text wrapping in draft view

[Jack]

I'm considering getting Nisus Writer Express 2.5, and am trying out the demo. I prefer to work in draft view (no wasted space at the sides of the window), but I want the text to wrap properly in keeping with the margins I have set -- ie, I want the line breaks to occur in draft view in the same places that they would in page view (and in the final document). By default, the line breaks in in draft view seems to be totally dependent on the width of the viewing window, and totally independent of the actual margins and dimensions of the final document.

Is there any way to change this?

Thanks.

[martin]

Sorry Jack, but unless you resize the window to be exactly the same width as your page the wrapping will be different. I'm happy to file a feature request for you, but I do have one question for you (or other forum denizens): what happens when the available page width is different across the document?

For instance, if you have two sections with different paper sizes or different margins. Does Draft view just pick up the first section paper size? Also, what about columns: does Draft view pick up the width from the first column or the second? Or does it use the combined width of all available columns? I'm curious to know what everyone thinks makes the most sense. Also, how many of you would use this feature?

[cchapin]

When I first tried Nisus Writer Express, I had the same reaction to Draft View that Jack had. I was used to WordPerfect for Windows, which in draft view preserved line breaks and even side-by-side columns. You could see exactly where your lines broke. What made it a draft view was that it did not show headers, footers, footnotes or margins, though it indicated soft and hard page breaks with different types of horizontal lines.

I liked how WordPerfect handled Draft View -- especially how it preserved columns in a side-by-side arrangement -- and would be happy if Nisus Writer Express handled it more or less the same way, but I'm not really clamoring for a change. I just switch back and forth between Page and Draft views as necessary.

If there's a way to preserve columns in Draft View, I'd vote for that, but without going all the way over to the WordPerfect method, I don't have answers to your questions.

--Craig

[foobar]

How about just allowing hiding margins and headers/footers in page view? I think draft view serves a little different purpose, but it would be good to be able to compose text in page view with a little less wasted space.

[Ryan]

I really like the way Draft View works now in terms of display (minus the column thing). When I'm slamming out a draft, if I make my window reeeeaaally wide, the text can fill that up. I don't want to even have the possibility of thinking how the text is going to look on a printed page, because, for me, that's not a draft.

So that's my vote. Although I think that so often when there are two differing opinions on how a feature should be implemented, a checkbox in the preferences is a fairly effective compromise.

[Tacitus]

I really .........When I'm slamming out a draft, if I make my window reeeeaaally wide, the text can fill that up. I don't want to even have the possibility of thinking how the text is going to look on a printed page, because, for me, that's not a draft.........

Something I would like to see is an indication in draft view of where page breaks occur. A line marker at the appropriate point would be sufficient.

Tacitus

[cgc]

I think if people need to know where page breaks will be they need to use the normal view. I use DRAFT mode like other people, to jam in massive amounts of text. I don't really care about formatting, although the styles will keep most things in order. The thing I like most about DRAFT mode is that it is more responsive on my old Mac.

[joao]

I'm rather fond of the draft view as it exists right now. I like the fact that I'm not thinking about formatting or margins - just concentrating on text. The only change I would want would be to go one step further and have a full-screen mode, as some other Cocoa applications have.

In page view, if you hide the tool drawers, the ruler and the toolbar, you have what seems to me to be a decent draft view that includes correct margins.

[marc]

FWIW I'll throw in my 2c - IHMO the Draft view is good as it currently stands, and a number of the requests here are perhaps better supported by the Page View, tho further speed increases would help (to make using the Page View more satisfying as a working mode.)

The Draft View rightly shows manually inserted Section and Page breaks, so you can concentrate on the structure of your document, and ignore the formatting and styling to later, as many others have said.

...and in the greater scheme of things, I guess I'd like to see development in other, more important areas.