APu: in Text Mode, make moving entire words logical, please (like MS Word etc.)

[Fantomas.CZ]

Hi everyone, especially Affinity Team,

there is one thing in text editing, that bugs me for quite some time: if you move a word in MS Word or similar, the program usually takes into account the surrounding of the word, i.e. if a moved word has single space before and after in its original location, it will have a single space in its new location. If you move a word like this before a full stop, comma, colon or similar character, it will wedge itself right before said character. In other words, this is a quite logical and expected behaviour. 

Meanwhile, APu just takes the word, sometimes with a following space, sometimes not, and just puts it wherever you drop it. Usually it attaches to a word next to the new position, which creates a strange situation, when I have to 1) move the word, 2) separate it from the word it randomly gets attached to, and 3) remove the superfluous space. Which is usually located on the other end of the word. 

This behaviour, along with the standard keyboard abbreviation for word jump (Alt + arrow) being used for nudge, makes moving words quite a nightmare... 

Could you please fix it?

My suggestion:

• if I move a word with a single space before and after:
  • to a single space between two words -> the moved word will have a single space before and after on a new location. The old location will have a single space.
  • right before a separating character (full stop, comma, colon etc.) -> the moved word will jump right before the separating character, leaving a space before, but not after
• similar behaviour for a word before a separating character, when moved in a single space between two words. 

Is it possible? And would you do it?

Thanks a lot, have a nice day!

 

[GarryP]

If you double-click a word, rather than drag-selecting the letters, and then drag the word to the start of another word – the insertion cursor being immediately before the first letter – you should get some of the functionality you want, if I have understood your requirements correctly, since the space after the word is also moved (even though it’s not selected on the screen).

Granted, it doesn't do everything you want but it might help with some of it.

[MikeTO]

We've reported this issue previously, please see the thread below. Affinity doesn't work the way other apps do and the way we are all expecting.

• If you drag select or Shift + left/right arrow select a word, Affinity shows the word as selected and Cut/Copy will copy only the word which is as you would expect.
• If you double-click a word to select it, Affinity shows the word as selected, same to the above, but Cut/Copy will copy the word and the following space. This is inconsistent and a usability issue because it's not showing the selected text any differently than above.
• When you Paste, it pastes whatever is on the pasteboard without respect to the surrounding text.

Serif has to bridge the gap between Apple and Microsoft. Here's how Apple apps work:

• Regardless of how you select a word, Cut/Copy copies only the word without the trailing space
• When you Paste text copied in one Apple app into the same or another Apple app, it adds spaces around the word as required. Pasting into the middle of a word adds spaces on both sides while pasting at the start of end of a word separates the pasted word from its neighbour. It doesn't add spaces if you Paste text copied from a non-Apple app. (And Apple has a bug with pasting from Microsoft apps, it doesn't always work properly.)

Microsoft apps work this way:

• If you double-click or Shift + right arrow select a word, Microsoft shows the word and the trailing space as selected and Cut/Copy will copy the word and space together. I find this odd.
• If you drag select or Shift + left arrow select a word, Microsoft shows only the word as selected and Cut/Copy will copy only the word.
• When you Paste text copied from any app, it separates the pasted text by one space on either side regardless of whether or not the pasteboard contains leading or trailing spaces. You never wind up without a space or double spaces. This is 

 

[Fantomas.CZ]

Thank you, gentlemen! Yes, it helps to know that Affinity copies the following space, so unless I want to move the word before a separating character, I can place it the way I want. But still, this could be done much better... I hope Affinity will fix this. Is there something I can do to help push it forward? 

[Bryan Rieger]

23 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Serif has to bridge the gap between Apple and Microsoft…

No, they choose to implement text handing in a way that feels out of place on both platforms.

Abstractions and compromises are great, but to the end user they often end up feeling awkward and 'not quite right' compared to what they're used to on their system, and to the majority of apps they use everyday that do adhere closer to the underlying platform guidelines.

[garrettm30]

It’s been too long since I used MS Word to any significant degree, so I don’t know how much has changed (I have the impression they keep reselling basically the same thing). But as compared to how MS Word used to work, I used to get annoyed when MS Word would try to be “help” me in various ways I didn’t ask for, such as selecting, copying, and pasting something not quite what I selected and copied. I felt like I had to fight it to get what I actually wanted more often than it “fixed” what I selected that did not actually mean to select.