Not sure if any of these have been brought up. I use the scratch pad constantly and love it. Primarily I’m using it when working in other programs, so that is where these issues come up.
the vertical scroll arrows don’t work, which makes it hard to make more minor adjustments moving up and down the file.
when I shrink the window, what the window displays doesn’t remain at the cursor point. Not huge.
there is no minimize button. I often need to get the pad out of the way, because it often blocks scroll bars or pieces of text, whatever, in other programs. I would like to be able to minimize the pad and then have it readily available on the dock to reactivate it.
This is a bug which I had never noticed. Thanks for bringing to my attention - fixed for 1.04.
This is the same in all text views, unfortunately. “Blame nat me.”
The scratch pad is a utility panel (utility panels have the thin title bar), and utility panels cannot have working minimise buttons. This is a limitation imposed by Apple, I’m afraid. Even if I switch on the flag that should allow the panel to be minimised, it won’t work because Apple have decreed that such panels cannot ever by minimised. The alternative is having a big thick title bar, which would be somewhat out of keeping with the panel. Besides which, the whole raison d’etre of the scratch pad is that it is there with you at all times. If you don’t want it any more, just close it. And if you decide that you do want it after all and don’t want to switch back to Scrivener, just ctrl-click on the Scrivener icon in the dock and select “Scratch Pad” from the menu that appears to bring up the scratch pad over whatever app you are working on.
I may be wrong about their implementation, but in Photoshop, for instance (or even pages), they have what appear to be utility panels and implement a custom “minimize” function, rather than using the standard button.
Rather than shipping the window to siberia (the dock), it just collapses the content portion. Would this be an acceptable compromise?
(I had never noticed the scratch pad before… Thanks for this post, as it looks useful!)
Thanks, Keith, for the explanation regarding utility panels. I do already do what you suggest–close the window then reopen via the Scr. dock icon. It would be just a bit easier to have it minimize or have a keyboard shortcut to quickly remove it and then make it reappear when needed, etc., but I understand it’s not feasible. Glad to have helped in pointing out the bug.
Fletcher, not sure exactly what you refer to. It sounds like what used to be called ‘windowshade’ which, checking in on MacUpdate, I see it still is! You double click on the window title bar and it collapses the window so that only the title bar is visible. Is that what you mean? I have my system prefs set to minimize when double clicking on the bar, but it doesn’t work with the pad, which of course it wouldn’t if it won’t minimize.
Something like this would be great. Perhaps I’ll try the current version of Windowshade to see if it works with the pad. ‘Stickies’ has this capability. Very handy for getting windows out of the way and having them hang around to quickly reactivate.
If nothing else, however, I can live with closing it and reactivating it via the icon. It is a bit awkward especially since I’m doing it constantly when moving back and forth between programs or I have to move the pad around, etc. That’s what comes from having a puny 12" screen. But since I don’t plan to replace my iBook until I absolutely have to, I’ll have to live with it if Windowshade doesn’t work.
I wasn’t referring to windowshade, though I suppose that could be an option. Many applications have utility windows, inspectors, or whatever that rely on a triangle toggle button to minimize them, rather than the title bar minimize button that regular windows get for free from Cocoa. This would require some programming on Keith’s part, but could enable the behavior of making the scratch pad smaller; it would NOT minimize it to the dock, however.
Aside from the bug fix, there will be no changes to the scratch pad in upcoming versions, I’m afraid. It’s already eaten up a fair bit of development time over the past couple of versions, and it is currently pretty cool as it is, your minor niggles aside.
Honestly, only two releases ago, you didn’t even have a scratch pad. And I implemented one. Because you, and several other users, wanted one. No matter what I do, someone will complain that it is not enough. Collapsible windows would entail me writing my own collapsible window from scratch.
Someone here mentioned earlier a nice little app called xPad. It’s a great way to jot down notes or rough drafts on all sorts of topics, categorize them with color labels, and then export as either text or rich text. It behaves like a regular app, so you may minimize it to the Dock. And best of all, it’s FREE. To download: getxpad.com/
I find I use the cornering “scoot” buttons to shoot the scratch pad out of harm’s way when I need to. Works for my purposes anyway.
–Greg
P.S. If and when you are looking at the scratch pad again, Keith, here’s a thought: perhaps a panel button or modifier-key-plus-rollover could initiate a “timed dismissal” of the panel. Might be a doable and effective solution for Alexandria’s want.
Hi Keith. Hmmm, not sure why my comments warranted this seemingly exasperated response. I believe I said while it was a ‘niggle,’ I was happy to have the scratch pad and thanked you for it. I asked–and I think it is quite reasonable to ask for something to see if it can be done–you said no, issue over.
Thanks, Will. I already have some much-used little programs that allow me to jot notes and the like–sidenote, iClip, WriteRoom. Using a little program called Afloat I can make almost any window float and many of them are able to be minimized. So I often do use them.
Ultimately, however, when it’s relevant to a Scr. project, it’s much easier to use the scratch pad and have things go directly into Scr. Like I said (here and elsewhere), I LOVE THE SCRATCH PAD and am quite grateful to have it.
If you don’t want it any more, just close it. And if you decide that you do want it after all and don’t want to switch back to Scrivener, just ctrl-click on the Scrivener icon in the dock and select “Scratch Pad” from the menu that appears to bring up the scratch pad over whatever app you are working on.