Book Browser issue

[Siggy15]

When double-clicking on an item in the book browser near the top or bottom of the pane, the list scrolls to center the item, and sometimes the item gets dragged to a new location in the list. It seems to be related to the timing of a double-click, and it happens a lot, and can go unnoticed, resulting in multiple pages out of order. I just found several more pages out of order from this. The solution should be simple: the list should never move itself, only the user should be able to make the browser list move.

[KevinH]

And I have no issues like that on my platform. So this is something specific to your setup and probably has something to do with drag distance, or you holding your mouse button down overly long and not releasing it until after you have started your move. etc.

You can increase the drag distance to prevent something becoming a drag until you click and hold on it and move far enough away. Check out the Sigil User Guide.

See the Advanced Topics chapter:

Use the environment variable:

SIGIL_DRAG_DISTANCE_TWEAK

This environment variable is Windows Only. You can set this to change the distance in pixels needed to move something before drag and drop is detected by the system. Its valid values range from -20 to 20 pixels.

[DiapDealer]

Why do people always assume that what they want should be simple to do?

I've never experienced this issue on Windows or Linux. If you don't drag while clicking, it shouldn't happen. If you can't keep from dragging when clicking, increase the SIGIL_DRAG_DISTANCE_TWEAK as Kevin mentioned.

[KevinH]

If increasing the drag distance does not help, then perhaps there is an underlying bug that I simply can not yet recreate.

So a few questions:

1. How long a long list of chapters is needed to see this bug?

2. Or does the list of chapters just have to be longer than the vertical height of Book Browser?

3. Does it only happen when double-clicking on leading and trailing chapters?

4. How far does the chapter move? Is it moving in the direction or opposite the direction of the centering scroll action?

If so, perhaps someone here can try to recreate what you are seeing and track down the exact set of conditions needed to recreate the bug. That should help us track it down and get if fixed.

I have never liked drag and drop for changing the order of file. Very recent versions of Sigil have a change Reading Order dialog that I find easier to use.

[KevinH]

I just tried with the Sigil User guide which has a long list of chapters.

Double-clicking on a file near the top worked with no drag and drop happening.
Then tried scrolling to near the bottom and double-clicking and it worked with no problems and no inadvertent drag and drop reordering happening.

Next I double-clicked on the last file so that the BookBrowser would scroll way down, then double-clicked on the very highest file I could still see in BookBrowser (** without scrolling **) and that did trigger a scroll but after the scroll completed, the file I double-clicked on had not moved at all (ie., no drag and drop happened) and it was nicely centered.

So there must be something more needed to trigger a bug (if one exists).

[Turtle91]

The OP mentioned “pages getting out of order”. I wonder if he has each page, rather than chapter, on its own html page in book browser. That could lead to hundreds of pages in the book browser. That may be contributing to extended drag/drop issues???

[BetterRed]

@KevinH, I doubt it's a bug, it's a 'feature' inherent in software that allows unmodified left button drag-n-drop to move things up and down an unsorted list.

IMO it's too easy to do inadvertently. The best solution would be to make it an optional 'feature' that defaults to Allow, so that existing behaviour doesn't change. And provide a Move->Up/Down/Top/Bottom context menu flyout for the book browser list along with equivalent user defined keyboard shortcuts.

Added: I avoid the problem by giving focus to the Book browser via the keyboard (Ctrl+Shift+B) and then using arrow keys to move up and down the list, and the Enter key to select.

On the OP's shrinking Book browser panel issue, I suggest a Lock panel option in the Book browser's title bar context menu:



I do wonder how many users even know that context menu exists. It also pops for right button click on title bars of Preview and Validation, but not the Clips title bar (it has its 'own' context menu).

BR

[KevinH]

So you can recreate what he is seeing? If so, how exactly do I trigger it?

[BetterRed]

Yes, because I "…can't keep from dragging when clicking…".

It was, in part, why I requested that the panel with focus be highlighted with a visible border, and that options be provided to give focus to a panel explicitly… both of which were implemented.

Inadvertently dragging things up and down lists has been a bugbear ever since the Xerox developed the WIMP interface. I first came across it in the late 1980's when my Usability Test group was asked to validate an 'expert system' for disability insurance claims.

[KevinH]

I meant specifically right now in Sigil. And if so, how exactly do I recreate it.

I could try to reduce the scroll induced drag by using EnsureVisible as the scrollHint for scrollTo instead of Centering but until I can recreate the issue I can not test if that change is sufficient to help. As double-clicking means what you are activating is already visible but it may not be centered.

[BetterRed]

Point mouse at a file, left double click to open file in CV, then move mouse with finger resting on the left button down.

If you've got a twitchy/sticky mouse (Logitech specialise in them) you can end up moving the file, if the file names are similar you may not notice you just moved a file.

BR

[KevinH]

I will give that a try but I doubt that will work as my drag distance on MacOS is quite large to prevent just that. I instead think the double-click causes a call to two things. One is to open in CodeView and the second is to scroll the BookBrowser window itself so that the just selected file is as centered as possible.

I think while the mouse button is still held down, the scrolling mechanism somehow makes it look like a drag and drop move. That is what I an worried about possibly happening but it requires a long list of files bigger than the BookBrowser window for any scrolling to happen.

That is why I was asking about how to trigger the bug from the OP.

[BetterRed]

I also tested on the Sigil User manual, and an epub with 343 files.

It happens most often if I open a file (e.g. toc.xhtml), followed by opening another further down the list (e.g. preferences.xhtml). The toc.xhtml may end up adjacent to preferences.xhtml unless I make a conscious effort to take my finger off the left button.

Maybe it's me, but I cannot induce the centering within the list behaviour. If I need to see the out-of-sight lower (or upper) part of the list I would normally use the PgUp/PgDn keys.

I tried using the scroll bar and the scroll wheel; didn't get centering with them either. Also tried Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End, they work as I would expect.

If they can, I suggest the OP create a video clip.

BR