Categories

The Categories panel turns every categorical column in the space into a scrollable card of its values. Use it to see which values exist, how many points carry each one, how values in different columns overlap, and to turn any value into a bag.

Where to find it

View > Exploration > Categories.

The panel only has content when the space has categorical columns. If it has none, the tab closes itself.

One card per categorical column, each listing its values with counts.

Reading a card

Cards sit side by side in a horizontally scrolling strip, one per column, with a mirrored scrollbar above the strip so you can scroll without going to the bottom. Drag the handle on a card’s right edge to widen it.

Each value row shows a color swatch, the value, and its counts. The last count is always the total number of points carrying that value. Two more appear when they are meaningful: a match count while a global search is active, and an overlap count with the active bag.

Two banners can appear above the cards:

• Map colored by, when a column is also the map’s active coloring. The swatches in that card match the map’s Point Coloring legend, and the card gets a blue ring and a Coloring by tag.
• Map shaped by, when a column is driving point shape. Values are drawn as polygons whose number of sides follows the card’s current sort order, and the card gets a violet ring and a Shaping by tag.

Controls

At the top of the panel:

• Search Content searches point titles, summaries and metadata across the whole space. Cards then show only values that still have matching points, and each row’s match count appears.
• Wrap switches values from a compact grid to one full-width row each.
• Cross-Category Select, on by default, highlights values in other columns that share points with the values you have selected here, so you can see which teams a set of speakers belongs to without leaving the panel. Turning it off clears the selected values.
• Create Multi-Layer Bag becomes active once two or more values are selected within a single column, and bags their combined points.

On each card:

• Search filters that card’s values by name.
• Sort by offers Most Total Points, Least Total Points, A-Z, Eye On and Eye Off. Two extra options appear while a global search is running, and two more when a bag is active, so you can sort by search matches or by overlap with that bag.
• AI shorten rewrites the currently visible value labels into short forms. Once it has run, a Short labels checkbox lets you switch between the short and original labels. Shortened labels live in the session only and are not saved with the space.
• Hide Others turns off every non-selected value in the columns that have selections; the button becomes Show All to undo it. A column must keep at least one value on, so hiding all of them is refused with a message.
• Split by Category appears only when the map has a trajectory field, and splits trajectories along that column.

On each row:

• Click the label to select the value; click it again to deselect. HoldCtrl or ⇧ to select several values inthe same column, or drag down the list to select a range.
• The eye toggles that value’s visibility.
• The bag icon selects every point with that value and saves it as a highlighted bag named Column: value.

Bag a category value

1. Find the value. Type into the card’s search box, or sort by Most Total Points.
2. Click the bag icon on the row. Mantis selects the matching points and creates a highlighted bag named after the column and value.
3. Combine values by selecting two or more in one column and clicking Create Multi-Layer Bag instead.

Selected bags

A Selected Bags tray sits above the cards. Each bag you have selected shows as a colored chip. Clicking a chip makes that bag the active bag, which turns on the per-row overlap counts and the bag-based sort options; clicking it again deactivates it. The x on a chip removes the bag from the selection, and the remaining bags become the selection.

Limits

• Selecting a value on its own does not change what is drawn on the default Map. It marks the value as selected and drives the overlap highlighting inside this panel. To act on those points from the map, use the bag icon.
• The eye toggles are read by the legacy renderer only, so hiding a value changes Map (Legacy) and not the default map.
• Values come from the metadata already loaded in the browser, so counts reflect the loaded points.

Read nextBagsWhat happens to the groups this panel creates.