Large collections of information can be difficult to navigate and manage. Tools like Attributes, Bookmarks, and Zooming make using the spatial hypertext easier.

In Tinderbox, which is used to author these maps, notes can contain attributes. Some people use them to do fancy calculations, to manage spreadsheets, control their computer, or send their email. Since, I'm a scholar, I just like to put information in them about the books I read and when I need to return them to the University Library. To see an example of how I use attributes, look at the Bibliography entry for Edward Tufte's classic book on information design, Visual Explanations.

by Edward Tufte

Since Spatial Hypertext can contain so much information at so many levels, it's easy to get lost. Even worse, it's easy to lose notes, to forget where a particular one can be found. The Bookmarks feature helps you collect notes for later viewing. To add a bookmark, just click the "Bookmark" link on the top right of this window. It will automatically be added to the toolbar on the left. This note can then be opened from anywhere by simply clicking on it on the bookmarks toolbar. Bookmarks can be removed in two ways. First, all bookmarks can be cleared by clicking "Clear List". Secondly, when a note has been bookmarked, the "Bookmark" link is replaced by "Remove Bookmark" at the top right. (at the moment, the "Remove Bookmark" option only appears after the Note window has been closed and reopened. Sorry about the confusion) If you want to view the map area which surrounds a bookmarked note, simply click the view links button, and the map view will change to the level of the map where that note resides. The Bookmarks tool has one more feature, the Import Tool. This can be used to share bookmarks with someone else. This is very useful for large collections of information, where it might take other people a long time to find all the notes that you think are very important. With the Bookmark tool, you can give them a set of bookmarks to help them find their way. At the top of the list is a text box and an Import button. Each time you add a bookmark, the content of the text box is updated to describe the current set of bookmarks. To send someone your bookmark list, just copy the contents of the text box and send it to them, along with a link to any part of the site. Don't worry about reading it; it's designed to be intelligible to the software. If you receive a link and a bookmarks list, simply (1) open the link, (2) clear your bookmarks, if you have any, (3) paste the bookmarks list into the text box, and (4) click import. If you have bookmarks that you want to keep, but you also want to import new ones, just clear the contents of the text box, paste the new list of bookmarks in, and they will be added to your existing set. Go ahead. Try creating bookmarks with the notes around this one. Don't forget to Step In and Up to experiment with bookmarks from different levels.

In thy discourse, if thou desire to please:
All such is courteous, useful, new, or witty.
Usefulness comes by labour, wit by ease;
Courtesy grows in court; news in the city.
Get a good stock of these, then draw the card
That suits him best, of whom thy speech is heard.

Entice all neatly to what they know best;
for so thou dost thyself and him a pleasure:
(But a proud ignorance will lose his rest,
Rather than show his cards) steal from his treasure
What to ask further. Doubts well raised do lock
The speaker to thee, and preserve thy stock.

be calm in arguing: for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy.
Why should I feel another man's mistakes
More than his sickness or poverty?
In love I should: but anger is not love,
Nor wisdom neither: therefore gently move

Be useful where thou livest, that they may
Both want, and wish thy pleasing presence still.
Kindness, good parts, great places are the way
To compass this. Find out men's wants and will,
And meet them there. All worldly joys go less
To the one joy of doing kindnesses.

Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high;
So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be: Sink not in spirit: who aimeth at the sky,
Shoots higher much than he that means a tree.
A grain of glory mixed with humbleness
Cures both a fever and lethargicness.

Let thy mind still be bent, still plotting where,
And when, and how the business may be done.
Slackness breeds worms; but the sure traveller,
Though he alight sometimes, still goeth on.
Active and stirring spirits live alone.
Write on the others, Here lies such a one.

Resort to sermons, but to prayers most:
Praying's the end of preaching. O be dressed;
Stay not for th' other pin; why thou hast lost
A joy for it worth worlds. Thus hell doth jest
Away thy blessings, and extremely flout the,
Thy clothes being fast, but thy soul loose about thee.

Spatial Maps can be very big. While it's possible to scroll around the area, the Zoom options on the menu bar help you see more of the map at once. Simply click Zoom In and Zoom Out to see more. If you Zoom In, the Map View displays more of the text inside the individual notes. To return to the default zoom level, click Normal Scale on the menubar.