Thoughts on Potential New Features for Sigil

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by repilo

It would be great if it were possible to select text with the mouse in other places (Wikipedia, newspapers), copy it and paste it into Sigil while retaining italics and bold.

That's easily, and probably best, done in Page Edit, viz:





BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

That's easily, and probably best, done in Page Edit, viz:

@repilo - but not using PE 2.3.0 - see PageEdit-2.3.0 Released starting at post #3.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@repilo - but not using PE 2.3.0 - see PageEdit-2.3.0 Released starting at post #3.

Fixed in ==>> PageEdit-2.3.1

BR

[BetterRed]

1. Provide access to the Preferences->Spellcheck dialogue from the Tools->Spellcheck… dialogue.
   
   I sometimes add a word to a user dictionary that I shouldn't have added, or I add a word to the wrong dictionary. Which means I must either exit Spellcheck, correct the blunder, and restart Spellchecking … or try to remember to correct the blunder when I finish Spellchecking.
   
2. Ability to Save and Load the Ignore list to a user named file in a user designated location.
   
   I often Spellcheck across multiple sessions (particularly for collaborative developed texts), and I often ignore groups of 'supposedly misspelt' words (e.g. proper nouns, camelCased).

BR

[KevinH]

For 2, why not just create a wordlist called "Ignored" and use it that way.

For 1, removing words from loaded wordlists to move them someplace else can not be done when the Spellcheck Dialog itself is open and being used. Closing it and then editing the wordlists is required.

This happens as these lists of words are loaded into a hash table that can only be added to efficiently. To delete entries, you must destroy the table and rebuild it from the edited wordlist.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

For 2, why not just create a wordlist called "Ignored" and use it that way.

I usually have several projects active, so I would have multiple saved ignore lists. I would prefer to keep the saved ignore lists in the project folder with the manuscript, EPUB, PDF if any, original images, artwork etc. On occasions I also use Clear ignored words, and I envisaged that working on the Loaded list, not the Saved list.

Originally Posted by KevinH

For 1, removing words from loaded wordlists to move them someplace else can not be done when the Spellcheck Dialog itself is open and being used. Closing it and then editing the wordlists is required.

This happens as these lists of words are loaded into a hash table that can only be added to efficiently. To delete entries, you must destroy the table and rebuild it from the edited wordlist.

Guess what… just discovered I can access Preferences whilst Spellcheck is active, delete the word I mistakenly added to a user wordlist, press OK, hit Refresh in Spellcheck and it reappears as misspelled.

For some reason I thought the Spellcheck dialogue was modal, maybe because Metadata Edit is modal.

BR

[KevinH]

It worked? To delete a word from the wordlist? Could it be because you just added it to another wordlist that was also active?

[BetterRed]

I deleted the word I mistakenly added.

I was able to add a new word list.

What I can't do is cut (Ctrl+X) from wordlist A and Paste (Ctrl+V) into wordlist B.

BR

[KevinH]

Just as I thought ...

There really are no routines in Spellcheck.cpp to remove a user wordlist word from the opened dictionary, there are only routines to add words to the active dictionary.

So if you delete a word from the wordlist, it will not take effect until the entire dictionary is closed (deleted from memory) and reopened fresh so that the altered wordlist words can be added.

Assuming your wordlist was open and active with the dictionary in use at all.

[Shohreh]

Suggestions (using 2.3.1):

1. Add a File > Close menu item, when the user simply wants to close the current document while keeping Sigil running.

2. Change the dialog that pops up when hitting Search/Replace: If the user hit Search, hide the Replace text + buttons. Personally, I prefer the dialog to be displayed as a (non-modal) dialog at the center of the screen instead of as a bar at the bottom, but I could be in the minority.

3. Add CTRL+F4 to close a sub-window

[retiredbiker]

Originally Posted by Shohreh

Suggestions (using 2.3.1):
2. Change the dialog that pops up when hitting Search/Replace: If the user hit Search, hide the Replace text + buttons. Personally, I prefer the dialog to be displayed as a (non-modal) dialog at the center of the screen instead of as a bar at the bottom, but I could be in the minority.

Just to add an opinion--

I'd be neutral on 1 and 3, but would probably never use them.

But changes to Find/Replace could kill the way I work. Find and Replace are attached like Siamese twins when fixing badly coded books or proofing a novel-sized document. When I search for something, I always want to be able to do a replace without further strokes or clicks. And find/replace popping up over the text or code I'm looking at...just no.

[BeckyEbook]

Originally Posted by Shohreh

1. Add a File > Close menu item, when the user simply wants to close the current document while keeping Sigil running.

What would Sigil do after pressing File > Close?
Every user will answer simply: Open a blank document.
And since that's the case, just press File > New and you'll get exactly the same result.
Doing Close just to duplicate an existing option?

Originally Posted by Shohreh

3. Add CTRL+F4 to close a sub-window

The F&R window can be quickly closed by Esc, so an additional shortcut is probably not needed.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

Just to add an opinion--

I'd be neutral on 1 and 3, but would probably never use them.

But changes to Find/Replace could kill the way I work. Find and Replace are attached like Siamese twins when fixing badly coded books or proofing a novel-sized document. When I search for something, I always want to be able to do a replace without further strokes or clicks. And find/replace popping up over the text or code I'm looking at...just no.

Yes, I agree.

Number 1 has limited usefulness except where it already exists on macOS because of its multi-main window paradigm.

And number 3 is out as it would conflict with existing platform key sequences to close windows and apps.

As for number 2, after the number of revisions gone through to get Find and Replace workable after the last redesign, and the fact that shift works with those same icons to do different more advanced F&R related things, enabling and disabling buttons makes no sense. Nor does making it float and cover CV or moving it, in my opinion.

The fact is some people new to Sigil are used to other layouts for F&R in other apps and then think that approach is "better", but in reality, it is just different. They can not see the over 10+ years of user history and muscle memory that would get lost by these types of changes with little to no benefit to most users.

That is why major ui changes/redesigns are not going to happen unless they truly are needed for Accessibility.

In this thread I was looking more for new general features and tool ideas that would help most users by adding something useful, not just simply changing ui to make a specific user or small set of users happy potentially at the expense of others.

I should have made myself clearer about what I was looking for here. That is my fault.