RFC: Print templates for 4 dives per page and 6 dives per page

Willem Ferguson willemferguson at zoology.up.ac.za
Sat Nov 25 05:10:12 PST 2017


I attach two images for some print templates that I have been working 
with. I would appreciate comments from any members of this list, but 
especially from anyone who prints dives to paper.

My point of departure with this work is to accommodate divers why 
frequently print dives. Three points: 1) The biggest limitation is that 
all dive details (i.e. those shown on the Notes, Equipment and 
Information tabs in Subsurface) cannot be fitted onto a single sheet of 
paper. Therefore I assume that those who print dives are more likely to 
be those who dive in a recreational environment and configuration. Such 
divers have fewer demands from a printout, compared to 
technical/sidemount/rebreather divers. These print layouts are therefore 
geared towards recreational divers. 2) I used "conventional" 
recreational dive log sheets available on the Internet to determine what 
information is more likely to be relevant to a recreational diver. 3) 
Though I have not been totally consistent, I assumed that the 
information showed in the multiple-dives-per-page layouts should not 
show information different from the one-dive-per-page layout. If space 
is limiting, a subset of information on the one-page layout should be 
shown on the layouts with less page space for each dive. Any comments on 
these points of departure?

*6 dives:* On the left is the current default layout. Biggest issue is 
that the notes are mostly not shown or severely truncated. It is futile 
to include the Notes in the 6-dive layout. A lot of information is shown 
here, which are not shown in the one-page print layout (e.g. SAC rate, 
rating, tags). In putting together a 6-dive layout, I decided to split 
the templates into two: 1) a template that does not show the notes; 2) a 
template that does not show the dive profile. This gives a diver a 
choice to print whatever is more important for her/him. In these two 
derived templates, I re-arranged the layout compared to the current 
template. Note that in all 6-dive layouts, the depth and time labels on 
the dive profile are for all practical purposes illegible, and I suspect 
this is a problem that is not easily solved. Note:

1) The gas information on my two templates are truncated if more than 
one cylinder is used on a dive. The gas information in my templates are 
rather cryptic, giving cylinder type, gas type and begin/end cylinder 
pressure. In the existing 6-dive layout (leftmost in image) there is 
more information given for gas, but this comes with a penalty in other 
aspects of the page layout.

2) In the proposed 6-dive layout with dive notes (i.e. without dive 
profile), the dive notes are truncated if there are too many notes. I 
often write fairly lengthy dive notes, so in the 
multiple-diives-per-page printouts, my notes are commonly truncated.

*4 dives: *We currently do not have a 4-dive template. My rationale was 
that if someone wanted a several dives per page and also both the dive 
profile and the dive notes,  a 4-dive layout is the more viable than the 
6-dive layout.  Here also, if the dive notes are long, they are 
truncated. This layout is a compromise to show more or less all the 
information originally intended with the 6-dive layout.

Any comments are highly appreciated. If these layout are perceived as 
useful, I will circulate the templates so that you can test them on your 
own dive log. After that we can decide in which way they will be added 
to the current set of templates.

Kind regards,

willem




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