When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Everything related to our flagship word processor.
User avatar
greenmorpher
Posts: 767
Joined: 2007-04-12 04:01:46
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by greenmorpher »

I have a strong feeling that one is more than due.

I don’t want an upgrade for upgrade's sake, but it just feels like it is time. The tables need work, for example. I have the feeling that we should have seen them improved long since. E-book stuff is another matter that could do with work.

Not to mention the iPad/Phone companion app (in which I have no interest whatsoever but I am concerned that Nisus is not in that field).

Best regards
Geoff

Geoffrey Heard
General Manager
Bushtrack Enterprises Ltd
http://www.bushtrackpng.com
Agnostus
Posts: 50
Joined: 2006-03-16 01:00:50
Location: Lawrence, KS
Contact:

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by Agnostus »

It also feels like the UI could use some streamlining. Maybe it is time to replace the good old palette drawer with a palette panel that will look more in place in fullscreen mode. Wonder also if the comments system could use some visual updating.

And, I know I repeat my self, but split document view, please!
ptram
Posts: 280
Joined: 2007-10-21 14:59:09

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by ptram »

Agnostus, I wonder if undocking the palettes from the side drawer, and docking the one to the other to form a floating palette, can do what you are looking for.

Paolo
User avatar
greenmorpher
Posts: 767
Joined: 2007-04-12 04:01:46
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by greenmorpher »

I'm looking for some further development of the outlining capabilities (although they are pretty good now) and of the tables (to my surprise -- I'm using them more than I thought I would!).

But really it is time or even past time. I'm getting tired of receiving newsletters that offer me a price cut. I don’t want a price cut for NWP v.2! I NWP v.3 and an appropriate upgrade price to pay!

Hey -- maybe they are working on a fully integrate program, NisusWorksPro!!!

Dream on, Geoffrey, you poor addled creature, you’re going soft in the head in your dotage! :)

Cheers, geoff
Agnostus
Posts: 50
Joined: 2006-03-16 01:00:50
Location: Lawrence, KS
Contact:

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by Agnostus »

Hi Paolo,

that is possible, but not an ideal solution, since the palettes then float over part of the full screen and tend to cover part of my text window. I'd still prefer a modern panel-type approach as e.g. Scrivener adopts.

I sometimes would like to see an alternative to apples Numbers, now that Tables.app hasn't seen any development in ages and I still find Numbers a bit slow and awkward. I am only an occasional spreadsheet user and would like something light, fast, and easy with decent compatibility. A bit like what NWP is for word processors. Also, wonder where iWork is heading. I fear that, with the desktop version not having seen any updates since 2009 (or was it?) the thing is slowly morphing into something Google Docs like with the latest iCloud announcements. I guess currently office packages have become quite entrenched in their current form. That said, I wouldn't like to see Nisus spread their resources any thinner, now that they also have to further develop InfoClick. Don't get me wrong, I think InfoClick is important for Nisus as a company and definitely deserved resources. It raises the profile of the company and maybe there is even a 'halo effect' (anyone remember that?) to get people to try Writer.

I wonder if the time was up for a redesigned Nisus Writer as a successor to both Express and Pro, so the team can focus on a single application for their word-processing.

Martin
telemachos
Posts: 17
Joined: 2009-08-16 13:59:10

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by telemachos »

I've been wondering the same thing. The last update occurred 10 months ago.

More importantly, NWP doesn't support useful new Lion/Mountain Lion features such as autosave. The UI is dated -- who uses drawers anymore?
User avatar
xiamenese
Posts: 543
Joined: 2006-12-08 00:46:44
Location: London or Exeter, UK

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by xiamenese »

telemachos wrote:I've been wondering the same thing. The last update occurred 10 months ago.

More importantly, NWP doesn't support useful new Lion/Mountain Lion features such as autosave. The UI is dated -- who uses drawers anymore?
Call me old-fashioned, or call-me ... perhaps we shouldn't go there :) ... but ...

Actually, although I keep my software updated all the time, as long as I know it's not absolutely defunct, I don't spend time wondering when there's going to be an update, or how long since the last one, unless there is something with a malfunction that affects my use of the app. In the case of NWP, there is still one of those: the way the anchors of floating text-boxes with images have a life of their own and will place themselves in some random location, often on the page before the image itself ... and if I move the anchor, the image then moves from where I want it ... move the image back and the anchor flips back to its previous, spurious position. That I'd like to have solved; and I can see the point of a two-up display, perhaps where each pane can display a different page of the document, not simply the adjacent page; but that is not that important to me at the moment as I do all my basic writing in Scrivener. But I appreciate other people's wanting it urgently, and that there may be other enhancements that would make other users' experience even better.

