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Google Docs New Feature: Pageless

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Re: Google Docs New Feature: Pageless

#181

Post by jeffshek »

tomComb wrote: post #180
snewman wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm one of the original authors of Writely / Google Docs, and worked on relatively heavy-duty word processors in an earlier life. I'd agree with you, and add that there are are a lot of other details that make Notion nicer to use. We made the move from Docs to Notion at work a year or two ago, and I've recently switched for personal use as well. Some of the differences are power-user things (e.g. easier to manage cer…

I preferred notion initially, for many of the same reasons you outlined, but eventually I just couldn’t stand how slow notion is. Google Docs is so much faster. I’m interested to try Google’s new tables product when I get a chance.

I had a similar feeling a while ago - but revisited Notion after a year or so and they've made a lot of speed improvements to it!

A couple of months ago, I got a Apple M1 and a lot of these electron apps load much snappier. (Slightly impractical fix)

Re: Google Docs New Feature: Pageless

#182

Post by jonny_eh »

jer0me wrote: post #138
kyrra wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Googler, opinions are my own) I've used the new pageless style for a while and losing footnotes was a little annoying at first, be we adapted. I don't have a perfect solution to it, there are alternatives you can do (glossary or something at the end, with a bookmark on each item, so you can link directly to it). If you make heavy use of footnotes, don't use the new feature (as others have said). It's a tradeoff, and…

Just spitballing, doesn't seem like you're on the team, but a possible solution could be a little popup when you hover over a footnote like Wikipedia has. Or maybe an option to put all the footnotes at the bottom of the document, except when printing.

How would hovering work for a non-mouse user?

Re: Google Docs New Feature: Pageless

#183

Post by TAKEMYMONEY »

rmbyrro wrote: post #118

> If your document contains elements like footnotes, headers and footers, or watermarks, and it is converted to pageless, those elements will not be visible. Headers and footers are print-oriented, but losing footnotes is not ok. They could have displayed on the side, or highlighted in some way to display on mouse over or click. Whatever, just make them available...

Why not replace them with linked citations à la Wikipedia?

Re: Google Docs New Feature: Pageless

#184

Post by renewiltord »

(Disclaimer: not a Googler, my opinions are not my own and should be seen as the official position of my employer, this comment is confidential and is meant only to be read where it is posted)

Perhaps footnotes should convert to notes like the ones you have on Google sheets.

Re: Google Docs New Feature: Pageless

#185

Post by gnicholas »

Does anyone know of a gdocs alternative that uses DOM-based rendering? Google recently transitioned from DOM-based rendering to canvas-based rendering, which prevents extensions like BeeLine Reader [1] from working. This has created problems for people with disabilities, who rely on it.

I'm the founder of BeeLine Reader, and we are looking for an alternative platform that we can steer our customers (which include major universities) toward.

1: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/beeline-reader/ifj...

Re: Google Docs New Feature: Pageless

#186

Post by dorianmariefr »

gnicholas wrote: post #185

Does anyone know of a gdocs alternative that uses DOM-based rendering? Google recently transitioned from DOM-based rendering to canvas-based rendering, which prevents extensions like BeeLine Reader [1] from working. This has created problems for people with disabilities, who rely on it. I'm the founder of BeeLine Reader, and we are looking for an alternative platform that we can steer our customers (which include maj…

WordPress?

Re: Google Docs New Feature: Pageless

#187

Post by dudus »

rmbyrro wrote: post #118

> If your document contains elements like footnotes, headers and footers, or watermarks, and it is converted to pageless, those elements will not be visible. Headers and footers are print-oriented, but losing footnotes is not ok. They could have displayed on the side, or highlighted in some way to display on mouse over or click. Whatever, just make them available...

I agree, there's no reason to lose that feature. Just add the footnotes at the bottom of the doc, no matter how long it is and make the number references clickable to toggle between them.

I'd even go as far as say Headers and Footers should be preserved but just included once at the very top and very bottom. Unless you toggle back to page mode and then everything just works. No data loss.

Seems like an easy improvement to make to pageless mode in the short term.

Re: Google Docs New Feature: Pageless

#188

Post by dudus »

JoBrad wrote: post #58
BrianOnHN wrote: post #45

But content still can't be collapsed/folded below headers [1]. Because of this, docs could already able to be too big to be useful. "But outlines..." Not helpful since you can't specify to leave out sub-headings. Which means manually editing the outline every update. That's why I've moved 1000+ pages of docs to Obsidian.md this year. I highly recommend, especially if you might be adhd. Edit: to anyone interested, thi…

I’m guessing you can’t have a very wide section of the doc, either. Which is honestly a good thing, in my opinion.

You can cheat and create a very wide 1 cell table with a 0pt border and put your wide content in there.

Re: Google Docs New Feature: Pageless

#189

Post by dataangel »

gnicholas wrote: post #185

Does anyone know of a gdocs alternative that uses DOM-based rendering? Google recently transitioned from DOM-based rendering to canvas-based rendering, which prevents extensions like BeeLine Reader [1] from working. This has created problems for people with disabilities, who rely on it. I'm the founder of BeeLine Reader, and we are looking for an alternative platform that we can steer our customers (which include maj…

it's not web based, but how is the accessibility of open office? in theory it might be possible to compile it to WASM and get it running inside a browser

Re: Google Docs New Feature: Pageless

#190

Post by jer0me »

jonny_eh wrote: post #182
jer0me wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just spitballing, doesn't seem like you're on the team, but a possible solution could be a little popup when you hover over a footnote like Wikipedia has. Or maybe an option to put all the footnotes at the bottom of the document, except when printing.

How would hovering work for a non-mouse user?

Tapping, or perhaps it would appear when the cursor is next to the footnote?
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