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Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

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Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#201

Post by [deleted] »

mikelward wrote: post #110
scottjenson wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You actually can paste between words but it's hidden (like most things with mobile text editing) You need to place the text cursor between the words carefully, tap the 'teardrop' on the text handle, and that will bring up the menu to paste. (not saying that's good!)

Just tried this. I find tapping to bring up the teardrop sometimes changes the cursor position. It's quite unfortunate the paste button is not always shown when editing. At least the teardrop (if not an edit bar) should be shown when using long press spacebar to move the cursor.

[deleted]

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#202

Post by aranchelk »

> Mobile devices were originally designed for consumption.

They weren’t and then they were. Palm, Nokia, and Blackberry were all devoting around half their user-facing surface area to content creation with physical keyboards.

Near then end Nokia did make some really nice Linux-powered slide out keyboard devices. Best of both worlds if not for their thickness.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#203

Post by JamesLeonis »

plaidfuji wrote: post #57

1000% agree with this post, wow. I can’t believe this is controversial.. it’s a disaster. I dread opening the mobile version of google docs, sheets, or even Notes for anything more than a grocery list. The problem is the target audience for this is business customers, and particularly those in management, so it’s a small market. ICs aren’t up and down as much between meetings and can largely stick to their desktop se…

> It’s just not your typical consumer.

My only disagreement. I think many people don't know they want something better because they've never used something better. The video in the link describes how the users do short texts to get around the problem [0], including deleting whole blocks of text instead of editing. Teenagers, parents, and many others communicate heavily through texts and are often "up and down" like management/business users. On the whole I believe many people would benefit from a better text editing experience.

[0]: https://programs.sigchi.org/uist/2021/program/content/61484

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#204

Post by jprete »

thewarrior wrote: post #141
plaidfuji wrote: post #57

1000% agree with this post, wow. I can’t believe this is controversial.. it’s a disaster. I dread opening the mobile version of google docs, sheets, or even Notes for anything more than a grocery list. The problem is the target audience for this is business customers, and particularly those in management, so it’s a small market. ICs aren’t up and down as much between meetings and can largely stick to their desktop se…

This is where speech to text models like Whisper and LLMs can make a real difference.

I personally don’t like speech-to-text because then you’re broadcasting every word you write to everyone around you.

It might be better with a specially-trained model that uses stenographer-style compression that only you know, so drive-by eavesdroppers can’t translate your text entry on the fly.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#205

Post by cloudking »

scottjenson wrote: post #77
deely3 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about IPhone but on Android its simply impossible to Paste text between two words. You can't paste text into cursor position you can only replace selected text with Pasted text. Thats my main biggest issue. Also, why the fuck there no Copy/Paste buttons on mobile keyboard??

You actually can paste between words but it's hidden (like most things with mobile text editing) You need to place the text cursor between the words carefully, tap the 'teardrop' on the text handle, and that will bring up the menu to paste. (not saying that's good!)

Wow.. TIL you can tap the tear drop, thanks!

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#206

Post by ako »

kibwen wrote: post #79
plaidfuji wrote: post #57

1000% agree with this post, wow. I can’t believe this is controversial.. it’s a disaster. I dread opening the mobile version of google docs, sheets, or even Notes for anything more than a grocery list. The problem is the target audience for this is business customers, and particularly those in management, so it’s a small market. ICs aren’t up and down as much between meetings and can largely stick to their desktop se…

> before you say “sounds like you just want a tablet” One of my friends uses a GPD Pocket 3, which is an 8-inch computer that's small enough to fit in your pocket, with a full keyboard, touchpad, and touchscreen that swivels to become a tablet. It's pretty nifty. https://gpd.hk/gpdpocket3

I don’t think screen size is the limiting factor when editing, but the lack of a convenient keyboard. I’ve edited quite large texts with a Bluetooth keyboard connected to my phone. Currently have a Nuphy air 75 and keychron k15 pro, small sized, mechanical, ergonomic Bluetooth keyboards, both make editing pretty acceptable.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#207

Post by wayfinder »

ghaff wrote: post #184
plaidfuji wrote: post #57

1000% agree with this post, wow. I can’t believe this is controversial.. it’s a disaster. I dread opening the mobile version of google docs, sheets, or even Notes for anything more than a grocery list. The problem is the target audience for this is business customers, and particularly those in management, so it’s a small market. ICs aren’t up and down as much between meetings and can largely stick to their desktop se…

I generally agree and also disagree with a few aspects of both your comment and the OP. First of all, to the OP, maybe not for the leet kids, but I absolutely find large amounts of text input on a phone to be a pain. I can do it if I’m away from a computer and have to, but I don’t enjoy it and it takes more time and requires a lot of concentration. As for cursor positioning, holding down the space bar on iOS works pr…

Maybe I’m a leet kid but I type 65 WPM on my phone so I find actual typing on my phone on par with typing on desktop, except if special punctuation is involved.

…but the whole mobile experience is still terrible with a lot of scrolling, panning, and annoying text selection.

I’m aware most people don’t type that fast so they would never type on mobile but for those that do, it would be sweet if the mobile experience was better.

One thing I found out on iOS recently is that you can shake your phone for text undo.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#209

Post by coffeefirst »

plaidfuji wrote: post #57

1000% agree with this post, wow. I can’t believe this is controversial.. it’s a disaster. I dread opening the mobile version of google docs, sheets, or even Notes for anything more than a grocery list. The problem is the target audience for this is business customers, and particularly those in management, so it’s a small market. ICs aren’t up and down as much between meetings and can largely stick to their desktop se…

The audience might be bigger than we're inclined to think. For a lot of the next generation, mobile is by far their main computer.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#210

Post by xxs »

crazygringo wrote: post #149
superkuh wrote: post #49

Nothing on mobile is okay. I know everyone loves their smart phones but they really are terrible computers in every way except for portability. Use a computer when you actually want to do things. Smartphones are just for when you're literally unable to use a real computer.

> Smartphones are just for when you're literally unable to use a real computer. Which is literally extremely frequent, since we often need to do stuff on the go. Which is why an article like this is so important -- we should improve, not give up. There's no reason to think text editing on a phone has reached its final form.

I have stuff to do I carry a 17" laptop with a full size keyboard. Else I'd just have better things to do.
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