Look elsewhere and instant return

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JohnWasilewski
Posts: 380
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 1:06 am
Location: UK

Look elsewhere and instant return

Post by JohnWasilewski »

There are not many things I miss about Win Doze and M$Word, but here is one I miss A LOT.

With WinWord, after using the verticl dragbar to move to a new part of a document, it is necessary to release the vertical dragbar BEFORE moving the mouse pointer away from the dragbar, or else the display doesn't stay there. TM has removed this restriction. The display always stays where it is after dragging vertically. But guess what, this is a BAD thing not a good one!

One can slide WinWord up or down many pages using the vertical dragbar, then pause on the required page WITHOUT RELEASING THE DRAGBAR, look briefly at something elsewhere in the document to obtain whatever information may be needed, then idly slide the mouse sideways into the document before releasing the button. This leaves the destination page unresolved, with the very useful result that, bang!, the display flings itself instantly back to where the cursor still remains, ready for the user to resume where he/she left off.

With long, complex documents, such as I'll bet that most of SoftMaker's customers use TM for, one needs very often to check things above and below the editing point, sometimes many pages away. I very much miss being able to do it as efficiently as I used to be able to do with that old wordprocessor that I came so much to dislike except in a few ways.

I wish TM had this, either as a fixed characteristic or as a switchable option.
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John
SuperTech
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Re: Look elsewhere and instant return

Post by SuperTech »

TextMaker 2021 and Word work in a similar manner. Please check again. I have checked and tested it again but didn't find any difference.
JohnWasilewski
Posts: 380
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 1:06 am
Location: UK

Re: Look elsewhere and instant return

Post by JohnWasilewski »

Has WinWord changed? I no longer have a copy, but it used to be the case that one could
- slide the dragbar vertically,
- find a different page and hold the mouse button down whilst checking something,
- slip the mouse pointer off the dragbar and release the mouse button,
causing the dragbar to fly INSTANTLY back to the page where the cursor still remains.

I cannot now do this with TM2021. I will be really si
Can it also no longer be done with MSWord?

In any case, please SoftMaker, could your developers make TM do this for us?
SuperTech
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Re: Look elsewhere and instant return

Post by SuperTech »

Please confirm what is "dragbar"? are you referring to Scrollbar here?

Also please let us know in which operating system and which Word version you had this experience? To achieve it you did some specific settings or that happened by default?
JohnWasilewski
Posts: 380
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 1:06 am
Location: UK

Re: Look elsewhere and instant return

Post by JohnWasilewski »

Sorry, I meant the vertical scrollbar. I've no idea why I called it a 'drawbar'.
I was using Word 2003, then later, Word 2010-13, or something like that.

I remember very clearly, that I sometimes found it a nuisance, when using the scrollbar to slide up and down the document looking for something, that, if the mouse pointer moved too far to the left whilst scrolling, the display would leap back to the start point. As long as one kept the mouse button down, though, one could drift the mouse back over the scroll bar and the display leapt again, back to following the scrollbar. After a while, I realised that this was actually a very useful feature, because one could search for something, holding the mouse button down all the time, then once it was found, just drift the mouse across the document before letting go and, bang! Back to the where the scroll had come from, where the cursor was still where it had been.

Whilst writing, I've had, maybe, a better idea. Leave the present functionality exactly as it is but ADD a very simple extra feature. Make TM do this:

Keep holding the left mouse button ('LMB') down whilst scrolling. Release the LMB and this leaves the display in the new place in the document, where the scroll moved it. Exactly as it works now.

But if the user wants the display to fly instantly back to where the scroll came from. press the RMB before releasing the LMB. That would be brilliant because it would make TextMaker so much easier to use when writing long, complex documents.

It would also be very consistent with what seems to be SoftMaker's policy, of

Code: Select all

programming the software do what users want

and not

Code: Select all

making users fit in with what the software is programmed to do.
---
John
SuperTech
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Re: Look elsewhere and instant return

Post by SuperTech »

Thanks for sharing the details and for suggestion. Please check this existing method which is the same as your suggestion, on any long document scroll using the scrollbar, and when you want to return to the original place, from where you started, just press any of four arrow keys once. You will be back in the same place. :)
JohnWasilewski
Posts: 380
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 1:06 am
Location: UK

Re: Look elsewhere and instant return

Post by JohnWasilewski »

Fantastic. A thousand thanks. Best possible functionality.
This much better than the fly-back I described.
I can't believe that I did not manage to discover it!
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