Subject: Re: normal and web modes
From: Randy Kramer (rhkramer@fast.net)
Date: Fri Mar 16 2001 - 10:50:54 CST
Notes
Dom: As I wrote this, I began to wonder if it will really help you --
I'm describing Word 97, which has an "Online Layout" view. Word 2000
might have something really called "Web" view which might be somewhat
different. Oh, well, I'll finish this email -- if you don't think it's
worth continuing, let me know.
Others: I sent Dom some screen prints of the first page of a sample
document in each of the views. (Zipped .bmps) If anyone else wants
them, let me know. If there is enough interest, someone with a web site
may want to post them.
I am sending this first installment as an email. I am writing the
document in Word, and can submit the document in Word. (I could attempt
to convert to Abiword, and probably will at some point, but I don't yet
have 0.7.13 installed.)
(Also, I am structuring the document as an outline, so I can use this
document for demonstration and testing. If anyone is interested, I can
provide screenshots of this document with the outline collapsed to a few
different levels.)
I will think about how to send future installments. A diff could be
most useful, but I don't know how to create a useful diff of a word
document (I've never really thought about it). I can turn on revision
marks, but I'm not sure how they will show up in email, plain ASCII, or
Abiword.
Five Views
The five views in Microsoft Word (97) (as ordered on the menu):
Normal
Online Layout
Page Layout
Outline
Master Document
Overview of Each View
Page View
I did this view first, out of the order I will use in all future topics
because this is what you (presumably) are used to, and the normal
Abiword display. It tries to show the text layout as it will exist on a
page, including white space for top, bottom, and side margins, and dark
areas to represent "non-paper" margins between and around pages. It is
WYSIWYG.
If rulers are selected, both a top and a left ruler are displayed.
Normal
(This is what I consider the most useful view.) This is close but not
quite WYSIWYG. It is like an infinitely long (and wide) sheet of paper
with no edges. In addition, there is no attempt to represent top,
bottom, or side margins. There is a nominal 3/8" margin to the left of
the text -- text that is not indented is about 3/8" from the left edge
of the screen. (Text that is indented is shown indented from that 3/8"
point.)
(ToDo: Check handling of "outdented" text (text with a negative indent)
-- Done: it is shown "correctly", i.e., it moves to the left based on
the "outdent" -- if outdented far enough it disappears off the left side
of the screen. This same test shows that the left margin which I
measured at about 3/8" physically, is close to 0.25" in "document"
units.)
(All screen measurements are based on 800x600 resolution on a 17"
monitor.)
Only a top ruler is available. If it is displayed, the 0 point on the
ruler is about 3/8" in from the left edge of the screen (corresponding
to the 3/8" nominal margin mentioned above).
Depending on the screen magnification, the window may be wide enough to
show a full line of text at the current margin settings or not. If
the window is wide enough, text wraps properly within the visible
window. If the window is not wide enough, there is another option
(Tools | Options | View | Window | Wrap to Window -- a checkbox) that
controls how wrapping is handled. If that checkbox is not checked, word
wrapping is done at the end of the "available line length for typing",
which may be off screen. (You would have to scroll horizontally to see
the full line.) If that box is checked, wrapping occurs within the
width of the window, even though this is not the correct physical
representation.
Online Layout
Online Layout provides a two pane display. The left pane shows the
outline of the document, and the right pane shows the document in normal
view as described above. The view in the left pane is not formatted
exactly like the outline view (described below -- later). It is closer
to the way a tree view control is displayed, with boxed plus or minus
signs to show whether any particular heading level is expanded or
collapsed.
No ruler is available (the selection is grayed out).
The outline pane does not show ordinary text. It only shows text which
has been assigned a(n) (outline) "Level" attribute, any of Level 1
through Level 9. (The standard Heading 1 through Heading 9 styles
include this attribute, but any style can include this attribute.) Any
paragraph with this attribute in its format will be displayed in the
outline pane.
In the outline pane, only the first line of every paragraph with a level
attribute will be displayed. That line will be indented according to
its level (the box for level 1 indented about 3/16" from the left, the
text starting about 3/8" from the left), and the line will be truncated
at the edge of the outline pane. Each successively lower level is
indented an additional 3/16" (so, a level 2 box is 3/8" from the left, a
level 3 box is 9/16" from the left, and so on). The right edge of the
pane is movable to resize the pane. The size of the contents is not
changed, just more or less of the text is truncated.
The formatting of the text in the outline pane is standardized, and does
not vary based on the format applied to the actual heading in the text.
(I will recheck some of this over the next few days.) The font looks
like Arial or Helvetica, maybe 10 or 11 point. I don't know if this is
adjustable in any way (except by changing the screen magnification).
