[GNC-dev] Register text selection
Geert Janssens <mailto:gnucash-devel%40gnucash.org?Subject=Re:%20Re%3A%20%5BGNC-dev%5D%20Re gister%20text%20selection&In-Reply-To=%3C1925551.T7MvD3KevP%40legolas.kobalt wit.lan%3E> geert.gnucash at kobaltwit.be Mon May 21 09:14:29 EDT 2018 _____ Op maandag 21 mei 2018 13:08:05 CEST schreef Robert Fewell: > I have been looking at getting the middle mouse button to work for pasting > selected text and whilst trying to do that started to wonder about the > existing preselected text. > > Currently... > If you open a register, the blank transaction date text is preselected. > If you start Gnucash with saved open registers, the last register in the > list to load has the blank date text preselected, this may not be the > current open register. > > If you navigate by keyboard, the next field text is preselected and the > cursor set to the end of text. > If you navigate by mouse, the text is not selected and the cursor is the > mouse position. > If you update a transaction in one register and have the other > corresponding register open, the text where the cursor is will get > selected. (I think this is an easy fix). > > I am just wondering if we should be doing this preselected text at all ? > As far as I can tell the first two (text navigation hightlights the full text, mouse navigation sets the text cursor) are at least common behavior, if not default. Find any dialog with more than one text field and try what happens if you tab from one field to the next or click in random fields. I would find it disturbing if the register would behave differently. I don't understand exactly what you mean with the third behavior. > Some might say it is a good indication of where the focus is, only with > keyboard navigation, but one could simply add something like this to your > css file which would also work for mouse navigation... > > cursor entry { > background-color: pink; > } > > So just asking the question. It's not just a matter of visual indication. It's also about ergonomics. Text and mouse navigation have different dynamics and this is reflected in the way text is selected or not when entering a text field. For your information I plan to work in this area of the code soon to fix input methods. I intend to drop all code related to text manipulation from the sheet and make the gtk entry responsible for it instead. Perhaps it's best you hold off other changes related to text entry until that's done to avoid doing double work. Geert I agree with Geert, the way it is, works well with how I work, and is usual UI. The fact that the current field is highlighted when you go back to the register makes it easier to find where you are. This email reminded me of another issue I wish to discuss. The scroll bars on all the windows seem to have changed in 3.0+. If you now click above (or below) the current position bar in the scrollbar, it takes you to the place in the window which is proportional to where in the scroll bar you click, rather than up (or down) 1 screen full. This is not typical MS Windows UI and surprises me because it is not what I expect. Suddenly I am far from where I was instead of just being 1 page away, and it can be laborious to get back to where I want to be. I know I can use PgUp/PgDn instead and once I get used to it, the new method does offer extra functionality, but I'm not sure if there is a real need to be able to go say approx. 1/3 of the way through all the entries in the window. Also, usually in Windows, the height of the scroll bar indicates how much the current screen is, as a proportion of all entries. What do other think? Maybe this is an option I can set in css? Regards, Chris Good _______________________________________________ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
