Using my virtual keyboard as a trackpad is a bit complicated. The cursor doesn’t move as smoothly as it should, jumping around or making my doc scroll.
Part two of that same issue, I think, is that it’s harder to place the cursor with my finger than I’m used to.
Btw, 800 (edit: 1800) words so far on the new iOS app. Lovely work. Bravo.
Note. iPad Air 2
Edit: this is likely a zoom issue. I tend to work at greater than 100, or 125 default, percent. Sorry, I like my text big.
Do you have typewriter scrolling mode enabled? There is a known bug in iOS that causes scrolling to jump to far when pressing and holding to scroll with the magnifying glass if typewriter scrolling is enabled. This is actually a bug in iOS triggered by having a margin at the top or bottom of a text area, and in typewriter scrolling we need a large margin. I have reported the issue to Apple. If you don’t have typewriter scrolling enabled, though, it is a separate issue, although scrolling is all handled by Apple’s code.
Thanks and all the best,
Keith
I’ll kick off typewriter and test it again.
So you’re aware, this is a lovely app to work with. I’ve been a scrivener user for quite a few years now, and this iOS app is the perfect complement. Again, Bravo.
Thank you!
I’m also getting some odd scrolling behavior (iPad Air 2, iOS 9.3.3)
The highlighting of the next-to-be-added line flickers on and off several times before the line is added to the selection.
Not getting this behavior with other iOS text apps on the same iPad.
I love the extra-large blue selection dots though, and the nice thick cursor. And all the mission-critical stuff (stability, sync, workflow, etc.) has been excellent for me so far. Amazing for a 1.0 release of software this elaborate. Bravo!
The selection behaviour is all determined by Apple’s code - there’s no access to the drag-select code for third-party developers, so the flickering must be coming from Apple’s code, I’m afraid. Not many apps use rich text, and only a few use Apple’s text system rather than WebKit, so this might be why you’re not seeing it in other apps. I suppose it could also be triggered by scaling, given that Scrivener allows you to scale up the text, though (which, as you note, also sales up the cursor and selection).
Many thanks for the kind words!
All the best,
Keith
An update to my issue, above: Typewriter writing off makes it much better. Keeping the zoom lower helps too. At lower (regular) zoom ranges, it’s all normal. It’s so quick to zoom in and out, it’s really a very small concern for me.
Another 2k words today (that’s about my limit). Lovely app!
iOS-Bug?
Here is a wild guess:
What if you switched off page scrolling temporarily in the code while the virtual keyboard has popped up to check the following:
Somehow this looks to me as if two different scrolling methods add up in speed — magnifying-glass and normal page scrolling. Or cause conflicts.
Would a thing like that be possible?
If this is an iOS issue, that’s a nuisance! How dare they taint this otherwise fantastic app?!
The virtual keyboard has nothing to do with it. It’s caused by drag-scrolling in a view (where you hold down and scroll with the magnifying glass). When typewriter scrolling is turned on, Scrivener adds a large margin to the bottom of the text (otherwise typewriter scrolling wouldn’t work at the bottom of the text). The bug is that when there is a margin at the top or bottom, it sends drag-scrolling crazy. My guess is that Apple isn’t offsetting for the margin in the scroll code. All the drag-scroll code is a black box, though, so there’s no way for me to get into it to change it. I’ve reported the bug to Apple and send them a sample Xcode project (i.e. code for a simple test app) so that they can reproduce the bug. It’s incredibly easy to reproduce just by creating an Apple text view ind adding a margin with no other code.
All the best,
Keith
So that’s why using the select-tool is kinda hellish as well when trying to lasso in a longer portion of text – because here we have drag-n-scroll again, right?
This notorious little issue!
I’ll be writing my pages on the iPad and tackle major text changes on my Macbook then.
I should really CURSE out loud, but I’ll do it in German, though.
Verdammter Mist!
At least thanks to your efforts my mobility as a writer has increased. Scrivener on an iPad! Who would have thought!
If you use an external keyboard, you can use Shift-Arrow key combinations as usual to select. I too find highlighting without an external keyboard difficult, partly because of my essential tremor and clumsy fingers/hands, but I get there in the end.
Mark
This also came up in beta testing. Another thing that helps is turning off the extra keyboard row especially when using split screen multitasking.
Andrusch - the problem should only be there when you have typewriter scrolling mode turned on. There shouldn’t be a problem otherwise.
All the best,
Keith
True.
The selection process is cumbersome nonetheless. I know it is not your fault, of course. Too bad it’s all hidden in a black box. It is the scrolling speed that kills the ergonomics, just like with the placement of the text cursor using the magnifying tool. There should be way more inertia before initiating any acceleration in scrolling while dragging. Sometimes you have to reinvent your own functionality, because there is too much inertia … at Apple. I hope they will listen to you!
I think you guys are forgetting that you have some very capable Select and Drag keys in one of the extra keyset phases available above the virtual keyboard.
With these, you can be accurate and vwry fast, even when the Apple lovely bug Keith mentions is driving the pointing behavior mad.
Such a rich, rich application, so many needful things are right there once you notice them, and every one of them done right.
I recommend the Tutorial, maybe especially for older hands. There’s a lot of important information hiding in plain sight there. I skipped it also on the first pass, but this was a decidedly bad move.
C.
We are not “forgetting” anything, we’ll use all the features. Common phenomenon: When an app is THAT good, you want it to be perfect. Why? Because you see a chance of simplifying the writing process - using the iPad as your only tool. I type faster on the virtual keyboard. So no “old hand”- syndrome here. Wanting to manually select the text is a individual preference, of course.
If parts of the apps that you work with react slower than yourself or in an un-ergonomic manner, you can try to adapt to that - which is frustrating. Or you invest a lot of time and money to come up with better solutions, which at this stage is too much to ask for. Personally, I’d be willing to pay monthly for this app, if it replaced my Macbook as a writing tool completely. Version 1 is just out of the oven and here I am with outrageous demands. Scrivener is so low priced and so incredible! And yet it’s a good thing to make the developers feel the passion of the users!
Andrusch, yes and yes 
– I get your points too.
I would remind this is 1.0.0, but you in turn got that also.
User passion can seem a bit wild, when you know the calmed practice of wide-attention depth central in getting to many actual solutions. Something about ‘patience, Grasshopper’ and its rewards in learning, if you were ever fond of the excellent Kung Fu television presentation. The most truth of the American west in any cowboy era artistry. And of certain aspects of Asia also, as much as Americans could take, and maybe Chinese too.
Maybe I digress; maybe not so much. But anyway, the Scrivener iOS capabilities I mention will get you through, and are one of the dances for painterly hands also; no interruptions for always tricky even if best Apple pointing – and until even more ‘perfection’ can be achieved, if Apple is helpful instead of,the closed to outside imagination and insight box this time.
They have clearly been losing it, for all their power, and for a time; I think admitting to others’ truths could most possibly help with that.
And just so here…Good Morning…hoping I got all the iPad-isms out…
Clive