Nisus Writer Express User Guide
Welcome to Nisus Writer Express
From where did you purchase Nisus Writer Express?
Purchasing Nisus Writer Express from the Mac App Store
Purchasing Nisus Writer Express from Nisus Software, Inc.
Install Nisus Writer Express on your Macintosh
Designate where supplemental tools are stored
Make sure your copy is up to date
What? Another version? How did that happen?
Subscribe to the Nisus Newsletter
Open or Start Nisus Writer Express
Customize your new document “template”
Enter Text in Your New or Existing File
Write in a language other than American English
Modify the Appearance of Your File
Save files in Nisus Writer Express
Save your file and give it a name
Save your file after making changes
Save your file with a new name and/or in a new location
Prevent changes from being saved
Windows, Bars, Buttons, Pointers and Palettes
The Nisus Writer Express window
The Nisus Writer Express icon in the Dock
Open/close a palette in the Palette Dock
Move a palette in the Palette Dock
Delete a palette from the Palette Dock
Return a floating palette to the Palette Dock
Display a different group of palettes
Using the Palette Dock and its palettes
Change the of palettes in the Palette Dock
Palettes inspect your selection
Character and Paragraph palettes
Scroll through a longer list of fonts
Change the direction text flows (for right to left languages)
Change the space between lines of text (“leading”)
Change the amount of space that appears above (before) a paragraph
Change the amount of space that appears below (after) a paragraph
Set the indents (line wrap area)
Control for widows and orphans
Prevent a paragraph (or paragraphs) from splitting across pages or columns
Keep one paragraph with the one that follows it
The Formatting Examiner palette
The Headers and Footers palette
The Special Characters palette
The Table Cell Borders palette
The Table Cell Shading palette
Enter special characters into your text
Use the Special Characters palette
Customize the Special Characters palette
Add your own set to the palette and menu
Remove characters from a set or an entire set
Choose a language in which to write
Mix right to left and left to right text
Have an exclamation point appear correctly in a left to right string of right to left text
Have the period appear correctly in a left to right sentence that ends with a right to left word
Insert a right to left table in a left to right section
Advanced language customizations
Installing spelling dictionaries
Select text using the mouse or trackpad
Select a column of text (rectangular selection)
Select text from different places in the document (multipart selection)
What you can (and cannot) do with text of a multipart selection
Select all the text in your document
Select everything in your document
Select everything not selected
Invert the selection of a small area of text
Other methods of creating a multipart selection
“De-select” text from a selection
Copy text only, not its formatting
Copy formatting only, not its text
Paste text only, not its formatting
Paste formatting only, not its text
Move, Delete, and Replace Text
Add text or images to the Clipboard
The Clipboard tag on the Status Bar
Change the name of a Clipboard
Add list bullets to paragraphs
Add list numbers to paragraphs
List level settings for list items
List level character formatting
List level paragraph formatting
Use list styles to automatically number figures, tables, etc.
Create numbered lists that may have a component missing
Align a numbered list along a period
Autosave new files without interruption
Rich Text Format Directory (RTFD)
How do I rename an existing file?
How do I change my document’s file format?
What's the best way to share documents with Microsoft Word?
How do I decrease the size of my files?
Microsoft Word Format (binary .doc)
Microsoft Word XML (DOCX / Office 2007 Open XML)
Open Document Format (ODF/.odt XML)
Rich Text Format (limited features)
Open automatically saved and closed files
Determine what displays when you open a file
Open any document as “new” or “Untitled”
Prevent Nisus Writer Express files from opening in TextEdit?
