Word wrap / "soft" line breaks

Word wrap / "soft" line breaks

[Sven Havemann]

Hi!

I would like to configure the behaviour of Emacs concerning the display 
of long lines of text.

What it does:
=============
Long lines (say 800 characters with one newline at the end) fill several 
lines in the window, but emacs treats them as one long continuous line: 
Words are broken right in the middle and continued on the next line, 
which is indicated with a small bent arrow. Navigation is possible only 
to the left and right, the up and down keys may skip a dozen lines in 
the window. The alternative is using auto-fill, but that inserts many 
newlines, and I have to re-format the paragraph whenever I change 
something in it.

What I would like it to do:
===========================
A true word wrap mode where long lines fill the width of the window, but 
complete words are put on the next line if they do not fit. Up- and 
down-keys work as expected, going down one line on the screen, and not 
one line of the file.


Any help is appreciated,
thanks in advance,
cheers,
Sven

Re: Word wrap / "soft" line breaks

[roodwriter]

Sven Havemann <s.havemann@cgv.tugraz.at> writes:

> Hi!
> 
> I would like to configure the behaviour of Emacs concerning the
> display of long lines of text.
> 
> What it does:
> =============
> Long lines (say 800 characters with one newline at the end) fill
> several lines in the window, but emacs treats them as one long
> continuous line: Words are broken right in the middle and continued on
> the next line, which is indicated with a small bent arrow. Navigation
> is possible only to the left and right, the up and down keys may skip
> a dozen lines in the window. The alternative is using auto-fill, but
> that inserts many newlines, and I have to re-format the paragraph
> whenever I change something in it.
> 
> What I would like it to do:
> ===========================
> A true word wrap mode where long lines fill the width of the window,
> but complete words are put on the next line if they do not fit. Up-
> and down-keys work as expected, going down one line on the screen, and
> not one line of the file.
> 
> 
> Any help is appreciated,
> thanks in advance,
> cheers,
> Sven

That's long been a problem with Emacs, but not anymore. Get the add-on
longlines.el. That'll give you exactly what you're looking for.

I'm a full-time writer and I use it every day. It's much superior to
all the other work-arounds.

--Rod
______________________
Author of "Linux for Non-Geeks--Clear-eyed Answers for Practical
Consumers" and "Boring Stories from Uncle Rod." To reply by e-mail
take the second "o" out of the e-mail address.

Re: Word wrap / "soft" line breaks

[Mathias Dahl]

Sven Havemann <s.havemann@cgv.tugraz.at> writes:

> What I would like it to do:
> ===========================
> A true word wrap mode where long lines fill the width of the window,
> but complete words are put on the next line if they do not fit. Up-
> and down-keys work as expected, going down one line on the screen, and
> not one line of the file.

This is a common request. I don't have any serious problems with it
that I cannot handle in various ways. You might want to take a look at

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/LongLines

or

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/RefillMode

And there is a "category" page for filling:

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/CategoryFilling

Hopefilly you will find something there.

Re: Word wrap / "soft" line breaks

[Sven Havemann]

Dear Mathias,
Dear Rod,

Thanks a lot, longlines.el is a great solution!

Sven


Mathias Dahl wrote:
> Sven Havemann <s.havemann@cgv.tugraz.at> writes:
> 
>> What I would like it to do:
>> ===========================
>> A true word wrap mode where long lines fill the width of the window,
>> but complete words are put on the next line if they do not fit. Up-
>> and down-keys work as expected, going down one line on the screen, and
>> not one line of the file.
> 
> This is a common request. I don't have any serious problems with it
> that I cannot handle in various ways. You might want to take a look at
> 
> http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/LongLines
> 
> or
> 
> http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/RefillMode
> 
> And there is a "category" page for filling:
> 
> http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/CategoryFilling
> 
> Hopefilly you will find something there.



roodwriter@core.com wrote:
 >
 > That's long been a problem with Emacs, but not anymore. Get the add-on
 > longlines.el. That'll give you exactly what you're looking for.
 >
 > I'm a full-time writer and I use it every day. It's much superior to
 > all the other work-arounds.
 >
 > --Rod
 > ______________________
 > Author of "Linux for Non-Geeks--Clear-eyed Answers for Practical
 > Consumers" and "Boring Stories from Uncle Rod." To reply by e-mail
 > take the second "o" out of the e-mail address.