Hey Esther
thank you for the thorough lessons which you share so generously. You don't get
paid enough for this job (smile).
In your time with this app have you figured out how one easily adds a bird to
favorites?
thanks so much for all your sharing on this list.
Robin
From: Esther
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 2:35 PM
To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com
Subject: searching in iBird [was Re: iBird]
Hi Gigi and Christine,
There's an extensive set of help instructions under the "help" button, but I'll
try to summarize. The search button (second button of five on the bottom of the
screen) brings you to a screen with different search categories as well as a
search field where you can type in criteria. As you add criteria and move back
to the search page, you're told how many birds match your criteria, and then
you can either continue to set search criteria until you double tap the "View"
button in the top right corner, or decide to start an entirely new search by
double tapping the "Reset" button in the top left corner.
Here's an example. Double tap the "search" button. The search categories are
grouped under headings "Basic Group", "Song", "Body Related", "Flight Related",
"Pattern Related", "Head Related", and "Miscellaneous". So let's say I wanted
to search for birds that are observed in Texas during May, according to a
particular song pattern. Under the "Basic Group" heading there's an option for
"Observed State/Month". Double tap this, and on the State/Month page, first set
the state to "Texas" using the picker item on the top half of the screen. Then
flick down to select the month of "May" by double tapping to check this box.
Once you set this combination, the heading at the top of the screen will change
to "State/Month" (424). The button at the top right is "Clear All" to reset
your choices on this screen, and at the top left is "Search, back button" to
return to the main search screen, which will now announce "424 birds matched"
for the heading at the top of the page. For this page, the "Reset" button is at
the top left, and the "View" button is at the top right.
Now, let's add a search by "Song Pattern", which is one of the two categories
under the "Song" heading search category on the main search page. The options
are "Falling", "Flat", "Rising", and "Sing-song". Each time you double tap a
category, you'll get examples of this pattern as well as checking the button,
which you can uncheck either by double tapping the category again, or by
flicking to the button and double tapping. Each specific search screen lets you
clear all search criteria with a "Clear All" button in the top right, and
return to the main search screen with a "Search, back button" in the top left.
In addition, once you return to the search field, the number of matched birds
in the heading at the top of the page gets changed, and the entry under the
search category gets amended. (For the "Observed State/Month" category this is
only the number of birds, since you could have selected multiple months). So
let's say I choose "Sing-song" for the song pattern and return to the search
page. There are still 95 birds. I select "Song" under the "Song" heading
search category, and double tap "Quack-quacking". (I'm not going to list the
song types on this screen -- this is a really long list). Again, this
demonstrates the song and also checks the button, and if I want to uncheck it I
flick right and double tap or just double tap the category again. As before, I
can use the "Clear All" button at the top right or the "Search, back button" at
the top left to return to the main search screen. You can check multiple
categories, before returning to the main search screen, but I'll just choose
one. I now have 4 birds matched that are observed in Texas in May, with a
"Quack-Quacking" song and a "Sing-song" song pattern. Each of these selections
is noted as I flick through the relevant search categories.
To view the matched selections, double tap the "View" button at the top right.
I get entries for "Gray Catbird", "Northern Mockingbird", "Northern Shoveler",
and "Reddish Egret", with brief descriptions. To actually play the song and
get detailed information, double tap on a selection, then double tap the
"Speaker small" button in the bottom left corner. There are multiple sample
tracks for this bird, and also a list of similar sounding bird calls.
If you want to just type in a search entry to add in the search field on the
main search page, just double tap the "Search" button in the bottom right
corner of the virtual keyboard to add it. The problem is knowing what
categories to use. If I type in "red", the matched entries go down to 1 bird
(the "Reddish Egret". To remove my typed search keyword I have to flick to the
"clear text" button in the search box and double tap to remove it.
Hope this helps. I learned on one of the free, lite versions for iBird that
had many fewer entries! I don't know how to get the range description if it
isn't in the detailed description.
Cheers,
Esther
On May 10, 2012, at 5:41 AM, Eugenia Firth wrote:
I found the place, but I couldn't figure out how to complete the search. One
of the tabs oo there is search at the bottom of the iPhone screen. Then not the
lefthand side of the screen is the various things you can search by, at least
it's the lefthand side as best I remember. I found the options like melodious,
and other descriptive words for the songs. I couldn't find the Go to do the
search.
Eugenia Firth
gigifi...@sbcglobal.net
On May 10, 2012, at 7:45 AM, Christine Grassman wrote:
I have a question as well. The information for the app stated you could
search by bird sound -- but this implies there is a place in the app where one
can browse bird sounds. I cannot find such a place. Any help is appreciated.
Christine
On May 10, 2012, at 8:23 AM, Eugenia Firth wrote:
Hi guys.
After Esther put the information on about iBird, i got it and am having a
lot of fun with it. Here's my question, though, if anybody knows. If you want
to do a search for birds in Texas and Louisiana, how do you do it? I got the
check boxes checked for both states, but I couldn't find the button or whatever
to tell it to list them. I did browse the list of all 900 or so, but how, with
VoiceOver on, that is, do you get just those in Texas and Louisiana?
The other thing is, can you get the range of the birds listed in words
and not a map?
Regards,
Gigi
Eugenia Firth
gigifi...@sbcglobal.net
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