Desired NWP1.2 Features

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mythusmage
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Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by mythusmage »

For the next update of Nisus Writer Pro what would you like to see in the way of features? What could NWP use it doesn't have now?

I'd like to see a Document Manager that can access folders. Instead of "-/nisus documents/file name" you could have "-/nisus documents/great american novel/file name".

For that matter, what about a project manager instead? You could have multiple project managers, each with folders and files for each project you have underway.

As it stands the document manager is too limited, and that makes it effectively useless for any multiple file, multiple layer document.

And now that I've thought of it. Replace the document manager window with its list of files with a dialogue box. Click on the project you wish to work on and a project window opens with the folders and files associated with that project.

Do you have any features you'd like to see included with Nisus Writer Pro 1.2?
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greenmorpher
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by greenmorpher »

Good thinking, mythusmage. What about multiple Document Manager/Project Manager windows?

A bit more development of the outlining, perhaps. I have suggested in the past the incorporation of some sort of stickum in the Paragraph Styles so that you can set up an outline with Head Paragraph Styles and dependent Body Paragraph Styles which incorporate the stickum factor so that when you cut and paste or drag and drop the head, the body text goes with it.

With the stickum factor in place, it would be really great if you could change the level of a head by changing its Pargraph Style and that would result in the same movement in the body Paragraph Style which was stuck to it.

Outline heaven would be to have a collapsed view available which would make it moving heads (with stuck-to bodies) around to change the structure.

Or an alternative -- perhaps better: to be able to restructure the document by moving heads around in the Navigator.

Also a VERTICAL RULER!!! :o

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- the secrets of how type can help you to sell or influence, now at the new low price of $29.95. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com or Amazon.
dshan
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by dshan »

Multiple windows per document! Ideally it would support both separate windows and tabbed window views, but if that's too hard then just separate windows would do. Working on long documents in NWP is a pain when you need to refer to an earlier or later page/section, and to be able to reopen the same document in another window/tab and find what you're after would be heaven.

And vertical rulers, of course! (I actually have no use for them, but if it keeps Geoff's head from exploding it's worth it :-) )
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greenmorpher
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by greenmorpher »

Too kind, dishpan. But think of this, if my head did explode, I might shut up! :lol:

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- the secrets of how type can help you to sell or influence, now at the new low price of $29.95. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com or Amazon.
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Elbrecht
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by Elbrecht »

Me too -

VERTICAL RULERS please. That's what we need - Geoff keep going! And a clean canvas for me to place graphics on - as with good old Classic Nisus Writer. With all these transparencies around this would be christmas time on [Snow] Leopard...

HE
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Derick
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by Derick »

1) With all due respect, I don't get when anyone would want developers spending their time adding features to the document manager. I'd rather see it scrapped, or at least left to languish. I can't stand it when apps. try to tell me where to put my files. And nearly every project I'm working on has files in other formats (OmniOutliner, jpegs, etc.), so I generally open files from the Finder (which lets you create subfolders already). The only feature of value I see in the document manager is the summary, but that could be incorporated into a customized Cocoa dialog. Re: "Replace the document manager window with its list of files with a dialogue box. Click on the project you wish to work on and a project window opens with the folders and files associated with that project" - why not just drag the folders for your projects to the sidebar in the Finder? Then they'd be available from Nisus, the Finder and any other apps that use Cocoa dialogs. OS X provides such a rich set of tools--I don't see the point of trying to develop alternatives when a good solution is already built in to the OS.

2) As an alternative to multiple windows per document (if this is a pain to implement) consider allowing opening multiple copies of the same document, with 2nd & later copies open as read-only. I would bet that most users only need to edit one portion of a doc. at once, even if they want to refer to multiple locations within the doc.
Sascha Erni
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by Sascha Erni »

Derick wrote: 2) As an alternative to multiple windows per document (if this is a pain to implement) consider allowing opening multiple copies of the same document, with 2nd & later copies open as read-only. I would bet that most users only need to edit one portion of a doc. at once, even if they want to refer to multiple locations within the doc.
Good one. I concur. It would be enough for me to have a read-only copy open (another “view” of the document, so to say) so I can quickly check what I’ve written in chapter 1 while working on chapter 25.

For drafting and the first revision of longer documents, I use Scrivener anyway. That said, a similar split-window view in NWP would be much appreciated. ;)

My main wish for 1.2 would be a track-changes system similar to the one in Pages, though. Tracking changes in OOorg is a pain, and Pages can’t cope with tracked changes or comments in RTF documents (which I tend to use the most often). And I don’t really see the point in buying Office 2008 just for this one feature, so …

Cheers,
-Sascha
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greenmorpher
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by greenmorpher »

Sasha

Good one -- a second copy of the document open as read only sounds good to me. And track changes operating in the editable window!

