[OS X TeX] LaTeX Panel in TeXShop

[Holger Frauenrath]

While I personally find that there is little to improve in TexShop 
itself, I would hope to see some improvements to the LaTeX panel 
included in TeXShop - and I would hope that someone who knows the 
developer who created it will forward this Email :-)

I think it is great that the LaTeX panel is included in TeXShop, 
because it is a good complement to the otherwise very simple interface 
of TeXShop. I would usually just manually write and code everything, 
and I love the simplicity of TeXShop for doing this (and I personally 
prefer it to iTeXMac for this reason). But sometimes it is very 
convenient to have the palette to add something which you do not know 
the syntax for, or simply to "touch up" the text.

In my opinion, the LaTeX panel could see some refinements.

1) The interface. I think it just consumes to much screen space - it is 
too broad. I think the space that the individual items consume should 
be reduced, items should be rearranged to allow for a narrower window, 
and the tabbed interface should be replaced in this context. An 
interface with collapsable sections instead of the tabs would be more 
appropriate in my opinion.

The inspector floating window in the 10.2 Finder (Cmd-Opt-I), and the 
formatting palette in MS Word (excuse me for this choice of an example 
- it is just one thing that MS got right in my opinion :-) are good 
examples. If you do not know exactly, what I am talking about, see 
<http://homepage.mac.com/hfrauenrath/images/palettes.jpg> for 
screenshots.

It should remember the state of collapsed/expanded sections, when you 
close it (this is another detail in the LaTeX panel I do not like - 
when you close and reopen it, it switches to the default tabs), and it 
should stick to the screen edges.

2) I would hope to see a more comprehensive list of insertable items 
(along the lines of the TeX/LaTeX menus in Alpha). I somehow seem to 
remember that you could add items to the panel, though. If this is 
correct, maybe someone could point me to where I can find out how to do 
this.

Best regards
Holger


--
Dr. Holger Frauenrath
Northwestern University
Department of Materials and Life Sciences
2220 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL, 60208
USA

Phone: (847) 467-6416
Fax: (847) 491-3010
Email: mail at frauenrath.com
Web: www.frauenrath.com


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