Breaking up a section

[Curtis Clifton]

> Le mercredi, 8 déc 2004, à 07:55 America/Indianapolis, Tim Hodgson a 
> écrit :
>
>> I have an item consisting of several paragraphs. Is there a way to 
>> select
>> a para and turn it into a separate item?

On Dec 8, 2004, at 7:34 AM, Alexandre Enkerli wrote:

(edited to eliminate top-posting)

> You'll probably get straighter answers, but...
> If your keyboard preferences are set to creating a new line at the 
> insertion point on return, just press return. If not, I thought there 
> was a shortcut like option-return but I can't find it.

If the "When creating new row, split current row at cursor" option is 
off, then moving the insertion point before the paragraph and typing 
control-return splits the row.  There is a tip in gray text in the 
Keyboard preferences that indicates this.

> Speaking of which, this is one thing about OO that may seem very 
> logical for people but should really be clear to users. Not sure which 
> strategy to make it clear but maybe changing the Preferences dialog to 
> be more explanatory...

I was wondering this just yesterday.

I wonder if it would help to have some sort of graphical indicator, 
perhaps in the form of a toolbar button that shows what would happen if 
you press return.  The icon would have several possible states based on 
the preference settings and modifier keys held down: new younger 
sibling, new child, new older sibling, new younger sibling with 
splitting, new line in current row ...

A similar approach might be used to give visual indication for what the 
tab key will do.

It's been awhile since I read the Apple Human Interface Guidelines, so 
I don't know if making this a toolbar button would be considered good 
form.  As a toolbar button, one could always customize the toolbar to 
include/omit the button.  The button should probably function as a 
button and not just an indicator.  That is, option-click on the button 
would be equivalent to typing option-return.

Thoughts?

Curt

----------------------------------
Curtis Clifton, PhD Candidate
Dept. of Computer Science, Iowa State University
http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~cclifton