Major problems with 2.0

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dennisg
Posts: 73
Joined: 2004-05-16 07:51:28
Location: Seattle, WA

Major problems with 2.0

Post by dennisg »

Charles, if you've read my other posts (and I know you have), then you know I'm using NWE 2.0 to write and edit a book. I created a style sheet template, opened one of my existing book chapters (created in 1.1.2), pasted all the text into my new template, then applied the new styles. Here's what I found:

1) 2.0 stripped all the character formatting from the document. I had to go through the entire document and manually reapply italics to selected words

2) The document, as noted previously, is scrolling incredibly slowly -- far more slowly than other documents I opened to which I had not applied style sheet styles

3) Here's the worst one -- and it's totally undermining my confidence in the software: every time I open my new (70-page) document, I get a different page count. When I (slowly) scroll through the document, I discover that it's randomly filled with mostly blank pages. Several pages have only one line of text on them, and right in the middle of the page.

What's going on here? Is it possible that just this document is corrupt?
- Dennis

"Is that your little friend in the wood chipper?"
charles
Posts: 481
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Location: San Diego, CA
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Post by charles »

Dennis:

It sounds like there might be a problem with the file you are working with (or at least how we deal with it). If you can, please submit the file to us via Send Feedback in NWE. (Just make sure the file is open and then choose Send Feebdack from the Help menu.) I will take a look at it and then I can give you more information on what is going on.
Charles Jolley
Nisus Software, Inc.
niklas
Posts: 18
Joined: 2004-05-03 05:31:20
Location: Sweden

Re: Major problems with 2.0

Post by niklas »

dennisg wrote:Here's the worst one -- and it's totally undermining my confidence in the software: every time I open my new (70-page) document, I get a different page count. When I (slowly) scroll through the document, I discover that it's randomly filled with mostly blank pages. Several pages have only one line of text on them, and right in the middle of the page.
I am having this problem too, and it's driving me crazy...

It does not seem to be file corruption (unless all my documents are corrupt...); it happens to most documents I have used. Moreover, it is not restricted to long documents, I've seen it in >100 as well as in < 20 page documents.

It seems to happen in a rather unpredictable way, inserting blank pages at random places in the document. However, I have a document I am working on now where it appears to be happening predictably at the same position... I can fix it - in NWE the whole blank page is treated as a single space. I delete the space - the blank page disappears, I re-enter a space - and the now there is just a space, as there should be, and the page breaks at the space without an extra blank page. If I now save, close and re-open the document, the blank page is back again.

Very annoying... and indeed a show-stopper.

Oh, and it is still there in 2.01...

Let me know if you want another file to work on...
rallx
Posts: 38
Joined: 2004-09-11 12:05:03

Post by rallx »

I have seen this behavior, too. Sometimes, just toggling "show invisibles" is enough to remove the bizarre blank pages and stretched lines. I haven't tried to print a document to see if it is purely a screen refresh issue or if the blank pages print as well.
niklas
Posts: 18
Joined: 2004-05-03 05:31:20
Location: Sweden

Post by niklas »

rallx wrote:I have seen this behavior, too. Sometimes, just toggling "show invisibles" is enough to remove the bizarre blank pages and stretched lines. I haven't tried to print a document to see if it is purely a screen refresh issue or if the blank pages print as well.
Well, this is even weirder...

I just tried this, and there was no blank page, but instead the page prededing the blank page was duplicated in the printout...

I am pretty sure, however, that I have seen blank pages in print before... so once again, it seems to be a bit inconsistent...
charles
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Location: San Diego, CA
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Post by charles »

Hi:

We are aware of the issue causing this application now, though we were not able to fix it in time for 2.0.1 (as you can tell). A number of people are experiencing this issue, though it is relatively rare--which is why we have had some trouble tracking down the problem.

If this happens to you for a document, you can eliminate the extra pages by placing your cursor on the line of text in the page right before the first blank page. Then type a character and delete it right away. This will make the pages go back. Note that when you reopen the document, the blank pages may reappear. You can always resolve this by following the process I just described.

