Correct indentation for bulletin points

kofifus · Feb 15, 2015#12015-02-15T02:06+00:00

I am looking for a way to provide correct indentation for bulletin points

Basically what I want is that if the first character in a line is '-', word wrap will align the first character of the next line not under the hyphen but under the first word _after_ the hyphen

So instead of

Code: Select all

- this is a very long line that
wraps under

I will get

Code: Select all

- this is a very long line that
  wraps under

Is this possible?

Also this can maybe be extended to number/letter bullets etc for example checking if the first word of a wrapped line ends with a '.' (i.e. '1a.') and indenting under the first letter of the second word ...

Thanks!

Mofi · Feb 15, 2015#22015-02-15T09:53+00:00

I think, it would be better to use a word processor for writing text with lists than a text editor like UltraEdit.

UltraEdit has an auto-indent feature to indent and unindent lines. But this feature is designed for programming languages and not general text writing. An automatic indent by the value configured for tab respectively indent spaces for the active file type of the next line on hitting key Return or Enter searches the entire line for the indent strings defined in syntax highlighting language applied to the file respectively current block. And on hitting key Return or Enter the entire line is also searched for the unindent strings defined in syntax highlighting language to decrease the indentation of the active line if an unindent string is found.

So it is not really possible to get what you want with the auto-indent feature as it is not possible to limit indent matching on first string of line after leading spaces/tabs.

What you want is partly possible with a syntax highlighting wordfile like below for files with file extension TXT in any case.

Code: Select all

/L20"Text" Noquote File Extensions = TXT
/Delimiters = ! $	'*,/:;<=>@[\]^`{|}~
/Indent Strings = "-" "+" "1." "2." "3." "4." "5." "6." "7." "8." "9." "10." "a)" "b)" "c)" "d)" "e)" "f)" "g)" "h)"
/Unindent Strings = "no_unindent"

You can add even more indent strings. But as I wrote above, the automatic indent is done if one of those strings is found anywhere in the line, not just at beginning of the line. And the indent is always made by 1 tab or the number of indent spaces, but not to second string after a space/tab of the line above.

So I think, it would be more practical to configure for *.txt files:

Use spaces in place of tabs: checked
Tab stop value: 8
Indent spaces: 2 or 3

Then you can hit key Tab to do the indent. But even this configuration does not work for any lists. This is also the reason why in word processors have by default multiple list styles defined with individual hanging indents depending on list item (symbol, letter, digit, ...).

kofifus · Feb 15, 2015#32015-02-15T23:25+00:00

Thank you Mofi for the detailed reply !

As you mentioned the automatic indent you suggest will not work as it matches anywhere in the string and not just the beginning, and even if it did it would indent in the wrong place. That's a shame.

I do think such a feature will be very useful. As someone who deals with big texts I find RTF editors/word etc cumbersome and distracting. Basically they force me to deal with presentation (margins/fonts/etc) from the very beginning when all I want to do is write the content. However one of the sorely missing things in plain text is correct outlining.

Maybe I should post a feature suggesting.

Mofi · Feb 16, 2015#42015-02-16T07:08+00:00

Yes, it is best to send a feature request email to IDM support if you can clearly define the requirements (rules) for a "text based auto-indent for lists feature".

When I think about it from a C/C++ programmers view it is not really easy to define those requirements on a very general base although it looks simply at beginning. But the devil is in the details. For example how to define - fixed or customized by user via a configuration - what should be interpreted as the beginning of a list item? There are so many different list styles. What about realignment for example if using 1. 2. 3. and number increases to 10. 11.? Should this feature be also supported in programming languages for example in block or line comments, i.e. for lists in Doxygen comments using Markdown syntax?