Page numbering in Nisus Help Manual is wrong for screen use

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greenmorpher
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Page numbering in Nisus Help Manual is wrong for screen use

Post by greenmorpher »

Can I suggest the page numbering in the Nisus Writer Pro manual be changed for ease of use on screen?

The current numbering is fine for print -- but not for referencing on screen.

In Adobe Reader, I just did a "find" for "Quickfix". The first stop; was in the contents: "Determine what Quickfix Fixes .... p. 306"

So I typed 306 into the page number box at the bottom of the Acrobat Reader window, and what did I get? "Determine aspects of how your document prints" is what!

Quickfix is actually on page 330 by the Acrobat Reader count, which coiunts pages from the first page in the document.

I would ask that the document be renumbered so that the page numbering represents the actual number of pages in the document, and thus the references in the contents apply the page number as Reader counts pages.

I suspect not a lot of people are going to print out this book, and even if they do, the traditional print process of running front matter with separate numbering is not essential to them. Pages counted including the front matter would make no difference to their ability to find the page they want.

How about it chaps?

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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mrennie
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Post by mrennie »

Or better yet, make the RTF file available for download. That way, you could read the manual in NWP itself and simply double-click the page number in the table of contents to be taken to the relevant section.

There are other benefits as well: the manual itself would help users understand how to create a complex and large document, and the user would be able to try the tips mentioned in the manual right there, as opposed to constantly switching between Preview/Adobe Reader and NWP.
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scottwhitlock
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Post by scottwhitlock »

I second either one of these...:)

Scott
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ssampler
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Post by ssampler »

I also strongly support a PDF manual with screen format and 'real' page numbers. Please also include bookmarks and links from the TOC and index as in the BBEdit User Manual, for example.

-Steve
brifer
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Page numbering within PDF documents

Post by brifer »

I don't think this problem of the Nisus Manual in PDF format having conflicting page numbers is the fault of the Nisus version.
I've had it with almost all similar documents.
What you see is NOT what you get. :(
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greenmorpher
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Post by greenmorpher »

I'm a DTPer, brifer. As far as I am concerned, it is dead simple, in fact, it is easier to set it up with straight numbering, from the front cover through to the end, than it is to do anything else! And it is pretty straightforward to change that for print publication.

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
dmw
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Post by dmw »

I was bothered by that too, so I took a few minutes to fix it. If anyone wants a copy, grab it from here.

To replace the existing help.pdf, locate the Nisus Writer Pro application icon, open its context menu (right-click or control-click), choose "Show package contents". From the Finder window that opens, navigate to Contents->Resources. Then just copy over the help.pdf you find there with the one you downloaded.

This should do until the Nisus people update the file themselves.

Nisus, if you have any problem with my redistributing your help content, just let me know. I'll remove it immediately.
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greenmorpher
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Post by greenmorpher »

Exellent, dmw, but tell me, how did you do this?

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
dmw
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Post by dmw »

I just opened the file in Adobe Acrobat, and renumbered the pages. It's very straightforward. There's probably another PDF utility out there that will do this, if you don't have Acrobat, but I'm not sure.

update: SinatraWorks' PDFClerk also has the ability to renumber pages in a PDF file, and at ±$49, it's a bit more affordable than Acrobat at $299. I've only played with their demo, so YMMV.
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greenmorpher
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Post by greenmorpher »

You're right -- it appears you can do it in the free Reader. Just to go Preferences > Page Display > Use Logical Numbering.

PDFclerk looks very interesting. I use PDFPen for my PDF manipulation -- mixing them together to make a book, for example. It works very well for what I want, but PDFclerk appears to have more features, including some very nice ones in the imposition area.

Speaking of PDFpen, I just received a special price offer on it from Smith Micro. Quoting me recommending it as a happy user. How embarrassment!

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
Brooke6
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Post by Brooke6 »

Wow, am I glad I decided to browse the forum this morning instead of working. The page numbers on the Help file have been driving me a bit crazy. Thanks, DMW.
ptram
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Post by ptram »

dmw wrote:To replace the existing help.pdf, locate the Nisus Writer Pro application icon, open its context menu (right-click or control-click), choose "Show package contents". From the Finder window that opens, navigate to Contents->Resources.
Or, while the manual is shown onscreen, Cmd-click its name in the window's header, and select the containing folder.
Thank you for the fixed manual!

Paolo
dmw
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Post by dmw »

Happy to be of service. Hopefully Nisus will take care of this in later releases.
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