Numbering style queries

[vwnisus]

I wish to create a 3 level outline:
1. with the first level have the text in bold and having 12pt space above
2. the second level, having 3pt space below
3. the third level, no extra space above or below.


From my brief examination of the manual it is necessary to create:
1. a separate separate style for each level; and attach
2. attach a different level of one numbering style to each 3 levels.

I have created 3 styles (First Level, Second Level, Third Level), and attached each level of a Level1–3 list style.

The issues I am having (or on which I am not clear) are as follows:
1. in the style definitions, what do I put for the ‘Next Style’? If I for the first level style (First Level), I leave the Next Style as ‘First Level’ and then wish to add a Level 2 if I press the tab or Option + Command + Right Arrow to go to level 2, the paragraph style is still set to First Level. I have to manually apply the Second Level paragraph style; and

2. for the first level, I would like the style to be so that the number is not in bold, but the text is in bold. But this does not seem possible.

Attached is a Nisus Writer Pro file with the styles.

Help would be gratefully received.

[phspaelti]

2. for the first level, I would like the style to be so that the number is not in bold, but the text is in bold. But this does not seem possible.

This can also be achieved with a style, but this time a character style. Call it "First Level Number" and give it the attribute "Unbold". It seems to do that you need to base it on a character style that enforces bold (for example the "Strong" in the standard Nisus collection). This does all seem a bit baroque, and I'm not sure if it can be simplified—especially since it seems you need to apply the character style by hand. This all feels like "déja vu all over again". There must be a discussion where we went over this before.

Of course one could write a macro to apply these styles.

For your first problem, I think you have it correct that you need to apply the style. Basically you should apply the style instead of using promotion. But again this feels like we had this discussion somewhere before.

[vwnisus]

Philip

Thank you for the reply.

You are right that there is a level of complexity (or a gap) in Nisus Writer Pro.

Microsoft Word allows the assigning of different paragraph styles to different levels of a list style, something which Nisus Writer Pro does not permit. See the attached Word file.

It would be helpful if the developer could provide a response.

However, I believe I have found a solution to having the paragraph style take over or format the number:

1. Apply the paragraph style, which will then format the number with the paragraph style formatting; then
2. Go into style sheet and select the level, and then format that level with the fount, colour etc that you wish.

[martin]

The short answer is that Nisus Writer has no built-in way to do exactly what you want. There's no mechanism in place for indent commands to change the paragraph style. I'll consider your question a feature request– thanks!

However, here are two list indent/outdent macros that can do what you want. Each macro looks at the selection's paragraph style, finds a related paragraph style (using the same list style) and applies it. For example: if you run the indent macro on a paragraph using the "Heading 1" style, the macro will apply "Heading 2" (assuming it uses the same list style at a deeper list level).

There is also one other related feature in Nisus Writer. If you're using the Navigator pane in TOC mode, you can select one or more entries and indent/outdent them. Nisus Writer will automatically find and apply a paragraph style using the desired TOC level, eg: again switch "Heading 1" to "Heading 2". This works through TOC levels instead of list levels, so it might not help you, but I wanted to mention it.

[vwnisus]

Martin,

Thank you for the reply and providing the two macros - they do what is required - although I do hope you can implement what is required as a feature in a future version of Nisus Writer.

[martin]

2. for the first level, I would like the style to be so that the number is not in bold, but the text is in bold. But this does not seem possible.

Nisus Writer Pro version 3.1 should make this part of the process easier. You can now configure your list style levels to directly enforce the "unbold" formatting. For more details please see the user guide section on list formatting and let us know if you have any question.

[vwnisus]

Martin,

Thank you very much for implementing this.

Victor