I want to add to this. I frequently have times where the document jumps to the top of the page. It happens most frequently when I have a split pane and resize the panes by dragging the bar dividing them.
In addition resizing the full Scrivener window will cause this to happen.
There are also times, but not always, where I do a cut and paste that goes outside of the open pane view. For example, I cut a piece of text, scroll up or down out of the visible pane to where I want to paste and on pasting, the view and cursor jumps to the top of the document.
It never loses any text but it’s annoying to have to scroll back through the document to where you were originally working.
I should add that I’m running Windows 3.1.4.0 on Windows 11 Home Edition
I get that too when I undo using ctrl-z, but only on my Windows 10 tablet. Not on my “real” computer.
I mention “using ctrl-z” because I am not using the menus, but rather – since I am on a tablet, using a touch screen – a touch-keyboard (ComfortKeys) in which I’ve programmed a set of macros.
This usually happens (if not every time – I’ll pay closer attention) after such a macro did one thing in a couple of steps.
I also noticed (and that is what makes it not a problem to me) that when that multi-steps operation is completely reverted, no matter how jumpy the screen was as I was repeatedly hitting my undo macro, I lend exactly where the operation first took place.
If that makes sense: I know when to stop undoing whatever I’ve just done, when I no longer end up at a random place, the top or the bottom of the document.
If someone has another condition let me know, but I think at this point we’ve narrowed it down to primarily the use of styles. Apply a style and then undo it, and you’ll be teleported to the top of the document.
I don’t believe I’ve seen a case where pasting does this, and do not see anything obvious with a few tests. We’d need more data to see that one I think.
There are case with splitting and cursor placement in the view, but I’ve not see the cursor actually move, just end up out of view so you have to hit Ctrl+J to locate it. Some of these cases really don’t have a good solution either—like if you change the split divider so that word wrap radically changes, trying to maintain any kind of cursor position or even pinning a text line somewhere while doing so would be resource heavy and difficult to calculate. Far more efficient to just let the text engine wrap as it will and leave it to us to exert what we consider a priority to be in view.
@FJAG : It never loses any text but it’s annoying to have to scroll back through the document to where you were originally working.
So yeah, in cases where the cursor isn’t moving, do keep that Ctrl+J shortcut in mind (it relates to Edit ▸ Find ▸ Jump to Selection in the menus). It is terribly useful for all kinds of things, some of which we do ourselves, such as scrolling up briefly to check something and then jumping back without losing our selection or cursor position with left/right arrow keys being hit.
A couple of points. I mostly use “No Style” for text and only one heading style and a quote style. I’ve never had a problem with changing styles and back again.
You are right, the cursor does not move it just jumps to the top of the text in the pane and hitting Ctrl+J brings me back to where I was.
An observation on that. I very often work in two panes; one the text I’m actually writing and editing and the second at reference material in other parts of the same text document - so that the cursor is only active in the active pane. When I use Ctrl+J it does return me to where the cursor was. However, since both panes jump, once I’ve used Ctrl+J in one pane it doesn’t work a second tome when I switch panes. It only works once in the document which, I presume, is only to be expected.
As an experiment I had two different documents open and on resizing the window, only the active pane jumped while the inactive one simply remained where it was while readjusting the text.
In my experience that has never happened either. I of course use “no style” most of all, but I use quite a lot of character styles and a few paragraph styles here and there. My issue is when Undo crosses paths when any kind of style adjustment, and that is it. You can type in a word, select it and set it to “Emphasis” style, then type in two words. If you press Undo the typing is undone fine, but if you press it again it undoes the style application and jumps to the top of the editor with the cursor (most annoyingly!).
So since you’re describing cases where the cursor does not move, this is probably all different.
When I use Ctrl+J it does return me to where the cursor was. However, since both panes jump, once I’ve used Ctrl+J in one pane it doesn’t work a second tome when I switch panes. It only works once in the document which, I presume, is only to be expected.
It is a special case when you have the cursor in two different places of the same document in multiple splits, but it should be working in your favour here. I haven’t seen that happen myself. If I type “LEFT SPLIT” in the left split in an inline annotation so it easy to spot, and likewise “RIGHT SPLIT” in the other split in a difference place of the same document, the scroll both away from where the cursor is, then change the split size so the text wraps a lot, then press Ctrl+J in each, I jump straight to the left and right split markers I created, as it should.