Open Microsoft Word documents in Nisus Writer Express
Set up the Document Manager using the Doc Manager preferences
Determine the location of your Document Manager folder
Choose file listing options for the Document Manager window
Choose whether or not to show file extensions in the Document Manager window
Work with your files so that the Document Manager can help you manage them
Save all your files automatically to the Document Manager
Save your file (as needed/desired) to the Document Manager
Save your file to the Document Manager with a new name
Move your file to the Document Manager
Add your file to the Document Manager
Display and sort files managed by the Document Manager
Create special groups of files
Remove a group from the Document Manager
Rename a group in the Document Manager
Find a particular file or files among those listed in the Document Manager
Open a file using the Document Manager
Additional features of the Document Manager
Using the buttons of the Document Manager window
Using the contextual menus of the Document Manager window
Use the Character palette to format text
Scroll through a longer list of fonts
Change the size of characters to a size not listed on the menu
Increase or decrease the size of characters by a specific amount
Change the format of characters
Change the format of characters using the “Dropper”
Set the indent or outdent (“hanging indent”) position of the first line of a paragraph
Quickly indent or outdent a selected range of paragraphs
Set the text wrap area numerically
Set the text wrap area using the keyboard
Set the text wrap area using the Paragraph palette
Keep your lines from spreading when using superscript or footnotes/endnotes
Allow your lines to spread when using superscript or footnotes/endnotes
Set spacing between paragraphs
Control how paragraphs split and stick together
Keep selected paragraphs together
Keep one paragraph with the following one
Ensure and/or force a break before a selected paragraph
Set the type of leader before placing a tab
Move a tab indicator using the mouse or trackpad
Move a tab indicator using the keyboard
Edit a tab’s location numerically
Selecting paragraphs with different formatting
Set the same format for a group of differing paragraphs
The various tools for using styles
The difference between various kinds of styles
Styles of the Paragraph Styles palette
Styles of the Character Styles palette
Styles of the Note Styles palette
The “…” (ellipsis, or options) menu
The style icon button menu of the Character and Paragraph Styles palettes
The style icon button menu of the List Styles palette
The style icon button menu of the Note Styles palette
The Style Sheet view’s interface
See the Style Sheet associated with a document
Have one style inherit the formats of another
Determine the style of the next paragraph of your text automatically
Assign a keyboard shortcut to your style as you edit it
Remove a keyboard shortcut from your style
Change the sample text that illustrates your style
Quickly remove formats that define your style
Add or modify formats associated with your style
Jump to the next text using a style
Remove a style’s formats from selected text
Remove a character format from your text
Remove a style from your document
Resolve conflicts between styles
Import styles from an existing file
Save a file with styles you want to the Style Library folder of the Document Manager
Add styles to an existing Style Library file
Save specific styles from an existing file to a Style Collection
Use styles saved in a Style Library
Import a style the formats of which you know
Import a style the formats of which you do not know
Open a Style Collection to copy text with style for pasting in another document
What Happens When You Choose New From the File Menu
Set the preferred paper size for all your documents
Reduce or enlarge the printed area
Determine the orientation of the printed page
Set different orientations for different portions of your document
Set the margins of the sections of your document
Set the margins by “stepping” through pre-set increments
Use the Page Borders palette to put a line around the edge of your page
Determine which edges of the page should have lines
Determine the pattern, width and color of the line of the page’s border
Determine around which portion of the page’s perimeter the border appears
Set the distance from the edge or margin the border should appear
Insert the same header and/or footer for all pages
Insert a header and/or a footer for even numbered pages
Insert a header and/or footer for odd numbered pages
First Page Special (have no number appear on the first header/footer)
Add a title page to a document and have the numbering appear and begin at 1 on the third page
Insert a different header or footer for each section in the document
Display headers and footers as they appear in the document
Find the header or footer for a particular section of your document
Include images in a header or footer
Move a header or footer higher or lower on the page
Move a header or footer higher or lower in relation to the text of your document
Insert the current page number (once) on a specific page
Display the current page number on every page
Restart page numbering for a new section
Determine the format of page numbers
Determine the format of section numbers
Work with Various Types of Graphics
Include copy of image in document
Single Image of First Page, Preserving Entire File
