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Is it possible to return after following the link?

  • 3 September 2020
  • 12 replies
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Userlevel 1

I often use links to other objects of the same map in my work. But sometimes I just want to see the information and return to the place where the link was called. Is there such a possibility?

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Best answer by Simon.Harris 3 September 2020, 13:08

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Userlevel 4

There isnt (some one correct me if i’m wrong) a ‘back button’

but if you use frames and open the frame panel on the left then its quiet easy to do 2/3rd the job

If you create a ‘home’ location maybe with lniks to the board’s major areas and create an icon or similar with the link back to ‘home’ and then liberally paste it around the board (a bit like multiple ‘top’ links on a webpage) that is also a means to get back to a central place - but no “return to last location” - maybe add as a wishlist item?

Userlevel 6
Badge +4

Hi @Nadezhda Vykhodtseva,

 

@Simon.Harris is correct, there is no return home feature currently, but this is not a bad idea.

 

Creating a HOME link or Table of Contents is the best thing I can recommend right now.

 

Jon

Has this been updated yet? It would be great to create a guided map that jumped to other areas (deep dives, or footnotes) but take you back to where you last linked from.

Zoomnotes offers a way to see all linked pages.

I think this feature might be really nice in Miro, especially if it is combined with a text search that is global for all users (not just enterprise customers).

Here's the link to how Zoomnotes visualizes your links:

https://twitter.com/ZoomNotes/status/1308791591826534402

The example they show is a calendar where you create links from each day to the notes that you have taken. They build a 3d model of all the “notebooks” by indexing the links used in each of them. Looks useful.

Is it possible to turn this thread into a wish-list item rather than have it remain as a question with a “No” as a response?

 

PS. might be interesting to have a 3-D world in which to store documents - sort of minecraft blocks style where you build your own castle and put things on the walls, floors, in certain rooms with a theme for the subject being studied, and a keyboard interface for quickly switching like we had in the old multi-user-dungeon games or infocom games like Zork, Planetfall, etc.  We could type commands like Goto the Castle or Read the document on the desk.  Silly, but it was super fast and easy to organize things in a world where there were no graphics. Having both styles of navigation (physical by walking into a room and command line as if you are flying over the world as an administrator) was super helpful.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

@Jason Dinkel & @Nadezhda Vykhodtseva :

How a back-link button works shows @Isman Tanuri on his board:

 

If you click from the center :

 

you will get to this section:

 

As you can see Isman has placed inside his side few “Back to Menu” Buttons where you get Back to the center again.

This is a perfect example how you can link and backlink to a section - of course miro does this not automaticly but this site is one of the best examples how the linking tool inside miro does a perfect job.

Michael

Userlevel 7
Badge +4

Thank you for the shout, @mlanders

@Jason Dinkel - I clicked on the Twitter link and saw the video. That’s really cool and I love your 3D world idea in Miro. I hope to see that happen in the future of the platform.

At the same time, my goal is to make Miro (as it is now) as simple as possible for 100% of new users (I use Miro as platform for facilitation). Perhaps 3D Miro could be a plugin upgrade for power users?

In retrospect, my board that @mlanders shared earlier is actually pretty relevant to this topic. The idea behind that board’s creation was how can I create a “flat website” for my company. Where you can see “all pages” instead of needing to jump from one page to another without the ability to see the big picture. Pretty often I get questions from clients who do not know I have other services apart from those they already know. This was an attempt to address that.

Hmm. So @mlanders and @Isman Tanuri, are you both saying that you don't like the idea of having an automated 3d view of all your work created like zoomnotes offers? And you prefer to handle building your own flat view, meaning you don't want a searchable/table style view of all your work?

I thought the idea was might be helpful:

Scenario 1: I am on my navigation board and I want to create a new feature for my customers. I click to create a new board link and the board is created and the link added forward and backward.

Scenario 2: A colleague has finished his board presentation of a new product and has sent me the link. I paste his board link to the main company board and the two become linked forward and backward.

Scenario 3: A new CEO wants to see all of the company's product pages flat with links between them, he can click on a 3d or linked view of all projects in his domain and perhaps arrange them as he wants/needs to understand the business.

