Why no text reflow? So far my biggest issue with WP7

[altoids2011]

Okay I don't have a WP7 device yet so I might be jumping the shark, but all searches reveal that WP7 has no text reflow nor does Mango and I can't seem to find any information about any possible future updates with it. The silverlining would have been a third party browser, but alas it seems browsers like Opera are not allowed. This seems like a massive oversight.

 

[Averry]

You mean where the text resizes itself depending on how zoomed in you are?


I was annoyed originally, but double tapping text makes the screen line up to the text, and the OS renders text very nicely so I haven't really missed it.

 

[Luisraul924]

Yes Averry has a point, text isn't reflowed however the browser renders the text a tad bit larger and double tapping will align the zoom perfectly with the text making it fairly easy to read. Let me put it this way, I use glasses to read but can still read websites without them.

 

[enahs555]

When I zoom in and out of the browser, the text re-sizes and re-renders correctly.

So not really sure what you guys are talking about.

 

[altoids2011]

Text reflow is when you zoom in to make the letters bigger, the width of the paragraph you are reading will automatically shrink to fit the size of the screen and the paragraph becomes vertically longer but horizontally shorter. Otherwise, you would have to constantly flick left and right as you try and read every line, since when you zoom in you can only see the section you zoomed in on. A lot of Android devices do this and it can be night and day when it comes to reading comfortably on a small handset and practical by not having to flick constantly left and right for each line. Some sites don't have that nice blog style 600 pixel width and have long widths that even if you zoom out, you will still need to pan left and right. Then there is of course, those with small text that need to be zoomed in anyway. I always thought this was a basic feature on all modern phone browsers. I hope Microsoft isn't pulling an Apple and saying that people don't need it just because they haven't invested in implementing the feature yet. This is probably a bigger deal to me than copy/paste.

 

[starblade876]

I'm pretty sure it's called "word wrapping" (or re-wrapping as it were).

I wonder if Mango gives developers the tools they need to make browsers. I wonder, too, if any of the "skinned" browsers that are out now, like SurfCube, word wrap.

 

[greg_mitch]

I can't believe no one else has text re-flow either! I had been using it for 3 years in Opera Mini on my Omnia and when I got my iPad it didn't have it, when I tried it on Android it didn't have it and when I got my HD7 it didn't have it. It is SO HANDY that I can't believe all browsers don't have it...it should be baked into the OS! Why in the world would I want to rotate the screen or swipe side to side just to read larger text??

 

[mfrey0118]

I can't believe no one else has text re-flow either! I had been using it for 3 years in Opera Mini on my Omnia and when I got my iPad it didn't have it, when I tried it on Android it didn't have it and when I got my HD7 it didn't have it. It is SO HANDY that I can't believe all browsers don't have it...it should be baked into the OS! Why in the world would I want to rotate the screen or swipe side to side just to read larger text??

OK Android browsers have always had proper text reflow. And I don't know what one of the other posters is smoking, but double tapping centers and zooms the text to fit the screen perfectly yes, but ITS TOO DAMN SMALL TO READ COMFORTABLY unless you are farsighted or something.
I can't believe this isn't fixed yet. Stupid microsoft.

 

[Sogeman]

yes, reading text is a chore, especially when I switch from my ipod 4 to my Optimus and everything just looks blurry. It would be fine if the screens had a bigger resolution and the text would still be readable when it's smaller.

 

[tiny]

Yeah I do find this annoying since my Windows Mobile 6.5 browser did this like a champ.

That said, I find double tap (which just makes the div you clicked on full width) makes the text large enough to easily read. And the text does wrap to that extent. But when you zoom beyond that, it doesn't wrap.

 

[A And]

Okay I don't have a WP7 device yet so I might be jumping the shark, but all searches reveal that WP7 has no text reflow nor does Mango and I can't seem to find any information about any possible future updates with it. The silverlining would have been a third party browser, but alas it seems browsers like Opera are not allowed. This seems like a massive oversight.

I completely agree that text reflowing is a must-have in WP - once you've tried a browser with reflowing, using one without is a major step backwards. I've made a feature suggestion on this over at the official Windows Phone forums here - please vote, share and comment so we can hopefully make it happen!