word wrap cutoff indicator

Steve-o · Post by **Steve-o** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 11:51 pm

In some text editors I've used, there is a vertical line (solid or dashed) to indicate the currently-set word wrap position (or, in other words, it marks the right margin). I find this really useful when doing formatting of my files. I can always resize the TextPad window itself so it's only as wide as my desired number of columns, but that number of columns varies from one document class to another, and it leaves me having to resize the window a lot. It's especially frustrating if I have two documents of different classes open at the same time and want to switch between them, so I would love to see such an (optional) wrap-marker line in the TextPad setup.

Steve-o

talleyrand · Post by **talleyrand** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 2:44 am

Not to be dense, but if you define your word break at column X and type away as you wish, line-breaking when you feel like it. At the conclusion of a paragraph, highlight the entire paragraph and ctrl-J. Highlight the current line and ctrl-shift-J will reformat it for you.

Steve-o · Post by **Steve-o** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 4:13 am

talleyrand wrote:Not to be dense, but if you define your word break at column X and type away as you wish, line-breaking when you feel like it. At the conclusion of a paragraph, highlight the entire paragraph and ctrl-J. Highlight the current line and ctrl-shift-J will reformat it for you.

Yeah, I know. I use ctrl-j quite frequently. I was really excited, actually, when I saw that TextPad had that feature. I've tried many text editors (well over a dozen) and never seen another one besides PICO (and its clone, NANO) that did that, but obviously there are other disadvantages to using PICO exclusively. Automatic paragraph reformatting was one of the deciding factors in my switch from Prolix to TextPad.

I just find it useful to know exactly where the end of line is for when I want to make manual changes to the formatting of a paragraph (like to avoid leaving orphans) as well as when I am writing non-prose that I don't plan to ctrl-j at all like HTML code or dividing lines, or if I want to center something, etc., etc.. Hence, my desire for a visual reminder of where it is.

Steve-o

rcoats · Post by **rcoats** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:43 pm

This would also be very useful for programming in languages which place a set limit on the length of lines. In the case of some IBM languages the last column (often 72) also has a special significance.

kate · Post by **kate** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 2:10 am

If I could have one enhancement added to TextPad, it would be this. I find the cutoff indicator invaluable when writing code (I've used eclipse to write java and it has it). Seeing as I now use TextPad for all my coding - home and work - this feature would be awesome.

Ray K. · Post by **Ray K.** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 3:13 pm

I would be most interested in this improvement. I am used to other applications that use such a feature, and find it much more useful than highlighting the current line. I frequently have to print out my code, and I like to format it in such a way that it is eye pleasing. This is much easier when you can visualize the right margin.

PLEASE ADD THIS!

HungNguyen · Post by **HungNguyen** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 1:00 am

Yes, please add this feature to provide visual cue when editing JCL command for IBM mainframe. Thanks.

gracefool · Post by **gracefool** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 7:20 am

Would be helpful, and stop me from having to enable "view visible spaces".

pagameba · Post by **pagameba** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 12:53 am

I really like this feature in other editors, it would be a great enhancement!

muthm · Post by **muthm** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 7:12 pm

Please, please, please!
I am using TextPad for programming, and one of my personal style guide rules is to never have more than 80 characters in a line.
Using the automatic word wrap is cumbersome in programming, as breaking the line up into two should be at a significant break, not just where the line ends. This means that I have have to rejoin and reformat manually after an automatic wrap, which is why I don't use it.

I am glad to have found this forum to see that many others have the same improvement suggestion.
In fact, I found the forum when I searched for a contact address on the web site just to make this proposition and ask whether and when a "wrap column marker line" could be implemented...

Thank you for your continuing support!

Greetings from Germany!
Matthias

PS: BTW, TextPad's German localization is great!

SamBarr · Post by **SamBarr** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:32 pm

I am very interested in having this feature.
I often Copy text from a webpage and then Paste the text
into TextPad.

I do a Reformat and each line extends to the width of my
screen (131). I want the longest line to be 72 characters.

Also, when I print I do not want the lines to wrap.
Thanks,
Sam

talleyrand · Post by **talleyrand** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 3:14 pm

To disable wrapping of lines when printing either go into the specific file's properties (right click the main screen and select properties) or the class's properties and under the printing tab, uncheck Word Wrap Long Lines.

Wraps · Post by **Wraps** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 5:29 pm

Please add my vote for this feature too. As stated above, I like to decide when and if I'm going to adhere to a max column width, not have it imposed by setting a hard break.

Rodrigo · Post by **Rodrigo** » Wed May 11, 2005 2:59 pm

*bump*

This would be useful, but we code @ 96 chars (delphi)

so could it be possible to change the vertical position of this line.

muthm · Post by **muthm** » Wed May 11, 2005 3:25 pm

Rodrigo wrote:This would be useful, but we code @ 96 chars (delphi)
so could it be possible to change the vertical position of this line.

I guess this is easy: For the hard break, the "Word break at column number:" option in the "Configure/Preferences/Document Classes/<document class>" dialog is used to set the column for all documents of a given class, and the same option in the "Preferences" tab of the "Properties" context menu entry is used to set the column for a single file.
I think this option field could be used for the marker line as well.
Just another checkmark box switching the marker line on or off would do the job (independent of whether breaks are on or off).

Greetings
Matthias

Community