When I enter a new list item in a text document, if I Undo (either keyboard shortcut or using the menu), the line is erased as expected, but the cursor jumps to the very last line of the document. I can use Backspace to delete the line without issue and can select and delete the line without issue, but as soon as I Ctrl-Z the line addition, my cursor jumps down and I have to remember where I was in the outline and scroll up.
I use bullet lists to create my story outline, and I’ve been dealing with this issue since I started using Scrivener last year (current ver. 3.1.5.1). It’s a minor issue, but like a slow water drip it gets annoying quickly. I can retrain my muscle memory, if necessary, to simply Backspace an added line away, but I’m hopeful that there may be a setting that I haven’t been able to find that would address this.
Yes, this is a known issue on account of the spaghetti that is required to make the text engine’s lists compatible with the Mac version’s. It requires some low level adjustments to the text engine library itself, which is never a good idea—and symptoms such as this are part of why. Integration with the rest of the engine can break or stop working the way they should, updates have to be manually patched, etc. But the alternative is three different universes of lists between iOS, Mac and PC (well, iOS is its own mess when it comes to lists as it doesn’t even support them at all).
The cursor does not move so far away for me, for some reason. It jumps to the end of the list, or the beginning of the next line. I tried a few different things, but nothing seemed to change that behaviour. I’m not sure what can be done to improve it for you.
As an aside, I understand it’s not for everyone, as many grew up on text editor based lists, but it’s worth reiterating that Scrivener is a native outliner. It is mean to be used as such, and items in the binder are not meant to be thought of solely as “files”. They are meant to be outline items, and the binder is lists of them, if you will. Here is a compendium of links to discussions and thoughts on the matter. I outline extensively as a way of thinking out loud, and I would never think to use the list tool in a text editor for that. It’s just too limiting and “hidden” (never mind the long, long lists of bugs on all platforms, most of which cannot ever be fixed by us).
Thank you for your reply
I’d seen other discussions about list issues, so I figured it was a long shot. I suppose mine does move to the end of the list, it just happens to be a long list.
This story is a shorter one, and my first in Scrivener, so I found it more straightforward to simply make my outline in text form; it was more important to simply focus on getting the work done than to fiddle with technicalities or I would let that be a distraction. My initial look at outlining in Scrivener didn’t seem conducive to what worked well for me – the ability to move scenes so easily is great, but I’ve only ever had really rough outlines, making notes and sub-notes and sometimes write out a rough draft of lines or a scene as it comes to me. You encouraged me to look into it again, though, and I’ve seen a bit better as to how it can work in different ways and I’ll be checking it out - might even migrate my current list. My poor, poor, jump-to-the-end list
