Overview

A brief introduction

The basic storage unit: The walk record

NatureNotes saves observations within a structure called a walk record.

A walk record is a collection of data (text, photos, audio recordings) saved as part of an event, or “walk.” For example, recording a few items around a museum constitutes a walk. A stroll around town should be saved as its own walk record.

Walk records are stored within an SQL database. The initial database is called WALKS. Users who purchase NatureNotes may create unlimited databases, which provides an additional way to organize walk records.

Sample Walk

A sample walk is included to illustrate how NatureNotes works after a walk has been recorded. The sample walk may be edited, and deleted at any time; it can be remade by an option in the main menu.

Click on the sample walk record

The primary options available for an existing walk record are shown on the next window. The options provide functions to view, send, or edit the collected data.

Slideshows

The slideshow option formats your observations into slides. Just select Run Slideshow to see how it works.

The new slideshow module takes you directly into a new set of slides if you haven’t yet saved a slideshow. If you have saved a slideshow it gives a list of the saved slideshows.

The new slideshow module has a host of new features. Key ones are:

  • Slides can be rearranged by a long press then moving the slide.
  • Slides can be de-selected by pressing the checkbox OR by double-tapping the slide.
  • The slideshow can be run in two ways: (1) Tap any slide and it will start a slideshow from that slide; this method will show all slides, selected or not. (2) Tap the play icon in the toolbar and the slideshow will start at the beginning, showing only selected slides. (While running a slideshow it may be best to rotate the device sideways for viewing of landscape slides.)
  • While viewing a slide it is possible to expand the image with two fingers. A single tap will reposition the image.
  • The sharing icon (box with up arrow) in the toolbar allows you to email all the slides or create a Web folder for copying to a server.

Sharing a trip

The easiest ways to share a trip are by email or with a Web folder. First organize a slideshow the way you want it: De-select slides you don’t want, and rearrange into the desired order. Edit the captions if necessary. Then press the share button (the rectangle with the up-arrow) and go through the steps to create an email or folder.

The primary restriction with email is the final email size. If there are too many photos either the email will exceed the maximum size that is sendable (usually about 20mb) or the image resolutions will be too low for satisfactory viewing. You can reduce the image size while producing the email, and/or the device usually lets you select a final size before sending.

Alternatively you can create a Web folder that can be viewed locally on a computer with a web browser or moved to another platform (server) for internet viewing. The folder size in this case is essentially unlimited, but you need to connect your device to a computer and copy (i.e., drag) the folder from the NatureNotes directory in your device to the computer for access.

Map

The map shows you the path recorded while NatureNotes was active.

The markers show the positions of the observations recorded within the walk.

Selecting View images will show where photos were taken along the walk. Tapping on a photo will enlarge it.

Track options

For more advanced users, the GPS track itself is available for editing and download. The recorded track is represented by a set of timestamps and GPS coordinates.

Uses for this option can be to show the track on another application such as Google Earth, which can open a .kml file, or Adobe Lightroom that can use a .gpx file for assigning GPS coordinates to a set of photos.

Email data

A tab-delimited text file can be emailed to a user if text information is needed for another venue.

One use can be sending to a Web service such as eBird, to upload bird species observations.

Photographic data cannot be sent with this option.

Save all images to photos

This option is self-explanatory. There should be little need to use this, as NatureNotes keeps its own database for photos taken within the application.

An option in the main menu can be set to record all photos to be saved to Photos, which would make using this option unnecessary if you wanted to automatically save to both places. The global option is turned off by default because saving images twice uses up unnecessary space on the device.

Edit observations: List view

After a walk and before sharing it with others, the recommended procedure is to look at all records for accuracy and completeness.

Individual observations within a walk can be edited or deleted entirely.

The edit mode now has an icon view, which displays the observation records plus images. There is a new button on the bottom of the list view that will open the icon view.

Selecting a record will open it for editing, using the same record format as for entry. (Please return to the Home page for details on editing records and other procedures.)

Edit observations: Icon view

The icon view for editing observations allows direct access to editing the images within the observations. Selecting an observation icon will open the standard observation window, which has a small sub-window showing the embedded images. Selecting an image directly will serve the same purpose as first selecting an observation then selecting an embedded image.

The window can be switched back to the list view by tapping the List view button at the bottom,

Edit observations: Slideshow view

Single-tapping on an image in the slideshow will open the image. The Edit button in the navigation bar will open a window that allows for caption editing and image rotation.

N.B.: Editing a caption will also change the text in the original observation record. It’s important to note that you are not changing text saved only in that slideshow, since slideshows only have links to the observation records. This has the advantage that any slideshow that contains that record will receive the edits, although you also cannot tailor individual slideshows to display custom text for that slideshow.