#1662 highlighting: add option to hide Markdown formatting syntax

Signed-off-by: Patrizio Bekerle <patrizio@bekerle.com>

Author: pbek

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -2,6 +2,15 @@
 
 ## 26.3.10
 
+- Added an option to hide Markdown formatting syntax (like `**`, `*`, `#`,
+  backticks, link brackets) on lines that are not being edited, for a
+  cleaner Typora-like editing experience (Editor settings, off by default)
+  (for [#1662](https://github.com/pbek/QOwnNotes/issues/1662))
+  - Disclaimer: Due to limitations of the QPlainTextEdit API, this is a best-effort
+    implementation sets the font letter spacing to 0 and the font size to 0.01
+    for the formatting syntax characters, so they are still present in the editor,
+    just smaller. Especially for links with a lot of text between the brackets,
+    gaps will be visible in the formatting syntax!
 - Added a security token setting for the Homepage-compatible bookmark
   suggestion API (with encrypted storage, settings dump masking, and
   token-validated `GET /suggest` requests), and updated Homepage

src/dialogs/settingsdialog.cpp

@@ -603,6 +603,8 @@ void SettingsDialog::storeSettings() {
                       ui->showLineNumbersInEditorCheckBox->isChecked());
     settings.setValue(QStringLiteral("Editor/highlightCurrentLine"),
                       ui->highlightCurrentLineCheckBox->isChecked());
+    settings.setValue(QStringLiteral("Editor/hideFormattingSyntax"),
+                      ui->hideFormattingSyntaxCheckBox->isChecked());
     settings.setValue(QStringLiteral("Editor/hangingIndent"),
                       ui->hangingIndentCheckBox->isChecked());
     settings.setValue(QStringLiteral("Editor/showMarkdownImagePreviews"),
@@ -1010,6 +1012,8 @@ void SettingsDialog::readSettings() {
         settings.value(QStringLiteral("Editor/showLineNumbers")).toBool());
     ui->highlightCurrentLineCheckBox->setChecked(
         settings.value(QStringLiteral("Editor/highlightCurrentLine"), true).toBool());
+    ui->hideFormattingSyntaxCheckBox->setChecked(
+        settings.value(QStringLiteral("Editor/hideFormattingSyntax"), false).toBool());
     ui->hangingIndentCheckBox->setChecked(
         settings.value(QStringLiteral("Editor/hangingIndent"), false).toBool());
     ui->showMarkdownImagePreviewsCheckBox->setChecked(

src/dialogs/settingsdialog.ui

@@ -5702,6 +5702,16 @@ li.checked::marker { content: "\2612"; }
                   </property>
                  </widget>
                 </item>
+                 <item row="11" column="0" colspan="4">
+                  <widget class="QCheckBox" name="hideFormattingSyntaxCheckBox">
+                   <property name="toolTip">
+                    <string>Hides markdown formatting syntax (like **, *, #) on lines that are not being edited</string>
+                   </property>
+                   <property name="text">
+                    <string>Hide markdown formatting syntax on inactive lines</string>
+                   </property>
+                  </widget>
+                 </item>
                </layout>
               </widget>
              </item>
@@ -7844,7 +7854,8 @@ Just test yourself if you get sync conflicts and set a higher value if so.</stri
   <tabstop>autoBracketRemovalCheckBox</tabstop>
   <tabstop>editorWidthInDFMOnlyCheckBox</tabstop>
   <tabstop>highlightCurrentLineCheckBox</tabstop>
-  <tabstop>disableCursorBlinkingCheckBox</tabstop>
+   <tabstop>hideFormattingSyntaxCheckBox</tabstop>
+   <tabstop>disableCursorBlinkingCheckBox</tabstop>
   <tabstop>gitCommitIntervalTime</tabstop>
   <tabstop>gitLogCommandLineEdit</tabstop>
   <tabstop>gitPathLineEdit</tabstop>

src/libraries/qmarkdowntextedit

@@ -1295,6 +1295,15 @@ void QOwnNotesMarkdownTextEdit::updateSettings() {
     const bool hlCurrLine =
         settings.value(QStringLiteral("Editor/highlightCurrentLine"), true).toBool();
     setHighlightCurrentLine(hlCurrLine);
+
+    // Hide formatting syntax on non-cursor blocks (Typora-like)
+    const bool hideFormattingSyntax =
+        settings.value(QStringLiteral("Editor/hideFormattingSyntax"), false).toBool();
+    if (_highlighter) {
+        _highlighter->setHideFormattingSyntax(hideFormattingSyntax);
+        _highlighter->setCurrentCursorBlockNumber(textCursor().blockNumber());
+    }
+
     const bool hangingIndentEnabled =
         settings.value(QStringLiteral("Editor/hangingIndent"), false).toBool();
     setHangingIndentEnabled(hangingIndentEnabled);