Give more vertical space for editing on small laptop screens
planned
Mark Ward
By my count, 40% of the vertical space on my MacBook Pro's screen, while using Chrome (approximately 600 pixels), is taken up by tabs and controls. That leaves 60% for the main thing I do. This is fine on my tall monitor at the office, but in coffee shops I feel like I'm peering through a slit at the articles I'm writing or editing. I'd love to be able to collapse the controls, or have some of them moved to the "gray space" at the sides.
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James Peacock
planned
Mark Ward
James Peacock: This is great news!
Mark Ward
Thank you so much for your detailed and courteous feedback! I work for a tech company; I know you can't promise quick implementation. I do suspect our remote work world (I'm at a coffee shop myself right now) means that more people are working from laptop screens. So I bet a focus mode will be much appreciated!
James Peacock
under review
James Peacock
Hi Mark, thanks for the feedback. I've been looking at some possible solutions to this, one of which would be the addition of a "focus mode". I've attached a GIF of a prototype of its functionality - would this be a good solution?
The reason we don't fill the full width of the screen with content is because of readability. There has been extensive research into appropriate line lengths for the best readability of content on screen, and we do our best to find a balance for all our users. We also currently use the right side of the screen for comments.
Granted, more could be done here in terms of customisation, for example setting the content width to your individual liking. We'll take this feedback on board.
Mark Ward
James Peacock: Yes, this looks awesome! I don't really need the controls while editing. I'd even want to collapse that bottom bar—either completely (sending it "down" just as you're sending the top tabs "up"), or shrinking it down to the right and providing only word count info, plus the keyboard for quick access to keyboard shortcuts.
James Peacock
Mark Ward: Yeah good point. There are a couple of reasons I've left it visible. One would be so you can see if you've been disconnected from the editor, and also so you can quickly turn off focus mode. But maybe there's a way to make that status bar smarter, for example, so it would appear if there was a disconnection.
Regardless, thanks for the feedback. I'm in talks with our development team to see what the possibility is of implementing this, but I can't make any promises or give any ETA. I'll share an update when I have some news.
J
Jen Grisham
Very much seconding this! The space on the left is needed for content and it would be great if it could adjust to fit the width of the screen, instead of just making the content section smaller.