Feature request

[Bill Cheeseman]

on 02-01-03 6:06 PM, Greg Titus at greg at omnigroup.com wrote:

> I've just added the first half of this feature (splitting), and it
> occurs to me that it might be more natural to simply make return do this
> (instead of command-return).
> 
> (1) If you were editing plain text and hit return in the middle of a
> line, it'd split the rest of the line onto a new line - this is what
> people generally expect to happen with the return key. (2) Microsoft
> Word outlines work this way. (3) We already have command-return used to
> insert a newline in the current item.
> 
> Is anyone attached to the current behavior of return -- simply adding a
> new item despite where your selection is? Anyone have any arguments
> against a change?

Return would still start a new, empty item if the cursor were at the end of
the line, right? On that assumption, I like your proposal. And hitting the
Delete key right after hitting the Return key should undo the split -- i.e.,
rejoin the items if the cursor is at the beginning of the new item (as it
would be if you just hit Return and split the item), or delete the new,
empty item if the Return has been hit at the end of the line -- so that an
erroneous Return could always be undone on the fly with a single keystroke
using the same finger. Good for fast typists. Your proposal makes the use of
Return and Delete seamless and consistent.

> On another note, what would you expect to happen if you did a
> command-delete to concatenate when you were working with a document with
> multiple columns? My first impulse is to concatenate the contents of the
> column that you are in with the same column in the previous row, but
> only delete the row if all other columns are empty, if not leaving the
> rest of the row as is.

I don't understand this proposal. In the Finder, Command-delete moves
selected items to the trash. I wouldn't think of Command-delete in
OmniOutliner as concatenating anything, unless you developed a consistent
and comprehensive metaphor for the Delete key that I could incorporate into
my mindset and use without thinking -- like the split/join system, above.
What do various Delete and modifier-Delete combinations do now?


--

Bill Cheeseman - wjcheeseman at earthlink.net
Quechee Software, Quechee, Vermont, USA
http://www.quecheesoftware.com

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