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Text Size Editing Relative vs Absolute

Posted: 2016-09-28 15:20:25
by Treebeard 2910
I'm a long time Pages v4.0 holdout looking for a replacement word processor. Just started the NWP trial today and first impression is this will be an easy transition to make. I have a question.

Subject Text Behavior: My goal is to change all the text in a selected group of text to the same size. In a text document, that I'm putting together by cut and paste, when I select a block of text of different sizes, in the Tool Drawer, the text size box gives no indication that text of multiple sizes are selected. Only one size is shown, the largest size selected. In this case 18 pts, but I've also highlighted another section of text with a size of 10pts. With the block selected as indicated below, when I change that size in the text box to 14 pts, the 18 pt text shrinks down to 14, but the 10pt text shrinks to 6 pts.

I've not seen this behavior in a word processor before. As those of you familiar with Pages know, when multiple text sizes are selected, the text box remains blank or has a dash in it (I forget which), and any change made to a block of text effects all of it, so the end result is all text matches what was entered into the text box. It's not a relative setting. I've been looking through the User's Guide but have not yet found the answer.

I assume that there is setting in NWP something along the lines of relative vs absolute and could possible be associated with a style sheet. Any advice appreciated.
Thanks! :)
Text Size Example 2sm.jpg
Text Size Example 2sm.jpg (83.99 KiB) Viewed 4587 times

Re: Text Size Editing Relative vs Absolute

Posted: 2016-09-30 10:37:12
by martin
Welcome to Nisus Writer Pro, and the Nisus forums :)

What you've described above about adjusting font sizes is true, and is the intended behavior. When you use the up/down arrow "stepper" to increment or decrement the font size of the selected text, the adjustment is applied to each font size independently. That is, if you click twice to increment the font size +2 points, then any selected text using a 10 point font size becomes 12 points, and some other text using 6 points becomes 8 points.

To achieve a uniform font size for all selected text, regardless of how many font sizes are in effect, you can do any of the following:

1. Hold down the Command key when you click the font size stepper's up or down arrows.
2. Use the font size slider, ie: drag the slider's knob left or right to adjust the font size.
3. Place the selection inside the font size text field and press the Return or Enter key on your keyboard.
4. Use the main menu Format > Size. That menu also will show you the different font sizes in play.

I hope that helps!

Re: Text Size Editing Relative vs Absolute

Posted: 2016-09-30 16:53:15
by Treebeard 2910
martin wrote:Welcome to Nisus Writer Pro, and the Nisus forums :)

What you've described above about adjusting font sizes is true, and is the intended behavior. When you use the up/down arrow "stepper" to increment or decrement the font size of the selected text, the adjustment is applied to each font size independently. That is, if you click twice to increment the font size +2 points, then any selected text using a 10 point font size becomes 12 points, and some other text using 6 points becomes 8 points.

To achieve a uniform font size for all selected text, regardless of how many font sizes are in effect, you can do any of the following:

1. Hold down the Command key when you click the font size stepper's up or down arrows.
2. Use the font size slider, ie: drag the slider's knob left or right to adjust the font size.
3. Place the selection inside the font size text field and press the Return or Enter key on your keyboard.
4. Use the main menu Format > Size. That menu also will show you the different font sizes in play.

I hope that helps!
It does Martin and thank you for your help! I'm liking NWP. :)

What I've seen in Apple official software over the decades is that it started with a bang (Clarisworks) and slowly features and capabilities have been removed. I found Pages to be acceptable until in version 5 they thought it was too convenient to have bookmarking so they removed those. I've been using Pages v4 ever since, but I suspect somewhere down the line with a MacOS update, v4 will no longer work. So it looks like I'll be proactive and Nisus is the replacement. :D

Re: Text Size Editing Relative vs Absolute

Posted: 2016-10-03 11:18:39
by martin
I'm happy to have helped, and it's great to hear that you're enjoying Nisus Writer :) If you have any more questions, we'll be around to help.