Board links can be found in the search panel by typing some keyword like link.

 

Zoomnotes has some features that Miro doesn't have such as 3d page turning and also the ability to rotate the pages as you zoom down into your designs, meaning you can create work inside of other work as the zoom in infinite in the Z direction, whereas Miro only has X and Y infinite zoom.

And I understand how difficult it is for people that have come from a Microsoft Word environment to just get beyond the idea that things have to be vertical only. So I can picture how some users will not be able to make the leap to X, Y, and Z.

Helps to read Flatland.  What I like is that Miro gives me X, Y, and while the Z is limited, it also provides time (activity). What it is missing here is a way to see the time (activity) across all projects and to search across all the activity to visualize what was created and linked during a certain month or related to a certain set of keywords/tags. Only enterprise customers have the search, right?

Userlevel 7
Badge +4

Great ideas, @Jason Dinkel. I’d go back to first principles: Miro and other similar platforms are fundamentally places where people can collaborate in real-time to get work done. What you’ve described are pretty neat, but truly an extended feature of the product for different, perhaps more advanced users. Some need it, some don’t. 

There’s truth in your statement too: 70-80% of people I worked with are pretty much Microsoft environment savvy through no fault of theirs. So I respect that and the community works together to help these ‘slow adopters’ get used to new ways of working.

It’s always a balance between building a product where the majority of people can use comfortably (majority of revenue ie the iPhones) vs a very innovative product that appeals to a small select group (limited revenue ie the Samsungs or Huaweis with foldable screen phones.)

Is there a wish list item for this?  I’ve just started using Miro in earnest and I am always trying to “go back” after following a link while presenting / roaming a board.

Use Case:

A flow diagram that has a “macro view” of a process, with one or more steps in the process being linked off to another flow diagram that details that particular step further.  I usually link the shape to another frame with the detailed flow diagram and navigating there as I’m presenting the flow is a breeze - click and go.  But when I want to “go back” to the macro view, I have to do some hoop-jumping to get there.

Ideal Solution:

Allow me to “go back” (e.g. Alt/Cmd + Left Arrow, “back button” on my mouse) so that I can return to where I came from when I followed the link.

Technical Thoughts:

A buffer of “positions” could be maintained at the user level - a linked list if you will. A “position” could be determined as a point where the user was stationary for a period of time.  Following a link would immediately define a new position.  Any dragging / zooming movements around the screen would result in a “position” being marked if the user stays stationary for, say, 2-5 seconds.

This would result in a buffer of positions that could be navigated forwards and backwards as needed.  

If I navigated “back” in the buffer and took a new path “forward”, the list could be truncated.

This is analogous to a browser’s history.

I see a few a bit different use cases, mainly:

  • Dashboard reader - What I’m using is “Overview” frame with links to detailed frames. Each “detail” has sticker/link to go back to the “Overview”.
  • Dashboard editor - I’m working on one, two to three places at a time. I place there small temporary frames with name such as “>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>1”, “>>>>>>>>>>>2” so there are easily visible in the list of frames (you can just click there to jump to marked place, also you can drag/drop them). Also you can use search for “>>>>” to get easy to the right place. You can use cut/paste to move them.

     

Another useful tip for editors of huge dashboards with a lot of work is to copy/paste a sticker with “todo” tag to be able to mark places that requires more work. To get that list of such locations you can visually search by color or you can use search button (just put “todo” there and you will find all).

Greetings

Am a very new user,  but frankly find the absence of a GOBACK key a major issue.  really surprising this is  not already part of the product.  Given the size a board can grow to,  having to find where you just came from can be a real pain.   

I just linked an item in a ToDo list to a meeting agenda frame .. when i followed it,  i arrived at the agenda frame which already zoomed to fill the screen .. had to shrink the screen and find the ToDo list again .. really a pain ..why would you have a link where you cannot return to teh source?     I dont buy the suggestions to program a return separately, each time you do a link ..   I hope this feature, which is in almost every other piece of software,  gets added.  

 

Tom  

Vote on this idea! Return or go back button after following a link inside Miro

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