Re: [Pan-users] Howto unwrap text in body pane to available space

[ashwin kesavan]

On 3 August 2013 13:14, Steven D'Aprano <address@hidden> wrote:

On 03/08/13 16:50, ashwin kesavan wrote:

HI,

I am using pan 0.139 . I have a big screen. I see that pan wraps text in
message to 80 char or something like that. How do i make pan text to fill
the available space in body pane ? Like free floating text. I am unable to
find a setting that can do this. My searches on google haven't produced
anything useful.

Your eyes will thank you not to do this.

There is a reason why wide newspapers and magazines wrap text into short
columns of about 60-70 chars (8-10 words). Unless you are using a
bi-directional language which reads left-right, right-left, it is much
harder to return to the start of the next line if the line is extremely
wide: eye strain increases, concentration suffers, reading speed slows
down, and the rate of errors increases.

Thanks Steven for looking into this.

Pan is not same as newspaper. In newspaper the whole is dedicated to text and a very minor portion is allocated to meta data. But here in pan, the meta data portion of group pane and Header pane that play a important role and does occupy lot of screen space. I know that i can change the layout, but doing so hurts the fast switching between messages. 

In thunderbird, i switched to free floating text and i actually liked it. I have been using thunderbird with that setting for couple of months now and it doesnt hurt. I think the pan user should be able to choose whichever he feels comfortable with.

 

[start rant]
It's really annoying how young people today think that nobody ever read text
before the invention of the iPad, and there is nothing to learn from the
print and publishing industries, who have been dealing with text readability
issues for a few centuries now and might be expected to have learned a few
things. These young people need eighteen months of National Service to whip
them into shape.
[end rant]

:-)


Only kidding about the National Service part, but the rest is only half
tongue in cheek. Really, publishers have been dealing with readability
issues for centuries, and have learned a few things about what makes text
easy to read. Really wide lines is *not* one of those things.



--
Steven

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