2 ‘features’ that are preventing me from switching to 8

There’s seems to be an assumption that every RW page irrespective of its content will behave exactly the same, the “it works for me therefore it must be something you’re doing wrong” approach doesn’t stand.
It’s slightly disingenuous to compare a page consisting of, for example, 3 images and 30 paragraphs of text with one containing cms driven images and text content, dynamically sizing WebFonts, animated svg’s, AND 30 paragraphs of text.

Again, I’m NOT anti simulator nor do I feel that anyone else who’s commented is, I just would like a feature that was unnecessarily removed restored.

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I see why they moved it. I actually see why it would be considered an improvement. Having it separate the way it is now is actually super powerful. Using the custom option, it basically behaves the same, and now you don’t have to actually flip between the two methods.

For me the problem is that the rendering just seems much much slower when compared to how preview worked before. If it occurred at the same speed, I would say it’s a vast improvement. Not having to leave the editing window is really nice. But right now it’s agonizing. I hope with speed improvements this will aid my productivity. Though I do find myself switching to preview mode without thinking about it. It’s an adjustment to my workflow. But I think, once made, (and assuming the simulator gets faster), my workflow will speed up.

Maybe I can help you understand. People are saying it is a fault in the program, a mistake by the designers. I am saying it is not, that in fact, it enhances my usage of the program. I am saying that although some folks don’t like this change, I find it makes my ability to do what I do with RapidWeaver a better experience. Does that help you understand what I was bringing to the discussion?

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Why the {insert expletive here} does this conversation keep being bounced to a preview vs simulator battle??
Why the {insert expletive here} does it have to be one or the other??

All I and others would like is a removed feature reinstated, we don’t want simulator taken out back and shot!

And why is it so damn precious to some of you that the sheer idea of being able to change the width of the preview window is some sort of an abomination worthy of a crusade?

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I am one of the others

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The more I think about it, the more I change my view. I don’t think Realmac’s mistake was neutering Preview, while introducing the more powerful simulator. Their mistake was leaving the Preview mode in, period.

What Realmac should have done is simply removed preview entirely. Yes, those of us who loved preview would be mad, but, we’d have no choice, we’d adapt to simulator, and we’d move on, with what is a powerful tool, and probably begrudgingly give Realmac respect for introducing a more powerful feature and getting rid of old tech. Once we were forced to adapt to it.

By leaving Preview in, in a hobbled state, we continue to try to use it as it was, but that preview doesn’t exist anymore. Preview has essentially lost it’s purpose, and by remaining, in this neutered version, it really messes with our workflows, rather than forcing us to learn a different method.

If Realmac had just removed it entirely, and said, you have simulator now, I think we’d be less mad. As it stands now, Preview has no purpose but to piss us off as we futilely try to cling to our old workflows.

That’s just my thoughts on it.

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That will work once Simulator is 100% for everyone, at present it’s not. As Paul Russam says though it’s ridiculous how this keeps returning to a simulator vs preview debate when in actual fact it’s nothing of the sort.

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If you have plenty of screen area, Simulator is very nice to use. However, when working on a smaller screen (like a MBP13) Preview is easier to use.

Having everything in one Window works much better. In Edit mode, you really need the RW window taking up the full screen on small screens, so you have the most room for the content area. In RW7, you could easily switch to Preview and see how things look, and even make changes in the Sidebar and see how the change looks while in Preview mode.

To use Simulator, you’d need to reduce the size of the RW window to be able to see the Simulator window and at least the Sidebar area of the main RW window.

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On my laptop, I use the simulator windows on a separate MacOS Space (virtual desktop). Works really well.

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Whoa - I missed this whole thread. As someone who uses a laptop, but very rarely without two external monitors hooked up, I wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about (I keep the simulator open on my laptop screen). But, as I got closer to the bottom, I read how Paul has lots of other windows open. So, I disconnected one of my external monitors and attempted to work on a site. Oooh noooo! I see exactly what he is complaining about. And, I agree - why take that function away when it worked so well? Can it not be put back? That way, everyone is happy.

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They were probably betting on people just using command tilda to swap between windows, rather than swapping into preview. I stand by my previous comments. If they had just removed the old preview method, and rather than call the new one simulator, had just said this is preview now, and even attached the same hotkey, I think this entire discussion wouldn’t exist. It would be more like people just wanting it in the same window. It was silly to neuter it and leave it. Either remove it, or leave the functionality the same.

I had to take my car in for a service today, nothing big, about £80 worth of work.
When I went to pick it up I got in and went to throw my bag in the back and the rear seats were gone!
I obviously went back into the dealership to find out wtf was going on and the guy behind the desk explained that their research showed that the vast majority of their owners only ever had 2 people in the cars so they now remove the back seats for better economy.
“Come outside he said” and then he showed me that the car had also been fitted with a tow hitch and came with a trailer with the now removed rear seats bolted to it.
“When you want to carry more people, hook up the trailer” he said “plus, the rear doors still open so you’ve gained a 2nd trunk”
“My driveway isn’t big enough for a car and trailer” said I
“Pave over part of your lawn to park it” he suggested
“Can I at least have 1 seat in the back just in case” askied I
“Other owners wouldn’t like that” he replied
“I don’t carry much in my existing trunk” I said
“But now you can carry more of it!” He countered

And so it went on…

So, here I am with a better running car, that I’ll continue to use in exactly the same way I’ve been using it before except …
For when I really need it to be the 4 door/4 seat car I initiallly purchased it for.

Though … I do have a new trailer hitch which I wasn’t expecting so theres always an upside … I think?

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Hi @dan could you chip in and eventually restore the preview width change in addition to keeping the simulator?

about £80 worth of work.

I knew it was going to be good after reading that. :wink:

Regarding the inability to enjoy and contribute to a sensible discourse… yep, thats why I don’t post here very much anymore.

Don’t you still have to switch between spaces if you want to make a minor change and see the results?

I routinely do this in RW7. I have preview open and a stack’s setting open in the sidebar. I can make a change and RW refreshes the preview with my change. Now I’d need to switch spaces back to RW, make the change and then switch to the Simulator space. Seems annoying to me.

Again, on multiple screens or a large screen, Simulator is great. On a MBP13, it’s not nearly as nice as RW7 Preview.

We were trying to tidying things up by making the UI and the codebase more logical (and flexible). We’ll consider adding the in-window preview resizing back in — No promises, but it’s certainly on our radar now!

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Thanks Dan,
I’ve just had the perfect example this morning, I’m setting up a TotalCMS blog gallery and I’m trying to choose the best no. of thumbnails per row. I can quickly preview and then change the width ‘repeatedly’ AND because the stack is selected I can up it from 5to6 thumbs, vary the width, nope, 6to7, vary the width, nope, 7to8, vary the width, Bingo!
All in one window, on my MBP.

Now that you’re looking here could you also think about making the ‘remember last edit location’ an RW preference?

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Yes please

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I agree

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