Wish list for future versions of SMO

[joredor]

I just installed and started testing TextMaker Professional 2024. While the new version has many welcome new features and improvements, some things remain to be fixed that I hope will be addressed in the near future. Here they are:

1. Keep the cursor location when switching back and forth from "Show changes" mode.
I work with long manuscripts that get heavily edited, and showing the changes can get confusing to read, so sometimes I will switch off "Show changes" to get a clearer idea of what the text currently looks like. Conversely, if no changes are visible then I can't tell what was in the original and what is the product of an edit, so then I will switch back to "Show changes."

The problem with this is that when I switch the Show changes mode, the cursor ends up on a different page than where it was before changing the mode. For example, I'm working on page 215 of a 361-page manuscript with Show changes turned ON. When I turn OFF Show changes, once the screen refreshes, the page counter ("Current page and number of pages") at the bottom of the TM window says that I am on page 209 of 347, but the paragraph that I was working on is nowhere to be seen. Clicking anywhere on the currently visible text changes the page counter to 215 of 347. I then have to scroll, use Search, or GoTo Page to find where I was, and in this case that's on page 209 (of 347).

So there are two issues here when switching the "Show changes" mode: A) the user ends up on a different page, and B) the page counter gives the page where the cursor should be, but not where it actually ends up.

It would be a time-saver if the cursor remained at the same text where it was before switching the "Show changes" mode.

2. When hovering the mouse pointer over an edit, show the correct time stamp for that edit.
Last night I spent 60 minutes working on a part of the manuscript, but the insertions are all stamped with the same time and the deletions are all stamped independently of that, one minute earlier, regardless of when any insertions or deletions were actually made. The time stamp seems to be for the most recent edit, and then that same time is applied to every previous edit made since TM was launched. The only way to get a different time stamp for new edits is to close TM and then reopen it.

Since I charge by the hour, this complicates my record-keeping as in a high-distraction setting I may not necessarily remember exactly when I resumed working on the manuscript: in Microsoft Office, I have always been able to rely on the time-stamp feature to help me out when I didn't write down my start time.

3. After performing a global search-and-replace, return the cursor to where it was prior to the operation.
If in the middle of a manuscript I decide that "Napoleon" needs to be changed to "Bonaparte" throughout the file, once the "Replace all" operation finishes I am taken to the top of the document for some reason. Then I have to manually go back to wherever I actually was in the file when making the change. This is needless extra time spent.

Additionally, in the "Search and replace" dialog, I notice that if I don't select the option "Search from top," then only the part of the file down from the cursor location gets searched and replaced. In order to do this for the entire file, I have to click on "Search from top." Thus it would be helpful if I could set Search and replace to just do the whole file by default regardless of where I am in the file. (PLEASE NOTE that after a search-and-replace "Replace all" operation, I still end up at the top of the document even if I didn't select "Search from top.")

* * *
These are the remaining niggling issues that deter me from making the switch full-time to TextMaker from MS Word. My sense of urgency grows as Microsoft continues the campaign to drive everyone into their "software as a service" subscription model and into getting a Microsoft account, both of which I have successfully resisted to date but which are getting harder to avoid. (I had to jump through a lot of hoops to buy and then install the perpetual version of Office 2019 without reference to a MS Account.) Having TextMaker as a fully viable alternative would be most welcome!

[Woody44]

Just a comment that I support this. I also would like to completely transition from Microsoft Office to SoftMaker Office. Although I have purchased SoftMaker Office 2024, I cannot completely break from maintaining Microsoft Office 2019 on my computers because there are still some things that TextMaker either can't do, or that don't translate transparently between Word and TextMaker.

(Note: SoftMaker has recently fixed one of the file incompatibility issues, for which I am grateful.)

[SuperTech]

Please don't post multiple issues/bugs/suggestions etc in one single topic post as this creates confusions, delay and problems only.

Please post separate/different issues/bugs/suggestions in different topic posts.

1. Keep the cursor location when switching back and forth from "Show changes" mode.

We are unable to reproduce this problem of cursor location when switching back. Please share the file in which you are getting this issue with the screen recording of the issue.

If your file is private, you can send it to forum[at]softmaker.com with the link of this post.

When there are changes of multiple pages, there will be a difference in the page number count between show changes and without it, which is absolutely normal.

2. When hovering the mouse pointer over an edit, show the correct time stamp for that edit.

To enable this feature, please click on ribbon command File | Properties | Review tab | Enable “Show changes” and “Show tooltips” options.

3. After performing a global search-and-replace, return the cursor to where it was prior to the operation.
After performing a global search-and-replace, return the cursor to where it was prior to the operation.
If in the middle of a manuscript I decide that "Napoleon" needs to be changed to "Bonaparte" throughout the file, once the "Replace all" operation finishes I am taken to the top of the document for some reason. Then I have to manually go back to wherever I actually was in the file when making the change. This is needless extra time spent.

