version 0.9.6.0 preview #1 is available

[josip]

version 0.9.6.0 preview #1, October 14th 2009
---------------------------------------------

- added: Segment focus feature. Ability to show only a segment of the
current text and hide the rest. Good for longer & structured texts -
Will help you to focus on the part you are working on. No long
scrolls ... You can focus on different things using different
shortcuts:

F6: Hide all focus: if nothing is selected whole text will vanish and
you will start inserting text at the caret position.

F6: Block focus: if you select a block o text and hit F6, only
selected text will stay on the screen.

CTRL+F6: Paragraph focus: Hold CTRL when hitting F6 (or selecting
"Segment focus" from menu) and the current paragraph will stay in the
focus.

SHIFT+F6: Heading section focus: Hold ALT and you can work on the
current heading section (#, ## markup)

You can exit segment focus by hitting F6 again. Existing documents
will always open with segment focus off, even when last saved focused.

*Alternative usage*

You can use segment focus instead of partial count - start writing
with "Hide all focus" and word count will show only current session.

If you have a large repository text and you need to reference a part
of it often, focus on that part and you can easily access it later.

If you want to spell check only part of the doc. you can do it on a
segment focus.


*Feature status*

It works! I am really enthusiastic about this one. I used it a lot
last couple of days and it works great for me. I don't know how I
managed without it ;-) It has great potential. Report what you think.

Heading section focus works only with (#, ##) and not with (==, --)
markup.

I intend to add a "sentence focus" but can't cook the regular
expression that would work in most cases.

I am not completely satisfied with the current keyboard shortcuts
scheme (CTRL / ALT / SHIFT). Do you have better suggestion? How to
access different focus types? Alternative (not implemented): use only
F6 without modifier keys - put caret on section heading and hit F6,
put caret at the beginning of the paragraph and hit F6 ... What do you
think?

There is no visual reminder when in full screen. It may be confusing.
I intent to put it on the new "info bar" (when ready). Do you have
other suggestions? Do you have other suggestions? Something like
repository inverse colors?

I really need help with this one. It is of most importance that
segment focus feature works perfectly. And that it is easily used.

Please do not use this preview version for mission critical stuff.
Yet ...


- Changed (experimental): New text area corner markers. They are now
even more subtle and minimal. Also more logical. Upper markers are two
vertical lines denoting the width. Two horizontal lines at the bottom
are there to mark bottom margin.

[JB]

I began to use this feature. That's great :)

About Ctrl/Alt/Shift... For me, it would be better to have more ways
to select a part of text, and simply the F6 key alone to hide all but
the selection. For example, if I could have a simple way to select a
paragraph with one click, then the "focus on paragraph" would become
"focus on selection". Give me simple ways to select block of texts
(line*, paragraph, all paragraphs between two blank lines, etc), and I
will need nothing else than just the F6 key.

About the visual reminder : I agree the best thing to do is to add it
to the future info bar (but preferences should let me choose to
display it or not in this status bar).


(*) I know Shift + margin click select the line, but the margin is
very tiny, and the cursor does not reflect the fact we are over the
margin.

[Huskey]

- love the new F6 feature
- don't mind the Ctrl/Alt/Shift key strokes
- do you really need a visual reminder? I believe users of WM have an
adequate computer knowledge to know what a full screen looks like.

Many thanks.

[Kensai]

Now we're getting somewhere :)

Quick fix to make your hotkeys work better for this is to set F6 to do
Heading Section Focus, leave Ctrl+F6 as Paragraph Focus and then Shift
+F6 will be Hide All/Block Focus. This is to the most important
version of the function as a single keystroke. The other methods for
using it can require a double keystroke without be cumbersome, but I'm
already kinda tired of accidentally going into paragraph focus rather
than heading ;-p

One issue I've run into so far has to do with the text zoom level when
leaving focus mode. Sometimes, nothing happens, but usually it
shrinks to default, and sometimes does something wacky. Its not a
huge deal, but it can be a bit obnoxious to have to readjust that most
of the time.

