Beginner help and Usability request

[Reza Ghorbani]

Hello all,

I'm a new TW user and this would be my first post here , being a beginner i got stuck on some things that i have not been able to sort out even after searching around so this is why i post this. I also have a few improvements i like to bring up since i really like the idea behind this project and would like it to be even better :-)

First to my questions:
1) i'm trying to add a picture into my articles in a was that you can see a mini version of it in the article but when you click on the image it should open in full size on top of the article (almost like hovering on top of everything). I should be able to close it either by pressing an X on a corner or just click anywhere outside of the image. I see this on many pages over the internet but i have not been able to create this on TW. Is this possible to achieve?

2) I have tested to drag&drop pictures into TW (before i put the images in a folder called img where i had my TW.html). I can see images are stored in something called $:/Import, but where is this exactly? i cant find a way to actually find the files that get imported?
2.1 If i click on and imported image file that i have in my tiddler -->[[iTunes_Settings.png]] it opens as a separate tiddler below, its here i would want the picture to hover on top of my existing tiddler, basically what i asked in question 1. Can this be done? appreciate some help on this.

3) Spaces are a hassle in tiddlers (for me anyway), specially row brakes, now i have to do allot of testing with using """ and extra returns just to get the tiddler to look OK. Why is it so hard to get this right?
i want the tiddler to be as easy to do as what i'm doing here on this post. A row break should be a row break, not being forced to do allot of experimenting to get it right? Even the preview is not showing the exact result, i have to save before i actually find out that the text dont look good :( adding images seems to be problematic here so i use dropbox links i guess).
is this something you guys are looking to fix in future versions?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33591942/tw1.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33591942/tw2.png

Improvement:
4) Continuing with improvement, just as in this post i have access to the basic tools on the menu, liks Bold, Numbered list, insert image, text size and things that are mostly used, would it not be possible to add these things in TW just as they are available here when posting a thread?
This would make the TW so much more approachable and user friendly. Any thoughts or plans on this?

Sorry if my post tends to get negative on the end but i do love TW and want it to evolve and improve , its a great utility so keep up the great work!

[PMario]

On Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 1:14:23 PM UTC+2, Reza Ghorbani wrote:

I'm a new TW user and this would be my first post here , being a beginner i got stuck on some things that i have not been able to sort out even after searching around so this is why i post this. I also have a few improvements i like to bring up since i really like the idea behind this project and would like it to be even better :-)

Hi, Welcome to the club. 

 

First to my questions:
1) i'm trying to add a picture into my articles in a was that you can see a mini version of it in the article but when you click on the image it should open in full size on top of the article (almost like hovering on top of everything). I should be able to close it either by pressing an X on a corner or just click anywhere outside of the image. I see this on many pages over the internet but i have not been able to create this on TW. Is this possible to achieve?

For the exact behaviour you describe, you'd need a plugin. Other sites use libraries to achieve this functionality. The same is valid for TW.

There is the possibility to use TW built in modal dialog.

eg: if you copy this into an new tiddler at tiddlywiki.com you can see what I mean.

<$button message="tm-modal" param="Motovun Jack.jpg">
[img width="100" [Motovun Jack.jpg]]
</$button>

There is a nice thread here in the group: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/tiddlywiki/eJoZu8G7fng/AdE2KBKlI7AJ
Which gives you some more info.

I did attach a json file, that you can import to your TW. It should get you started with the first version described in the link.
If you go on reading, there is more info how to improve it.

2) I have tested to drag&drop pictures into TW (before i put the images in a folder called img where i had my TW.html). I can see images are stored in something called $:/Import, but where is this exactly? i cant find a way to actually find the files that get imported?

see: http://tiddlywiki.com/#ExternalImages:ExternalImages%20[[Images%20in%20WikiText]] for more info
 

2.1 If i click on and imported image file that i have in my tiddler -->[[iTunes_Settings.png]] it opens as a separate tiddler below, its here i would want the picture to hover on top of my existing tiddler, basically what i asked in question 1. Can this be done? appreciate some help on this.

see info above, browsers don't have this behaviour out of the box.
 

3) Spaces are a hassle in tiddlers (for me anyway), specially row brakes, now i have to do allot of testing with using """ and extra returns just to get the tiddler to look OK. Why is it so hard to get this right?

If you insert 2 line breaks TW creates a new paragraph. You should not try to include extra linebreaks eg: <br> .. because it will break your formatting with different screen resolutions.
 

i want the tiddler to be as easy to do as what i'm doing here on this post. A row break should be a row break, not being forced to do allot of experimenting to get it right? Even the preview is not showing the exact result, i have to save before i actually find out that the text dont look good :( adding images seems to be problematic here so i use dropbox links i guess).
is this something you guys are looking to fix in future versions?

This behaviour is very hard to change. There are some discussions with many pro and cons, at github.
see: https://github.com/Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5/issues/443
The mentioned issue set to wontfix. So don't expect changes in the near future.

Improvement:
4) Continuing with improvement, just as in this post i have access to the basic tools on the menu, liks Bold, Numbered list, insert image, text size and things that are mostly used, would it not be possible to add these things in TW just as they are available here when posting a thread?
This would make the TW so much more approachable and user friendly. Any thoughts or plans on this?

See:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/tiddlywiki/stephen$20kimmel$20editor/tiddlywiki/Q1XZ6uGQz8o/dqw5DkcH6Q0J and
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/tiddlywiki/stephen$20kimmel$20editor/tiddlywiki/IBA3cModVQk/fgZtDst9dUwJ

Stephen's intro at a TW hangout: https://youtu.be/LSqlJOVhLSI?t=8728

and finally: http://tw5editor.tiddlyspot.com/

Have a look at: http://tiddlywiki.com/#Community Others did a lot of experiments too. There may be stuff, that is interesting for you.
 

Sorry if my post tends to get negative on the end but i do love TW and want it to evolve and improve , its a great utility so keep up the great work!

Any feedback is highly welcome. Especially from new users, since it shows us, where the problems are. ...

Even if I personally disagree with some of your views in 3)

have fun!
mario

[Mat]

First of all; warmly welcome Reza!!!!

First to my questions:
1) i'm trying to add a picture into my articles in a was that you can see a mini version of it in the article but when you click on the image it should open in full size on top of the article (almost like hovering on top of everything). I should be able to close it either by pressing an X on a corner or just click anywhere outside of the image. I see this on many pages over the internet but i have not been able to create this on TW. Is this possible to achieve?

I have no spot-on answer, but you may wish to take a look at;

• the popup mechansim (unfortunately documentation or examples seem to be lacking on this) 
• the linkimg macro (at Tobias' superb tb5 site) 
  

BTW, I don't quite understand if the "mini version" of the article is the image.

 

2) I have tested to drag&drop pictures into TW (before i put the images in a folder called img where i had my TW.html). I can see images are stored in something called $:/Import, but where is this exactly? i cant find a way to actually find the files that get imported?

If you're using the standard single file version of TW (as opposed to e.g the node.js version) then drag'n dropping an image actuall embeds it, i.e it is converted and merged into the html file. (This is also why is may not be a good idea to include many large images in this way). The "$:/Import" is just a special tiddler listing which tiddlers you've imported last, as a kind of confirming summary and to access them easy.

 

2.1 If i click on and imported image file that i have in my tiddler -->[[iTunes_Settings.png]] it opens as a separate tiddler below, its here i would want the picture to hover on top of my existing tiddler, basically what i asked in question 1. Can this be done? appreciate some help on this.

Yes, if you click in "$:/import" it opens the actual tiddler which in your case is titled "iTunes_Settings.png", i.e this is now a tiddler and it has an image embedded. You can for instance retitle the tiddler any way you want. You will create a new tiddler fro the article and then use the imagetiddler in way that depends on how you solve it. (An example; To see a simple thumbnail of your image, you can use e.g [img width=20px [iTunes_Se...]] )

 

3) Spaces are a hassle in tiddlers (for me anyway), specially row brakes, now i have to do allot of testing with using """ and extra returns just to get the tiddler to look OK. Why is it so hard to get this right?

I think you're referring to that multiples of the space character (keyboard space bar) is merged into merely one space, and that single line breaks are omitted and that it takes two line breaks which then creates a new paragraph. The trick to get one line break is to cut the line with `<br>`. For extra space characters you can insert `&nbsp;` ("no break space")

I share your frustration with this, but the way it works is intentional.

 

Improvement:
4) Continuing with improvement, just as in this post i have access to the basic tools on the menu, liks Bold, Numbered list, insert image, text size and things that are mostly used, would it not be possible to add these things in TW just as they are available here when posting a thread?
This would make the TW so much more approachable and user friendly. Any thoughts or plans on this?

Fellow member Stephen Kimmel is working on a WYSIWYG text editor plugin but it is still a bit too rough to be functional. I hope it will get ready for release as I think there is a great need for it, particularly for newcomers. 

 

Sorry if my post tends to get negative on the end but i do love TW and want it to evolve and improve , its a great utility so keep up the great work!

IMO you bring up things that EVERY newcomer is confused by - and I think it is also easy for us who are used to these quirks in TW to forget this. IMO these issues are hopefully things that will be solved eventually. I fear they may even be deal breakers for some newcomers because they are immediately discovered, in the very early "evaluation phase". If it brings any comfort, I can still say that it's worth it. TW is incredible in many (other) respects.

<:-)

[PMario]

attachment. second try:
-m

[Danielo Rodríguez]

Hello and welcome.

Regarding formatting I have created a plugin for inserting formatting by keyboard shortcuts. Not a what you see is what you get but useful enough. Please take a look at braintest.tiddlyspot.com

Regarding your other concerns, I think what is wrong is your way to format your text. Please note that is not the same writing in a notebook than writing text digitally. Text needs to be independent from the format to adapt correctly to different screen resolutions. There is no reason to keep tree consecutive spaces, or to respect a line break if it is not a different paragraph. Maybe you need a table for certain information, or just a block of pre-formatted text for some code. IMO that is why programs like office are a nightmare to format, because they allow you to do things that makes nonsense. I had very bad times correcting format in MS Word

[Stephen Kimmel]

Reza,

4) Continuing with improvement, just as in this post i have access to the basic tools on the menu, liks Bold, Numbered list, insert image, text size and things that are mostly used, would it not be possible to add these things in TW just as they are available here when posting a thread?

This would make the TW so much more approachable and user friendly. Any thoughts or plans on this?

While it isn't a fully functional plugin yet and not wysiwyg, you might consider http://tw5editor.tiddlyspot.com/ which is a modification to the text mode editor with the toolbar and many of the standard editing features. I haven't updated it since 5.1.8 came out officially since I've been working on a wysiwyg version but if it would be helpful, I will update it.

And welcome to TiddlyWiki.

Step