Hi there,
One feature that I would love to see implemented in ELAN is the possibility, within the transcription view, to display subdivided tiers, and not only symbolic associations.
Actually, it is possible to see the first annotation of a subdivided set of annotations corresponding to the current parent annotation, but in terms of using the transcription view, it is not so useful. As the transcription view is the most convenient view for annotating, being able to use it also for this task would be very useful.
Best.
Hi,
I’m happy to add this to the wish list, although the current set of constraints are there for a reason. The basic spreadsheet-like table layout, without cells that span multiple rows or columns, is probably the most intuitive and easy to use layout.
From a developer’s perspective, I know that implementing support for subdivision tiers, with cells in one column spanning multiple rows in other columns (recursively), adds several new levels of complexity. For users it might become less intuitive how e.g. navigation with Enter works, which cells will be activated next.
-Han
Maybe only allowing cases were multiple cells are included within the same column can still keep the user interface intuitive and coherent while facilitating the annotation of subdivision using the transcription interface. I was thinking of something like in the Gloss column in this mockup I did for showing the idea:
Maybe it would only work for a particular subset of subdivision, I don’t know about that, but even tehn, it would help a lot people in this case 
Ah, like that, keeping the subdivision not only in the same column but also the same row (or maybe that’s what you meant to write). It’s still quite a deviation of the tabular format.
This way there’s no space for dependent tiers of the Gloss tier (irrespective of their type) but maybe that’s acceptable (or even an advantage?). I assume it should be possible to create the subdivisions in place, while editing the cell?
I’ll add it to the list but it’s clear to me it requires considerable changes to that mode and it’s UI components.
I think it should be possible to create a coherent tabular representation for subdivision into subdivision. I’ll try to create a mockup of an more advanced tabular representation with the corresponding tier structure.
