Putting name of Chapter into page header

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frodeaux
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Joined: 2014-07-02 08:13:45

Putting name of Chapter into page header

Post by frodeaux »

There must be a way to do this, since I've many editors like to see
this in novel manuscripts: Author's last name followed by a slash
followed by the name of the current chapter.

Assuming I'm using the style "TitleChapter" to style the paragraph
that is the name of the chapter, then in MS Word and in OpenOffice
this is accomplish with something like this in the page header:

Code: Select all

Smith /  <reference to TitleChapter>
How do I do something like this in Nisus Writer Pro?

Thanks.
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martin
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Re: Putting name of Chapter into page header

Post by martin »

This feature is sometimes called a running head or header. Nisus Writer Pro won't be able to automatically customize the header for each document section/chapter based on the active heading (eg: your "TitleChapter" paragraph style), but as you suggest, you can use cross-references to achieve the same result. You can do so by:

1. Make sure the desired paragraph style(s) is marked for TOC inclusion (the default Heading styles already have this set).
2. Click into the header area for a particular chapter.
3. Use the menu Insert > Cross-Reference.
4. In the dialog that appears, choose to insert a cross-reference to a paragraph in the TOC (ie: one marked in your paragraph style).
5. Choose for the cross-reference to display the "bookmarked text".
6. Click the Insert button.

I'll attach an example document that shows the technique. Please let us know if you have any questions.
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headers.zrtf
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frodeaux
Posts: 6
Joined: 2014-07-02 08:13:45

Re: Putting name of Chapter into page header

Post by frodeaux »

The trouble with this "work around" is that it doesn't really address the problem:

If you have 20 chapters one would have to have twenty different header definitions,
each referencing the associated chapter.

A true solution or work-around would put the current chapter's in the header,
so that even though one had 20 chapters you'd just set up the header definition
once and forget it.
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martin
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Re: Putting name of Chapter into page header

Post by martin »

frodeaux wrote:The trouble with this "work around" is that it doesn't really address the problem:

If you have 20 chapters one would have to have twenty different header definitions, each referencing the associated chapter.
That is true. The workaround is inconvenient, but it's still more convenient than not using cross-references, where you'd have to update the corresponding header any time you edited a chapter title.

But yes, it would be much better if Nisus Writer had a built-in running header feature to take care of this automatically. We already have it filed as a feature request, and I added your vote– thanks.
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