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Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

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Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#221

Post by ghaff »

wayfinder wrote: post #207
ghaff wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

I’m probably more like 20 with a much higher error rate than on my laptop. And more focus required.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#222

Post by laurentlb »

fisian wrote: post #8

My biggest problem in editing on mobile is changing a text selection (for example a long URL or long text paragraphs) that don't fit on screen at once. Once I have to scroll (vertically or, even worse, horizontally) in addition to moving the selection handles the UX is just terrible.

Came here to say the same: editing a URL is very painful. I wish I could use a multiline editor for the URL.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#223

Post by jameshart »

awinter-py wrote: post #143

I typed 55wpm on my blackberry without looking. The fact that you have to constantly look at the screen keyboard and correct it is a huge attention suck and kills my input speed On blackberry, a mistake was one wrong character. On screen keyboards with swipe and autocorrect, a mistake can be inserting 1 or 2 random words Screen keyboard doesn't work in the rain while we're griping: - on an older android device the bu…

Typing is a separate problem. And if you want a physical keyboard on a mobile device you can actually have one. But that still won’t solve editing.

Editing on your blackberry was even clunkier than the touch affordances that this post is about - just cursor keys, right? Now, you might argue that if you can type fluently you won’t need to edit as much - but the point here is about enabling mobile devices to be much more than just message input devices, but actually to do things like revise documents. You’re not using text manipulation affordances just to correct typos but to make significant changes to existing bodies of text.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#228

Post by makeitdouble »

I completely agree with author's view of the issue. Text editing on iOS and android have always been an afterthought. I mean, how much time did it take for the iPhone to get Copy/Paste ?

The weirder part to me was that the iPad didn't bring much improvement on that front. Even with a bigger screen and "desktop class" application, text editing only barely works with a keyboard/touchpad attached. The only improvement has been on moving the text cursor, yet it's still a real pain to select random text in the middle of a page.

On the solution though .... I think we should really do something simpler than introduce new paradigms and further dig the "that's how we do it on mobile" well.

Just give people damn arrow keys and a crontrol key: let them put a cursor on the middle of the text they want, move the cursor with ultimate precision exactly where they want it, and shift select the text they need.

Android does the arrow part right, Windows' on screen keyboard does both right. It's incredible how liberating it is to just select text with the arrow keys, hit ctrl+C, crl+V it elsewhere and be done. That's really not that much to ask, Apple not doing anything in this front feels like sheer laziness at this point.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#229

Post by thrownblown »

walteweiss wrote: post #195
kibwen wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 found even better laptop, if you don’t need any extra slots (most of the time I don’t): GPD P2 Max 2022. The world's smallest Ultrabook: https://gpd.hk/gpdp2max2022

As a bit of a GPD fanboi I have both a pocket 2 and a pocket max. When I was a server admin, pocket 2 went everywhere with me in a pelican case. That was just this side of too bulky to carry without noticing.

Pocket max in the pelican was just on the other side of that threshold.

The benefit of the pocket 2 is the full windows/linux installation alongside the usable qwerty keyboard.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#230

Post by cratermoon »

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…

Holy cow, you just improved my life! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRUCnZFv9Ro
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