We are working on a fix for this. We have another release planned soon (not as soon as 2.0.1 was) and hopefully we will have it fixed by then. Sorry for any inconvenience.

-Charles
Charles Jolley
Nisus Software, Inc.
dennisg
Posts: 73
Joined: 2004-05-16 07:51:28
Location: Seattle, WA

Post by dennisg »

Charles,

If the blank pages were the only problem, life would be sweet. As it stands, I can't even use 2.0 or 2.0.1. In addition to blank pages, I get an indent on the LAST line of several paragraphs. Which means, every time I open my document, I not only have to eliminate the blank pages, but the indents, too.

But what really made the program impossible for me to use is that when I print out my 70-page document, most of the pages come out with the top line of text on many pages obscured by another line of text. I had to open the document in Mariner Write just to print it out correctly.
- Dennis

"Is that your little friend in the wood chipper?"
charles
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Post by charles »

Dennis:

are you seeing all of this in the same file you sent me earlier this week? We will definitely work on getting these things fixed ASAP!

-Charles
Charles Jolley
Nisus Software, Inc.
dennisg
Posts: 73
Joined: 2004-05-16 07:51:28
Location: Seattle, WA

Post by dennisg »

Thinking that I might have a bad file, I did this: I opened the doc I sent to you, copied all the text (paragraph by paragraph) into my style sheet template. It seemed to introduce even new problems (indents, printing) aside from the original problem (blank pages). Mark has the most recent version.
- Dennis

"Is that your little friend in the wood chipper?"
Denis
Posts: 7
Joined: 2004-09-10 09:20:31

Post by Denis »

charles wrote:If this happens to you for a document, you can eliminate the extra pages by placing your cursor on the line of text in the page right before the first blank page. Then type a character and delete it right away. This will make the pages go back.
That doesn't work for me. I tried that and the blank column is still there. If I enter a 'column break' at the end of the previous page (which happens to be near the end of a paragraph) then it works BUT there is an empty line at the bottom the previous page. I think I know part of the reason for the odd behavior: there is only one line of text left for that paragraph, but I have a style with space after paragraphs and the next line is a title with space before paragraph.
Anne Cuneo
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Major problems with Nisus 2

Post by Anne Cuneo »

I really thought, in my deepest mind, that all that was somehow my fault, for doing something foolish without noticing. I have tried to write a long text, and have experienced all the bugs reported here. It is quite true, that it is easy to suppress blank pages, but they have a way of BEING THERE AGAIN as soon as one saves, then reopens the file. :shock:
Anne
Denis
Posts: 7
Joined: 2004-09-10 09:20:31

Post by Denis »

Well it doesn't work for me, as I've said. Sometimes incerting a column break will fix the problem in an unsatisfactory manner, meaning that I need to incert it in the middle of a paragraph, and then if I change anything prior to that point I need to re-fix it. It's come to the point that I'm afraid to open Nisus to work on anything important since I don't know how screwed the document will appear. It's a real chore to have to dodge the app's odd behavior to try to get your document like you want it, instead of have the app help you. I've send many feedback emails with screenshots and files and nothing yet.
charles
Posts: 481
Joined: 2002-11-26 11:40:35
Location: San Diego, CA
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Post by charles »

Denis, Anne, and others,

I'm sorry you have been having problems with NWE2. We are working on correcting these blank-page/column problems that you and some others are experiencing. Your feedback is very helpful in tracking these things down. We have been inundated with feedback since our release, mostly because we have had a lot of interest in Express. As such, we are a little behind in getting back with people on their feedback, but it is being read and we are working on it to put out a fix very soon.

Thank you for your patience,
-Charles
Charles Jolley
Nisus Software, Inc.
Denis
Posts: 7
Joined: 2004-09-10 09:20:31

Post by Denis »

Ah ok, thanks Charles, I didn't realise how it was. Thanks for mentionning it and I'll try to be more patient.

Denis
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