Prompter

Cues

A cue is a rule carried by a snippet that says which page, and which part of it, brings that snippet onto the prompter.

A cue is content: it rides the snippet's revision, so writing one saves with the body and sends the snippet back to Needs review like any other edit. A mapping is your own note about a page; a cue is the workspace's, reviewed with its snippet.

Write one

  1. Open the snippet in the editor.
  2. In the Cues band under the body, press Add a cue. The dialog opens on the new row.
  3. Fill it in, then press Done. Edit on the row reopens it later.
  4. Save the snippet. Nothing in the band saves on its own.
The Cues band under the editor's body, with Add a cue beside it.
A cue is written here and saved with the snippet, so it goes back for review like any other edit.

The dialog asks four things:

  • When — Hover an element, which reads when the pointer rests on the mapped element; Open a page, which reads when the page opens and matches the whole page; or Only when asked, which never reads on its own.
  • Page — the URL, with * for any run of characters. The query string and fragment are ignored on both sides, so a link with tracking still matches.
  • Element (raw JSON, for now), on a hover cue. Leave it empty to map the whole page.
  • Label — what the mapping is for. Never matched on.

When a cue is allowed to fire

A cue fires only on the thing it was written for: a hover cue never fires on a navigation, and Only when asked never fires by itself. Three rules then decide whether the column actually moves:

  • Your own hand wins. Pause or resume, jump a section, or change the speed or the type size, and cues are held off for three seconds.
  • A cue for another section waits until the read line is 80 % through the one you are in, and one held past twelve seconds is abandoned. A cue arriving while the column is paused, or on a Blank prompter, which has no reading order to interrupt, does not wait.
  • Only the rule that fired last is held back, and only for five seconds, so a pointer resting near a mapped element does not re-jump the column; a different rule firing clears it.

The ceiling, and unreadable rules

40 cues is the most one snippet carries. The band says so when you reach it.

A stored cue that can no longer be read is inert and named — One stored cue is not readable and does not run: with the reason, and Saving replaces the list above. It is never dropped without a word, and never read as a rule matching everything.

Note: which revision a cue is read from depends on where it fires. A shared cue — what Mappings lists and a Blank prompter arms — comes from the certified revision, so an uncertified snippet contributes none and an edited one its last certified version. A document prompter arms the revision each row pins, certified or not: the one it is reading to you.