Side by Side view - compact version?

[ozdazzajp]

Is it possible to get a more compact view in the Side by Side view? On my MacAir, when you choose the Side by Side view, a rather thick bar appears at the top that tells you are in the Side by Side view. Ideally, I would like this bar not to appear at all, just have small headers which show the title of the page and an “X” to close the window you don’t want.

Also, the size of each page has unnecessary borders, which makes the area that you actually can type in smaller than necessary. This occurs even when “full width” is selected for the page width.

This is most noticeable on my MacBook Air because of the limited screen real estate.

[Mark_Busse]

Give 1.58.0 a try.

Mark

[ozdazzajp]

Thanks for the fix.

I have other related requests:

• The writing space in each window still remains unchanged and is made smaller with unnecessary borders.
• I would like to be able to drag to resize the windows to whatever size you want.
• I am confused by the “Side by Side” view and the “Split View”. I read about the difference in the manual, but I am still confused about the difference and what icons and right-click menus to select to get the views. I am coming from the Scrivener concept of “Toggle split” screens where both screens are both fully editable able and the a new section is displayed for the window in focus when you click on the section in the binder. I also like how Scrivener shows a little line in the header for the page focused. Also, I like how compact the title bar is as well as the amount of real estate is given to writing (see my first request above). (Apologies for referencing Scrivener so much, but it is these features that enable me to get a lot of writing done).

[Mark_Busse]

Darren,

All four of these are in 1.59.0, and I owe you a correction on the first one.

The borders. When you said the writing space was unchanged, you were right, and my earlier fix is why. I had changed the Side by Side margins from a fixed 22 points to a value that shrinks on a narrow screen — and then never checked what it came to on a real one. On a MacBook Air it works out to 22 points: exactly the number it already was. It only does anything on a window narrower than any Mac you would actually work in. So you thanked me for a fix that changed nothing on your screen, and then reported the same problem, and both of those were correct.

The real cause was somewhere else entirely and affects every window, not just Side by Side. Each editor kept a floor of 44 points of margin on each side regardless of the width you chose. At Small, Medium and Large you never see it — the reading column is narrower than that anyway. But at Full the calculation comes to nothing and the floor is the margin, so choosing full width got you 88 points of the window you had just asked for. That floor is 20 points now, and only at Full; every other width is untouched.

Dragging. The divider between the two columns drags now, and remembers where you left it. Double-click it to go back to half and half. The read-only pane has had that for ages and Side by Side simply never did, which is not a distinction anyone could have guessed.

Side by Side versus Split View — you were not missing anything. They were one feature introducing itself twice. Underneath, opening a split view with the right setting on became Side by Side, so the same choice did different things depending on a preference you may never have set. There is one command now, Open Beside This Page…, and what you get depends on the page rather than on which menu item you found: a page you can write in opens ready to write in, and a PDF, a book or a locked page opens as a reading pane. You can turn a reading pane into a second editor at any time with the in its header — which now only appears where it can actually do something, instead of sitting on PDFs and refusing.

And your Scrivener point: a hairline under a column’s name now shows which one has the cursor. You were right that with two editable panes it needs saying.

The bar above PDFs and books is about a third shorter — same buttons, same order, it just stops announcing itself. It is above the document the whole time you are reading, so its size was not a small thing.

No apology for the Scrivener references. Knowing exactly what good feels like and being able to point at it is the most useful thing a reader can bring.

Mark

[ozdazzajp]

I just tried it out quickly and it much improved. Thank you! I will try it out properly tomorrow.

For further improvement, I made a rude mock-up of how I would like the windows to appear. The green arrows indicate the areas that could be used for more space for text (or graphics). I have moved the titles of the pages, the “X”, and the pin line to know which page the focus is on, all above where it was previously. (The size of the title font can even be made a little smaller than I have shown). This may be now getting picky, but while you were working on it, I thought it would be worth the chance to make the suggestion.

