Outlining -- new features to facilitate it

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greenmorpher
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Outlining -- new features to facilitate it

Post by greenmorpher »

Having produced a few more documents using NWPro's outlining capabilities, it seems to me that it will have all I really need as an outliner if it does four more things. They are:

1) A selection feature which selects a head plus everything below it down to but not including the next head, regardless of the next head's level.

2) A selection feature which selects a head plus everything below it down to but not including the next head of the same level.

3) A paste feature which allows a selection like either of the two above to be pasted in anywhere and the initial head retains its level (and by implication, dependent heads and dependent body text styles retain their levels).

4) A paste feature which allows a selection like either of the above to be pasted in anywhere and the initial head is promoted/demoted to the head level of the head at the point at which it is pasted (and by implication, dependent heads and dependent body text styles are promoted/demoted by the same amount as the initial head).

It would be magic if we could select heads and their attendant body text in the ToC showing up in the Navigator and manipulate them there by dragging and dropping with drag and drop features as above, but I have a feeling that isn't going to happen because it would be too complex. So cutting and pasting in the document is my suggestion.

What I am suggesting fits with my method of using NWPro as an outliner and is based on what the classic MORE outliner did (well, still does perfectly well in OS 9.2).

To briefly recap -- my method of using NWPro as an outliner is:

-- Hierarchy of head styles numbered 1,2,...6 (as far as I want to go) incorporating Lists | Heads styles and marked for ToC. They all have the corresponding body style set as "next style". I have assigned numbered keyboard shortcuts to them so I can insert a new head at the appropriate level quickly.

-- A hierarchy of body styles numbered 1...6 which are all the same except that they have left indents to match the text indents of the corresponding heads. Their next style is the same style.

In a new paragraph, I insert a head of the level I want using the keyboard short cut, then hit return, which puts me into the body text of the appropriate level. I can write as many paragraphs in that style as I like, then when it is completed, do a return and the keyboard shortcut to insert the next head at the level I want to start the next section.

Or I can set up a structure of heads, then just go to a head, do a return, and enter body text.

If anyone has a better process for using NWPro as an outliner, I would be happy to hear of it.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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