Half-successful at switching CSS style sheet for preview
Completed
I prefer looking at serif fonts, even in draft (or I should say, especially in draft). I found a "universal" CSS sheet on Github in two flavors San Ho Light and San Ho Dark. I downloaded both of them and added them to the folder in App Support for MMD Composer. They appeared, where I expected in the dropdown menu for Preview CSS choices. I chose San Ho Light on each of two machines running nvUltra on Big Sur 11.6... Everything runs fine, and there's no sign of any problem. However, though it took a while for the CSS to preview in whatever serif face gets loaded on one machine – it took so long, with no changes in appearance, I assumed my ignorance had once again caught up to me, and there was something I was supposed to do that I didn't or the obverse (I was supposed to not do something that unwittingly, as yet, I did do...).
The other device is still showing previews in the same sans serif fonts it did before I loaded San Ho Light and Dark.
I've checked all preference settings in every panel on both devices, and they are set exactly the same way.
Any ideas? What am I doing wrong?
Thanks.
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I'm afraid I would need more detail as to exactly what you are doing and how, in order to begin to understand what is happening.
1. Which application are you using? You mention MultiMarkdown Composer, but this is support for nvUltra.
2. Exactly what folder are you using for the CSS?
3. How did you change the selected Preview CSS?
4. What do you mean when you say it took "so long" to update? Changing the CSS is basically "instantaneous" assuming you're not doing something strange.
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sorry about that... My fault for not getting my technical syntax correct.
1. The only app I'm using is nvUltra (just updated to the 9.30 version just released). I'm only talking about the "preview" function (the one that can be toggled) within nvUltra... In preferences, I selected the "Preview" control panel.
2. I selected the CSS file listed in the menu (a short selection list, starting with Github), and I accessed the CSS "folder" by clicking on the "Open CSS Folder" button next to the window for choosing the CSS file. Opening that folder gave me its location which is ~/Library/Application Support/MultiMarkdown Software/CSS... My first mistake may have been adding "Composer" to this "reference" to MultiMarkdown software [isn't this your product?]
I performed the same set of actions in each installation of the nvUltra app on the two different machines.
The only alterations, aside from mechanically moving a copy of the San Ho CSS files from their download folders to this CSS folder (just described), were to open the San Ho files and correct a typo I spotted in the code, where a font name is misspelled as "Souce Sans," which I edited in BBEdit and saved (the edit was to change the spelling to "Source;" I couldn't imagine, actually, this would make any profound difference).3. I "changed" the selected Preview CSS by choosing it, after transferring the San Ho files, from the drop-down menu in the nvUltra Preview control panel.
4. I mean I saw no changes to the appearance of the preview "formatted" text in the preview window of nvUltra. I triple checked that I had selected the CSS file properly in the nvUltra Preferences Preview control panel (as described above). At least I saw no changes until I did some other work in other apps, and then returned to nvUltra, when the anticipated and desired change to "serif" font CSS preview appearance had occurred. I cannot account for any intervening steps, which may or may not have included a system restart for totally unrelated reasons.
The only fact I omitted, after posting my query, which I thought might be salient, is that the "successful" change to the chosen CSS version (San Ho Light), that is, where it was visible on screen, occurred on a mid-2018 MacBook Pro 15" Retina device, with an Intel CPU (the i9), and running under Big Sur 11.6. The device where the change in CSS formatting is NOT occurring is a late 2020 MacBook Air running the Apple M1 chip, and also otherwise running under Big Sur 11.6. This led me to suspect, possibly, that the M1 chip requirements were implicated. But as you know by now, I am too ignorant to suppose this is even relevant.
Also, you'd have to know me, but it's always possibly I am doing, or have done, something "strange." I don't think so in this case. But what do I know?0 -
1. Got it.
2. That is the easiest way to ensure that you are in the correct folder. And yes, MultiMarkdown Composer belongs to me (Fletcher Penney). nvUltra is a collaboration between me and Brett Terpstra. What you are changing is the **default** CSS. This is applied to newly opened folders, or to folders that use the default. If you have overridden the default CSS for a particular folder, it will continue to use the CSS that you chose.
3. This does not make a change to folders that are already open, since they already have CSS applied. This will change them the next time they are opened.
4. As per #3, if you were using the default CSS I would expect no change at this time.
The type of machine should not have an impact here. There are some instances where the OS version changes behavior slightly (generally in the way the GUI is laid out, and when trying to print the preview, since Apple's WebKit doesn't support printing until last version or two of macOS for some reason...)
Your two options to *force* a change to the preview CSS are:
1. Close and reopen the folder. If you changed the default CSS, and the folder uses it, this will load the new default.
2. Manually change the CSS via the menu bar. You can change it to the new default, which will force a change, *and* reset that window to stick with the default should it change again in the future.
The same strategies apply to window/editor themes as well.
Hope this helps!
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Thanks! You certainly did get it. And so, now, I got it...
This is what I'm referring to when I charge myself with terminal ignorance...
Being one to jump in with an app, and immediately get to work, I don't do what I should, which is explore the features and learn the main working functions (including menus, sub-menus, how to accomplish the basics). So, my "duh!" moment in this exchanges was learning there was under the "View" menu a "Preview CSS" sub-menu... Lo and behold! It works!
I think this is where I say, enough said... And sorry for the claim on your time to teach me some basics I should have learned myself the old-fashioned way.
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No worries. We try to strike a balance between nvUltra being powerful/flexible and easy to use without having to dig too deep to understand the basics. Sometimes there are things that can be done that improve that balance. Sometimes not.
In this case, what I *can* do is set it so that *if* a window is using the default value for theme or CSS, and you change the default in the preferences, then that change can be updated immediately without requiring the window to be reopened. If the folder uses a custom theme/CSS, then changes to the default value(s) will not have an effect. This will be included in the next release.
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