[Mark_Busse]

Darren,

1.59.1 is out, and everything you drew arrows at is in it. Before the list, though, the part I owe you.

Your arrows were pointing at something I had not fixed, and I had told you twice that I had.

The first time, I changed the Side by Side margins to a value that shrinks on a narrow screen — and never worked out what it came to on a real one. On your Air it came to 22 points: the number it already was. The second time I widened the reading column at Full width and told you the borders were dealt with again — but that change went to the single editor and never reached Side by Side, which keeps its own margins entirely. So the space either side of each column was the same throughout, and you asked three times about a gap that had never once moved.

It is a plain twelve points now, on every display, no formula. Two columns pay for their margins twice, which is precisely why you feel it and I did not: that is around 88 points of width back on your screen.

And the header, as you drew it. The titles, the ✕ and the focus line sit in a row about a third as tall, with the title a size smaller. That row sits between the toolbar and your first line of writing, twice over, so its height was never a detail.

The two Full Screen items are gone too — or rather ours is, and the system’s stands alone. macOS puts its own full-screen item into any menu called View, and MojoPad was declaring one as well, under the same label, which is why they read as an exact duplicate rather than merely a spare. The system’s also renames itself to Exit Full Screen once you are in it, which ours never did. One thing it costs: ⌃⌘F is no longer the shortcut — the system’s is fn F. I would rather tell you that than have you find it.

Not picky at all. Four times now you have asked for the same thing in different clothes — the thick bar, the borders, the file toolbar, and now this — and every one of them was a small screen giving too much of itself to something other than writing. The mock-up was the most useful of the four, because I could see what you meant instead of working it out.

It should offer itself to you. If you find anything else while you are trying it properly, that is good timing rather than bad.

Mark

[ozdazzajp]

Just one thing that wasn’t clear in my previous image. I requested that the title of each page be moved to the bar above where the title appears at the moment. I hope you can see what I want with the image I have attached here. Everything else is great. Thank you!

Also, I have a new request.
Would it be possible to change the page in focus by simply clicking on a page in the sidebar?
At the moment, you can change the page beside the page currently in focus by right-clicking a page in the sidebar and selecting “Open beside This Page” from the drop-down menu. This works well.
I am suggesting an additional option: a single click on a page in the sidebar would make that page the page currently in focus.
In other words:
• Right-click → “Open beside This Page” = open the selected page beside the current page (as it currently is, and no need to change)
• Single-click = make the selected page the page in focus (a new feature)
This would make switching between pages much quicker and more intuitive.

[Mark_Busse]

Like this?

[ozdazzajp]

That is much closer to what I am looking for. Though, I prefer the headings to be centered. However, if the headings contain other options, having the headings left-justified makes sense. Could you describe the process you went through to get the pages displayed this way?

I am particularly curious whether this is the result of implementing my suggestion that clicking on a page in the sidebar should change the page currently in focus. For example, was “Welcome to MojoPad” previously a different page in the left pane, and did you click “Welcome to MojoPad” in the sidebar to change the displayed page to this one?

At the moment, there are two ways I use Side by Side:
• When viewing a single page, you can select the Side by Side icon in the top right.
• From the sidebar, you can right-click a page and select “Open Beside This Page.”

When two different pages are selected, the display looks like the image I most recently posted: two different pages, with only the page titles shown at the top.
When the same page is selected, the scissors and other icons also appear.
Is my understanding correct?

(I also need to properly read the manual to understand how “Excerpt Mode” works. I am not sure what I need to do to activate this mode, and there is no indication on the screen showing what has happened. This is a separate, but related, issue to the Side by Side display).

Sorry for being a pain. I wish I was by your side to show you the things I mean. However, being able to discuss things in so much fine detail shows that MojoPad is very much working for me. My requests are to me are just slight improvements, but for you must require a whole of extra work.

[Mark_Busse]

This was the code change for the feature request.

Mark

[Mark_Busse]

Please try the just released 1.61.0

Mark