Re: [Skim-app-users] Reading bar issues

[Adam M. G. <amg...@ma...>]

On Jun 22, 2007, at 5:00 AM, Christiaan Hofman wrote:

>
> On 22 Jun 2007, at 5:44 AM, Adam M. Goldstein wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I have just discovered the reading bar. (I mean, just begun to use it
>> regularly.)  What a great idea. Here are some impressions:
>>
>> (1) It's not clear to me where it usually originates. It makes sense
>> to me that it ought to originate where the pointer is, or where there
>> is selected text. One issue is that my page is often bigger than the
>> screen is tall, so the bar originates off-screen, starting, say, at
>> the top line of the page, which is off the screen.
>>
>
> It always starts at the first line of the current page. When the
> reading bar is not visible, the page should scroll to make it
> visible. Doesn't it do that for you? It works for me.
>

Yes, it does this. I still think that it would be good to be able to  
have it start at selected text, though. I usually lose my place when  
I start the reading bar. I don't know why it never occurred to me  
that it was always starting at the top of the page.

>> (2) It would be good if the bar forced the page to scroll when it got
>> to the bottom of the screen, and advanced the page at when it reached
>> the bottom of one. If I am dragging the reading bar down the page,
>> and get to the last line on the page, I have to advance the page; but
>> the reading bar doesn't advance, and so I have to keep hitting opt-
>> down to bring it down to the top of the new page. Because of the top
>> and bottom margins, it disappears off the top of the screen. So--the
>> suggestion is that hitting opt-down at the last line on the page
>> advance the page so that the reading bar is at the top of the next
>> page.
>
> That is exactly what it does, certainly for me. What does it do for
> you then?
>

Further testing, paying closer attention---

If the last line on the page is the last visible line, the bar jumps  
to the first line of the next page, and scrolls the document up too.

However, if the last visible line is on a page that continues off  
screen, the document doesn't scroll, and the reading bar "continues"  
off screen, until it reaches the end of the page, where it jumps to  
the first line of the next page, scrolling the document.

A similar phenomenon occurs moving from the back to the front of the  
document. The reading bar will move to the top line on the page, and  
then the page will scroll up so that the top of the new page is at  
the top of the window; and this will push the reading bar off the  
bottom of the screen, if the page is taller than the screen.

These effects are very pronounced if you are reading at high  
magnification. At 228%, the width of a 15" MBP display, only about a  
third of the page fits on the screen at once, lengthwise.

If you drag fast enough, you can drag the reading bar off the top of  
the screen, too!


>>
>
> I am confused. Your suggestions are basically what it already does,
> and it all works perfectly for me.
>

--
Dr. Adam M. Goldstein
amgoldstein <at> mac <dot> com
http://homepage.mac.com/amgoldstein