Limit editing to focused text element

1

Hello everyone,

I’d like to suggest that when focusing on an element all selection/editing deletion commands remain limited to that text element, avoiding any side effects on the rest of the document.

This may be helpful to:

  1. protect collapsed text from accidental deletion
  2. enable safe “select all” + replace action (for example, to quickly deleted/replace a chunk of text)
  3. avoid appending stuff to the last item in a document (as it happens when I focus on an element and place the cursor on the bottom of the page)

Thanks!
(noob here, please be patient)

2

Hi and welcome!

This has come up before in the old forums and is something that I continue to think about, but don’t have any end all solution in the works.

FoldingText 1.x and TaskPaper did work much as you describe. And its useful in some cases, but I also feel that it complicates the app. In FoldingText 2 I changed things to make the mental model of what FoldingText is simpler:

  1. Your document is a text file, and commands work like in a normal text editor.

  2. Regions of your document can be folded, the text is visually hidden behind a fold graphic. But it’s still visible, you can see the fold. And it still acts like text. You can select, delete, copy, and undo.

Adding the proposed constraints breaks some fundamental behaviors. For example I’ve lost data in a number of cases (In FoldingText 1.x and TaskPaper) when I did a “Select All” and copy in a document that I didn’t realized was filtered. Also users have gotten confused in the past when they focus in and think they’ve lost the rest of their document, since it’s not visible or selectable.

I do think there’s something to be said for making it more noticeable when you delete a fold, since that fold is visually small and might represent a lot of text. Just not sure one best way to do that.

3

Hello Jesse,

Thank you for the prompt reply!

I see your point about keeping it simple, and always think about the concept of working with a plain text file. This is fine by me, as it is just a matter of the habit.

About the deletion of folded content, how about just blocking such deletion attempts and providing a visual cue to focus on the folded item(s) (a background flash on the item, or some kind of simple highlight )?

Cheers,