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Forum Discussion
Txt files now open in preview mode instead of the Dropbox Text Editor directly
My files are created as plain .txt files. In the past they would open directly with the Dropbox Text Editor as I had selected the Dropbox Text Editor as the default in the phone app.
Now the files ...
I think we all knew it was intended. We are saying it is infuriating!
If the "Default" for a .txt file was set to open in the Dropbox text editor, then it SHOULD open directly in the editor.
If not a .txt file then yes, there would be other parameters.
Although once a "default" was set for a certain file type - like .pdf, .jpg, etc, - then it should open directly in that Default editor.
No reason this cannot be done. Not rocket science.
Hi all,
I'm a product manager at Dropbox working on the mobile Previews experience. First off, sorry for the inconvenience that we've caused you re: your workflow. The original intent behind this change was to solve a complaint that users had around wanting to perform more Dropbox-related file actions like sharing - so defaulting to preview was intentional.
However, it seems like we introduced 2 new issues here:
1. We now default you to the Dropbox editor, and when you're in the Dropbox editor, there also a number of issues where pressing the edit button scrolls you back up to the top of the file, the font size is a bit different, etc.
2. We don't respect the default text editor that you use, so you have to click the 3 dots > Open with > the default editor everytime you want to edit a text file.
One solution we're thinking about is to still drop users into preview mode when opening a .txt file (to aid many users who do want to perform actions in Dropbox), but pressing the edit button would drop you into your default text editor. Would like to hear more feedback from you on this change before we make it.
Thank you for your input in making Dropbox better!
My wish list would be to have a setting that says whether or not to open files in preview mode or not. Problem solved for everyone! I really wouldn't care if it went back to the top if I switched to edit mode, because I would have my default be edit mode so I'd never have to switch.
I only care about using a different text editor because there are these issues with yours. If you fixed yours I also wouldn't care if I could use a different one.
I will say that the text editor issues are enough of a pain point for me that I'm looking at my options for switching away from Dropbox altogether.
Thank You for checking into this.
These issues are still driving me nuts multiple times daily.
Will be anxiously awaiting a fix.
mwallred Roadster1024 Appreciate the prompt reply.
In terms of the fastest & easiest thing we can do to get you up and running:
1) Allow you to choose your default text editor, so at least it's only 1 click vs. 3 clicks to edit a file in a tool that gives you the functionality you need
2) Add an "edit by default" which will requires us coming up with a design/flow.
3) Fix pain points around the Dropbox text editor, which we need to spend more time technically to ramp up and understand.
I'll investigate options 2/3 with the engineering team.
I spent over an hour trying to figure out if I had just imagined that the functionality had changed, and diving around my phone/app settings to try and figure out what I might have accidentally broken. After I felt like I had explored every option I eventually looked online and found this thread. At least I know I'm not losing my mind, but that was a really infuriating process. Please give us the option to edit by default. The font size change when changing to edit mode, the "losing the place you wanted to edit" and the extra steps necessary to get there are all not deal breakers but certainly very annoying, not to mention the time I lost trying to figure out what was wrong.
I don't understand. I want to be able to edit text files on any device using Dropbox, but I can't find a way to do it. Please post detailed instructions for editing text files!
For my convenience, I create files in Windows using Notepad or use a word processor (for spell check abilities), then paste the text into Notepad. Yes, other ways will work but that is how I do it.
Then in Notepad, Save the .txt file to a Dropbox folder.
Then when opening a .txt file in Dropbox on any platform, select "Use Dropbox Editor" to open the file. If you previously used another editor and it became the default, then you must change the default "Open With" function within Dropbox.
When I open a .txt file, there is no "Use Dropbox Editor" or any other way to open Notepad to edit the file, either on Android or Windows! It's a really really stupid Dropbox limitation.
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