Obsessed With Writing On Handheld Devices

Hello, greetings from Italy.

Take one line of Macro code for MS Word5 for DOS (most of you weren't even born yet)...

One measily stinking line cobbled together in 1987 by yours truly who had to smoke two cartons of cigarettes to figure out what a variable was... and three decades later voilà you have the most advanced editing system for STP's (smartphones, tablets and phablets) on planet earth.

Oh-oh, this IoshkaFutz is nuts... and yet I challenge anyone to come up with a snappier solution for editing on handhelds.

Luckily for me I have two implementations in the iOS sphere - both in good 4 plus editing apps (4.3 and 4.7). But I'll need to know if I can mention them because it might be construed as publicity.

All I need is one button that follows one simple and straightforward instruction and for the meat and potatoes of text editing I can run circles around any other app and still have enough time for a pancake breakfast.

In fact, today, on my iPad 4 I translated 5 thousand words (of a screenplay).

I took the curse of editing on the handheld flat screens, a situation caused by what I call "The Microsoft Anomaly"...

You know all your dinky editing programs on your Android phone / tablet and iPhone / iPad? You know all that moving mini-handles... all those repeated taps on Backspace? All wrong!

 

Born in 81 did not have a computer till the 90s.

 

Hi Wile, well at least you had a taste of the heroic period.

After college (Micky Mouse University) I started translating screenplays (from Italian to English), so I learned a helluva lot about text editing... especially on handhelds (my obsession). In the Nineties they were like this



Then they all disappeared and were replaced by the flat screens.

Everybody got a big treat. messaging is great and photography is marvelous, and you can instantly find the secret alleyways of Bogotà and Helsinki... bim-bam-boom. Fast! Easy, everything from banking to dating.

A big treat for everybody except the scribes.

We got mini-handles... Editing was easier in 1978 on WordStar.

I rebelled and I remembered by ancient Macro (things were better for non programmers back then)

<LEFT>«SET X=SELECTION»<RIGHT><F6><ESC>S«X»<TAB>D<ENTER><DEL>

One line of unga-bunga code... Oh what the great programming geniuses (whose shoes I'm not fit to shine) MISSED regarding text editing.

 

Hi, and Welcome to MajorGeeks.

The forum primarily focuses on Windows, however there are contributors who know Linux and Android.
As for iOS...

If your apps are freeware, I'm sure you can mention them. You can always message on of the Administrators.

 

Thank you Eldon,
Actually what you say regarding Linux and Android is GREAT for me.

Allow me to explain. I am agnostic concering the warring operating systems. Or rather I prefer Android, but as I said, I translate screenplays - industrial quanitities of 'em... and frankly the txt editing software in the iOS sphere handily beats what's available in Android. (Hand on my heart and my the pigeons of St Mark's Square gobble my eyeballs if I'm lying).

So I'm presently doing all my work on the iPAD mini... the perfect form factor for a whip-it-out, instant-on, work-anywhere/anytime device. I had my idea (that I hope to illustrate) implemented (one partially, the other WHOLE HOG)... so... well... what happens?

God is Great and Murphy is his prophet... Apple decides to kill the mini (the 8 inch form factor). All the other iPads are too big and scream for external keyboards (which means stationary chairs and tables) so fugheddabout it.

Well there are some real beauties in the Android sphere... perfect size, wonder specs... but the editing apps are sub par...

So if you have some Android programmers, I would love to turn them on to THE BETTER WAY OF TEXT EDITING.

 

I'm not aware of any members proficient in Android programming.
Obviously I don't know exactly what (or who) the members know, so hang in there. Hopefully someone can be of more assistance.

 

Hi again Eldon,
May I ask you for advice? What's the best forum thread here for a discussion about editing on handhelds?

Actually, the method is also valid in MS Word (I was able to get the macro working especially well on XP - Word 2003).

That would help illustrate its functioning. It also improves editing on a regular computer, but for them you've got great big physical keyboards, mice and function keys.

On the handheld flat screens instead, editing is so crummy that only a masochist would consider writing a novel, or translating a screenplay on them. This is what I have already changed. I can prove it conceptually... and then instead of indicating the ioS apps (that cost 7-8 bucks), I can show the MS WORD macros I use.

 

Start a thread over here:
https://forums.majorgeeks.com/forums/smartphones-and-tablets-software.67/

 

Thank you!!!!

 

I tried to look at android coding.But it's to complicated.There is a lot of stuff with android processes.It's actually more detailed then windows.

If you want a group to talk too,there is a group called XDA they handle a lot of android products.https://www.xda-developers.com/

 

Thanks for the link. I can imagine how complicated! (or maybe I can't). In any case, my editing concept is real simple.
Now I'll proceed to present it on the thread that Eldon suggested.