Introduction to Editing of Text - Part II

Editing Rules

• Start any select-highlight process just before or just after a SMARText item.
  
• Double-clicking on a SMARText item's header is the best way to select.
• Drag-and-drop can't be performed within the same field. 
• With the Delete key (without having performed a previous select-highlight),  the first key press selects the whole SMARText item, and the second key press actually deletes the item.
• Clicking, then typing on a SMARText item enters the typing into an Item Comments dialog.

It is the experience for most users that once they become familiar with how to edit SMARText, it quickly becomes unconscious and intuitive. When given the choice, almost all users prefer to keep the benefits of SMARText than return to free text. Here is a quote from a new user,

"There is a juxtaposition going on with SOAPware between structured objects and free-text that was not initially apparent to me. As a beginner, my experience, expectation, and initial preference, when creating documentation, is to enter information in a free-text fashion. Then, I came to understand the value of using the SMARText objects in place of the typed, free-text. Now, my main challenge is determining when to enter free-text, and when it is best to use a SMARText object. Until I understood the objects versus the free-text situation, it seemed very awkward and unintuitive. After a few hours of actual use, editing became nearly as automatic to me as typing in a word processor or an email."

Presently within SOAPware charts, what often appears to be free text is not. There is often a challenge, initially, in that users typically expect the words and letters in SOAPware to act more like a word processor. It is not initially apparent that SOAPware often presents a display of objects that are made to appear very much as free-text. The expectation the new user has, is that they can change the words around in the same fashion as they would do in Microsoft Word or an e-mail message. This is often not the case.

Unless users have dealt with a software product that displays objects for editing, this may not make a lot of sense. Editing objects requires some slightly different actions than when attempting to make edits as would be made in a free-text fashion. That said, we continue to tweak and polish to make SOAPware as "free-texty" as is possible. A tremendous number of variables can affect the behavior when editing the SMARText objects that have the appearance that is the same as plain text.

 In SOAPware 2010 users can select the font color for SMARText and free-text and most prefer to make them slightly different. This visual cue based on font color has proven to be extremely useful.

Additionally, the active area between a SMARText item's open/close brackets has a faint, background highlight to give more visual cues as to where to enter information, and to indicate the full breadth of any active SMARText item.

Objects vs. Free-Text

With free-text, each letter is actually an independent object. No individual letter has any relationship to any other letter as far as the computer is concerned. Amoxicillin and moAcXllicin are the same to the computer when it is typed-in as free-text. Both are equally meaningless. In contrast, objects in SOAPware can include multiple letters and/or numbers that as a group have been identified to the computer. The multiple letters and/or numbers that comprise an object are enclosed within the object's open and close brackets. In other words, SOAPware displays the start and end points of a SMARText item (i.e. object) with an open bracket followed by a close bracket. Everything inside those brackets is considered part of the item. Many items will also display a Header just before the start or open bracket. 

Highlight-Selecting

Free-text in SOAPware can be selected-highlighted in generally the same fashion as within a word processor. Standard key-commands (i.e. arrow keys, Page Up/Down,  Shift key select text) function much as expected. Clicking within or on an object (i.e. SMARText headers or structured items) to begin a selection-highlight, causes problems. SOAPware follows standard, Windows interface guidelines in that clicking on an object is interpreted as a selection AND as the beginning of a drag and drop action. An example of object management in Windows would be to  click on a file (Note: a file is an object) on the Desktop. Clicking the file (or document) selects-highlights it in a fashion that it can immediately be dragged-and-dropped to another location. Even though SOAPware is following standard human-computer interface guidelines here, for beginners, this is often unintuitive if they have never used software containing objects. 

Based on user feedback, we may eventually change this action when an object is clicked. We could change the object action so that clicking on it only treats it as a selection and does not prepare it for drag-and-drop actions. The downside of doing this is  drag & drop actions would involve a lot of additional clicks. Each and every object-items would have to be individually clicked in order to select them for the subsequent drag-and drop action.

it is extremely important to start any select-highlight process to be just before or after the SMARText item rather than on/within it.

Cut/Copy

With cut/copy, SOAPware will only cut/copy the selected portions that fully contain items. For example, if a SMARText's items header is not FULLY and COMPLETELY included in the highlight-select, the header (and the associated SMARText item) will not be included in the selection.

