Text width

[Rick Yentzer]

I have been using Accordance for a number of years and I'll admit I'm not a power user. By day I'm a Sr. Graphic Designer and by night (actually early morning) I'm a budding philosopher/apologist. I love to read and don't mind reading on the computer. When Accordance offered the ability to change the color of the background, the text via the Apple color picker, and the leading also I was so excited. I was able to read for much longer periods.

 

But one area I continue to struggle is the text width in a module that opens in a tab in my fullscreen workspace that is currently 1380ish pixels wide. So far my options have been to detach the tab and set it's width to a more manageable width, somewhere in the 660px range. This works okay, but I at times I end up with multiple windows that have the potential to become cumbersome when trying to navigate through them.

 

One thing I've done is when opening a module in my main workspace, I set the "browser" width for that module to be half the width of the window so that the main text width is more manageable and readable. Let me provide a screenshot of what I'm referring to in case it is not clear. It's not ideal but it does work.

 

Picture 1

Picture 2

 

Is it possible to implement Cascading Styles Sheets to the text or to Accordance? This would be ideal in that it would allow a high level of customization to the text. For instance I could set the maximum text width for a module to display. I could do this by setting the margin spacing.

 

The ability to adjust the spacing in the margin would be really nice and could be a workaround for the column view. One of the benefits of multiple columns is that it makes the text much more readable. BBEdit allows me to set the character width which really aids in code readability.

 

Here is a sample of what I would find ideal.

Margin Spacing

 

I'm not saying my solution is the best solution. I would like to hear input from others on this issue. Perhaps we could come up with a good solution in the meantime. Or maybe others have a better solution that mine.

 

Thanks, Rick

[mikes]

I think I know what you're doing. I usually do this with a bible text to assure focus. While I don't have a solution for tools, I may have one for texts for you that does the same thing as resizing the TOC on a tool.

 

I've used a simple, unwieldy solution that I use to make the space on one side for me. I've created a user note called spacer that I open on the right side and resize it to my liking. I have no notes in it whatsoever, so it just shows up as blank space.

 

It would be nice to have a "Single Text" workspace that was really a dedicated reader (not really as search or metadata capable as a standard accordance workspace) with a margin view attribute that took on a separate "default" for reading. Maybe more integrated highlighting too... (I'm still hoping for the day when I can put "margin notes" on tools).

[Levi Durfey]

I've struggled with this same issue on my 21 inch iMac. My solution has been to use two workspaces side by side (a "main" space and a "user note" space). This way my main reading space is more manageable. I've also expanded the browser width like you mentioned, but this is annoying to do for every text. Your idea of having a margin setting sounds good to me.

[Kit]

This is exactly what I requested long time ago. I second this.

[Rick Yentzer]

I thought I had read about this on this forum, a while ago. It certainly would be a nice added feature. There are several modules that I just read instead of search for things, or else I search and then read several paragraphs at a time. The ability to set the margin width would greatly enhance my reading on screen. It seems several of the digital readers offer this in one degree or another.