Hi, I have a very small request and cannot find it in the forum discussions, please forgive me if I missed it.
I do a lot of vascular plant annotations (phenology matters!). Due to the kinds of hard-to-ID plants I generally focus on and also my desire to make as few ID mistakes as possible, I open each observation fully on my computer screen and zoom in on every photo, in order to make sure I see the small details needed. I use my mouse for everything (unless I have to actually write in an ID); I find with this method I can do IDs at a quick pace.
My small request is this: my choices for the annotation of “Flowers and Fruits” are: 1) “Flower buds”, 2) “Flowers”, 3) “Fruits and Seeds”, and 4) “No flowers or fruits”. Frequently I must choose #4. When I do that, the 4 words don’t display in one line like the other 3 choices, but rather the word “fruits” is displayed below the “No flowers or” (see photo 1). This causes the next annotation section, “Leaves”, to be pushed down one line, which causes me to either have to wait for this to happen, or if I forget, I mis-click and then have to fix. This visual jump doesn’t happen with choices 1-3 of “Flowers and fruits” (since the words display all in one line - see photo 2), so I am able to just go “Select-click, Select-click, Select-click” and my annotations are done (I add annotations in all 3 fields frequently because I ID willows, and these plants do have a “Sex” choice to make).
Could you please make the 4 words “No Flowers or Fruits” display in just one line? Then I can move on to the “Leaves” annotation without having to wait. It’s a tiny thing, but it’s tiresome enough sometimes that I don’t bother to annotate. I assume it would be easy to change?
Thank you!
Platform(s), such as mobile, website, API, other:
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Description of need: Describe the iNaturalist community need that your requested feature addresses. Include screenshots, URLs, and other details to help us all understand the issue.
Feature request details: In detail, describe the feature you are requesting. This includes its functionality, where the feature is implemented, and what it might look like. Screenshots or mock-ups are helpful. The idea is to have a concrete and actionable request which the community can discuss and vote on. It might change through discussion, but it’s much easier to iterate and talk about something specific.
I’ve changed this to a feature request, since it meets most of the criteria and isn’t a bug report.
I don’t know if the spacing depends on a user’s screen, but it’s possible that a wider screen/different resolution wouldn’t have this issue.
That said, I would recommend doing annotating in the Identify modal and using keyboard shortcuts which can be entered without the mouse. This is much faster than using the mouse and is the method iNat has designed specifically for annotating quickly.
I also suggest using the keyboard controls. I also had lots of trouble with the annotations jumping around when I was using the mouse. Not only the two-line annotations, but also if the observation becomes RG while you are adding annotations, they all move.
I also do a lot of annotating an I would love a 5th option for “dead flower” where there are no flowers, fruits or buds but a dead flower head remains as this can be an identifying feature
The wrapping of the “No flowers or fruits” annotation does appear to be related to screen resolution. It does not wrap for me at 1728 × 1117 (Chrome on a MacBook). From what I can tell, the text wraps when the width of the iNat browser window is below about 1200 pixels.
I also strongly recommend using the keyboard shortcuts for identify modal. Click the little keyboard icon at the bottom left to get a full list. A typical ID might go like this:
cmd right, cmd left – navigate through photos i – then type the first few letters of the genus and species for the desired identification down then return/enter to select tab twice and press return/enter to save x – mark cultivated shift right twice – navigate to Annotations tab p then n – no flowers or fruits v then g – green leaves right – move to next observation
@cthawley I guess it’s not a feature request anymore, since it appears the problem relates to my screen resolution, so I will have to explore that.
Thank you to everyone for the tips on how to use the keyboard. I will have to try it. I use the mouse for everything right now since I don’t like lifting my hands to go back and forth between the keyboard and the mouse, and I do feel it’s necessary to see each photo zoomed in so I can see tiny details for my IDs.
I have tried using the Identify page to ID, but even when the thumbnails are on “large” I find them too small to see the details I need to see, and there are also other things about how it works that I find really clunky for what I want to be doing. I have found other methods and am really happy with them.
One thing I did realize in writing this request was that if I just do the Annotations from the bottom up, I avoid the jumping problem since the lines above don’t move.
Are you clicking on the photos in the Identify page? This brings up the modal which zooms to the full extent just as the zoom function does on an observation page. It sounds like you might only be looking at the thumbnails?
Regardless, since the requester considers this closed, I will do so.
