unwanted changes

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artful1
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Joined: 2016-05-14 21:29:06

unwanted changes

Post by artful1 »

I am aligning headers to the exact measurements my publisher requires, but before I can get them all done they are out of position, some by a half inch. It seems to be never-ending. I need to have a header .5 inch down from the top edge. They don't stay in that position. It' crazy-making. I change them, they stay until I go back to it, and they're out of whack again.

Anybody got a solution? Do I need new Mac?
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martin
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Re: unwanted changes

Post by martin »

What you describe sounds highly unusual, but certainly you won't need a new Mac. The headers should stay where you put them. Can you please describe what you are doing? In other words, how exactly are you changing your header position and what measurements are you entering?

For example, here's a screenshot of the default New File template's header:
header.png
header.png (51.14 KiB) Viewed 7480 times
You can see the default is to inset the header 0.5 inches from the top of the page, which is what you wanted correct? If I adjust the insets (for example set the top inset to 2 inches and the header inset to 1 inch), save the file, and reopen it, everything appears exactly as I left it.
artful1
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Joined: 2016-05-14 21:29:06

Re: unwanted changes

Post by artful1 »

Martin, big help on that so far. I had been eyeballing the placement as I had not seen the measurement palette. I would expect I could do one page and the rest of the pages would follow suit. That doesn't happen. What's the trick? When I go to the next page the line of type is in a different place and if I change THAT the others change.
artful1
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Joined: 2016-05-14 21:29:06

Re: unwanted changes

Post by artful1 »

Whoa, Martin. I've got the headers perfect. I can only hope they stay that way. I used the measurements this time, and copied them for reference.

Don't leave town, page numbers are next. So far I've got 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2 and so on. Never said I was smart.
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martin
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Re: unwanted changes

Post by martin »

It sounds like your document has multiple sections. Each section is allowed to have its own custom header, footer, margins, etc. That includes restarting numbering as well. To control whether section headers and numbering reset for a particular section you will want to adjust the options in the Section and Header/Footer palettes:
palettes.png
palettes.png (49.54 KiB) Viewed 7464 times
Remember: each section has its own settings, so you'll need to adjust each section in your document.
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phspaelti
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Re: unwanted changes

Post by phspaelti »

Reading this I am suddenly wondering whether artful really wanted to insert so many section breaks. Perhaps the trouble with headers/footers stems from having used Section breaks where there really only should be page breaks?

Why are you using section breaks?
philip
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martin
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Re: unwanted changes

Post by martin »

That's a very good point. Perhaps having so many different sections wasn't intentional in the first place. You don't need multiple sections unless you want to customize or differentiate parts of your document in these ways.
artful1
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Re: unwanted changes

Post by artful1 »

Hey, y'all I don't understand section breaks. My simple mind doesn't go that far. I do, however, get page 1, age 2, page 3, etc.

So, while I have yer attention. I'm ready for page numbers. I totally don't get it. Tried to do it manually, doesn't work. I'd like the numbering to start after the three pages of stuff in the beginning. Can I have some help on that? many thanks
adryan
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Re: unwanted changes

Post by adryan »

G’day, artful1 et al

By the sound of it, I think coming to grips with Sections will prove useful to you. And it’s not that hard, really. Brief tutorial follows….

Window > Palettes > Switch to Palette Group > Sections

You will see a variety of Palettes in the Palette Dock: Section 1, Header/Footer (sec 1), etc.

(Note to Martin: It should be “Sec 1” here and elsewhere.)

It says “Section 1” because, by default, a document consists of a single Section. A Section is just a portion of your document for which you might wish to set some parameters differently from those in another Section. Look at the parameters in these Palettes and you start to get an idea of the parameters which can be varied to affect a whole Section.

A classic use of Sections would be for multiple columns.

Furnish yourself with an experimental document:–

File > New
Macro > Document > Lorem Ipsum > (6 paragraphs, say)

Position the insertion point anywhere in the document, then:–

Insert > Section Break > Same Page (say)

Position the insertion point above the Section Break line that appears, and observe that the Section Palettes refer to Section 1. Position the insertion point below the Section Break line, and observe that the Section Palettes now refer to Section 2.

Position the insertion point somewhere in Section 2 and Insert another Section Break, so that you now have three Sections.

Position the insertion point anywhere in Section 2, go to the Columns (sec 2) Palette, and click on the “+” button. You will see that the text in Section 2 now occupies two columns.

The crucial thing to notice is that Section 2 is the only Section (portion of the document) consisting of two columns. This illustrates how certain formatting options can be isolated to specific portions of your document.

Note that you could instead use positioning of margins and tabs to create a columnar effect, but text would not flow from the bottom of one column to the top of the next. To achieve this effect, you need to use columns, but the only way to isolate this particular columnar format from the preceding and succeeding portions of the document is with Sections.

To remove a Section Break, position the insertion point immediately after the Section Break line and hit Delete. Observe that, if you do this in this experimental document by positioning the insertion point at the very beginning of Section 3 and hitting the Delete key, you will be left with only two Sections, but everything following the Section Break will now be in two columns because it is all now in Section 2 and you’ve set Section 2 to contain two columns.

That should give you a basic idea of how Sections work. Note that you can have several Sections on a single page, or several pages in a single Section.

Suppose your document has a number of chapters. You may wish to commence a chapter on the right-hand side of a two-page spread. You could just insert one or two Page Breaks to bring you to the next odd page, and away you go. But you may not wish the Header of this page to duplicate exhibition of the chapter title which you are already putting in big print on the page anyway. So, instead of Page Breaks, Insert a Section Break at the end of the preceding chapter:–

Insert > Section Break > Odd Page

Position the insertion point in this new Section, go to the Header/Footer Palette and tick the Different First Page checkbox. Then you can have a blank Header (or one with just a page number or whatever) on the first page of the chapter, but the chapter title (and whatever else) on all subsequent pages of that chapter. If the chapter itself contains more than one Section, you might untick the Different Headers checkbox in succeeding Sections so that Headers carry across Section Breaks.

By now you should be in a better position to appreciate Page Numbering and how you can start numbering afresh, and with different numbering schemes, multiple times throughout a document. The key idea is that the numbering scheme applies to a whole Section. In your present case, you would have a non-numbered Section for your three pages of stuff, then commence a new Section with a page numbering scheme of your choice.

There are many combinations of parameter settings that relate to Sections. I’ve only indicated the basics here. Read the Nisus Writer User Guide for more details and do your own experiments.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Adrian
MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 2021)
macOS Ventura
Nisus Writer user since 1996
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