Typewriter scrolling for Windows

Started by JohnK on 7/13/2010
JohnK 7/13/2010 11:09 pm
This will only be of interest to a small minority of this group, but anyway...as of v0.9.9.0, preview 3, the Windows writing program Writemonkey (http://writemonkey.com offers typewriter scrolling.

For those who don't know what typewriter scrolling is: for years I have found it odd that all word processors have a built-in flaw - if you are typing a long document, eventually the cursor reaches the bottom of the screen, and stays there. Crude and unergonomic. Bring back the typewriter.

Since Mac OSX came on the scene, a number of programs, including Writeroom (http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom have introduced what's called "typewriter scrolling" - the cursor remains fixed at a line of your choosing and the text scrolls away from you. Maybe disconcerting for youngsters who have never used a typewriter, but very natural for me.

Because a few programs for Mac offer this feature, which has been non-existent on Windows, I assume the Mac OS built-in edit controls make it easy to offer typewriter scrolling, but that's guesswork.

But some time ago I suggested to Writemonkey's author that he add typewriter scrolling (more in hope than expectation). And now it's there. It's marked as an experimental feature, and it is a preview version, so if you try it don't use it for anything important, but the scrolling feature works well for me.
Dr Andus 1/20/2012 2:44 am
JohnK wrote:
This will only be of interest to a small minority of this group, but anyway...as of
v0.9.9.0, preview 3, the Windows writing program Writemonkey
(http://writemonkey.com offers typewriter scrolling.

For those who don't know
what typewriter scrolling is: for years I have found it odd that all word processors
have a built-in flaw - if you are typing a long document, eventually the cursor reaches
the bottom of the screen, and stays there. Crude and unergonomic. Bring back the
typewriter.

Since Mac OSX came on the scene, a number of programs, including
Writeroom (http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom have
introduced what's called "typewriter scrolling" - the cursor remains fixed at a line
of your choosing and the text scrolls away from you. Maybe disconcerting for
youngsters who have never used a typewriter, but very natural for me.

Because a few
programs for Mac offer this feature, which has been non-existent on Windows, I assume
the Mac OS built-in edit controls make it easy to offer typewriter scrolling, but
that's guesswork.

But some time ago I suggested to Writemonkey's author that he add
typewriter scrolling (more in hope than expectation). And now it's there. It's
marked as an experimental feature, and it is a preview version, so if you try it don't
use it for anything important, but the scrolling feature works well for me.

Well, apparently there is now typewriter scrolling in Scrivener for Windows as well. I only discovered it by accident as I was getting annoyed that in Full Screen view the text was jumping around, whenever I tried to highlight text with a mouse and drag it. It turned out that "typewriter scrolling" was on, and after toggling it off with WindowsKey+Ctr+T my problem disappeared.
Dr Andus 1/20/2012 4:05 am
Dr Andus wrote:
Well, apparently there is now typewriter
scrolling in Scrivener for Windows as well. I only discovered it by accident as I was
getting annoyed that in Full Screen view the text was jumping around, whenever I tried
to highlight text with a mouse and drag it. It turned out that "typewriter scrolling"
was on, and after toggling it off with WindowsKey+Ctr+T my problem disappeared.

Furthermore, I've just found out that typewriter scrolling can be set individually for all three editors within Scrivener (i.e. the two halves of the split screens and the Full Screen mode).
Jon Polish 1/20/2012 10:05 pm
Q10 can also be set up for typewriter scrolling.

Jon
Kensai 2/13/2012 5:57 pm
How so? I used to use Q10 a great deal and still have a copy sitting in my dropbox, "just in case". The closest thing to typewriter scrolling I'm aware it can do is to simply pad the bottom margin, which really isn't the same thing.

Jon Polish wrote:
Q10 can also be set up for typewriter scrolling.

Jon
Jon Polish 2/13/2012 8:34 pm


Kensai wrote:
How so? I used to use Q10 a great deal and still have a copy sitting in my dropbox, "just in
case". The closest thing to typewriter scrolling I'm aware it can do is to simply pad
the bottom margin, which really isn't the same thing.

Jon Polish wrote:
>Q10 can
also be set up for typewriter scrolling.
>
>Jon
Jon Polish 2/13/2012 8:35 pm
Yes, you are right. It simulates typewriter scrolling, but it is not the same.
Paulo Brabo 2/14/2012 1:56 pm
writemonkey, similar to Q10 (which I used before) has true typewriter scrolling.

http://writemonkey.com/

Also Scrivener for Windows, but I think in writemonkey it's better implemented.

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php