Old bug and new annoyances in iOS 7.

[rednoser]

After selling my iPad and buying a mini in order to type (thumb) faster for extended periods of time, I sent in a short iPhone clip to Steve that showed the problem I was having with an area about 2/3 to three quarters from the bottom up on the iPad mini screen. There's an area of about three lines that make selecting text extremely problematic. Selecting a word in the middle defaults to selection of a word at the end of the preceding line. As far as I can tell this only happens in Storyist, not in other apps. I also don't like it that selecting a word always bumps up the line, creating something of a hunt and peck game.

 

Now that iOS 7 has come around I notice something new: lag. Typing or deleting now invokes a moment of lag that prevents from working as quickly as I was used to. And yes, I do have enough unused memory available.

And there's more: tapping a word to select it now often selects nothing. The cursor then goes to the front of the first letter of that word.

I also had to increase my font size. Apparently iOS 7 or Storyist renders type smaller than was the case in iOS 6.

 

The iOS design in Storyist is fine. Things change. I can live with that.

[ross_h]

I noticed the same slight lag with the keyboard and especially with the lock screen password. There is an easy but annoying fix for this- settings/general/reset/reset all settings.

You'll have to go back and turn off all those battery killer features again, your wallpaper and wifi password, but at least the keyboard won't be laggy anymore.

 

One other thing- when I did this, I found the keyboard click stopped working. Finally figured out that as I was using the lock switch to disable screen rotation, when I reset all settings this switch reverted to it's default setting of muting the sound instead.

[Steve]

Hi Rudolf,

After selling my iPad and buying a mini in order to type (thumb) faster for extended periods of time, I sent in a short iPhone clip to Steve that showed the problem I was having with an area about 2/3 to three quarters from the bottom up on the iPad mini screen. There's an area of about three lines that make selecting text extremely problematic. Selecting a word in the middle defaults to selection of a word at the end of the preceding line. As far as I can tell this only happens in Storyist, not in other apps. I also don't like it that selecting a word always bumps up the line, creating something of a hunt and peck game.

If typewriter mode is enabled (which it is by default), Storyist will keep the insertion point centered in the typing area and scroll the text when you type. That means that when you tap a location near the top or bottom of the visible area, Storyist will first scroll the insertion point to the center. If your intention is to select a word (double tap) rather than position the insertion point (single tap), you'll probably want to wait until the word you tapped is centered before double-tapping it. Otherwise, you'll be trying to get that second tap in while the text is scrolling--that is, trying to hit a moving target.

If you find yourself wanting to select a lot of text and don't want to tap first to center the start of the selection, you can always turn typewriter mode off in the Storyist pane in the Settings app. The text editor will then behave more like the standard text view you see in other apps like Notes.

Now that iOS 7 has come around I notice something new: lag. Typing or deleting now invokes a moment of lag that prevents from working as quickly as I was used to. And yes, I do have enough unused memory available.

Nothing changed in the keyboard handling between 2.0 and 2.1, so this is, unfortunately, probably due to iOS 7.

One thing to try is turning off iOS 7's new automatic updates feature (Settings > iTunes & App Store > Updates). In iOS 7, apps are automatically updated in the background by default, which of course takes CPU time and could account for the lag, especially on older hardware like the Mini or iPad 2. Since iOS 6 didn't automatically update apps, a lot of people had out of date apps on their devices, so when they updated to iOS 7, the first thing their device did was update all their apps. There were a LOT of app updates for iOS 7 compatibility around launch day, and updating 40 or 50 apps can take quite a while.

If that doesn't work, there is a good summary of the tips for speeding up your device on iOS 7 in OSXDaily's If You Think iOS 7 Feels Slow Here’s How to Speed It Up.

And there's more: tapping a word to select it now often selects nothing. The cursor then goes to the front of the first letter of that word.

So double-tapping to select a word sometimes behaves as if you single-tapped the word? It sounds like your mini might be busy doing something in the background and missing a tap. Please post a screenshot of this if you get a chance.

I also had to increase my font size. Apparently iOS 7 or Storyist renders type smaller than was the case in iOS 6.

The system font in iOS 7 is Helvetica Neue, which is noticeably thinner than Helvetica (the system font in iOS 6 and earlier). Lots of people find this harder to read. Check out this article over at TUAW: iOS 7 video tip: Making text more readable.

