[softwarelist] Re: Unexpected behaviour/bug manually deleting page in OVPW 2.90 (29 March 06)
- From: Peter Newble <mailing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: davidpilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:41:23 +0100
In article <qyRSeWD7R14EFwcX@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, David Pilling
<flist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> You're quite right, I never knew that. It seems that for
> delete chapter it is the first chapter in the window which is
> used.
> In message <4e57642cb2mailing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> Peter Newble <mailing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
> >Not a major problem, but in an ideal world I'd have thought
> >the current page and current chapter would be those
> >containing the caret.
> What if there is no caret/selection?
Good point. Since caret, text selection and object selection
(including frames) are mutually exclusive, and limited to one
page, it should be whichever of them is active. If none is
active, the writable icons in the 'Page > Insert page' and
'Page > Delete page' boxes could be left blank to be filled-in by
the user. Again, 'Page > Delete chapter' is inconsistent in this
respect, in that it asks you whether to discard or cancel
deleting a specific chapter, rather than giving writable icons
for first and last chapters as does 'Page > Delete page'.
Other actions which might usefully operate on the current page if
one is active, but currently don't -- e.g. the 'Print sheet'
sub-dialogue of 'File > Print' -- could default either to the
last page used, as at present, or to the first page in the
document.
> However the program does show you which chapter or page it is
> about to clobber in the relevant confirmation dialogue.
True. The problems for me is that, while I'm vaguely aware of
which folio (page number) I'm working on -- as it is often
displayed on the page, and at least some of the time I'm viewing
that part of the page -- chapter numbers are more elusive. In a
technical document the pages might be numbered x.y (x=chapter,
y=page), but for me each section which needs to start on a
right-hand page will usually be a new chapter, with continuous
page numbering, e.g.
1. Front cover (folio not displayed)
Prelims (pages numbered in roman numerals consecutively from i):
2. Half-title (folio not displayed)
3. Title page (folio not displayed)
4. Dedication
5. Acknowledgements
6. Contents
7. Foreword
8. Introduction
Body (pages numbered in arabic numerals consecutively from 1):
9. Chapter 1
10. Chapter 2
11. Chapter 3
. . .
n+8. Chapter n
n+9. Colophon (folio not displayed)
n+11. Inside and outside back cover (folio not displayed)
In this (extreme) case Chapter 1 of the printed book would be
chapter 9 of the Ovation Pro document, or perhaps chapter 8 if
the cover is being printed separately therefore is in a separate
document. Thus when Ovation Po asks whether I really want to
delete chapter x the answer might not be immediately obvious,
whereas if I were to place the caret on a page it would be
logical and intuitive to delete the chapter containing the caret.
Of course, my attention having now been drawn to the fact that
the info pane shows the chapter number of the middle of the
window, this is now less of a problem -- but more of a problem
that 'Page > Delete chapter' doesn't follow the same rule!
As to my other point about the arrow keys returning the window
view to the caret (if there is one), I find there are many
occasions where (RISC OS) Ovation Pro windows becomes corrupted,
either when background font blending goes wrong, or (more often)
when parts of a previous text selection are left inverted after
the selection is cleared. I therefore use F2, the
otherwise-redundant RISC OS 'Load document' key shortcut, for the
macro '{viewrepaint(0,0)}' which forces the window to refresh.
Something like this could be used also to move the viewport to
the current caret/selection.
Peter Newble.
Other related posts:
