ConnectedText v5

Posted by Graham Rhind
Sep 25, 2011 at 06:14 PM

Very understandable issue, Daly.

I’ve been dismissive of ConnectedText in the past, though I decided to give the new version a proper try. The reason I have so disliked older versions if that I just cannot understand why any program like this would not have a WYSIWYG interface. Version 5 has not changed much for me in that respect. Some commands can be achieved with a button press, but many cannot - one needs to learn a whole markup syntax. To do something I can do with three mouse clicks in Word, for example, requires at least 36 key strokes in CT. Word processors are WYSIWYG, as are many HTML editors, and I haven’t had to do any markup since the 1990s, so I don’t understand why CT won’t move in that direction (though without removing the editor window as that is good for power users).

That said, having delved into the program, I can see its use and its power. I remain very hesitant though. If it’s going to take me two days to mark up each few pages of text, given that one of my books is 1500 pages, I would have to be very sure to start on such a road.

As for learning it: the whole problem with wikis are a lack of a procedural structure. The links just click you away from what you’re working on and you lose track of what you’re learning. Great for reference, a pain for a novice. In the end I decided to read the first steps and other training chapters as though they had not links, so that I could actually get a proper overview, and that certainly helped. I also think that if the settings on installation were better thought through (e.g. that the editor pane colouring was set to on instead of off, so that you see text with structure rather than just a mass of plain text and mysterious tags) it could be much more learnable.

I do detect a slight whiff of software snobbery from the CT users in that respect - just like with Zoot - if you can learn to use it, you’re part of the gang. Otherwise - begone!

Graham