 

-Steve

[rednoser]

Hi Steve, your replies always go way beyond what one would expect from support. My thanks. I have meanwhile turned off Typewriter Mode and I think that may have fixed another problem: selected text losing its handles and thereby its options bar. I noticed that since the iOS 7 update selected text would need to be reselected as it lost its handles after a few moments, sometimes when scrolling through it and sometimes spontaneously. The selected area remained blue, but the "Aa text button" drop down displays "No text selected."

I had to laugh when you asked for a screenshot of the cursor sitting at the first letter of a word. It looks just like that.

I did send you a movie a while back to illustrate the odd selection behavior where tapping a word 2/3 up would select a different word at the end of the preceding line or the beginning of the line, just not the word double-tapped. It's possible that increasing text size and spacing or turning of a Typewriter Mode took care of that because it's now not doing that.

[rednoser]

Okay, we're still in the woods with text selection. In iOS 7, when selecting several pages of text one has to be careful not to scroll down too far or the onscreen keyboard gets pushed down and with it the selection handles disappear, leaving the selected text blue, but according to the Aa button it's not selected at all, just blue.

Another bug and very annoying but perhaps due to Apple is that typing within existing text results in incomplete words and if you have spellcheck on they may even be turned into incomprehensible words. Apparently, iOS 7 can't keep up with typing speed and pushing existing text down the line at the same time, resulting in strange, ghostly, paragraphs.

[Steve]

Hi Rudulf,

 

I noticed that since the iOS 7 update selected text would need to be reselected as it lost its handles after a few moments, sometimes when scrolling through it and sometimes spontaneously.

The text selection handles disappear when you tap outside the selection or dismiss the keyboard, but they shouldn't "spontaneously" disappear. I'm not seeing this (my Mini is running iOS 7). Is anyone else?

 

The selected area remained blue, but the "Aa text button" drop down displays "No text selected."

You'd see this if the keyboard was dismissed...

 

I had to laugh when you asked for a screenshot of the cursor sitting at the first letter of a word. It looks just like that.

Sorry. I thought you were describing a graphics glitch.

 

I did send you a movie a while back to illustrate the odd selection behavior where tapping a word 2/3 up would select a different word at the end of the preceding line or the beginning of the line, just not the word double-tapped. It's possible that increasing text size and spacing or turning of a Typewriter Mode took care of that because it's now not doing that.

I remember the video. I'll dig out the ticket and see what happened with that.

 

-Steve

[Steve]

Hi Rudolf,

 

Okay, we're still in the woods with text selection. In iOS 7, when selecting several pages of text one has to be careful not to scroll down too far or the onscreen keyboard gets pushed down and with it the selection handles disappear, leaving the selected text blue, but according to the Aa button it's not selected at all, just blue.

On iOS 7, you can dismiss the keyboard by dragging down over the top edge of the keyboard like you can in the Messages app. This won't happen when you're selecting text, but it might if you are "flicking" down to scroll the text, and happen to grab the keyboard. Personally, I like the feature, but I can turn this feature off it trips up enough people.

 

Another bug and very annoying but perhaps due to Apple is that typing within existing text results in incomplete words and if you have spellcheck on they may even be turned into incomprehensible words. Apparently, iOS 7 can't keep up with typing speed and pushing existing text down the line at the same time, resulting in strange, ghostly, paragraphs.

It sounds like the device isn't drawing fast enough to keep up with your typing. I'm guessing you're using a physical keyboard with your Mini. If you're a fast typist, I suppose this could be an issue, but it should resolve itself. Zooming the text in or out should also correct it.

 

Have you tried turning off background app updating?

 

-Steve

[rednoser]

Hi Steve, yes, I turned off background updating. I also did a reboot to clear all memory and ran Storyist by itself (which, by the way is my go-to word processor. This may seem like all's bad, but in absolutely love using it and you are the most responsive developer ever). And no, I'm not using an external Keyboard. I specifically chose the mini for its smaller onscreen keyboard which makes holding and typing in portrait mode incredibly joyful compared to the much heavier large screen iPad, that is until iOS 7 came around.

I'm also experiencing crashes when I select a word and because of its much closer proximity compares to the previous version of the black Options Bar I accidentally hit Copy Style instead and boom! crash. Crashing, or rather closing, also happens when I return from the browser and I have to reopen the file every time. That used to be never the case. I actually never had crashes before this upgrade, so I'm totally blaming Apple if that makes you feel better

[Steve]

Hi Rudolf,

 

Hi Steve, yes, I turned off background updating. I also did a reboot to clear all memory and ran Storyist by itself (which, by the way is my go-to word processor. This may seem like all's bad, but in absolutely love using it and you are the most responsive developer ever). And no, I'm not using an external Keyboard. I specifically chose the mini for its smaller onscreen keyboard which makes holding and typing in portrait mode incredibly joyful compared to the much heavier large screen iPad, that is until iOS 7 came around.