Extract Text from an Image (OCR)
Resize an image using the mouse
Restore an image’s original size
Restore an image’s original proportions
Delete shapes and floating images
Make an inline image into a floating image
The contextual menus for inline and floating images
The contextual menu for inline images
The contextual menu for floating images
Cause text to wrap around an image
Set the padding text leaves around an image
Cause text to appear on top of, or behind an image
Cause images to appear around text; create a “screen” behind text
Make a floating image an inline image
Return to the document from the note text
Return to a specific note from its marker in the document
Make sure your notes have a uniform appearance
Standardize the paragraph formatting of all notes
Use note styles to standardize formatting
Use an asterisk or other custom symbol for note references
Edit a custom symbol that marks footnotes and or endnotes
Change endnotes to footnotes, or vice versa
Change one footnote to an endnote
Change one endnote to a footnote
Change all footnotes to endnotes
Change all endnotes to footnotes
Continue footnote or endnote numbering across consecutive files
Restart footnotes or endnotes at an assigned page number
Restart footnotes or endnotes at an assigned note number
Restart endnotes at an assigned endnote page number
Find the next footnote in your document because it shares the selected style
Determine the size (number of rows/columns) of a table
Create a table with pre-existing text
Navigate among the cells of a table
Select cells, or portions of… or the entire table
Determine the alignment (position) of a table on the page
Determine the alignment (position) of text in a table
Align text in table cells along the decimal point
Cause the table to resize to fit its contents (and settings)
Cause the table to resize to fit the full extent of the page
Adjust the padding around the contents of a cell
Modify the lines (edges, borders, etc.) of a table
Clear the selection of lines to modify
Determine the style (pattern) of the lines
Determine the thickness of the lines
Determine the color of the lines
Set the shading (color) of cells
Determine the pattern of cells
Set the color of the foreground and background of a cell pattern
Copy the contents, but not the “tableness” of a table
Find and/or replace a table and/or text in a table
Views, Tabs, Sidebars, Splits & Focus
Display your documents as tabs in existing windows
Use tabs to display your documents in one window
Open a group of documents into one window with many tabs
Show the maximum width within the Page View window
Show the maximum width including the margins in Page View
Show the entire width and height in Page View
Show the text zoomed at a designated percentage in Page View
Go Back (restore prior selections)
Move the Insertion Point Using the Keyboard
Move the Insertion Point Using the “Select” Commands
Jump to a page via the Page Zoom palette
Jump to a page via the Status Bar
Check spelling using the Language palette
Correct your typos as you type
Set your dictionary preferences
Correct your spelling using the keyboard and without calling up the Spelling window
Correct your spelling using the mouse or trackpad and without calling up the Spelling window
Set the starting point of the spelling checker
Activate the Spelling floating window
Replace a misspelled word using the spelling checker
Skip words flagged by the spelling checker
Skip all instances of a particular word
Remove a “learned” word to the Dictionary
Remove words from the dictionary
Use the Nisus Thesaurus in the Language palette
Use the Nisus Thesaurus as a free standing application
Use the Nisus Thesaurus from the contextual menu
Use Multiple Language Dictionaries
Alternative spelling checker dictionaries
Use the Statistics palette and the Status Bar to maintain a count of your writing
Display a document as a continuous scroll
Find page breaks in your document
Change the height of text in relation to the baseline
Return raised or lowered text to the baseline
Increase or decrease the height by a specific amount
Cause letter pairs to use ligatures
Prevent letter pairs from using ligatures
Cause letter pairs to display closer together or further apart
Increase or decrease the amount of kerning by a specific amount
Prevent letter pairs from displaying closer together or further apart
Highlight text using a color other than the current color
Remove highlight color from your text
Remove background color from your text
How highlight color and background color differ
Change the case of alphabetic characters
Make all selected characters UPPERCASE
Make all selected characters lowercase
Make all selected words appear in sMALL cAPS
Reverse the case of selected text
Change the appearance of quotation marks
Make all selected quotation marks “smart”
Make all selected quotation marks "plain"
Find and Replace Text and Formatting
Enter something into the Find box
Enter something into the Replace box
Find text, or find and replace text
Find and/or replace the next occurrence(s) of the Find expression
Reuse find and/or replace expressions
Use a recently used find or replace expression
Save a find or replace expression
Use a saved find or replace expression
Delete a saved find or replace expression
Use the “Find what” and “Replace with” menus
Find capitalized words (a PowerFind example)
Select all instances of a found expression at once