<<Screen shot of part of Rx selected - heading, strength>>

<<Paste of above to another field>> Only the Drug and strength info is moved.>>

Double-clicking on a SMARText item's header will select all (i.e. FULLY and COMPLETELY) the information in that item, and is generally a better way to select than doing the more familiar mouse dreg-select in order to select-highlight.

it is extremely important to start any select-highlight process to be just before or after the SMARText item rather than on/within it.

Delete

As SMARText items are encountered when repeatedly pressing either the Delete or Backspace keys (without having performed a previous select-highlight),  the first key press selects the whole SMARText item, and the second key press actually deletes the item.

SOAPware will only delete items that are fully contained in the highlighted selection. SOAPware will only delete the selected portions that fully contain items. For example, if a SMARText's items header is not FULLY and COMPLETELY included in the highlight-select, the header (and the associated SMARText item) will not be included in the selection.

Double-clicking on a SMARText item's header will select all (i.e. FULLY and COMPLETELY) the information in that item, and is generally a better way to select than doing the more familiar mouse dreg-select in order to select-highlight. 

There are some required items in SOAPware, such as Field Headers (e.g. Subjective, Objective, etc.), that cannot be deleted in this fashion.

it is extremely important to start any select-highlight process to be just before or after the SMARText item rather than on/within it.

Move or Drag-and-Drop

Drag/Drop Limitation !!!! - You cannot drag and drop a selection or item into a different location within the same field. Use Cut/Copy/Paste within same field rather than attempting drag-and-drop.

In general, drag-and-drop works with selections. Select-highlight a range of information, and then Click and hold-down the button while dragging (i.e. moving) the mouse. SOAPware will only move items that are fully contained in the highlighted selection. 

For example, you cannot drag a medication to a different location in the medication field. Unfortunately, there are technical issues with this that have proven problematic.

Drag-and-drop is usually not a problem when moving items from one field to another (e.g. from Active Problems to Inactive Problems) When dragging from one field to another, be sure to drop the selection onto the field header.

it is extremely important to start any select-highlight process to be just before or after the SMARText item rather than on/within it.

Please Send Feedback

We need a lot of specifics whenever there are editing quirks.

To assist us in polishing SMARText editing to be more intuitive (i.e. as close to free-text as is possible), it is usually more of a process of identifying the particular variables in specific situations that change how the editing is functioning. Many, but not all, word processing actions (i.e. cut/copy/paste) that were problematic in earlier versions of SOAPware's SMARText have been resolved. If any editing problems are encountered, please consider contacting support so we can get the specifics to identify the conditions causing any quirks you encounter. A tremendous number of variables can affect the behavior of editing SMARText and plain text. At this point, it is usually more of a process of identifying the particular variables in specific systems that somehow change how the editing functions.

Comments 4/24/09:

• In SOAPware 2010 - Using the keyboard to navigate in documentation no longer automatically activates each SMARText item, but rather activates only the free text (editable) items. This results in a much simpler editing experience that is more similar to word processors.
• SMARText will only get easier to edit and manipulate, but it will never work exactly like a word processor simply because the objects that are manipulated in a word processor are limited to single characters (e.g. A, C, d, 1, 3). None of the single characters have any association or links to any others. In contrast, the objects needing to be defined and manipulated in a medical record are much more complex objects of information (i.e. fever, sore throat, anxiety) that are more than one character, and are intimately related and associated with other objects. Free-text typing has no means to create and maintain those associations and relationships. We have made some great strides in the soon to be released SOAPware 2010. Some introductions to those are located here - SOAPware 2010 Screenshots. The ability to change font colors; change the shading of the backgrounds of individual SMARText items; as well as adding easier keyboard navigation, should go far toward making the editing of SMARText easier.
• For Tablet-PC users, we still have to address the issue of not having access to a Control Key when using a stylus. Without a Control Key, it is not easy to copy ST within an encounter note. Until this is more elegantly addressed, note that it is possible to highlight-select text and then go to Menu... Edit... Copy;  and then Menu... Edit... Paste. It is also possible to use toolbar icon/commands for cut/copy/paste.   We consider robust support of both stylus and speech entry to be very important, but have to limit our focus on mouse/keyboard in the near future.

Also see:

Would you refill my gobbilty goop? 

What is structured text, discrete data or more granular text?

 Next Steps:

Find SMARText Items When Creating Documentation

Path- Find SMARText Items When Creating Documentation