Please add support for typewriter mode in the Markdown editor. When typing, the cursor should be around the center of the window. This should implemented so that the user can easily toggle it on and off.
I see this feature request from 2009
Please add support for typewriter mode in the Markdown editor. When typing, the cursor should be around the center of the window. This should implemented so that the user can easily toggle it on and off.
I see this feature request from 2009
I do agree!
In fact I made this request again a few days ago in another thread. Even BBEdit, which makes almost no concessions whatsover to writer comfort, has a semi-manual version of it.
I do not really understand what ātypewriterā mode is. Can you share a screeshot (-video)?
Have you ever used an actual typewriter? The current line remains in a fixed spot. When you you reach the end of a line and activate the carriage return, the paper moves.
āTypewriter modeā emulates that. The position of the active line remains fixed on screen. (Or within a small range, there are different implementations). Usually in the vertical center.
Without it, you will instead stare at the bottom of the document window after you type enough to reach it. Or you add a bunch of empty lines and constantly scroll up.
A little demonstration, if it helps:
this might indeed be an interesting featureā¦ !
I discard any dedicated writing application without typewriter scrolling. When youāre used to it, writing longer documents without it is a pain.
Since DEVONthink is not a dedicated writing application, my expectations are different. I would love to see it implemented, but I donāt know how difficult it is or how it compares to other development priorities. And itās not that important to meā¦ If I feel the need, I just use a dedicated writing application.
@Mitch_Wagner, you didnāt find an external markdown editor youāre happy with?
I like writing in DevonThink. A major reason I like DEVONthink iis that research, archiving, note-taking and writing are all integrated ā as they are in my head.
Or they can be integrated. I need to export to Microsoft Word and I have found that a little bumpy.
maybe change the window size, and/or position of the edit window??
Sure, make the window half the size vertically and place the window in the upper half of the screen!
@anonny @pvonk I was about to argue with you about this but then I thought sure why not?
Iām doing a lot of writing tonight. Weāll see how this goes.
That. is. clever.
Evilā¦ but clever.
I have tried that before. It feels quite different from the actual keep-caret-in-the middle mode. I kept being reminded of the existence of a hard boundary just below my caret, which is the window border. That gives a feeling of being pushed to write more (for lack of better phrasing), contrary to the feeling of words naturally flowing onto the screen in typewriter mode.
Moreover, what lies below the window, whether itās another window or the wallpaper, can be distracting. Not to mention the issue of screen estate on small laptop screens.
The editor is perhaps the part of a writing workflow where one does not accept even the slightest compromise.
I write, and have written, long and short form in DEVONthink for almost 13 years. Iām not alone in that either.
I tried the half window trick. Itās too confusing to manage.
I know someone who writes a lot in the Windows Notepad, and I guess heās not the only person in the world who does that. Of course, he has all the rights to write in whatever program he prefers. Do I think itās acceptable for me to write in that? Absolutely not.
The point is, a compromise only becomes a compromise when the person sees something better and gets convinced by it. Using the very plain Notepad was probably not a compromise in any way when that program was first released in 1983. It is now.
compromise is subjective.
As a matter of interest, do you write long documents in editors which do have typewriter scrolling? (Not word processors, because they have controls over margins / page layout, which editors donāt have, which make typewriter scrolling less necessary.)
I do, and the difference in usability and writer comfort is noticeable for me, and this is one of the factors I used to determine whether an editor is suitable for me or not. I hope that this thread helps to underline that this is not just me saying thisā¦
Of course I understand that there may be technical reasons not to implement it, though given the long list of editors which do offer the feature now, I suspect theyāre not insuperable.
DT3 has made great steps over the last few years and itās very capable Markdown editor that can happily be used in its own right for comfortable editing, which you really couldnāt have said at one point. So, it would be good to know that this feature ā which after all will benefit RTF and Formatted Notes users just as much ā is being considered seriously.
I know the Wish List of Doom is very long, but it would be good to know that this wish is at least on itā¦
Thanks!
These are completely different editors - one is based on the text engine of macOS, the other one on the macOSā WebKit. Thatās why formatted notes retain clipped page layouts (the primary purpose of formatted notes) but do not support Wiki linking.
Thanks for the clarification, Cris.
I actually meant the feature itself, rather than the technical implementation details: typewriting scrolling would be just as useful in an RTF editor. I do understand it will require more work to implement in a different editor.
I think Scrivener, which also uses the built-in MacOS RTF engine (though heavily overloaded) was one of the first mainstream apps to use typewriter scrolling sometime before 2010, at least, because thatās when I first encountered it.
I think Keith got the idea from another program, but canāt remember which. It was certainly one of the features back then which made fall in love with Scrivener, and itās still something I miss when I write anyhting more than a few paragraphs in DT.