In this request for a small feature, I am asking for a change in the basic way that text windows work in both Windows and Mac ( I don’t know about Unix,). Here’s how to see the problem: Open a text window with a lot of text. Use the Page Down key to scroll down several screenfuls. Now imagine that you are seeing almost exactly the data you want onscreen, but you’d like to move the window up a line or two. Press the up or down arrow. And BOOM!
The text window reverts to where a cursor was (the very beginning of the text) and the arrow affects the window from there. That’s not what ANYONE wants to see.
Here’s one way to fix the problem: In a text window, whenever a user action affects a cursor that is offscreen, move the cursor to the middle of the window before affecting it. Alternatively, make sure that scrolling also moves the text cursor.
This is a very small change, and we users will LOVE YOU for it.
Forgive me, but you are making assumptions about what other people want based on your own preferences. Theirs may be very different. And on a practical level, I just click somewhere in the middle of text window before I press an arrow key. It works very well.
Whew! I was starting to think I was wrong… again. I personally like the ability to scroll, verify what I wrote previously, realize I’m an idiot, then just hit delete to remove things from the location I was just typing before scrolling. If it could be an option, like typewriter mode, then I think it would be something I could get behind.
I would also point out that other editors behave the same as Scriv in this regard (Pages, Text Edit) so this may be a UI design spec…
I like my cursor where I put it, not where the software decides. I often scroll up and down my text for a reference but then I can quickly go back to the point where I was writing by just start typing. I don’t want to lose my focus point every time I scroll. Besides, spending development time on features like this is pointless when there are more important issues at present.
I’m fascinated to see that people like the way the scroll versus cursor behavior now works, and I
understand the value as it was explained above. Please consider making my request an option (and not the default). There are still many people who would like it.
In order to have an option, it will be necessary to name it. I suggest:
Bind Cursor to Scrolling
I agree that being able to look around and not lose your place is a good thing.
But maybe there should be a key command available for bringing the insertion point to heel, so to speak. Clicking in the text is one way, but is mouse-centric. The following seem a pretty natural pair of navigational functions to have:
Scroll to insertion point
Bring insertion point to heel
Having (2) would enable the OP to make a custom combo shortcut to do the thing they wanted. Or to just use the key for (2) in tandem with the arrow commands as they see fit.
To cut to the chase: as is often the case on the Mac, the Option key makes things work a little differently, when you add it to your key or shortcuts. ⌥PgUp and ⌥PgDn cause view scrolling to be cursor locked, just like on a PC.
To clarify what is going on, the unmodified behaviour you are describing is entirely a Mac thing. It may be that if you come from Windows (or maybe Microsoft Office stuff works this way on a Mac despite the standard) that you’d be accustomed to the PgUp/PgDn keys moving the cursor—but Macs have never worked that way. PgUp/PgDn/Home/End have, for as long as I’ve been using them anyway (System 7.6 or so), been synonymous with moving the scrollbar, which also does not move the cursor. They are tools for keyboard users to manipulate the scrollbar.
And yes, as Jaysen notes, the idea is: as with manual scrollbar usage with the mouse, it is way to review other areas of the document without losing your place. A simple ⌘J will jump you back to where you were (or dancing the arrow keys back and forth works too, in programs that lack the Jump to Selection comand).
If you want to actually move the cursor to the top or bottom of the view, as Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End would do on a PC, the shortcuts for that are ⌘↑ and ⌘↓ on a Mac. This is in keeping with the left and right arrow movements, where Command means: “move the cursor as far as it can go in that direction”.