a separate entity and will accept the latest entry as the correct one. If your client was editing one cell and you another, there wouldn't be an issue as each cell is updated separately. A problem would occur if you were both editing the same cell (same dialogue box for example). If you made a change in the cell and 30 seconds later, your client made a different change, your change would be overwritten by the client's change.
If working in real-time is a real concern then we have to think about how to solve this problem

Note that this is an issue in edit mode on a current draft but not in view mode of already published versions. But of course, one to fix. Thanks Brent.

Hey guys, we need to try and catch this one in real time. Could you call our hotline directly when this happens? We need to know right away so we can diagnose what is going on.

Definitely need to fix this issue. Thanks for taking the time to make screenshots.

I like that idea - perhaps there is something to that idea that becomes a hybrid solution to my original thought. – AO, on August 15, 2008 06:42

In our case, there is no client... so we don't mind people seeing, say, a line through. I would say that it would be great to cross it out, and also be able to hide it. That way we can check it off a list, but can also clean house a little when we want to show the script to others and would like to hide it.

I would think that anyone working on the script could hide a comment or cross out a comment so long as anyone else could view hidden or view the crossed out and reverse either if they felt it necessary – AO, on August 15, 2008 06:40

Thanks Shannon. – AO, on August 15, 2008 06:31

Comments that fired off "to-dos" in the Tasks area would be very helpful to track progress.

I love the pop-up calendars at travel and airline sites too. Would be a welcomed addition.

I believe I've seen open source code for the function in both AJAX and DHTML versions around the web.

This current code development cycle is all about the user interface with events to follow in the next couple of weeks. Your recommendation is in our software development plan. We don't know if we will be able to touch all of these but I wouldn't be surprised if most of them were improved upon by the end of the month.

Alex,
We like this idea and have been concerned with users getting confused with which comments apply to which version of the script.
Look for this in the next couple of months.

Alex,
We are planning changes for User Interface improvements in this next cycle. I don't know at this point where a "cross-off" functionality might stand so I want to fully understand it.
Would you want comments you had resolved to delete, hide (with a "show hidden comments button"), highlighted with a different color or simply line through? And would you want these changes to be for all users or just for you? (For example, would you want the client to see the comment you 'lined through')

yes, i was looking for it as well.... – JSK, on August 08, 2008 15:14

The Satisfaction button disappeared with this release . . .

So while watching the video the comments do light up, but once the point in the video has passed the comments visible on the screen the comments do not scroll to keep in time with the video. I need to scroll down to find the comments that are lighting up in time. Free most any time so e-mail me for a meeting time.

This is the first time we have seen this request. An interesting concept.

If anyone else is having this issue, please click the "I have this question, too" so we can track just how useful this would be for you all.