Other than that, its working well for me. I like the behavior that
when you go into focus mode that the caret is dropped to the end of
the focused area. Get's you straight to work. Also finding that
moving scenes/chapters around is pretty amenable by going into heading
focus, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+X, then Jumping to the location I want to insert
it before and Ctrl+V. Not as slick as perhaps being able to drag and
drop with in the Jumps window or having that project management
interface we touched on before and being able to drag files
representing scenes/chapters around there, but lightyears away from
where we were before. Manually selecting blocks of text that can be
in excess of 7k words (yes, I wrote a chapter that's almost too long
to be a short story, so sue me) is not on the agenda. Select All when
only one chapter is available for selection is a method I can be
confident in, and, as we discussed before, I'm kind of a cheater, so
on my big rig when I'm kicking back while writing, I've got my Jumps
dialog up while WM is windowed to one side, so using it to navigate
and never closing it while being able to focus and move things around
with that method is alot happier than before.

So, where's that status bar? ;-p

Anyway, while I've got your ear, I've got a feature suggestion that
might make the app a touch more versatile, and would make my little
cheater's paradise more perfect. I was playing around with Notepad++,
and while its an interesting option requiring a bit of work up front
to get it sort of doing what we're looking for, the most interesting
thing it does (other than panes, which I much prefer Sublime Text for)
is what it calls PostIt mode (which they've keyed to F12). Basically
makes a chromeless, always on top version of itself in whatever
position and condition its currently in. Sure, when in fullscreen
already, all it does is dump any chrome you've left up (like document
tabs or status bar). Its most impressive when its windowed when you
go into PostIt mode, which leaves a borderless, unmoveable,
unresizeable black portal into your text floating over your screen.
This would give me a greater semblance of the whole "fullscreen" thing
while I'm cheating. Just something that I got kinda attached to the
first time I tried it, so I thought I'd ask.

WM is still at the top of this game, though it looks like Mr. Darkroom
has started up development again, both on his new Air version and on
the original dotNet version. Think you can take him? Just kidding ;-
p Nice to have people actively looking at this stuff now, though.
Thanks a lot.

Kensai

[josip]

I understand what you mean. Less key strokes to remember and "cleaner"
interface. But you would need to make two operations (select a block,
hit F6) to go into focus. Now you need just one.

> Give me simple ways to select block of texts
> (line*, paragraph, all paragraphs between two blank lines, etc), and I
> will need nothing else than just the F6 key.

Triple click on the paragraph selects it. It is not "one click"
though ;-)

> if I could have a simple way to select a paragraph with one click

i.

[josip]

Yes, it happens when going into focus and not a single character stays
on the screen. The same goes for repository - when empty, switching
back and forth will also reset zoom level. On my to-do list.

> One issue I've run into so far has to do with the text zoom level when
> leaving focus mode.  Sometimes, nothing happens, but usually it
> shrinks to default, and sometimes does something wacky.  Its not a
> huge deal, but it can be a bit obnoxious to have to readjust that most
> of the time.

It is coming. See the Jan Bilik's yesterdays post. Do you agree with
his suggestions?

> So, where's that status bar?  ;-p

i.

[JB]

> Triple click on the paragraph selects it. It is not "one click"
> though ;-)

Damned ! You know what ? I had forgotten it because it is not listed
in the help card :)

> > if I could have a simple way to select a paragraph with one click

Thus, I have all I need now. Thanks !

[josip]

I am posting the letter from German novelist Richard Norden regarding
new Segment focus feature. Some interesting insights ...
---

Hello Iztok,

I downloaded the new preview this morning and spent a few hours trying
out the new "segment focus" feature. It works really great and will be
a perfect enhancement for WriteMonkey. At the moment I see two primary
uses for it:

1) When writing my first draft I can blind out everything but the
scene I'm currently working on. The positive side effect is that the
wordcount now shows me, how long my scene currently is. Very useful if
you work from a rigid outline like I do most of the time.

2) When revising my manuscript I can focus on polishing one paragraph
at a time. When a MRU (motivation-reaction-unit) consists of two
paragraphs, I just highlight both paragraphs and press F6.CTRL+F6
works perfectly for me to select a single paragraph, but I'd like an
improvement for the second case (two or more paragraphs form a single
MRU):

CTRL+F6 should select every complete paragraph, from which at least
one character is currently highlighted. This would allow a kind of
'fuzzy highlighting': I could click somewhere in paragraph one and
pull the cursor to a random position in paragraph two, then select the
'segment focus' for both with CTRL+F6.

Focusing on a heading with SHIFT+F6 is useful, too. A invaluable
addition would be ALT+F6 to focus on the text between the last
bookmark (@@) and the next bookmark (or the end of the text, whatever
comes first). I use bookmarks to divide my manuscript into scenes
because they are not exported like headings. ALT+F6 would allow me to
select my current scene with two keystrokes - I'd love to see that in
the next preview for 0960. ;-))

In the release notes you mentioned a "sentence focus" you are
currently thinking about. I'm not sure if I get you right, but this
triggers a fascinating thought in me. While a "sentence focus" of the
same type like the "paragraph focus" would make (at least now) no real
sense to me, I could imagine another solution:

What if activating the "sentence focus" would show only two to three
sentences in two different colors? The current sentence at the cursor
position is shown in the normal font color, while the preceding
sentence (and the subsequent sentence, if the cursor is somewhere in
the middle of a text) are shown in a pale, unobtrusive and barely
readable color. This dim color could either be selected manually in
the options or calculated from the font color and background color. A
feature like this would be really useful because it would allow me to
concentrate on ONE sentence while still allowing me to see the last
(and next) sentence of my manuscript in a dim, unobtrusive color.

As soon as the cursor is moved to another sentence (or the current
sentence is completed) the focus should shift to the new sentence.

This 'sentence focus' could go hand in hand with a useful feature I'd
like to see in the upcoming new "info bar": Like many writers I
sometimes tend to write too long sentences, which impair the
readability of the manuscript. An option for the "info bar" could be
to show the wordcount of the current sentence (besides the 'normal'
wordcount) and to highlight it red when the length of the sentence
exceeds a value specified in the options.

What do you think about that?

Richard

[Patience]

Jan probably has defined more than I would ever need to use for the
Info Bar. One thing I wanted to point out is that the time and the
date should be considered separate things, so we could have one, both
or neither on the bar as we choose. As you've already mentioned, a
visual alert of "FOCUS" would be nice to have on there.

Let's see, just going down his list . . . file name and full path to
file should allow for one or the other or neither, the star for noting
modified but unsaved status, date and time as two separate items, the
configurable counts (could still use two partials; BTW, I've already
forgotten what the hotkey is for resetting the partial; maybe there
needs to be an extra card in the help that lists things like that,
especially ones that you can't go learn by going into the menus; I
think that would be very helpful to all of us), configurable timer and
visual alert, and focus mode indicator . . . cool. His list of how
the bar can be customized is fairly comprehensive, so if that's all
possible, it would all be fantastic to have.

As for the focus mode, I do have one thing in common with
Richard . . . I much prefer to use the bookmark string for marking
sections/scenes/chapters. I'm addicted to using ".." from the
hundreds of hours spent using Q10. So, if at all possible, it would
be great if we could have the focus use our bookmark string, or at
least allow us to change the heading string to what we, individually
like to work with, that would be great. Other than that, just switch
"heading focus" mode to straight F6 (moving "hide all/block focus" to
Shift+F6 and leaving "paragraph focus" to Ctrl+F6) so that the mode I
know I'll be using 90+% of the time will be using the single key
rather than a key combo, and I think it might be good to cook. I'm
already using the focus a good bit since I DLed 0.9.6.0 yesterday, but
I find that every time I want to go in to FOCUS, I'm taking a good,
long moment forming the unfamiliar combinations.

Anyway, this is already starting to feel like a different class of
software, and I've not hit any bugs or errors so far, so this is
absolutely fantastic.

Kensai

[Kensai]

Huh . . . looks like that last person to sign into Google on this
machine was my mother, hence the moniker "Patience" above. I hadn't
realized she'd used the lappy to check her email the last time she was
over. Oops. Patience = Kensai, at least this once.

Kensai

[Karl]

Hi folks,

the focus feature is great.

