Manual conversion mode

[nerk]

Provide an option to switch off automatic conversion and let the user explicitly trigger conversion by pressing a button or keystroke. This is useful for large documents where conversion is slow.

[nerk]

Since background processing is already working very well, rather make this a checkbox to toggle between life update and update on save.

[mojavelinux]

:+1: The worker thread definitely makes this less of an issue performance-wise.

Here's my thinking about why I think this is still an important issue...

What I worry about the most is that instant rendering starts to interfere with the flow of writing. If you notice that your actions cause a reaction, certain authors may start consciously changing their typing pattern, which could impact the writing process. Of course, the other option is for the writer to temporarily hide the preview window outright.

[mojavelinux]

In other words, there are times when instant rendering is helpful, but also times when it isn't.

[nerk]

Yes, i agree about changes to the typing pattern, it becomes just too much WYSIWYG again. I think we should give users the choice between

• automatic update
• update on saving the document
• update by pressing a button and/or keyboard shortcut

The current mode must be made clearly visible in the preview pane.