This minor NarraFirma release improves several aspects of completeness.

More note-taking

Some NF users love the note-taking aspects of the software. They like answering the questions and thinking about what they are doing as they move along. Other NF users are uninterested in that part of the software. That’s okay; those parts are easy to ignore. (I’m a big note-taker, myself.)

In looking over NF’s note-taking capabilities, I found and closed a few gaps between what you might want to remember about your PNI project and what NF asks you about it. Specifically, there are now “Reflect on” pages for each phase of PNI (Planning, Collection, Catalysis, Sensemaking, Intervention, and Return).

In the Planning phase, I added a page where you can watch people share stories, then reflect on the flow of stories in the conversation by answering some questions about it. You can use this page either to learn more about story sharing in general or to learn more about the unique style of story sharing in your own community or organization.

I also added a few more reflective questions to existing pages. For example, I renamed the “Project facts” page the “Describe your project” page (and added some more questions there). I also added some more questions about each participant group.

Privacy policy

In writing the Planning pages of NF, I forgot to include a page to work out a privacy policy you can show to your participants. I’ve added that now. (I can’t believe I never noticed this before.)

Icons and tips

People tell me that NF has a steep learning curve, so I keep trying to pull it down. This time I’ve added little icons that tell you what types of activities are available on each page, in the categories of: manage (a wrench), plan (a light bulb), enter (a sort of pencil-in-a-box thing), review (a bar graph), journal (an empty notebook), or export (a teeny tiny printer).

I have also added a tip at the bottom of each page, with a link to all the tips (in the help system). These are essentially all the things people have told me they were confused by or got stuck on. There are about 80 tips so far. I’ll keep adding more as I go.

All of these extra help features can be turned off on the Project options page. You do have to turn them off in each project (there is no way to turn them off for your entire NF installation), but it’s quick. I think the new aids will be helpful enough to new users to be worth the hassle to the pros.

As always, if you find any bugs, please tell me on the GitHub issues page.