Thanks Vincent,
Locally, I can now edit things. Quite a lot of functionality you've put in
there, looking at all the options.
What I do like...
- being able to click and edit stuff right at the spot
- being able to trigger formatting using __, // and ''
- although you must know that you need to close it the very same way
you openened it which also holds true for TiddlyWiki markup, yet from
WYSIWYG I would expect otherwise
Please forgive me for the length of the following list, but I must say that
I find the current editing / preview in many respects quite un-intuitive.
So here are the things that I find confusing...
- there are so many modes and they are switching somewhat arbitrarily
back and forth
- by default, there is the view-mode of the element
- then, when I click on the edit button for something editable, there
(sometimes) is a plain text input
- above it (sometimes immediately) a preview panel appears
- (sometimes) also a (browser?) dropdown may appear below the text input
showing the last edit
- then the simple input disappears when I use arrow keys and the preview
panel turns into an even bigger preview
- however, sometimes, both the input and the preview panel are displayed
together, yet entering happens only in the preview panel, which I find
rather confusing
- the preview is translucent, which can help understanding what happens,
but watching the actual wikitext below has a somwhat debug'ish feel to it
- the preview editor being a lot bigger than the item itself and not at
exactly the same spot as the element being edited makes things jump
around quite a bit, not to mention my focus ...it all feels very fiddly
- in edit mode, the popup preview sometimes overlays the editor, so I
can't get to or see what I am entering
- other times, if I toggle up and down keys, the mode toggles between
preview editor and text input ...however, inputing text switches back to
the preview editor... that's a whole lot of jumpiness whereas I never quite
know whether I edit or view something and where exactly
- using up and down arrows may make the editor jump quite farther than
I'd expect, leaving out some text between
- after I hit enter on an element, the input box may be displayed
again... why? ...I'd believe hitting enter means done
- there is no more double clicking to edit the tiddler ...and I really
did want to
- then, markup magically (but partially) appears (like @@) using left
and right keys in the editor (very confusing) and I can't (or worse, really
shouldn't try to) edit anything, because if I (accidentally) put something
between @@ and dare hit enter, then it all gets scrambled
- (un)indenting lists is very difficult; it took quite a while before I
kind of figured it out (somewhat) ...but I was never sure, If I had it right
- copy and paste is quite difficult as you may actually input stuff at
the wrong spot (or end) and thus eliminate some crucial markup
- underneath it all still is the old dom element rendered as before, but
(almost) empty ...current list bullets are still there
- when I try to get at the start of a line, I often find myself jumping
to the previous element, same at the end for jumping to the next element
- on some edits the whole tiddler refreshes, so the spot I edited now is
back to view mode and getting back to where I was involves another round of
fiddling
- then the preview also (sometimes) displays nested lists (even though I
can see them already)... however editing obviously has focus only on one
item, so it jumps back (if it actually does)... so, the multiline preview /
editing really just clutters the view
- selecting (the right text) or any text sometimes works, sometimes it
doesn't and you need to click some more (at the right spot, if you find it
using the mouse)
- actually, selecting text using ctrl+shift+arrow happens in the input
underneath the popup ...so you kind of see what you select... kind of
I guess, for an inline-edit mode, my personal suggestion would be more along
one of these methods...
a) (ctrl-)clicking an editable item, a simple text input / textarea would
appear (by default) below the thing that I want to edit and editing the
text *immediately* wikifies the edits at the corresponding dom element
being edited. Once, I click save, saving the new wiki text should be
somewhat a snap, as I have already entered wiki format.
b) pseudo-edit the dom element directly by inserting text,
character-by-character ...yet only providing for the most basic markup,
like bold, italic and underline... not the whole fancy-schmancy. If at all,
in this mode, any changing of dom structure, like (un)indenting lists
should happen instantly... no clicking enter to save and see ...using tab
and shift-tab for lists or headings. Anyhow, in live-preview-mode, I would *
never* show any wiki markup in the input. The input could really be 1
character wide directly in the location where you expect the result and
just be 'where you type'... while being immediataly rendered.
In both cases a) or b), the original dom element(s) being edited would be *
hidden* and you would rather edit an initially 1:1 copy... modifiying it
directly with your edits. Clicking enter would 'commit' the changes and
replace the original element with the new stuff while saving the tiddler if
applicable.
Whether a) or b) are possible or only some parts of it, I would not know.
However, I would not mix both. Either I edit using plain wikitext at the
size of an element -- or I edit WYSIWYGishly in-place with the most
minimalistic input element... the rest remains 'as is', no additional popup
or panels.
All in all, editing to me is the mode where I want to do nothing but use
the keyboard. Really, moving the mouse to the right spot should always be a
means of last resort. The best editing environment to me is something like
WriteRoom or FocusWriter... totally distraction free... why would I need or
want to learn about editor features that I hardly ever need to use?
I guess I more and more find myself a passionate markup proponent. If
anything, I would suggest a watered down preview in edit mode whereas the
text is only partially wikified for the given context in a preview pane
that never distracts me from writing stuff.
Kind regards, Tobias.
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