As for the keyboard shortcut to fire it up, I throw the following
thought
into the discussion (Beware it's kind of blasmphemous):

Can you touchtype the Function-Keys? Without looking?

Not me. And I even don't want to learn it.

So what if there were no need for the F-Keys?
If you could fire all those nice features from the normal keys?
And not even the need for the Ctrl-Key?

How could this be done?
Well, for example a new modifier key could be defined. A modifier key
that would be very easy to use because there is always a finger on it
or better yet two?

Sure, the space bar. With the space bar as a modifier key you could
use Ctrl + A, Ctrl + X,
Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V instantly with one hand. No need to stretch the
right pinky into wonderland.

The price? The ability to insert endless spaces while the space bar is
pressed would be gone.
I'd sacrifice it.

Hell, this could be done system wide via autohotkey.

What do you think?

Karl

[josip]

This is actually a very good idea. Hmmm, but one would need to use
shortcut quickly to avoid space to fire. i.

[Karl]

Hi folks,

first tests with an autohotkey script show that this is awesome.

It takes a bit of training for space release accuracy, i.e. if
you start typing the next word and the space bar is not yet fully
released you trigger an unwanted shortcut.

> Hmmm, but one would need to use
> shortcut quickly to avoid space to fire. i.

Autohotkey takes care of this automatically. If you remap
a key and assign more "functions" the key fires on release.
So it can be done.

Here is the simple test code for autohotkey:

/* Comment:
Hotkey Symbols:
^ = Strg
! = Alt
+ = Shift
# = Win
< to use only the left key
> to use only the right key
; comment (one line)

For example:
Right-Ctrl-p would be written >^pd
Ctrl-Alt-x would be written ^!x
*/

; System wide functions
Space:: ; this command produces a space
SendInput {Space}
return

Space & a:: ; this sends Ctrl + A if you hit Space + A
SendInput ^a
return

Space & x:: ; cut, Space + X sends Ctrl + X
SendInput ^x
return

Space & c:: ; copy
SendInput ^c
return

Space & v:: ; paste
SendInput ^v
return

; writemonkey functions

Space & m:: ; move to repository
SendInput ^m
return

Space & r:: ; toggle repository
SendInput !r
return

Space & j:: ; toggle Jumps
SendInput !j
return

; End of code

You can download autohotkey here (free, awesome, installable and
portable version) http://www.autohotkey.com/

After installation, just copy the code above in a new txt file, save
and change the .txt to .ahk

Happy testing

Karl

PS: Warning: If you like such hacks you will fall in love with ahk.

[josip]

Very interesting. I tried this solution and works very well. Great for
all who want to remap command keys in wm (or any other programs).
Thanks to Karl.
i.

[The World Emperor]

Hi,

I still love this software, but I use it in a no thrills way: full
screen with 'nearly' everything off. So feedback from my is going to
be brief.

The only thrill I still love is the old typewriter sound. I feel a
little foolish saying that, but I guess as you put it in there you
must like it too. I have a request: if you want to make a happy user
even more happy would it be possible to have the tab key make a noise
also?

Regards

s

[Mahmud]

I'm playing around with the new focus feature and I like being allowed
to focus on the paragraph or section I'm working on. But it messes up
something else. I really like writing in a typewriter scrolling mode,
where your eyes are on the same vertical place on the screen.
WriteMonkey doesn't have an option for typewriter scrolling but if I
bump up the bottom margin I can almost have the feature (after writing
down to that level of course). If I'm working on a short paragraph,
the focus feature puts me up on the screen again.

I've tried out nearly all the distraction free editors in Windows and
Linux and WriteMonkey is one of my favorites. But there's a couple of
features in other programs that I crave. One is the typewriter scroll
feature -- Momentum Writer has it. The other is something like the
page view in full screen mode in OpenOffice or even MS Word, where
there's a different background color behind the 'page' where you're
writing. The only distaction free editor that has that is the Linux
program called PyRoom. When I'm on my Linux laptop, I find myself
using that program more than any others.

If WriteMonkey had these two features, I would even try to make it run
on my Linux laptop.

But this is, in the main, a great program. Really appreciate all the
effort that's gone into it.