Daily Gleanings (17 July 2019)

David Allen shares how he would design software for GTD if he could. And he invites those who are able and willing to take a crack at it. But even for those of us who don’t fall into this category, the sketches may still provide some helpful workflow models for improving whatever system it is that we currently use.


Todoist discusses the “Eisenhower matrix” and provides some helpful step-by-step recommendations for using it with their productivity solution to ensure you focus on what matters most, not necessarily on what’s most urgent.

Publication Year Ranges in Zotero

At present, Zotero’s “date” field doesn’t properly handle publications made over a range of years (e.g., 1950–1960). Instead of including the full range in the corresponding note or bibliography entry, only the first year of the range would be presented (e.g., 1950).

If the Range Has an End

There is, however, a workaround that depends on entering the following syntax in an item’s “extra” field: issued: [first year]/[last year]. Thus, for example, if the extra field has issued: 1950/1960, Zotero would properly output a range of publication dates (thus: “1950–1960”).

If the Range Is Open-ended

If you need to reference a series or multivolume work that isn’t yet complete, SBL style defers to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed., §14.144. In such cases, this requires a trailing en dash (thus, e.g.: “1931–”).

The proper input for this use case is adding the following to the appropriate resource’s “Extra” field: issued: "[first year]–". Note the quotation marks carefully. Those are important to get Zotero to provide exactly the output you’ve specified and prevent the processor from removing the trailing en dash as it generates your output.

So, for example, if the extra field has issued: "1931–", Zotero would properly output a range of publication dates with no end year and a trailing en dash (thus: “1931–”).

Conclusion

According to the Zotero forums, “better support for various date formats in the Date field itself is planned,” but there hasn’t been any indication of when this might be forthcoming. Until then, these workarounds should prove immensely useful for these kinds of situations.

For other discussion of Zotero, see these posts.

Header image provided by Zotero via Twitter

Trial versions of Biblical Studies software

Software that supports biblical and theological scholarship can be pricey, and shifting from one platform to another or working with multiple ones can be even more so. In that context, “try before you buy” is a helpful principle, and Mark Hoffman has helpfully collected links to trial versions for several of the major options.  Subsequent discussion on that post has noted a couple more besides.

STEP Beta

Scripture Tools for Every Person

Tyndale House recently announced the beta release of their Scripture Tools for Every Person (STEP) project, headed by David Instone-Brewer. The resource includes a nice selection of original-language texts—apparently including some, like the Samaritan Pentateuch, not yet listed in the documentation. Later this year, the Tyndale House edition of the Greek New Testament should also appear in STEP.

For those interested, Mark Hoffman has already provided a helpful, general review of some of STEP’s current functionality.

Update (8/2): Via email, David IB especially encourages STEP testers and users “to click on the ‘Feedback’ button in STEP with bugs, errors and their wish-list of features they can’t find.”

Edit Spreadsheets on Google Drive for Mobile

The Google Drive mobile apps for Android and iOS now allows users to create and view spreadsheets:

Edit spreadsheets on the go with the Drive mobile app | Google Drive Blog
Photo credit: Google Drive Blog

Previous versions had allowed creating and editing of documents but only viewing of spreadsheets created elsewhere. For more information and links to download the appropriate apps, see here.