Text sometimes not showing in right-hand pane (fixed when restart TB)

I am not sure if this is a bug or user error. I notice that at some point when working with my main TB file, the text of a note is no longer shown in the text pane. The key attributes continue to display and the text appears when I switch to preview or html view. Once this behavior starts, it seems consistent across notes. If I close TB and re-open, then the text appears as expected.

Are others seeing this? Any thoughts on what might trigger this?

The file in question has just over 2300 notes and is just under 6M. I am running Version 7.3.1 (b292)

Thanks!

George

Yes, I noticed exactly this behavior early today with b292. As in your case, I found that it went away if I closed and re-opened the file. Here is a short video I made to illustrate the issue:
“https://www.dropbox.com/s/bryiqgbmdi8swfq/MissingTextPane.mov?dl=0”

I would guess this is part of the ever-evolving display-handling tweaks in TB.

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We’ll try to track this down. More information on the issue? info@eastgate.com !

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Thanks, if this recurs I’ll try to note the circumstances – whether it’s just one file or all that are open at that time, what I was doing beforehand, etc. So far it’s been just one episode for me, which was cleared by closing-and-reopening the specific file affected. Will provide more clues directly to Tech Support if I encounter it again.

It has happened to me numerous times. For me it happens when switching from outline view (where I usually start) to map view. When I switch to outline the text reappears. If I switch to map view, it disappears again.

Edit: hmmm – it seems to be affected by the position of the separator between the panes. If the text pane is very narrow, no text appears. Moving the separator to widen the pane makes the text flow in. In the scenario I described above, the map view had a very narrow text pane, while the outline view did not.

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If the text pane is narrow, no text appears, because the text would either be set to a ridiculous line width or would be partly obscured and thus illegible. This is intended and in fact a good deal of effort has been devoted to polishing this; if your Mac is sufficiently powerful, for example, the text pane will gradually fade as you narrow its compass.

But that’s not the problem described here, which has been reported twice but is clearly quite rare. What’s happening here is, apparently, a problem in which the text pane is hidden as if no note was selected, even though a note is selected. We’ve not yet been able to reproduce the issue.

Interesting choice. I suppose I am used to the paradigm that a narrow window (nearly wrote “widow”) still shows the beginning of the line, which does at least tell you that your stuff hasn’t disappeared, even though you can’t read all of it. Indeed, being able to see a few words may be enough to remind you what the note said without you having to see the rest of it. But this has at least led me to rediscover “Hover”, which is good. I use Tinderbox about once every five years, so I’m hardly an accomplished user. I have been trying to pick it up again in the past couple of weeks as I feel I ought to use it more, but I always have difficulty in finding a use for it.

On visual glitches, I guess I’m primed to see them because there have been so many in recent times with pdfs and the like in various programs.

This happens to me all the time when using Treemap view, which otherwise would be my favorite view. To clear the problem, it’s usually sufficient to use Command-Tab to switch to another application and then Command-Tab to switch back. But the problem reoccurs every time I choose another note, making Treeview pretty much unusable.
My document has fewer than 100 notes and is less than 400 KB. Restarting the Mac and making sure that unnecessary applications are not running doesn’t help.
The problem occurs with Treemap, not with Outline or Map. The 3 attached graphics show all 3 views with the same note selected.
The note that is shown in Treemap is one that I selected some time before. Selection of the note in the righthand pane (but not usually display of its contents) happens without a hitch the first one or two selections, but then the system seems to get overwhelmed.
I find it counter-intuitive, but probably useful for finding a fix, that Command-Tabbing to another app should clear the problem.

If you have a sample document that reproduces the problem, please do send it to info@eastgate.com

OK, I have done so. Hope it helps.

I believe this is fixed in the current backstage build, and the next release.

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