Navigation between the left pane and right pane is synchronized. Some
examples:
A heading in the outline pane is highlighted to correspond to the
location of the cursor in the right hand pane. In other words, if the
cursor (insertion point) is anywhere within the text of a heading or its
subsidiary text on the right hand pane, that heading will be highlighted
on the left pane. (If there is ordinary text before the first heading
and the cursor is located there (remember, ordinary text can only be
seen in the right hand pane), the first heading is highlighted.)
Navigation can occur in either the left or right hand pane. (That's a
little misleading, I'll have to explain better.) If you click on a
heading in the left hand pane, the cursor (insertion point) in the right
hand pane is positioned at the beginning of line which is that heading.
It might be better to say that navigation in the left hand pane is only
by the mouse. If you select (single click) any heading in the left hand
pane, the cursor (insertion point) is positioned at the beginning of the
corresponding heading line in the right hand pane.
If you now use, for example, the arrow keys to navigate, the arrows
behave as normally expected in the right hand pane. In the left hand
pane, a heading remains highlighted until the insertion point in the
right hand pane arrives at or after the beginning of the next header, at
which point that header is highlighted.
The right hand pane is the normal white background. (I'll have to see
about changing the background -- I always leave it white.) The
background of the left pane is gray, which gives it a subdued appearance
and clearly distinguishes it from the right hand pane.
Rulers cannot be selected in online view (the selection on the menu is
"grayed out").
Outline View
Outline view shows the outline of the document. For this purpose, it
considers any paragraphs with an (outline) level attribute (1 through 9)
to be a heading in the outline, at the particular level.
The outline can be expanded or collapsed, and the text below headings
can be shown or not shown. (More about this later or below.)
Every heading is prefixed by a "stylized" plus sign (I don't believe
it's from a standard font -- it's a little bit oversized and hollow.
When you position the mouse cursor over this plus sign, the mouse cursor
changes to a "cross hairs" type cursor (a vertical and a horizontal
line, crossed at the midpoint of each, and with arrows at the outer end
of each line, pointing out).
If you click while the crosshairs are shown, the portion of the outline
starting at the heading clicked on and all subheadings and subtext are
selected. You can now rearrange the outline in various ways by dragging
and dropping. (There are at least two different behaviors here, one if
you position the mouse over the plus sign and drag and drop, and one if
you position the mouse within the selected text and drag and drop. I
will describe these behaviors later to minimize confusion and because
these are not the behaviors I typically use -- not the features I like
about collapsible outlining.)
The more interesting behavior in collapsible outlining includes the
following:
-There is an "Outlining" toolbar that appears when you switch to outline
view. It includes 18 icons which I will list and describe their
behavior (later). Just as a preview though, there are seven icons with
numbers 1 through 7 on them. If you select any one of them, the entire
document is collapsed so that only headings at that level or higher are
viewed. For example, if you click on three, only headings at levels 1,
2, and 3 are displayed, indented appropriately to show their level. All
text, and all other heading levels disappear (are not visible). This
facilitates navigation, review of the organization, and reorganization
of the document.
Aside: (I fell in love with collapsible outlining before there was such
a thing as the online view. The online view provides many similar
capabilities. I will concentrate on the other views (normal, page, and
online) and reconsider what advantages, if any, outline view has over
online view. Maybe I'll fall out of love with outline view and
recommend that it not be implemented. I hesitate though, because the
Master Document view, used for dealing with Master and Sub documents, is
based on the outline view -- we may have to implement Outline view as an
intermediate step toward implementing Master Document view, or develop a
different approach to showing Master / Sub documents.
No ruler is available (the selection is grayed out).
Document View
<deferred, for several reasons -- I don't use it very often and thus am
not as familiar with it. I will have to spend some time refreshing my
memory before I create a sample set of Master / Sub documents to test
with.>
No ruler is available (the selection is grayed out).
Rulers
Normal
Only a top ruler is available (AFAIK). If it is displayed, the 0 point
on the ruler is about 3/8" in from the left edge of the screen
(corresponding to the 3/8" nominal margin mentioned for normal view).
Online Layout
No ruler available
Page Layout
If rulers are selected, both a top and a left ruler are displayed.
Outline
No ruler available
Master Document
No ruler available
Template for Next Topic (Maybe Headers and Footers ;-)
Normal
Online Layout
Page Layout
Outline
Master Document
Status
The above is a start. As I tried to say earlier, I may now have to work
my way through various features of Word, and explain how they are
manifested in each view (if they differ between views). I covered
rulers as my first feature, to show the general format I intend to
follow, even though the information is duplicated within the overview of
each view type. I will delete it from one place or the other before I'm
finished.
Hope this helps,
Randy
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