Is there an easy way to create multi-paragraph list items?
Is there an easy way to create multi-paragraph list items?
I frequently find myself creating lists where each list item will contain several paragraphs, and I am wondering if there is an easy way to do this in Nisus Writer Pro? Semantically the content forms part of the list item, and from a layout perspective it's presentation should be identical in formatting to a list item in all aspects with the exception of the list marker (see enclosed image). Can anyone offer me any suggestions how to accomplish this such that it respects the semantics of list content.
- Attachments
-
- multi-paragraph.png (51.77 KiB) Viewed 4222 times
Re: Is there an easy way to create multi-paragraph list item
G’day, gfhill et al
Despite a premonition of derision from the gallery, who I am sure have a more elegant solution, I offer the following approach.
Instead of a Return, use Shift-Return to separate paragraphs constituting the one list item. Everything will then be as you wish, except for one small point: the spacing between these paragraphs. If you attempt to increase the spacing after any of them, you will observe that only the spacing after the last is affected: they are all still regarded as part of the one paragraph.
The way to deal with this is to use Shift-Return twice in succession. Then select everything from the end of one “paragraph” to the beginning of the next, so that both these soft returns are selected. (You can use the Find/Replace dialog to do this for all such instances if you wish.) Now alteration of font size will result in alteration of your “paragraph” spacing. This procedure could be macroized. It is curious that alteration of font size does not affect the situation in which there is only a single Shift-Return, but it does seem to work when there are two successive ones.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Adrian
Despite a premonition of derision from the gallery, who I am sure have a more elegant solution, I offer the following approach.
Instead of a Return, use Shift-Return to separate paragraphs constituting the one list item. Everything will then be as you wish, except for one small point: the spacing between these paragraphs. If you attempt to increase the spacing after any of them, you will observe that only the spacing after the last is affected: they are all still regarded as part of the one paragraph.
The way to deal with this is to use Shift-Return twice in succession. Then select everything from the end of one “paragraph” to the beginning of the next, so that both these soft returns are selected. (You can use the Find/Replace dialog to do this for all such instances if you wish.) Now alteration of font size will result in alteration of your “paragraph” spacing. This procedure could be macroized. It is curious that alteration of font size does not affect the situation in which there is only a single Shift-Return, but it does seem to work when there are two successive ones.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Adrian
MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 2021)
macOS Ventura
Nisus Writer user since 1996
macOS Ventura
Nisus Writer user since 1996
Re: Is there an easy way to create multi-paragraph list item
Adryan's suggestion is method 1. If you can live with the formatting limitations that Adryan points out, then it's one of the better and easier methods, since your list items will actually be paragraphs. You can sort them, etc. and they will stay together.
Another method is to set your list item style to "Continue numbering through document". Then you can have intervening paragraphs which are unnumbered. For those unnumbered paragraphs you will want to create a paragraph style that generally has the same settings as your list item paragraph, except for the hanging indent. This will allow you much more flexibility then Adryan's method, but you will have to watch that things stay together. Sorting or the like would probably have to handled by macro. You can use styles with "Next Style" set in appropriate ways to make things easier to enter.
Another method is to set your list item style to "Continue numbering through document". Then you can have intervening paragraphs which are unnumbered. For those unnumbered paragraphs you will want to create a paragraph style that generally has the same settings as your list item paragraph, except for the hanging indent. This will allow you much more flexibility then Adryan's method, but you will have to watch that things stay together. Sorting or the like would probably have to handled by macro. You can use styles with "Next Style" set in appropriate ways to make things easier to enter.
philip