Move sections as a whole using drag and drop, same as resources.

Thank you, Scott.

I've checked and can use the cut and paste feature on a test list. One thing a colleague and I have noticed though is that it isn't possible to cut and paste sections in between different forms. Our academic staff have indicated they would like to be able to do that ideally.

Tom

Thomas Kistell (Tom/he/him/his)| Systems Support Specialist, Systems and Service Development
Library Services, Sheffield Hallam University | Adsetts Library, City Campus, Howard Street, Sheffield, S1 1WB
Telephone +44 (0)114 225 2222 | Direct line +44 (0)114 225 4265 | t.kistell@shu.ac.uk | www.shu.ac.uk

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I looked up the instructions on support: https://support.talis.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001909917-Editing-lists

I see now how this is supposed to work. I didn't realize that when you cut a section that the "action bar" changes menus to allow pasting below another section. I was simply clicking on the elipses beside a section and resource to see what happened when I used the paste option (the result was embedding, which I didn't want).

You're basically asking people to keep switching how something is done (side menu, action bar). Perhaps the action bar should have a move section button, so you could actually expect the user to find the paste function in the action bar (rather than looking only at the side menu).

Hi Tom

This is from the support article at https://support.talis.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001909917-Editing-lists

Cut and paste

This is a great all-round method for moving items and sections around on a list. To use this, click the action button next to the object or section you're wanting to move, then select 'Cut'.

The item you have cut becomes shadowed, and the action bar becomes a paste or cancel bar.

To paste the item or section in the list, navigate to where you would like it to be on the list and use the paste bar, or the 'Paste below' option visible in the above screenshot.

Note: This is to move an item or section within the same list, and is not able to cut something from one list and paste it into another.

I hope that helps

Scott

Hi Scott,

Thanks for getting back to me. How does someone go about cutting and pasting a section? If you could point me to some instructions on how to do that, it'd be really useful please. Clearly, if we aren't sure about how to do it, a majority of our list owners won't be either.

Best wishes,
Tom

Thomas Kistell (Tom/he/him/his)| Systems Support Specialist, Systems and Service Development
Library Services, Sheffield Hallam University | Adsetts Library, City Campus, Howard Street, Sheffield, S1 1WB
Telephone +44 (0)114 225 2222 | Direct line +44 (0)114 225 4265 | t.kistell@shu.ac.uk | www.shu.ac.uk

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Hi Kate, thanks for your response. An example of a scenario in which an instructor may have to move sections came up when a list was rolled over and the instructor wanted to move a number of weeks around, but struggled and needed help as it all got very confusing when multiple sections were nesting into each other. Thanks for considering! -CJ

Hello Kate,

Thanks for your response. While I appreciate that moving sections might be complex technically, it isn't in terms of the list owners' user experience. Without exception, they expect to be to drag and drop sections around in the same way as they can items and paragraphs. Sections might correspond to themes within a module or perhaps weeks of study, which need to be changed around sometimes for various reasons that emerge as the academic year proceeds. For example, it might be that the seminars in Week 7 and Week 8 need to be switched around due to the availability of the staff who are due to lead them, so the list owner would need to relabel and change the order of the sections. Yes, it's possible to encourage our academic colleagues to plan out their reading lists from the start by providing thematic and chronical templates, but that can be challenging due to the variation in how reading lists are used between academic departments. Unfortunately, providing templates wouldn't remove the need for changes during the year.

Also, I understand that similar functionality was available historically through the Table of Contents drop-down menu, so the need to move sections around has been established before and developed into the system. Although that approach wasn't ideal because it required staff to move sections in a different way from how they moved items and paragraphs, having the ability to do it at all would be an improvement from now.

Best wishes,

Tom

Good evening all,

Product have have discussed this idea with Tech & UX. This is not a quick win but has technical complexity and numerous scenarios to consider (or it may have been done much sooner). It will take more user discovery and a proper assessment.

Consistency is understandable, but perhaps can any of you tell me a bit more about when/how it's being wanted? What might be the root causes, Is it making up for not having templates to start with for example? There my be less obvious alternatives we can consider.

I am putting this on hold for proper assessment, but I encourage you to add any details or scenarios that may be helpful.

We had an ideas in the old Ideas Forum to suggest this same enhancement - the ability to drag and drop sections - and we would be very keen to see it implemented please. Our list owners ask us about it on a regular basis because of the lack of consistency between this with how items and paragraphs can be moved, as Sarah has pointed out in her comment. Thanks.

Currently, we advise our users to 'Cut' and 'Paste' sections to avoid this issue.

However, they do find it confusing that resources and paragraphs can be moved using the drag/drop arrow, but sections do not have this function.

For consistency, it would be great if sections also had a drag/drop arrow.

Great suggestion, CJ! I will bring it forward to assess technical feasibility and roadmap.