Centered text for stories?

idea
#1

Hi, I’m trying out newsblur before maybe switching to it.

Features wise it’s very nice… but the UI doesn’t look so great. It feels like an IDE from 30 years ago. I can’t imagine enjoying reading stories on my computer. There is no space in the UI to “breathe”. Everything is cramped up as if it was designed for a tiny screen.

For example, I can’t find any option to have the text of stories centered like it is by default with all other readers such as Feedly or inoreader. I’m on a 32" screen, and having all the UI and text left aligned is really annoying. So much empty space in the center and right of the screen.

Am I missing something?

Thanks for your advice!

#2

What a terrific idea. Nobody had ever requested this before, so I didn’t even realize it was desired. But I can see where it goes in the Style popover, as a segmented control with Left/Center/Right.

How about controls for the width of the viewport? Can you share screenshots of what you see on other readers versus NewsBlur? What kind of customizability are you looking for, or just sane defaults (max width of 1200px for instance).

#3

God I thought it was a dumb question! Thanks for considering this. And yes the best natural place would be to put such a setting inside the Style popover, that’s where I tried all options :slight_smile:

Some more explanation, on my private Mac/iPhone/iPad, I use Reeder so it’s not a problem. But my work computer is under Windows so I use the website… then it’s a problem. I know I could resize the browser windows but I like to stay focused and only multitasking when needed. Reading RSS feeds is my break from work!

Here is a screenshot of how stories look like on my computer with newsblur:

Newsblur
Newsblur6016×3218 1.4 MB

Here is the settings inside Reeder to manage the width of the stories:

Reeder settings
Reeder settings1264×976 107 KB

Here is how reading in Reeder feels like:

Reeder
Reeder6010×3376 1.61 MB

Here is how reading on InoReader website feels like (width cannot be configured unlike Reeder, but still more readable than Newsblur):

Inoreader web
Inoreader web5722×3086 786 KB

I hope it helps!
Thanks again for the quick and helpful reply!

#4

Wonderful, thanks for the insight. I just deployed this exactly as you’d expect, in the Style popover.

Screen Shot 2022-02-17 at 5.23.55 PM

#5

Wow so fast, thanks, it’s perfect. Crazy how much it changes the look & feel on a big screen. You got yourself a new subscriber :+1:

After playing a bit more around, I found a little bug with the new centered feature. The comments are still left aligned as shown here:

Centered bug
Centered bug3324×1987 642 KB

#6

Thanks for noticing that. Fix has been deployed. Keep the ideas coming!

#7

Was it intentional to have this change users previous view settings? Logged in today and saw everything centered and immediately came here to report a bug. Not my cup of tea at all and was very jarring that everything looked different today after years of NewsBlurring (new verb), but very thankful I found this thread so I knew how to turn it off.

#8

Yes it was intentional but it was a last minute change. Please post full browser screenshots of where this isn’t working well so I can get an idea of where it needs improvement.

By the way, I only changed the default from left to center (which ends up the same for most users since your viewport has to be pretty wide to show a difference). If you already changed it to full width, center, or right, it won’t override the selection.

#9

How to disable the text in the center, as it was before? For it to be on the left! It’s hard to read in the middle!

#10

FYI, the style menu is taller than my screen and does not appear to scroll.
I never realized there were settings for Story Layout - Split until today.

#11

Found how to do it to the left. Thanks.

#12

This is frustrating me to no end. I can’t find where to change it back and the centering messes with my flow. When I click the style menu, this is what I see:

Screenshot 2022-03-02 192204
Screenshot 2022-03-02 1922041402×845 117 KB

(Also, is there some way to globally change preferences back?)

#13

You need to temporarily zoom out on the web page as there are additional options above those you can currently see. Zoom out with Ctrl/Cmd±, then Ctrl/Cmd+0 to restore.

HTH

#14

If I hear more people unhappy with centered text, I’ll change the default back to left-aligned. But if anything, this exposes the Style popover to people who don’t know it holds a lot more customization than it did a year ago.

#15

Well then, I’m another person who was unhappy with the change and dug up this thread. I’ve changed the default back to left so I’m fine. But I must confess I spent way too much time looking for the style settings among regular settings. I only found the style popover after carefully looking at the screenshots here :slight_smile:

#16

Well, count me among those who are pleased with the change.

#17

Thanks! I fixed it now, but I suppose it’s good to let Samuel know there’s a problem with seeing the whole Style box.

#18

I’ve been poking around and can’t see how to fix this. I can’t find where to access that style menu. Can someone walk me through it?

#19

The Style popover is in the bottom right of the story titles list.

#20

Thanks