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PARAGRAPHING

Posted: 2016-05-08 09:02:25
by spewer
I am new to Nisus, about which I ind much to like. However, I spent much of yesterday trying to find the answer to one question without much success.

My question concerns paragraphing. My book contains a fair number of quotes paragraphs, that is single-spaced, indented, multi-line quotes. Nidus did better than I expected importing the manuscript from Word with this glaring exception. For some reason the formatting on these quotes paragraphs is all off. They are not indented, the first line is attached to the paragraph above and the last line has too much space between it and the paragraph below. I know there is a way to fix this using paragraph styles but after numerous attempts, have been unable to make it work.

I did searches for how to modify paragraph styles and turned up some interesting stuff, but not a basic how-to document that explains how to modify paragraph style.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks much.

Re: PARAGRAPHING

Posted: 2016-05-11 03:29:49
by adryan
G’day, spewer et al

Welcome to Nisus!

Duplicate your document and work on a copy (in case of mishap!).

View > Tooldrawer > Show Tooldrawer

Window > Palettes > Show Palette Library

Drag the Styles Palette and the Paragraph Palette (both in the Formatting set) from the Palette Library window to the Tooldrawer. Where you put them is a matter of convenience. I have my Styles Palette in the writing palette group (see the pencil icon at the top of the Tooldrawer) and my Paragraph Palette in the formatting palette group (see the “T” icon at the top of the Tooldrawer).

In your document, click anywhere within one of the paragraphs you wish to format. Alter settings in the Paragraph Palette in the Tooldrawer as desired. Note that the Spacing and Indents buttons reveal options you may wish to use, although indents can also be set using the indent markers on the horizontal ruler at the top of the document. (If the ruler is not visible, View > Rulers > Horizontal Ruler.) In particular, you can alter your Before and After spacing here.

When you are happy with your paragraph’s formatting, and with the cursor still in the paragraph of interest, go to the Styles Palette in the Tooldrawer, click on the “+” button at the bottom and choose “Paragraph Style Based on Selection” from the drop-down menu. The document’s Style Sheet will open, ready for you to name the paragraph style (as “Indented Quotation”, perhaps). You may wish to set other parameters here (such as “Based on” and “Next Style”) also, but we won’t dwell on this here: perhaps set them both to “None” until you have defined other styles. If you wish to use this style in other documents, you may like to incorporate it in Nisus Writer’s main Style Library: see the gear icon at the bottom of the sidebar in the Style Sheet window.

To return to your usual view of your document, View > Page View (or click on the appropriate button if you have it present in the Toolbar). Observe that your new style should now appear in the Styles Palette in the Tooldrawer.

To apply this style to another paragraph, click anywhere within the paragraph, then click on the style in the list showing in the Styles Palette in the Tooldrawer. (Or Format > Paragraph Style > desired_style.) Voilà!

If you need to do this a few times, you may wish to associate a Keyboard Shortcut with the command in the Format menu.

If you need to do it a lot, use an appropriate expression in the Find/Replace dialog box and Find All. If you have chosen your Find expression carefully, you should see all your sought-for paragraphs (and no others!) highlighted. Click on the style in the Styles Palette list in the Tooldrawer and you are done.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Adrian

Re: PARAGRAPHING

Posted: 2016-05-11 04:26:39
by adryan
G’day, all

I should have mentioned that, for the relatively simple requirements of spewer’s brief, one doesn’t actually need to create a style at all. Just do the paragraph formatting as described, then Edit > Copy > Copy Ruler. Click in another paragraph (or Find All the required paragraphs), then Edit > Paste > Paste Ruler.

Cheers,
Adrian

Re: PARAGRAPHING

Posted: 2016-05-21 10:34:32
by spewer
A belated thanks for your help. Unfortunately Nisus ate my document just as the test drive was expiring. I probably will not be using this for writing books. Not even word totally ate my documents. You cannot afford to lose work.

So I continue to hunt for Word alternative.