I'm wondering if the performance issues you're seeing are due to something in your file.

 

I tried editing Tale of Two Cities (about 137,000 words) on my Mini using a physical keyboard. As you can see from the movie of it I posted here, the Mini is able to keep up without trouble. (I typed garbage to stress the spell checker and to be able to type as fast as possible.)

 

I'd be happy to take a look at the project file if you'd like. If not, it would be useful to know if your project has lots of images, changes styles frequently, or has significantly more that 137,000 words.

 

I'm also experiencing crashes when I select a word and because of its much closer proximity compares to the previous version of the black Options Bar I accidentally hit Copy Style instead and boom! crash.

Crashing on Copy Style in iOS 7 is a known issue, and a fix is already with the beta testers. It's the same Apple bug that was causing the format inspector to crash in version 2.0.1 on iOS 7. Unfortunately, I didn't catch it's affect on Copy Style. The fix should be out soon.

 

Crashing, or rather closing, also happens when I return from the browser and I have to reopen the file every time. That used to be never the case. I actually never had crashes before this upgrade, so I'm totally blaming Apple if that makes you feel better

This isn't a known issue, and unfortunately, I'm not seeing this. Is there a particular page or series of pages you're visiting in Safari?

 

-Steve

[rednoser]

Yes, my story is almost twice as long as Tale of Two Cities at 220,000 words. My notes page has another 60,000 words. It takes up 736k in Dropbox. No problem under iOS 6. It does not contain any images.

I'm not using Copy Style, just arbitrarily hitting it or something else on the Options Bar that appears when selecting text. I wish the bar hovered further away from the top of the selected text. Especially extending selected text by pulling a handle is a risky affair with the Options Bar so nearby.

I was using Safari as an example. Using Chrome, or any other browser or visiting another open app collapses my open file upon returning to Storyist. That would incidentally happen in iOS 6 too, but only if I had many apps open.

I will send you the file later today.

Thank you.

[rednoser]

Oh, man, I'm relentless. Trying to edit the title of a story results in a blank screen with just background wallpaper and the Done button visible.

[rednoser]

Piling it on: a "Select All" results in app crashing. Was okay in iOS 6.

[Steve]

Hi Rudolf,

 

Oh, man, I'm relentless. Trying to edit the title of a story results in a blank screen with just background wallpaper and the Done button visible.

 

I'm not seeing this, even with your large file (or getting reports of this from other users).

 

 

I think we need to look at your settings and any other things that might be different from the norm. I assume your device isn't jailbroken. It would be useful to know what language and keyboard settings you're using along with any accessibility settings you've changed from the defaults.

 

-Steve

[Steve]

Hi Rudolf,

 

Piling it on: a "Select All" results in app crashing. Was okay in iOS 6.

 

 

Unfortunately, I'm not seeing this, or getting crash reports from Apple that would indicate this is happening with any frequency.

 

 

I'd appreciate it if you could enable your Mini to send (anonymous) diagnostics and usage data to Apple (Settings > General > About > Automatically Send. That way, I can see what's going on.

 

-Steve

[Steve]

By the way, just double checking: You're running version 2.1, right?

 

-Steve

[Steve]

Hi Rudolf,

 

Thanks for sending the file. I don't have any issue editing it, but I do have some suggestions:

• At 212,000+ words, you should consider breaking the RTF file into several smaller files. Not only will the files open and save faster, you'll be transferring less data each time you sync with Dropbox.
• Consider breaking the file into chapters. There are currently no chapter divisions in the file, and Storyist can operate faster in certain circumstances if it can make assumptions about chapter boundaries.
• Consider importing your RTF file into a Storyist project. The Storyist text format (ODF) is more efficient than RTF.

-Steve

[rednoser]

Yes, running 2.1. Not jailbroken.

I enabled usage reports.

I exported an RTF from the mini without thinking, but I can send you the Storyist version from Dropbox.

Yes, the file has grown and I will break it up into Chapters. I used to have that, but my story dynamics changed.

The split keyboard was always invoked by finger-splitting it and getting the gray area. Didn't know about the long press.

I have US English and Dutck keyboards. No external keyboard. I actually like typing (thumbing) onscreen in portrait mode, and less to carry.

Accessibility is standard. Nothing tweaked.