Reader mode

[Jon Falkenstein]

So, I'll admit it. I have a 12" ibook. And I know there are lots of Accordance users who use accordance on a laptop. Even the new 13" widescreen macbooks still don't have a ton of screen space. I use accordance religiously (no puns intended... well maybe a little) and sometimes I just want to read a text. The thing is, even when I break the search text tab off the workspace and reduce the "more options" section down, there's a significant amount of space between the top of the window and the actual text. Of course there's the new slide show feature in version 7, but whenever you click anywhere it wants to progress to the next slide.

 

I'd like a feature that can hide everything on the top (including the search argument field and possibly even the add panes bar) except for the pane heading and font size increaser/decreaser. I'm not sure exactly the technical term for each part of a window, but this would allow for more actual space in the window for the text. With a small laptop screen, every inch counts, especially when I have a few text panes and one or two reference panes. I know many mac programs have that small sideways oval button at the top right (like firefox that I'm using now) that hides everything on top when you click it. Perhaps it'd be something as simple as this. I've included an image of what I'm thinking of.

tabs_example.tiff

[David Lang]

Jon,

 

I've toyed with the idea of using a disclosure triangle or similar device to hide the search entry box at the top of the Search window. The problem is that it breaks a fundamental aspect of the interface, which is that what you see in the top part of the window is what you get in the bottom part of the window. If you do a complex search and then hide the search portion of the window, you have highlighted results with no visual feedback as to how you got them. Perhaps we could make it so that if you close the search entry box, all you see is the entire text, as if you had an asterisk in verse mode, but I'm not sure that's what you're asking for. Besides, it would represent a startling change if you were looking at a search result, closed that portion of the window, and then your search results disappeared. I'm open to suggestions, but the issue is not that as simple as just hiding a button bar.

[Jon Falkenstein]

Well, my thoughts are that the search would have been done already. And yes, it would be more along the lines of the asterisk search or just a simple range search (like phil 3 or col 2ff). Of course, this kind of thing isn't that big of a deal on a 19, 20, 24" monitor where there is plenty of space for all the reading you need... but on a 12-13 incher, I would kill for this. In the times when I want to do a complex search, I have all the tools available to do exactly what I want to do. But when I just want to read... I simply covet that 2 and a half inches by however wide the screen is.

 

The thing about the slideshow mode is that it fills the screen with text, but it makes you unable to really effectively keep using accordance and to click places while you're reading. I guess I'm just looking for a somewhat middle ground. I'm sure I'm not the only one who uses accordance on a smaller screen. Accordance is so much more than an e-book reader and does amazing things. But the fact is, sometimes all I need to do is read, without all the options right in front of me. Sometimes I would just like to read a commentary, an english text, and a greek text in three separate panes. That doesn't require all of the menus and features at the top of the workspace after I've set it all up. At that point, I'd just like to hide them temporarily.