Convert a PowerFind expression to a PowerFind Pro expression
Finding and/or replacing non-Roman characters
Examples of putting PowerFind to use
Change the sequence of a pattern
Find two neighboring duplicate paragraphs
Change the wording of a repeated phrase containing a variable
Exercises, or examples of putting PowerFind Pro to use
Find a seven-digit phone number
Find any number of trailing spaces in a document or tabs at the end of paragraphs
Find the invisible null (ASCII (Unicode) 0) character
Find repeated groups of characters
Characters with special meaning
[∑] (any character from a set ∑ excluding Return)
[^∑] (any character not from a set ∑)
Characters with a unique match
PowerFind Pro find expressions
PowerFind Pro replace expressions
Definitions in Nisus Writer Express
Advanced exercises, or more examples of putting PowerFind to use
Find any and/or all words that begin and end with specified characters
Change multiple periods to ellipses
Make sure your spaces follow the punctuation
Make sure your punctuation appears inside quotation marks
Replace two or more spaces with one space
Understand and Modify the Appearance of Your Document
The Formatting Examiner Interface
Additional Tools and Displays in the Formatting Examiner
Minimize, or, put a window in the Dock
Redisplay a window that has been in the Dock
Open a window to its full size
Use the Window menu and working with multiple windows
Choose which window displays in front
Determine how many copies to print
Determine which pages to print
Determine aspects of how your document prints
Print page guides & “invisibles”
Print odd pages, then even pages
Customize & Automate Solutions
Set “Defaults” for the Application
General Preferences Control the Application
Text editing areas always use Light Mode
Insertion point (caret) blinks on/off
Focus mode fades inactive text by
Dark Mode colors vs Light Mode colors
Quickly Switch Appearance Modes
Remove an existing keyboard shortcut
Find whether a key combination is assigned to a command
Enter smart quotes as you type
Superscript ordinals as you type
Capitalize the first word of sentences as you type
Add or subtract, or modify a “typo” that gets fixed
Glossaries and macOS System-Wide Replacements
Add or remove an entry to or from a Glossary file
Enable automatic expansion of Glossary file abbreviations
Enter a glossary abbreviation directly from the menus
Create a new glossary abbreviation, or edit an existing abbreviation
Import a Nisus Writer Classic Glossary file
Understanding Template (Stationery) Documents
Set the appearance “View” of your Nisus New File
Determine which of the three primary views of your document displays when you choose New
Determine how your document uses Apple’s tabbed interface
Choose Measurement Display Options for New Documents
Determine the unit of measurement in any document
Determine how the Palette Dock appears in relation to new files
Determine whether or not “Invisibles” display in all new files
Customize the color of your Invisibles
Determine whether or not Page guides display in all new files
Customize the color of your Page Guides
Determine whether or not your spelling is checked as you type in all new files
Set the “Format” of your Nisus New File
Set certain “Advanced” aspects of your Nisus New File
Create a template for plain text documents
See the Nisus New File. Plain Text, or Macro Template in the Finder
Use an existing file as a Nisus New File
Choose a different file for your Nisus New File
Restore the “factory settings” of your Nisus New File
Be notified whenever you save a file
Set the interval between automatic saves
Save files automatically and never see the Save As dialog
Set the desired location for your autosaved files
Formats and encoding of saved files
Set the preferred format for saved files
Set the preferred encoding for saved files
Determine the Way the Document Manager Works
Return All Preferences to Their Original (Shipped) Settings
Change the Display of the Toolbar
Choose different displays of the Toolbar
Customize the Dock and its Palettes
Rearrange the sequence of the palette groups in the Dock
Change the names of the palette groups in the Dock
Determine which and how many Palette Group icons appear at the top of the Dock
Add/subtract/rearrange and/or modify the names of specific palettes in their various groups
Change the sequence of palettes in a group
Create Your Own Group of Palettes for the Palette Dock
Nisus Writer Express and the Community of Connected Applications
What applications support LinkBack
Use LinkBack with a drawing application
Nisus Writer Express and the Internet
Link to a location on the Internet
Copy a Link to a Document on the Web
Export Your Nisus Writer Express Documents to Share on the Web
Edit an HTML Document in Nisus Writer Express
Email your Nisus Writer Express files
Send the active document as an RTF file
Send the active document as a PDF file
Standardize Your Correspondence Stationery
Send Feedback to Nisus Software Inc.
May All Your Writing “nisus” Be a Pleasure with Nisus Writer Express
The Nisus Writer Express Menus
How Nisus Writer Express Displays Your Text
Turn on display of the Input (keyboard “flag”) menu
Enter a character using the keyboard
Type “special” Yiddish characters
Set up language support on your Macintosh
From Nisus Writer Classic to Nisus Writer Express
Open Multilingual Nisus Writer Classic Files in Nisus Writer Express
Open a Nisus Writer Classic Document with the “esreveR” style