Derick

I use Document Manager every day -- I love it.

I have NWP set to open with DM open. In it, I have half-a-dozen documents I use frequently, four documents of various collections of passwords and other access information, five alternative "New files" in .dot format, one a facing pages set up, one an outline framework, and three different letterheads.

All these documents are instantly available when I want them (my screen is wide enough that the DM is at last part visible when I have a WP document open).

It doesn't "direct" me where to save -- or at least, not that I have noticed. When I open a new document, I immediately save it to the folder I want then proceed forward with it autosaving.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- the secrets of how type can help you to sell or influence, now at the new low price of $29.95. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com or Amazon.
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joehardy
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by joehardy »

Sascha Erni wrote:My main wish for 1.2 would be a track-changes system similar to the one in Pages, though. Tracking changes in OOorg is a pain, and Pages can’t cope with tracked changes or comments in RTF documents (which I tend to use the most often). And I don’t really see the point in buying Office 2008 just for this one feature, so …

Cheers,
-Sascha
I wish for Track Changes as well since I've now found it easy to use the Comments feature with Word-created documents as long as they remain in RTF format. Two colleagues of mine are creating a brochure for our college admissions office. Since one is a Mac user and the other on a PC, and the Mac user uses Nisus Writer, they are sharing edits back and forth in RTF.
The other day I sent one of them some corrections and suggestions regarding our department's programs and used NWP's Comments feature. She opened it in Word and could read the comments. She made some more and saved it as .rtf and not .doc and it came back to me with her comments.
If we could now do that with Track Changes, I could just leave Word alone.
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ninjagame
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by ninjagame »

ahem, soft hyphenation... :oops:
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Elbrecht
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by Elbrecht »

ninjagame -

you started a Soft hyphenation thread some time ago and I got it working somehow for me - but no comments from nobody so far! Is there anything wrong with me? I don't need/practice Soft hyphenation, so maybe the fault is with me?

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ninjagame
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by ninjagame »

Elbrecht,

In fact, I did read your suggestions in the other thread. But, as you wrote yourself in that thread, it would be a hack. I'd like it to be a feature.

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Elbrecht
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by Elbrecht »

ninjagame wrote:In fact, I did read your suggestions in the other thread. But, as you wrote yourself in that thread, it would be a hack. I'd like it to be a feature.
Well -

I am not sure myself: is this a new [maybe Leopard] feature or is it a Nisus Writer Pro 1.1 [in my case] hack? That's why I asked others to try for themselves. Compared to old documents from one year ago or so, to me it looks like it works now, don't know why? But never read anything about this new feature - so Martin: How is you?

HE

PS: again, see http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/shy.html - Point still is, that the Unicode definition of Soft Hyphenation is not compatible with the Soft Hyphenation as handled inside the usual layout applications. I.e. Nisus Writer would have to handle Soft Hyphenation over against the Unicode implementation of the Mas OS Text Engine that Nisus Writer depends on. That's as far as I can see. So Apple could be nice to help layouters or Nisus must hack as other layout applications do. Again Martin: Is this correct? Is it a feature or a hack? What did change - and what for?
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ninjagame
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by ninjagame »

Elbrecht,

I just tried (again) what you suggested the other day: insert U+00AD and Convert. I got a hyphen and a second, "real" hyphen at the end of the line. When I inserted some other characters in order to force the word with the inserted "SHY"-code completely on the next line, the "soft" hyphen didn't go away, i.e. it stayed at the position where I inserted it.
BTW I'm running NWP 1.1 with OS 10.4.11 on a non-intel Mac, and the file I tried it with is written in the Futura font family. (I didn't try changing the font to Lucida grande, though.)
Maybe I did something wrong but at the moment that idea is not a feasible option for me.
I hope this helps.

ninjagame
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Elbrecht
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Re: Desired NWP1.2 Features

Post by Elbrecht »

Yeah -

that's the old scenario I refered to - but it seems different now on most up-to-date Leopard, i.e. Intel-run machines. And it won't work with older, i.e. non-Apple [system?] fonts, I would guess - but that's up for others to check - others/Martin please join in...

HE

PS: I have a couple of Futura font versions installed and some seem to work, while others don't. So looks like it would work by now - it's more like finding out what fonts will do the job on most recent Leopard/Nisus Writer running Intel machines...

Martin help!
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