I’ve finally got around to doing the tutorial on the Mac (having done it on the Windows version when the Beta first came out). After completing it, I do have a few questions…
1 - The icon indicating a document is in Script mode is way too subtle for me. i.e. it’s too difficult to distinguish the white icons with the very pale yellow versions. Is it possible for me to select a different icon to use as the script mode icon for a document? I know I could do it manually for each document but I mean selecting the default script mode icon so I don’t have to do it manually for each document.
2 - Is it possible to use placeholder tags in the following way: I create a character sheet template with a tag in place of the character’s name (e.g. something like $). I then create a character sheet using the template, name the document as the character (e.g. Fred Bloggs) and the sheet is created with the document title replacing the placeholder tag i.e. automatically changing from the tag into ‘Fred Bloggs’. As far as I can tell the tags only work during compile, is that right?
3 - I’m not currently a user of Markdown but following a discussion of it in the Windows forum, I do like the idea of being able to add formatting as I type (without taking my hands off the keyboard) and it automatically converted from Markdown to formatting as I type. Is this possible?
4 - An out and out request… After using them during the Tutorial, I can see me using quick reference windows more in the future but could you please add a text zoom control at the bottom of the windows? I know (after a search) there’s a keyboard shortcut for it but it took me ages to find and no doubt I’ll forget it next time I need it. An on-screen control (same as the one in the main window) would be great.
If any of these aren’t currently possible, can you count them as feature requests?
There isn’t a way to do that short of editing the graphics in the application bundle itself (which I don’t recommend as each update will blow that way). However the strongest tell of what mode the document is in, is the footer bar. If you see element hints and the selection pop-up menu, then it is in scriptwriting mode. If you see statistics and a target button on the right side, then it is in standard mode.
Right, just during Compile using the Replacements pane. Problem is the file and its contents are already created by the time you go about naming it, so the <$title> tag would if anything pick up the initial placeholder name rather than anything you’ve typed in. There is also the small problem that someone might not want that to happen—but that could be solved with a new token, since that one is specifically for when you want a piece of text that is dynamic during compile. Something you can try is to work in the opposite fashion with greater efficiency, though. Rather than naming the new template “Fredd Bloggs” and then copy and pasting that, or typing it in again, in the main text area, just ignore the name of the sheet, type in the name in editor where you want it, select it, and hit ⇧⌥⌘T (Mac) or F2 (Win) to set the name of the document to the selected text. In practice, this is usually very efficient since you can select a name with two or three Opt-LeftArrow or Ctrl-LeftArrows.
It doesn’t quite work like that, just during compile to a specific format. One of the things that advocates of the format like is that it does remain as syntax rather than turning into stylised text. For myself, I prefer to see asterisks around an italic range, rather than italics, because that jumps off the “page” and so to me is a more useful way of marking emphasis than italics, which totally sink into the background.
If anything, and to stress this is a very speculative thing that isn’t even on the list of potential features for 3.0 (which hasn’t even begun development), we might some day have some kind of “syntax highlighting” like you see in programs like TextMate or MultiMarkdown Composer, where the syntax causes the text to change formatting, but the syntax is not removed. It’s a way of further emphasising the text without any extra work, but its still fundamentally using MMD to format your document, not as a shortcut for making RTF documents. The main issue is that this philosophy is rather at odds with a rich text environment. The listed examples are all plain-text.
I’m sure I can’t be the only one who would prefer the script mode icon to be clearer. If it’s not possible to allow the user to select his/her own choices, could the current icon be made stronger? Surely the point of having the icon change is so the user doesn’t have to hunt around the screen for clues as to the mode the document’s in?
With the tags question, I would see the value updating the tag with the filename whenever it changed so I don’t foresee everything being called ‘new document’.
I’d assume the Markdown behaviour would be toggle-able between the standard behaviour and the one I described, giving the user the choice of what he prefers.
As for the placement of the zoom control on the quick reference screen, if space is at a premium, I would assume the option of what to include could be added to the preferences. I would prefer a zoom control in the quick ref window over a word count for example (which is already available on the main window).
Ah, in that case you would need some kind of token “beneath” the text itself, which isn’t how placeholders currently work. Something like that is potentially on the slate for the future. It’s a very vague thing at this point though. Placeholders right now are just raw text. No different than <$title> right here in the forum. They aren’t “smart” in any way. The Compiler just literally searches for that string of text and handles it when encountered.