But updating the UI, "who uses drawers anymore?" ... I really couldn't care less about that. For me NWP's drawer with its tabs and the ability to have more than one palette under each tab suits me fine; all that matters is that I know where to find the things that I need, not whether the UI conforms to this year's fashion. I don't find the floating palette system in say Pages or Keynote any more functional than NWP's drawer.

And to answer the question, I can quote two other apps that use drawers, one very much mainstream and a rival to NWP ... none other than Apple's own Pages — the styles system is in a drawer in Pages, though whether that will continue when Apple converts Pages into their version of Googledocs is perhaps moot. The other is the "Tables" spreadsheet. Sadly, I suspect that Daniel is not making enough from it to continue with the development, as it too hasn't had an update, apart from making it 10.8 compatible, for a very long time.

Mark
telemachos
Posts: 17
Joined: 2009-08-16 13:59:10

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by telemachos »

OK, having an updated look and feel may not be important to you, but what about support for versioning and autosave? I find it striking that aside from Pages (and *many* text editors), there really isn't good support for these features in word processors.
User avatar
xiamenese
Posts: 543
Joined: 2006-12-08 00:46:44
Location: London or Exeter, UK

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by xiamenese »

Well, again, NWP autosaves ... set at every 10 minutes for me, and I have it set to only save temporary files. And if it crashes, the last one is accessible through the Document Manager. I don't think I've had to access any of those in the last two years at least, as NWP is very stable and I haven't had a kernel panic for at least that long. As for versioning, I think that in all the time that it's been available, I've only used it once — Keynote, when I was part way through modifying a presentation and realised I ought to maintain a copy of the original. So, no, neither of those aspects of system 10.8 makes my pulse race! And I have to say I find the having to duplicate a file and then save that, which came in with versioning, more of an irritation than advance over the old "Save as" approach.

I know where I am with NWP as it is, so when there's an update, I'll update my copy, but I'm not crying out for one. But that's only me. I do understand that others, like you, might feel differently about these things.
:)

Mark
joao
Posts: 55
Joined: 2003-04-25 04:42:14

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by joao »

Nooooo...keep the tool drawers!

Nisus is the only software publisher that actually figured out how to use toll drawers well, and they make working with the program so much better. They allow me to focus on what I need when I need them - and I can easily make them going away if I want them.

NWP (and NWE) are particularly valuable to me since I have so much control over the interface and can choose when I want it nattering at me and when I don't. What do you want - inspectors? <cringe>

Refining existing features and upgrading the drawing tools would be nice - but don't fix and interface that is far from broken.
User avatar
phspaelti
Posts: 1313
Joined: 2007-02-07 00:58:12
Location: Japan

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by phspaelti »

telemachos wrote:OK, having an updated look and feel may not be important to you, but what about support for versioning and autosave? I find it striking that aside from Pages (and *many* text editors), there really isn't good support for these features in word processors.
No thank you.
Currently Pages and Numbers are the only pieces of software that I use that have adopted this model, and I hope it stays that way.
I have read stuff on the "logic" for these changes, and I think the reasoning has about the same value as that for "natural" scrolling. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
philip
telemachos
Posts: 17
Joined: 2009-08-16 13:59:10

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by telemachos »

I'm glad that you guys are satisfied, but NWP is neither close to flawless in UI nor bug-free, and the fact that the last two significant updates (2.0.4 and 2.0.2) have occurred approximately one year apart (since 2.0.4 was a very minor revision of 2.0.3), with 2.0.4 having been released almost a year ago, does not mean active development by any standard. If you want a comparison in terms of a similar alternative word processor, see Mellel's release pattern.
User avatar
phspaelti
Posts: 1313
Joined: 2007-02-07 00:58:12
Location: Japan

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by phspaelti »

I didn't say that I thought Nisus was flawless. There are lots of things I'd love to see improved.
(Just that Save/Autosave is not among those things.)
philip
telemachos
Posts: 17
Joined: 2009-08-16 13:59:10

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by telemachos »

Why don't you list some of those, then?
User avatar
phspaelti
Posts: 1313
Joined: 2007-02-07 00:58:12
Location: Japan

Re: When will we get a major upgrade of NWP?

Post by phspaelti »

Like many others I wouldn't mind some sort of split window capability and simultaneous scrolling, but generally my main wishes run along the lines of improved macro capabilities and across the board consistency of interface.
Macro control of graphics.
The ability to adjust table cell size numerically (and via macro).
Automatic numbers that are not dependent on styles or can be placed in other locations.
Macro control of cross-references and bookmarks.

One feature that I'd really like would be a palette for a translation dictionary (like the thesaurus, but cross-linguistic).

But for the most part I am not really in a hurry. Still it would be nice to see Nisus come out with regular updates, even if they are mainly bug-fixes.
philip
Post Reply