We have already forwarded this when you reported earlier here.

Additionally, in the "Search and replace" dialog, I notice that if I don't select the option "Search from top," then only the part of the file down from the cursor location gets searched and replaced. In order to do this for the entire file, I have to click on "Search from top." Thus it would be helpful if I could set Search and replace to just do the whole file by default regardless of where I am in the file. (PLEASE NOTE that after a search-and-replace "Replace all" operation, I still end up at the top of the document even if I didn't select "Search from top.")

This is as per design and “Search from top” is given for this purpose. You can try making it by default in the template file.

[joredor]

I finally got the chance to send you the information you requested -- my apologies for the delay. I am sending, by e-mail, an old edited manuscript file that I have permission to share with you. I am also sending a screen recording (in .MP4 format) illustrating issue #1 regarding how the text that I see on the screen is changing depending on whether TextMaker is set to Show or to Hide Changes. I do know that the page count changes, but in MS Word the cursor remains at the same text location in the file when the user switches either from Show to Hide changes, or from Hide to Show changes. So in MS Word, I don't have to do anything to get back to where I was before showing/hiding the changes. This is the feature request #1 that I am offering.

Regarding #2, I have not obtained permission to share a file that's been edited in TextMaker 2024, so unfortunately I can't currently demonstrate the issue definitively. The file that I'm submitting was not created or edited in TM 2024, so it can't work as a direct example. However, we can use it to illustrate the situation I'm describing. Please go to (for example) the game labeled Game 45 (page 254 of 368 with changes showing). If you hover the mouse over "Game 45" and over the players' names on the next line, the tooltips will show that they all have the same date and time stamp for when those changes were made. So far, so good. But if you then go to Game 51 on page 296, the date and time stamp for that game and the players is exactly the same as for Game 45. I can assure you that I can't edit 42 pages of text within one minute. Giving each edit/change a date/time stamp corresponding to the actual time and date when that particular edit was made, is what Word does and it constitutes feature request #2.

Finally, regarding #3: Thank you for the suggestion, but I cannot figure out how to change the Normal.tmvx template so that the default is changed to search from top. I opened Normal.tmvx, called up the Search box, and put check marks on the "search from top" boxes, but it is not self-evident how to make this setting stick in the template file: if I close the search box after making the change and then reopen the search box, the "search from top" boxes are back to being unchecked. Step-by-step instructions will be greatly appreciated.

We have already forwarded this when you reported earlier here.

I did not remember having made this suggestion before, thanks for the reminder. Are there any plans to implement the change?

[SuperTech]

I finally got the chance to send you the information you requested -- my apologies for the delay. I am sending, by e-mail, an old edited manuscript file that I have permission to share with you. I am also sending a screen recording (in .MP4 format) illustrating issue #1 regarding how the text that I see on the screen is changing depending on whether TextMaker is set to Show or to Hide Changes. I do know that the page count changes, but in MS Word the cursor remains at the same text location in the file when the user switches either from Show to Hide changes, or from Hide to Show changes. So in MS Word, I don't have to do anything to get back to where I was before showing/hiding the changes. This is the feature request #1 that I am offering.

Our developer team have already fixed this problem and the solution is included in current service pack 1210.

Regarding #2, I have not obtained permission to share a file that's been edited in TextMaker 2024, so unfortunately I can't currently demonstrate the issue definitively. The file that I'm submitting was not created or edited in TM 2024, so it can't work as a direct example. However, we can use it to illustrate the situation I'm describing. Please go to (for example) the game labeled Game 45 (page 254 of 368 with changes showing). If you hover the mouse over "Game 45" and over the players' names on the next line, the tooltips will show that they all have the same date and time stamp for when those changes were made. So far, so good. But if you then go to Game 51 on page 296, the date and time stamp for that game and the players is exactly the same as for Game 45. I can assure you that I can't edit 42 pages of text within one minute. Giving each edit/change a date/time stamp corresponding to the actual time and date when that particular edit was made, is what Word does and it constitutes feature request #2.

I have forwarded the details to our developer team.

Finally, regarding #3: Thank you for the suggestion, but I cannot figure out how to change the Normal.tmvx template so that the default is changed to search from top. I opened Normal.tmvx, called up the Search box, and put check marks on the "search from top" boxes, but it is not self-evident how to make this setting stick in the template file: if I close the search box after making the change and then reopen the search box, the "search from top" boxes are back to being unchecked. Step-by-step instructions will be greatly appreciated.
[/quote]
Yes, we can't make it as default.

[joredor]

I only just found out that the reply above had been posted! The email notification about the reply got caught by my webmail spam filter but I use a local email client, so the webmail interception went unnoticed until now.

Anyway -- thank you for the news regarding most of the suggestions on the list. I hope that the document file and video I'd submitted proved useful in identifying the issues. Glad to know that one issue has been fixed and that another one is getting looked at.