Granular Editing Mode of the Jieshuo Screen Reader

It is a known fact that the Jieshuo screen reader extends beyond basic screen reading features in several areas. One of these areas is text editing with the “granular editing mode” feature. So, what is the granular editing mode? What does it contain? And how do you use it?

What is Granular Editing Mode?

Granular editing mode is a special mode in the Jieshuo screen reader that enables advanced editing operations on the focused text. While it can be used with any focused text, such as the name of an app, a message in a chat, or any other focused content, it is particularly useful when dealing with text in edit boxes, where the changes are saved as real changes in the content of the edit box itself.

How to Enable Granular Editing Mode

To enable the granular editing mode, follow these steps:

1. Focus on any on-screen element.
2. Open the functions menu, which by default is accessed by swiping up and then right with one finger. In the menu, you will find the granular editing mode.
3. Alternatively, the mode is also available in the main menu and can be assigned to any gesture according to the user’s preference.
4. Another method to activate this mode is by opening the granular browsing mode, also found in the main menu, and then selecting “edit”.

How to Interact with Text and Available Additional Operations

How Text is Separated

When you open the granular editing mode, the text of the focused item will be presented on the screen. To determine how the text is displayed and read, you have several granularities available near the bottom of the screen: characters, words, custom, and paragraphs.

• Characters and Words: These options are self-explanatory.
• Paragraphs: This toggles between lines and paragraphs.
• Custom: This is a user-defined separation based on the user’s preferences.

To select the desired granularity, you need to activate it. At the top, you can see the granular editing mode with the currently selected granularity. Swiping to the next item will tell you the number of lines and characters in the text you are acting on.

Lines and Paragraphs

The paragraph granularity toggles between lines and paragraphs, as mentioned above.

• Lines: Lines are determined by line breaks. The number of words does not affect the separation; only line breaks mark the ending and starting of lines.
• Paragraphs: Paragraphs are marked by two or more consecutive line breaks. Here, punctuation marks like periods are not considered; only the number of line breaks matters.

When you press the “paragraphs” granularity, you can know the mode of separation you are using from the title. “Paragraphs1” indicates separation by one line break, and “Paragraphs2” indicates separation by two or more line breaks.

Long pressing the paragraphs granularity toggles between announcing line numbers while reading in this mode or not.

Custom Separation

This is a custom granularity where the separation is determined by the user. It can be based on specific words or punctuation marks. To configure custom separation, follow these steps:

1. Open Jieshuo settings.
2. Navigate to Advanced Settings.
3. Go to Other Settings.
4. Select “List of symbols and words to use for custom text splitting”.

Regular expressions are supported for defining custom separation criteria.

Interacting with the Text

You can read the text of the focused item according to the selected granularity. You can explore the screen to read the text or use normal swiping gestures to move between elements.

Double-tapping any portion of the text opens it in an edit box, where you can add, remove, or edit content. Double-tapping the edit box moves the cursor between the beginning and the end of the text. You can also move the cursor using the standard granularity navigation or Character by Character Browsing mode.

When you are done editing, press OK to save the changes.

Long-pressing any portion of the text shows the delete option. It also shows an option labeled “Character-by-character browsing mode,” which should spell the text. However, this feature is currently not working.

Additional Text-Related Operations

You can perform various additional text-related operations. Here are the available options:

• Copy: Tap on “Copy” to copy the whole text.
• More: Tapping on “More” provides additional options:
• Search for
• Replace
• Undo
• Redo
• Multi-selection mode
• Import
• Export

Search for and Replace

Use the “Search for” button to find matching text. As you type, matching portions of the text will be shown above the keyboard. You can tap any of them to start editing.

Note that the matching is influenced by the text splitting granularity you selected before tapping “Search.” For instance, if you have selected characters, you cannot find matching words because the text is split into individual characters. Moreover, the matching text portions are complete parts that contain the search term, which is also affected by the selected granularity. For example, if you are searching for the word “have” and it is included in a long paragraph, you will see the whole paragraph, not just the part where “have” is included.

The replace function has two fields: “Enter keyword” (for the text you want to replace) and “Replace with” (for the text you want to use as a replacement). There is also a “Replace” button. Leaving the “Replace with” field empty means that the matching text will be deleted.

Matching in replace is done in the text as a whole and is not impacted by the granularity you are using. Pressing “Replace” will perform all necessary replacements but will not provide the number of replacements made.

In both “Search for” and “Replace,” the matching is case-sensitive.

Multi-Selection Mode

This mode displays the whole text divided according to the selected granularity before opening the mode. Double-tapping any portion of the text will select it. Long-pressing a portion gives you the option to start the selection, which begins with activating this option and ends with another long press on the part you want to mark as the end of the selection. This way, all text between the two points, including them, is selected without needing to double-tap each item.

Double-tapping “Select All” does not mean selecting all the text. Instead, it toggles the selection, so what was selected is unselected and what was not selected is now selected.

In this selection mode, you have the options to copy, delete, cut, or export the selected text. When you are done, just tap OK. Note that after tapping OK, the text is no longer selected, and you cannot act on it using the keyboard.

Import and Export

You can import .txt files saved in the Notes folder within the Jieshuo main folder.

When you tap “Import” while editing a portion of the text, the imported text will be added to the position where the cursor is without removing the existing text.

If you select “Import” while navigating the text after tapping “More” and then selecting “Import,” the entire text will be replaced with the imported text. You can then interact with this new text using the same available options and granularities.

The export function allows you to save the text along with its modifications to a file in the Notes folder. The file has no extension, but you can open it with text editors and manually add the .txt extension if needed. If you press “Export” while in multi-selection mode, only the selected text is exported, not the whole text.

Exiting Granular Editing Mode

If the focus was on an edit box, pressing OK after you finish the edits will save the changes to the actual edit box, and you will hear the message “saved” to confirm this. If the focus is on any other content, the OK button will be unavailable.

Whether you are dealing with an edit box or any other text, pressing Cancel to exit the granular editing mode will give you the following options:

• Save: Saves the changes to the edit box or prompts you to export the changes to a file that will be saved in the Notes folder if the text you are working on cannot be edited.
• Copy: Copies the modifications and then closes the mode.
• Don’t Save: Discards all the changes and exits the mode.
• Go Back: Returns you to the granular editing mode.

Notes:

1. The granular editing mode is limited to 100 characters in the free version. However, you can bypass this restriction by pasting text that exceeds the 100-character limit after opening the granular editing mode. Text pasting in the mode is done using the normal paste function, which can be found in the main menu, the functions menu, or assigned to a gesture.
2. Activating granular editing mode on an empty edit box will use the edit box label or hint (e.g., the word “message”) as the initial text. If you do not remove this text, it will be saved along with any text you add later.
3. Granular editing mode may seem complicated at first glance, and its importance has diminished somewhat after the basic editing improvements added to Jieshuo last year. However, it remains useful, especially for performing text replacements, importing text to edit, or quickly exporting changes.
4. After making modifications, you usually cannot exit the granular editing mode directly via the back button or gesture. Instead, you must use the “Cancel” option and then select “Don’t Save” to exit the mode.