Drag and Drop

PLEASE NOTE: All drag and drop actions from external applications into Compendium, as discussed

below, cannot currently be implemented for the Linux platform release of Compendium.

*What it is*	*Why it’s good*	*How to use*
Drag and drop files	Makes creating Reference nodes a snap! Drag a file from anywhere and drop it on a map, and it will create a Reference node pointing back to the location of the file. Also see “Linked Files” below	Drag a file from Windows Explorer or My Computer and drop it right onto a map
Drag and drop folders	Try this one out! Dragging a folder and dropping onto a map will create a map with the folder’s name – inside the map will be Reference nodes pointing back to each file in the folder. Lets you create and populate views of many external files (such as images) extremely quickly and easily. Also see “Linked Files” below	Drag a folder from Windows Explorer or My Computer and drop it right onto a map. You can also choose “Import… Import Image Folder into Current Map” from the File menu
Drag and drop graphics	Fill your maps with images in seconds! On Windows platforms you can drag an image off a web page directly. On windows and Mac OS X platforms you can drag image files into Compendium from your PC and it will automatically create a Reference node with Image and Filename fields filled out for you.	Drag an image from a web page (not on the Mac and Linux), Windows Explorer or My Computer and drop it right onto a map. You can also choose “Import… Import Image Folder into Current Map” from the File menu
Drag and drop tables from Excel	You can create a whole table of information on a spreadsheet (or use an existing one) and drag it in to Compendium. A whole map of linked nodes will be created for you. Especially good for “template” work.	See Excel Conversion Rules

Drag and drop XML files and Zips

You can drag an XML export file or an XML zip export file onto Compendium and select to import as Compendium XML or import as Compendium XML Zip.

Drag the file from Windows Explorer or My Computer and drop it right onto a map

Linked Files

Makes it easy to put all your Reference node images and other files – whatever the type – on one place, so you can share your Compendium data and files with your co-workers and friends

The folder

\Compendium\Linked Files\<current database name>\

becomes the default location for these resources when sharing maps

Excel Conversion Rules

Compendium converts tables as follows:

My Table	1st col header	2nd col header
1st row header	datacell1	datacell2
2nd row header	datacell3	datacell4

...when dropped becomes....

A single map called 'My Table':

When opened this map contains:

So you can think about the column headers as template elements, since they repeat as a Question structure for every row. The row headers are the individual pieces of subject matter about which you are asking the template questions. The data cells are the answers.

N.B. It is important that the text blocks in your cells do not contain tabs, carriage returns or new lines. These are the characters that Excel uses to distinguish rows and columns in the data dragged and dropped. If you use any of these characters, Compendium will not be able to process the dropped data correctly.

A further example is: