Any way to auto-complete an em dash?

xiamenese · Post by **xiamenese** » 2007-01-27 04:24:14

joehardy wrote:
Crumpy wrote: I know Word comments are an oft-asked for feature, and you're correct, Word is the only one that does it. Boy are they easy to get used to.
Actually Pages has the comment feature and it is compatible with Word, so I'd love to see that eventually show up in Nisus Writer (probably Pro) and then I could exchange papers with students via e-mail without switching to Word.
I teach as an adjunct a course for a university where the students are completing a senior thesis and we do virtually everything by e-mail except turning in the final bound copy. The comment feature makes that possible. It would be great to have it in Nisus Writer.
I am delighted, though, to know that NW Pro will have TOC which will help greatly with my personal writing.

While waiting, can you not use Footnotes/Endnotes for commenting? That's what I've been doing for years, as I haven't used a version of Word for years, either. And I can't get on with Pages, ... trying, trying, very trying!

Mind you, I guess if you're working on documents that already have lots of footnotes, that would be a bit of a problem.

Mark

cchapin · Post by **cchapin** » 2007-01-29 07:28:12

Another option--and this is what my wife/partner and I do when working together on translations--is to use a Comment character style. We each have our own color-coded style. This puts the comments in line with the text, which could be an advantage or a disadvantage in your case. We also have a simple menu macro that deletes comments (or any other string of text assigned a character style).

--Craig

Crumpy · Post by **Crumpy** » 2007-01-29 07:46:56

cchapin wrote:Another option--and this is what my wife/partner and I do when working together on translations--is to use a Comment character style. We each have our own color-coded style. This puts the comments in line with the text, which could be an advantage or a disadvantage in your case. We also have a simple menu macro that deletes comments (or any other string of text assigned a character style).

--Craig

That's a valid idea, except that most of what I write is freelance work for magazines, so I'm constrained by a word count. I don't want to have to factor in the comments in the word count (assuming they are in the main body).

What I've started to do is either a combination of highlights/footnotes, or just make a comment under the main body, use strikethrough when I complete the comment, and then delete them all before sending.

offbyone · Post by **offbyone** » 2007-01-29 07:57:27

Crumpy wrote: ... I'm looking at Nisus (Mellel is already out of the running) but I'll most likely wait until more details of the Pro pricing come out before I make a purchase anyway; I'd hate to drop $45 now, and then need to drop some more to get the features I know I'll need....

I have a feeling I'll be checking out Nisus Pro when it comes out.

That seems to me clearly the best decision; there is just too much 'missing' or wrongly implemented in NWE to be considered for professional-quality work.

I have to admire the doggedness of some users and the clever work-arounds they have described in this thread. But surely the state of the art of program design is such that those kinds of self-help should not be necessary.

midwinter · Post by **midwinter** » 2007-01-29 08:31:56

offbyone wrote: That seems to me clearly the best decision; there is just too much 'missing' or wrongly implemented in NWE to be considered for professional-quality work.

I have to admire the doggedness of some users and the clever work-arounds they have described in this thread. But surely the state of the art of program design is such that those kinds of self-help should not be necessary.

I often find that word processors do a crappy job of being PageMaker. And PageMaker does a crappy job of being Nisus Writer.

ssampler · Post by **ssampler** » 2007-01-29 09:12:12

Craig's idea of a (menu-key-callable!) "comment" style is great! Craig, could you please share the macros you have written?

My Word-using collaborators and I usually just highlight text by hand. They appear to dislike Word's comment and tracking system as much as I do.

Steve

midwinter · Post by **midwinter** » 2007-01-29 10:09:42

ssampler wrote:Craig's idea of a (menu-key-callable!) "comment" style is great! Craig, could you please share the macros you have written?

My Word-using collaborators and I usually just highlight text by hand. They appear to dislike Word's comment and tracking system as much as I do.

Steve

That does seem like an interesting approach to the problem.

cchapin · Post by **cchapin** » 2007-01-29 11:00:09

I'd be glad to share. The macros are extremely simple.

First, create a Comment character style. Mine uses a brown font color and a yellow highlight, but you can set yours up however you like. You can keep it in your Nisus New File or a special-purpose template. If you are working on a document created elsewhere, you will need to copy it into the document.

Second, assign that character a keyboard shortcut (if that's how you like to work).

If there are multiple editors, create a different comment style for each. I also have Redline and Strikethrough character styles for each editor. In my case, there are only two. All my styles have a yellow highlight; all my wife's have a pink highlight.

Third, create the following macro. Mine is called "Delete Character Style Range Text." (Yeah, not particularly eloquent.)

Code: Select all

Format:Character Style:Select Style Range
Edit:Delete

Fourth, assign it a menu key.

This will delete the range of text at the caret to which character styling has been applied. If you select a range of text (or non-contiguous ranges of text) that contains more than one instance of character styling, the macro will delete all text having the character style of the first bit of styled text in the selection. If there are multiple instances of that character style, it does not necessarily handle surrounding spaces "intelligently;" that is, you might wind up with some double spaces.

Fifth, if you want a macro that removes the character style from a range of text, "uncommenting" it and making it part of the regular flow of text, create the following macro. I call mine "Remove Character Style from Range."

Code: Select all

Format:Character Style:Select Style Range
Format:Character Style:Remove Character Styles

Sixth, assign it a menu key.

This macro works very much like the first one. If the caret is in a bit of text with a character style applied, running the macro removes the character style. If you select more than one range of text with a character style applied, the macro removes the character style from each each range. If the selection contains bits of text with different character styles, the macro will remove the character style only from text having the first character style found in the selection.

This explanation is wordy, but the macros are very simple. I hope they work for someone else until Nisus has commenting built in.

--Craig

joehardy · Post by **joehardy** » 2007-01-29 11:58:44

xiamenese wrote:
joehardy wrote:
Crumpy wrote: I know Word comments are an oft-asked for feature, and you're correct, Word is the only one that does it. Boy are they easy to get used to.
Actually Pages has the comment feature and it is compatible with Word, so I'd love to see that eventually show up in Nisus Writer (probably Pro) and then I could exchange papers with students via e-mail without switching to Word.
I teach as an adjunct a course for a university where the students are completing a senior thesis and we do virtually everything by e-mail except turning in the final bound copy. The comment feature makes that possible. It would be great to have it in Nisus Writer.
I am delighted, though, to know that NW Pro will have TOC which will help greatly with my personal writing.
While waiting, can you not use Footnotes/Endnotes for commenting? That's what I've been doing for years, as I haven't used a version of Word for years, either. And I can't get on with Pages, ... trying, trying, very trying!

Mind you, I guess if you're working on documents that already have lots of footnotes, that would be a bit of a problem.

Mark

The Comments feature in Word is interactive. I insert a comment at a point in the document and it shows up when someone else opens the document and it has my initials. They can add their comment at that point and when it comes back to me I can further amend, etc. This works in recent versions of Word including XP and 2003 and in Office X and Office 2004.
The feature also works in Pages 2.

rmark · Post by **rmark** » 2007-01-29 15:36:30

This thread has strayed far from the question that Crumpy initially asked (and, due to cultural differences… at least within the English writing world, will have to wait for Elijah to resolve).

However, I'd like to add one detail that may help those who want to use created "styles" for writing comments, but do not want the comment text included in the word count.

Create "languages" for each editor and use that language attribute as the basis for the editing style. Using the Language preference you can set whether or not you want the words counted in that "Language".