3.7 - Toolbar - Add Statements with Macros
This Toolbar icon:
allows you to add statements with macros.
An Example
This command is useful when you find yourself adding many similar statements to a model.
The instructions below list eight steps for using this command.
Steps one through four show you how to specify what type of statements you want to add.
Steps five through eight show you how to use this command to add statements.
Let's say you find yourself visiting many different organizations.
The MindModel statement type for this situation is:
person: <visited> organization:
NOTE: The punctuation ("<>:") does not appear in MindModel. We use it here to make the statement type more readable.
Follow these steps:
1) Click the small black arrow on the right side of the toolbar icon pictured above.
MindModel will display a drop-down menu that looks like this:
The menu contains three items.
The first two items are disabled, i.e. cannot be chosen at this time. Before you can use these first two items, you must use the third item to specify the statements for the command.
2) Choose "Specify the Statements for this Command".
MindModel will display a dialog that looks like this:
3) Enter a statement into the dialog so it looks like this:
The text you entered into the dialog looks like this:
person|?|visited|organization|?2
The characters between the parts of the statement are vertical bars ("|"). On US keyboards, this character is found above the "Enter" key. Hold down the "Shift" key and hit the "\" key to get the vertical bar character.
Let's take a look at the text you entered.
There are five parts to the statement:
a) person
This is the subject noun type of the statement.
b) ?
This question mark is a placeholder.
This placeholder will be replaced by the subject noun of the statement.
In our example, the subject noun will be the person who visited the organization.
c) visited
This is the verb of the statement.
d) organization
This is the object noun type of the statement.
e) ?2
This is the second placeholder.
This placeholder will be replaced by the object noun of the statement.
4) Click "OK" in the dialog.
MindModel will close the dialog, and store the specification you entered in the model.
Now that you've entered the specification, it's time to use the command to enter the actual statement.
5) Click the small black arrow on the right side of the toolbar icon pictured above.
MindModel will display a drop-down menu that looks like this:
Now that you've entered a specification, MindModel has enabled the two menu items that were disabled in the menu pictured above.
6) Choose "Add Statements with Macros" from the menu.
MindModel will open a dialog that looks like this:
This dialog shows you the statement specification you entered earlier ("person|?|visited|organization|?2") and asks you to enter values for the two macros ("?" and "?2").
7) Enter "John Doe|Acme Rocket Fuel" (without the quotes).
Your entry ("John Doe|Acme Rocket Fuel") contains two parts:
a) John Doe
This is the person who visited the organization.
This value corresponds to the first placeholder: "?".
b) Acme Rocket Fuel
This is the organization he visited.
This value corresponds to the second placeholder: "?2".
So now the dialog will look like this:
8) Click OK.
MindModel adds the statement:
person: John Doe <visited> organization: Acme Rocket Fuel
to the model, and to the Statements List of the Model Window.
Rinse, Lather and Repeat
If you like, you can repeat the process from step #6, entering a different value.
Once you understand how this command works, you can create your own statement specifications.
You can have any number of macros. For example, you could add a third macro for the date.
In this case, the statement specification would look like this:
person|?|visited|organization|?2|on the date|date|?3
and your entry in the "Add Statements with Macros" dialog would look something like this:
John Doe|Acme Rocket Fuel|4/13/04
What about multiple statements?
You may have noticed that the dialog in step #3 is titled "Specify statements for Add Statements with Macros".
The word "statements" is plural.
Does this mean that the command can handle multiple statements? Yes, it does.
You could have entered the following statement specification in step #3:
person|John Doe|watched|film|?
person|John Doe|liked|film|?
person|John Doe|recommends|film|?
Instead of "John Doe", you would enter your name in the statement specification.
Then, when you watched a movie that you liked and recommend, you could choose "Add Statements with Macros" from the menu, enter the name of the film, and MindModel would add three statements to the model.
Still not quite sure how it works?
As always, feel free to contact us if you need help with this or any other MindModel feature.