[TW5] Is there a template or CSS to expand editing space

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Mark S.

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Apr 15, 2015, 10:48:57 AM4/15/15
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The one thing that makes me uncomfortable with TW5 is the tiny amount of space you have in which to write. It reminds me of that poster you used to see in offices where you are invited to note any complaints and admonished to "write legibly" -- and then given a space the size of a postage stamp.

Most information managers work more like a tree, and when you click to edit you get half the available window space or more in which to write. I understand that TW doesn't follow the tree model, but it could still provide more editing space.

Ideally, when you write in TW, the edit box would not be constrained to the same size as the original tiddler. Instead it would expand to give you as much space as possible. A pop-up window would be good too.

Has anyone written an expanded edit template, or have any suggestions for CSS that could be used to expand the writing area?

Thanks!
Mark

Stephen Kimmel

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Apr 15, 2015, 12:03:22 PM4/15/15
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If you click the "Hide Preview" button, you get an editing space the width of the tiddler. If the entire wiki has a lot of blank space to the right side, you can change the settings using the Control Panel (gear icon) - Appearance - Theme Tweaks and then adjust the Story Right, Story Width and Tiddler Width to use the entire screen. With some adjustments you should be able to get an editing area more than half the width of your screen.

Version 5.1.8 which is in prerelease form has the option of making even the side-bar disappear which will leave you with the entire width of the screen or your editing area.

Mark S.

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Apr 15, 2015, 6:08:52 PM4/15/15
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I guess I can wait for 5.1.8 then ;-)

Although you can adjust some things in Tweaks, you have to put them back if you're transferring or viewing your TW on different platforms. I've searched the forum, but haven't found where you can add your own adjusted theme to the list of themes -- saw others had the same question, but they just got directed to sites explaining how to specify your own stylesheet which isn't quite the same thing.

Another thing that seems strange to me is that when you increase the space for the tiddler page, the extra space gets donated to the sidebar instead of to the story river. The extra space is usually more needed in the river than in the sidebar.

Thanks!
Mark

Casey Gray

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Apr 15, 2015, 6:37:28 PM4/15/15
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I've been looking into this as well.

I'd like to be able to set it to dynamically detect the view size and then give me ~75% tiddler/river and  ~25% sidebar area. I know I can hard set the sizes, but doing that felt clunky and like it wasn't the best method to handle that.

I think part of the issue is that I may not fully understand what the terms mean in TiddlyWiki, so I'm not resizing something the way that I think it should be.

Jeremy Ruston

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Apr 17, 2015, 9:01:36 AM4/17/15
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> Version 5.1.8 which is in prerelease form has the option of making even the side-bar disappear which will leave you with the entire width of the screen or your editing area.

The ability to hide the sidebar isn't new in 5.1.8; it has been in TiddlyWiki for quite a while. Use the chevron icon at the top right.

Personally, I tend to hide the sidebar when I'm writing but keep it open when I'm refactoring or reading.

Anyhow, it would definitely be useful to have more layout options. Things like a percentage split between the sidebar and the body, or a TWC-style layout with a fixed sidebar and a fluid story river, are pretty straightforward to make as switchable themes.

Best wishes

Jeremy.





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Mark S.

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Apr 17, 2015, 1:32:42 PM4/17/15
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On Friday, April 17, 2015 at 6:01:36 AM UTC-7, Jeremy Ruston wrote:
The ability to hide the sidebar isn't new in 5.1.8; it has been in TiddlyWiki for quite a while. Use the chevron icon at the top right.


I assumed that Casey meant that the sidebar would disappear automatically when you went to edit in 5.1.8. I don't see any option like that down in the theme tweaks.

Thanks,
Mark

Jed Carty

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Apr 17, 2015, 1:56:10 PM4/17/15
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You could modify the edit tiddler and save/store tiddler button to hide the sidebar.

Edit the tiddler called $:/core/ui/Buttons/edit and put the line <$action-setfield $tiddler="$:/state/sidebar" $field='text' $value="no"/> right before the line '</$button>' in $:/core/ui/Buttons/edit
Then, in the tiddler $:/core/ui/Buttons/save put the line <$action-setfield $tiddler="$:/state/sidebar" $field='text' $value="yes"/> right before the line '</$button>' in $:/core/ui/Buttons/save

This should have all of the warnings that go with editing shadow tiddlers and upgrading, but I doubt that those two buttons will break anything in the future.

Casey Gray

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Apr 17, 2015, 8:03:46 PM4/17/15
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Not that, I just wanted to find a better way to utilize the space, I don't think that the sidebar needs 40% of the screen for my personal wiki. I just wanted to edit the default theme to make tiddlers wider.

Rustem

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May 1, 2015, 1:12:29 PM5/1/15
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Did anybody manage to achieve this layout? Not necessarily as a switchable theme, just a piece of CSS would be great!


On Friday, April 17, 2015 at 6:01:36 AM UTC-7, Jeremy Ruston wrote:
Things like a ... layout with a fixed sidebar and a fluid story river, are pretty straightforward to make as switchable themes.

Thanks.
--R.

Mark S.

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May 2, 2015, 2:35:27 PM5/2/15
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I second this! What CSS will achieve this? If you are constantly switching platforms, it's the tiddler that you want to stretch/shrink -- not the sidebar.

Thanks!
Mark

Jeremy Ruston

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May 4, 2015, 2:42:07 PM5/4/15
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I've just posted a prerelease of 5.1.9 that addresses the original issue by introducing a new mode where the sidebar has a configurable fixed width and the story river expands to fill the remaining space:


Best wishes

Jeremy.


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