Subject: normal mode wish list
From: Dennis Collins (dmccollins@attbi.com)
Date: Tue Dec 18 2001 - 02:51:58 CST
The following is my wish list for normal mode (not a criticism). I'm using
0.9.6 on win32.
In Microsoft Word (and StarOffice Text Processor 6.0 beta) the sole purpose
of normal mode is to input and polish text. To that end all page formatting
is hidden as are any graphics and any headers or footers. All that is
visible is text and it is wrapped to the window size whether that size is
larger or smaller than the page size (the paragraph is wrapped as it is in
page formatting, not line wrapped as in a plane text processor like MS
notepad). The left margin (the area between the window edge and the first
character on the line) is only about 4 characters wide as is the right (4
characters to the left of the vertical scroll bar). This allows the user to
see all of the text regardless of the window width and it maximizes the
amount of visible text without paging or scrolling. This facilitates the
user's focus on the task of inputting and polishing text (character
formatting and some paragraph formatting remain visible fonts, italics,
bold, underline, font color, background color, indents,
left/right/center/justification, line spacing, superscript, subscript and
so forth).
Thus: reduce margins to absolute minimum (2 or 3 characters at most)
wrap paragraphs to the window not the page (or make it optional)
hide page formatting, graphics, headers and footers
If all of this is already planned then all the better. My thanks to the
programmers and I look forward to each new release.
Dennis Collins
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