[cloudygit]

Hi

Automatic scrolling allows pausing for a defined time which is great. For some songsheets additonal information about the scrolling status would be helpful to realign to the document (I do not play to a definded timing). So I wonder if it was possible to have some "navigation support" which could help to see where in the document I am and when the next scroll is going to start (maybe sort of progress bar on the top or at the side of the page -- similar to the car NAV systems when approaching a crossing or the like). This could be used also combined with the countdown at the beginning as I think a moving bar is more intuitive than numbers to read.

Cloudygit

[Zubersoft]

Hello,

It would help if we come up with specifics for how this would work in the UI. So, in terms of seeing where you are in the document, what kind of visualization would you want for that? A percentage of the progress through the song? A small progress bar like you mentioned? Would it always be visible as you scroll through the entire song? When it comes to the time until the next scroll, do you just want a countdown indicator on the screen between each scroll? The more details about how you envision this working, the better.

Thanks,
Mike

[cloudygit]

...in terms of seeing where you are in the document, what kind of visualization would you want for that? A percentage of the progress through the song? A small progress bar like you mentioned? Would it always be visible as you scroll through the entire song? When it comes to the time until the next scroll, do you just want a countdown indicator on the screen between each scroll? .......

Hi Mike


 
So let me try to add some more information...


In terms of seeing where I am in a document in the first step I think of an unobstrusive monochrome (maybe semi transparent) scroll bar as well known and commonly used in text editors. I don’t really know but assume that this is usually based on the percentage of the document. If the document has just one page there is indeed no need for it. Otherwise the scrollbar should appear as an opt in feature (in the settings). The slider would move downwards in line with scrolling down along the document.
 
About a countdown Indicator I suggest also a visual/ intuitive approach instead of numbers to read. One idea would be that a few (tbd) seconds before the next scroll the entire scrollbar gets colored. With approach to the next scroll action just the color would also shrink downwards and dissappear with scrolling (think of the Methronome LED movement but no visible steps and of course backwards). In the end just the scroll bar with the slider, now on its new position, is visible - until the next approach to the next scroll action where the color appears again.
 
Please see this just as a suggestion. I’m not a software developer nor do I know anything about feasibility, complexity or efford at all. And I don’t know yet what other users think about this idea and whether or not this feature would be helpful for them, too.
 
I use Mobilesheets now for several years – it’s a exceptionally useful piece of software. And I can rate it surely as one of the most userfriendly programmed (and definitively best supported!) apps I’ve ever had, in fact independently from the category!

Cloudygit

[Zubersoft]

So I can see one small problem with this. With a text editor, the entire file is usually buffered into memory so that it understands the entire content of the file. It then renders this as necessary based upon the current settings in the editor, taking into account word wrapping, line endings, etc. So if you scroll down a certain portion of the pages, it knows exactly where you are in relation to all the pages, because it's already buffered those into memory. With MobileSheetsPro, if you have a 500 page document, I don't load all 500 pages into memory (there wouldn't even be enough memory on most devices for that). I load only a small number of pages into memory. So if I wanted to provide a scroll bar that could tell you how far you are through the document, it would be slightly innaccurate. What I would probably have to do is divide up the available height of the scroll bar by the number of pages in the entire song. I would then know how much vertical space would be allocated for each page. As the current page is being scrolled, I can offset the scroll bar by percentages of the allocated space for a single page, so that part should be accurate enough. The reason this approach is slightly inaccurate is that it makes the assumption that every page has the exact same height as I'm allocating the same amount of vertical space in the scroll bar for each page.  This may not matter for most cases though - as long as you have a general idea of how far you are through the song, that's probably good enough.

I'll have to think about the countdown indicator some more. The statement you made that the "color would also shrink downwards" is a little confusing to me in terms of the actual implementation. Are you suggesting the color would fade out or something along those lines? Another idea would be to use color changes to indicate that the scroll is about to occur. Like blink the scrollbar blue several seconds before the scrolling is about to start and then blink a different color one second before it's going to trigger (like green or a different shade of blue). I'm not sure what is best.

Mike

[cloudygit]

Oh I see, there's a really different way to manage files. The idea is just to get a feeling for the document and the actual position therein.  So there should be no need for technically correct information particularly in big documents. Linking to the amount of pages should be sufficient (at least for my needs).

About the countdown indicator I did not think about really fading out the color. I just thougth about a sort of decent semi transparent colored scroll bar but only the color shows the informaton for scrolling, getting shorter and shorter continously until it runs out/dissapears with start of scroll-action. At this point the entire scroll bar should be monochrome again and the color would appear not until several seconds before the next scrolling. So both functions, scroll bar and countdown indicator, are merged in one display.

In general I would describe the function similar to the behaviour of the LED Methronom, indeed backwards from full to zero and with no recognizable "steps" (just getting smaller in height). So it would behave more as an analog information which is more intuitive. The information should not distract from the main issue -- reading music

Update 23rd May2018:
Another, maybe simpler suggestion for the countdown indicator: If it was more suitable to install an indicator based on the screen height it would be sufficent to have sort of pointer moving along the screenside downwards. Reaching the bottom the next scroll would start.

cloudygit