Why does Dialogue Focus have a default of “None” when the intent is to focus on Direct Speech anyway?
Also, the popup doesn’t have immediate focus. The Title Bar is faded by default, so for instance, pressing the down arrow to change the option to Direct Speech does nothing until a user gives it focus.
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Dialogue focus is off by default, so it shows as “none” when you first open the window. This isn’t an option that simply checked/unchecked in the menu since there are additional options, so it makes sense enough to me that you have to actively turn on this feature and review the options.
The focus thing is consistent across Scrivener. Scrivener keeps the focus where it was when you entered the menu so that it can offer the correct menu options for where the focus is (you can’t access font formatting tools while the focus is in the binder, for example). If you click on other tools like project keywords, you’ll observe the same: a popup window that doesn’t have the focus.
There’s definitely an argument to be made that the focus should then shift to a popup window when opened, and I imagine that is possible to do, but I’m also not a programmer. It’s a refinement that could be submitted to the wish list.
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Yes, I agree—nothing happens unless a user is/clicks into the Editor.
I was attempting to assign an AutoHotKey that kept failing.
I settled for a Scrivener keyboard shortcut, which at least gets me to the popup. Clicking the Direct Speech button once then serves two purposes, it gives focus to the Dialogue Focus popup and fades the non-direct speech narrative.
As a user, I don’t wish for anything more.
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Yes, I think there may be some “remnant design” evident here, in the sense that the Mac text engine is capable of highlighting parts of speech as well, which we expose as options to the user (why not, it’s just sitting there). So this particular tool itself comes up in an off state since we can’t know yet which condition you brought it up for.
With only one option to choose from though, it might make more sense for it to just be on when you bring it up the first time (and track its settings persistently throughout the session).
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Well, I accept it is in its present state with a long-term assumed view that it will eventually be brought up to the Mac functionality, unless those are inherited from MacOS, and will not likely be made available by the Windows framework development tool.
In that case, yes, it’s a quirky tool that boils down to an on-off button function state, whereas other menu options are simply unavailable when the focus is in the wrong place, for example, if focus were on the Binder in this instance.
Yeah, like I say the cataloguing of countless words across however many supported languages is just something the Mac text engine provides to developers, and is outside of our resources to duplicate. We’d have to be pleasantly surprised by Qt, or a cheap/free third-party provider I suppose, for that to be in the cards. This has always been one of the few things we’ve stated would likely always be different between platforms.
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