.nisus ?

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Patrick J
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.nisus ?

Post by Patrick J »

I think it is great that Nisus Writer saves the files as .rtf on OS X, however there is one downside to this for me. I have loads of .rtf files created with TextEdit which are just notes on things, most usually notes on things which are also in the folder containing the note. I quite like being able to distinguish Nisus Writer files from those other .rtf files. I could do this using .zrtf, however that will not show a preview image in the finder or in the Spotlight search menu. I find the preview images really rather useful.

I can't see a way to do what I wish. I was wondering if Nisus had every considered having their own extension for Nisus Writer. I am not suggesting a different file type, just a unique extension, such as ".nisus". This would be identical to the .rtf file, and it would be possible to simply change ".nisus" to ".rtf" and have the file open in any .rtf compliant application.

Another advantage with a unique extension would be that it would be easy to search for all Nisus Writer files using Spotlight find in a Finder window using that "Find files with extension" option.
Patrick
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martin
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by martin »

ZRTF files are essentially unique to Nisus Writer. It's something we thought was a good idea and created, but I know of no other application that supports or opens them. So really ".zrtf" is already serving the place of the proposed ".nisus" extension. The problem (as you noted) is that one doesn't see Finder previews for ZRTF files. To solve that NWP would have to come with a QuickLook generator for ZRTF.

One tip, in case you decide to use ZRTF files despite the lack of Finder previews: these are essentially just compressed/zipped RTF files. If you take any ".zrtf" file, rename it to ".rtf.zip", and double-click it in the Finder, you will be left with a valid decompressed ".rtf" document that you can open in most applications that support RTF.

I say "most" in the above paragraph because there are some efficiencies in the RTF used by ZRTF that may not be supported by all applications. Some examples:
1. ZRTF files will have image data emitted using the "\bin" control (for binary data), instead of hex-escaping it (which increases the file size). Word supports this, but not all apps do.
2. Unicode "fallback" characters are not emitted. For example, instead of emitting "\u1234 ?", it will be just "\u1234". This isn't a problem for modern RTF readers.
3. Images duplicated in the file in multiple places will only be emitted once. Subsequent occurrences of that image will just refer back to the original image data. This is the only efficiency which uses a custom Nisus extension to RTF. Other readers would not pick up these images.
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Patrick J
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by Patrick J »

Thank you for your reply.

I think I may use ".zrtf" files as my default saving file. I had read all about these in the NWP manual and I will say that I really like the idea of them. I have noted the additional information you have given here about them. It would be great if a QuickLook generator for ".zrtf" could be included in Nisus Writer Pro as the previews are very useful to me.
Patrick
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martin
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by martin »

Patrick J wrote:I had read all about these in the NWP manual and I will say that I really like the idea of them. I have noted the additional information you have given here about them.
Some extra motivations for the ZRTF file format can be found in our FAQ on why RTF files can become large when working with images. RTF can be relatively wasteful when it comes to storing images. Not a big concern for the large storage capacities we have today, but something to be aware of if you're working with a lot of large images.
It would be great if a QuickLook generator for ".zrtf" could be included in Nisus Writer Pro as the previews are very useful to me.
I'll file a feature request for such a thing, thank you!
Craft2science
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by Craft2science »

I second the request. Because of their much smaller sizes, I use Zrtf a lot, but I cannot locate files using spotlight, or EagleFiler which is my main manager for documents.
To solve that NWP would have to come with a QuickLook generator for ZRTF.
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appledogx
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by appledogx »

add me as another second for this quick look feature!
Waldbaer
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by Waldbaer »

I was also just looking for a quicklook plugin and found this thread. It's not that old, so I just want to add my vote for this feature request. Are you already working on it?

Also, it would be nice to be able to select this plugin for normal rtfs, since TextEdit and also the corresponding Apple Quicklook plugin has some limitations opening more complex .rtfs edited e.g. in Nisus, but Nisus always opened my Textedit RTFs without problems so far... :wink:
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martin
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by martin »

Waldbaer wrote:I was also just looking for a quicklook plugin and found this thread. It's not that old, so I just want to add my vote for this feature request. Are you already working on it?
Thank you for letting us know! I've added your vote.

And even if we aren't yet working on (or planning) a particular feature, we still track how many users expressed their desire for an enhancement. Which features get added and when is always in flux. We constantly need to evaluate and balance user needs, changes to OSX, important trends, bug fixes, etc.
exegete77
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by exegete77 »

I, too, would like to see this feature.
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NisusUser
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by NisusUser »

+1
jeab
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by jeab »

A QuickLook generator and a Spotlight importer for .zrtf files would be great.
MacSailor
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by MacSailor »

jeab wrote:A QuickLook generator and a Spotlight importer for .zrtf files would be great.
Agree.
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sebwin
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Re: .nisus ?

Post by sebwin »

+1 for the QuickLook plugin.
Sebastian
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