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Gingko Desktop update
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Posted by Chris Murtland
Jul 19, 2018 at 08:13 PM
A new version of Gingko Desktop has been released:
* Autosave the document on every change
* Search & filter the tree
* Open multiple documents at once
* Recent documents “Home” screen
* “Repeat Last Export” to quickly make a new version
* Eleven bugs fixed (1 major/10 minor)
Posted by Amontillado
Jul 19, 2018 at 11:40 PM
Looks interesting. Any comments on Gingko’s usability?
Posted by satis
Jul 20, 2018 at 02:54 AM
This is the first desktop version I feel comfortable experimenting with, but it’s still rather bare bones. The first version, which I bought in January, was pretty raw: no Help or FAQ, Quit was called ‘Exit’, etc. I bought it to support the developer, but I put it away. And waited.
This version is much more polished, seems stable, and maybe a bit faster. Still no font/size/sheet formatting of any kind, still no Preferences, still no search. So for me it is not usable yet for writing projects. If I’m really going to be writing a lot in the app I *need* to choose my font/sizes and be able to set the background to something more soothing than pure white. It’s something I’ve been able to do in BBEdit for, well forever.
FWIW my main font these days is IA Writer’s duospace fork of IBM’s free Plex font:
https://ia.net/topics/in-search-of-the-perfect-writing-font
and my primary background hex color is #F2F1ED
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jul 20, 2018 at 03:19 PM
It’s a lovely program to write in, although as remarked already, it could do with a lot more options!
The search function is really a filter function (it finds stuff, but doesn’t highlight it; found cards are displayed in isolation, which is quite cool but very filter-like). It vastly improves Gingko’s usability - it’s a complex hierarchical program, so a search function is absolutely indispensable. As it stands, the search/filter function suits the standard Gingko approach (each card = sentence/short paragraph) quite well. But I’d like to see highlighting as well, just because it’s more efficient when you’re looking for a specific piece of text.
Although you can’t select fonts, backgrounds etc., I find the default “look” quite elegant.
Posted by satis
Jul 21, 2018 at 03:53 AM
Yes, the current look is attractive, but surface prettiness gives way to usability problems pretty quickly.
The Help menu should actually gave help in using the app. The FAQ option in Help merely sends you, via your web browser, to a general FAQ page overview, without tips on actually using the desktop app. Someone new to the app could easily be stuck on the main text box and have no idea how to do anything else. (That actually happened with my girlfriend.)
# # #
I wish every developer with an app that handles text would steal the way Google Chrome shows search results:
• list the # of matches
• include up- and down-arrows to traverse results through a page by clicking, if desired
• highlight matches
• place tick-marks in the scroll bar showing document match location(s)