So yes, that would be nice, but right now that would require a whole heap of development, which would be best assigned to a larger sub-system revamp that addressed dozens of purposes, rather than one thing. It would be too expensive in terms of time for just this, is what I mean, nice though this might be in theory.
I’ll add it to the list. You aren’t the first to point out that it is a little light, or to not even realise there are two different icons in the first place. See, not all bad news.
I see what you are saying, but I’m not sure if this would provide a huge advantage to you. Sure, some of the MMD stuff is more “beneath the fingertips” so to speak, but if you are using the mouse to format stuff repeatedly, then you should be using Formatting Presests, and if you are using those repeatedly, you should be setting keyboard shortcuts to them. So you can have a no-mouse relationship with a rich text document as well, and that strikes me a as more intuitive approach than an MMD entry mode that doesn’t actually end up using any MMD.
Except that this space is also used for the scriptwriting elements dropdown, when statistics are not shown:
Is zooming a periodic problem or something you constantly do? If the latter, you might consider changing your default zoom level in the Editor preferences pane.
From your answer, I’m not sure I’m explaining myself very clearly regarding the tags question but even so, I take your point about it being a lot of work for little reward so fair enough.
Also a fair point about styles. I’m still used to the Windows version (which doesn’t have them yet) so haven’t been able to use them before and haven’t got around to trying them in my Mac version yet.
Good tip about the default zoom too - I didn’t realise it affected the quick ref window.
Well, to rephrase my case from your original point here: if the placeholder updated what is visible in the editor every time you change the title, then it would need to be something that exists beneath the text layer itself. If it is text, like <$title> currently is, and that text is changed to match the title “Fred Bloggs”, then if you changed the title a second time, there is no longer any “<$title>” to keep the text updated. That is now completely gone and it is just “Fred Bloggs” in the text. It wouldn’t at all be a safe assumption to change all instances of “Fred Bloggs” to “Fredrick Bloggs”, so there isn’t any good way to communicate that this text needs to be kept up to date.
Thus, the placeholder would have to be something “underneath” the visible text that you see. Something that generates text dynamically. Think of it like a graphic almost, which is a somewhat close analogy. A graphic embedded in your text file is, at the file level, just a string of text. It’s a very long string of text that describes the picture’s pixels. When you look at it in Scrivener though, you don’t see the underlying description, you see the picture which is assembled from the description and then injected as a photograph into the layout system. What you are proposing would have to be somewhat similar in it’s implementation. Some kind of coding system that literally looks like {\ScrivTag value=“document_title”} that generates content dynamically and doesn’t actually store the data in the file itself. This has far-ranging implications some of which are undesirable. If the text isn’t actually there, and only being generated when you look at it in the editor, you wouldn’t be able search for it, for instance. That could be circumvented, but that takes programming to do as all of this is custom stuff. Hence, this is a bigger job than just making a quick change to the existing way that it works. Lots of “little” things like that.
Ah, yes. Well do note that on a Mac, keyboard customisation is done at the system level, in the System Preferences : Keyboard : Keyboard Shortcuts preference pane. From there you can just tell any program on your computer to use a desired shortcut for a menu item, and these can be menu items you’ve created, too, like presets. I like to use Ctrl for these, since Ctrl is rarely used by itself on the Mac. For example, Ctrl-B to “Body”.
I see what you mean about the need for something ‘underneath’ the text like a persistent tag that is displayed with the tag value rather than the tag text itself. Yep, a lot of coding needed for not much benefit.
I’m still new to the Mac and learning its ways so thanks for the keyboard shortcuts explanation, good to know.
Thanks for answering the question about zooming text in the quick reference window Amber. The default zoom is definitely helpful but I would still think that adding a zoom functionality to the reference window would be great.
At the moment I’m dealing with a large amount of documents from various sources with various type sizes and I notice myself being in need of zoom on a per document basis to achieve the same readability per document. Thanks for considering.
If we get a feature that makes marking text and getting the equivalent formatting, how would that be triggered? Would you use the CMD-i shortcut to get italics, or would adding the asterisks trigger the italics mode for the text surrounded by them?
For myself, I prefer to see asterisks around an italic range, rather than italics, because that jumps off the “page” and so to me is a more useful way of marking emphasis than italics, which totally sink into the background.
