Issues with Styling in 2.7

[makalu]

Hello,

I'm having styling issues with version 2.7 of NWE. (Possibly these issues existed with previous versions.) I'm not sure if these issues are application bugs, or problems with my understanding of styles work.

I have a document in which three styles, Heading 1, 2 and 3, and "normal" were all perfectly left aligned, with an indention of 1.92 cm. I have done nothing in my document, other than write text, and switch between styles, and now find that my "normal" style is indenting 2.00 cm. Furthermore, in the styles view, i can't find a way to precisely specify "1.92" cm for the indentation of the "normal" style.

The next question I have regards the modification of Heading 1, 2 and 3 styes.

My "Headings" list style shows levels 1, 2 and 3 indented by 1.12, 1.4 and 1.92 cm, respectively. My Heading 1 paragraph style uses level 1 of the Headings list style, but specified to have an indentation of 1.92. Is this "correct"--- i.e. if I want "Heading 1" to be indented by 1.92 cm, should I bind the paragraph list style to "Headings" and _then_ change the level 1 Heading indentation to 1.92 from the "paragraph" style definition? or, alternatively, should I set the level 1 indentation from the "list" style to 1.92 and then bind the paragraph Heading 1 style to level 1 of the list Headings (unmodified)? (Is that clear as mud?

I ask this convoluted question, because I am having tremendous difficulties modifying heading styles. I tend to modify the paragraph style, occassionally changing the indentation in the "list" panel of the side (while modifying the paragraph style) and the changes often don't stick. (They revert back to what they were when I exist the styling pane.)

any ideas? Thanks in advance!

Kind regards,

--
Matt Henderson | MakaluMedia Group
| Software Systems Engineering & Consultancy
| http://makalumedia.com/
| matt@makalumedia.com

[martin]

Let me first try to explain how style indentations work. Some understanding may ease your frustrations.

Indentations, like "left indent", are relative measurements, not absolute locations. For example, let's assume you move the left indent marker for a style to the 0.5" mark on the ruler. This has the effect of moving text in your document rightwards by 0.5", not setting its absolute location to 0.5". Eg: if your page has a 1" margin then the edge of the text will appear at 1.5".

Hopefully this makes sense. I know that the stylesheet's ruler is not ideal for editing these indents, as the ruler markings are artificial. We are looking at making this easier for a future release.

i can't find a way to precisely specify "1.92" cm for the indentation of the "normal" style.

You can double-click any ruler marker (the blue indent triangles or black tab arrows) to bring up a precise editing sheet.

if I want "Heading 1" to be indented by 1.92 cm, should I bind the paragraph list style to "Headings" and _then_ change the level 1 Heading indentation to 1.92 from the "paragraph" style definition? or, alternatively, should I set the level 1 indentation from the "list" style to 1.92 and then bind the paragraph Heading 1 style to level 1 of the list Headings (unmodified)? (Is that clear as mud?

Heh, the terms do become a bit overwhelming! If I understand correctly here is what you should do:

1. Apply the Headings list style to your Heading # paragraph style.
2. Set the listing level for the paragraph style. Eg: you might want Heading 2 to be at list level 2.
3. Adjust the indentations for your Heading paragraph style using the ruler.

You cannot work the other way around, eg: you can't apply a paragraph style to a list style's level.

[Candace]

I, too, am having problems with styling in NWE 2.7. (I have been studying the manual but remain confused.)

1.How do I get palettes back in the tooldrawer once I have moved them onto the screen?

2. To get all headings into my chosen font, do I need to adjust each one, or is there a way to tell NWE I want all headings in that font and size?

3. I'm having a hard time with the dialogue box that asks me about pasting existing styles when I paste something into a document. What is the right answer for having the pasted material take on the font and size of the document I am pasting into? Also, having made the wrong choice, but having told the dialogue box not to open again in this document, how can I go back and fix my error?

4. The manual tells me I can adjust styles by "? Choose Edit Styles... from the "Gear" button menu at the bottom of the Styles palette in the Tooldrawer." But I don't see any Gear button menu. Sigh....

5. I am not seeing your pre-set styles (heading 1, 2, etc) in documents I created in Classic, that have their own styles. Is that just a translation issue?


Thanks. Again. Candace

[cchapin]

1.How do I get palettes back in the tooldrawer once I have moved them onto the screen?

Click the X in the upper right corner of the palette.

2. To get all headings into my chosen font, do I need to adjust each one, or is there a way to tell NWE I want all headings in that font and size?

Edit the style. (Switch to the Style Sheet. Select the style in question. Edit to your satisfaction.) (Note: If you have applied font attributes over a style, these may obscure the changes you make to the style. You would then need to remove the font attributes. Status bar tags help with this. Simply reapplying the style will override some font changes.)

3. I'm having a hard time with the dialogue box that asks me about pasting existing styles when I paste something into a document. What is the right answer for having the pasted material take on the font and size of the document I am pasting into? Also, having made the wrong choice, but having told the dialogue box not to open again in this document, how can I go back and fix my error?

Since I suggested the wording for that dialog, I feel some responsibility on this one. To stick with the document's styles, click the "Use Existing Styles" button. If you checked the "Do not ask" box and want it to ask again, quit Nisus Writer Express and launch it again.

4. The manual tells me I can adjust styles by "? Choose Edit Styles... from the "Gear" button menu at the bottom of the Styles palette in the Tooldrawer." But I don't see any Gear button menu. Sigh....

It should be there. Open the tool drawer. Click the pencil icon at the top of the drawer. Find the palette titled Styles. The gear should be just under the list of styles.

5. I am not seeing your pre-set styles (heading 1, 2, etc) in documents I created in Classic, that have their own styles. Is that just a translation issue?

Styles are specific to a particular document or template. If you create a document from scratch, it will have whatever styles are in the default template (the Nisus New File). Other documents could have different styles, particularly if you are bringing them over from Nisus Writer Classic.

You can, if you want, paste styles from a Nisus Writer Express document into a document brought over from Nisus Writer Classic. Switch to the Style Sheet in each document window. In the NWE document, select all the styles you want to copy. That is select them in the main part of the window. (Command-clicking works.) Copy. Switch to the NWC document window. Paste.

I hope these instructions help. If something's unclear, post again.

--Craig

[martin]

Looks like Craig got it all... I think maybe we can take longer vacations over here now

[Mark XM]

I, too, am having problems with styling in NWE 2.7.
<snip>
2. To get all headings into my chosen font, do I need to adjust each one, or is there a way to tell NWE I want all headings in that font and size?

Be canny .... set the font in Heading 1, then when you come to Heading 2, select "Based on Heading 1" that will make it identical for the moment, then change the features, size, bold/unbold, ruler, paragraph spacing, etc. to what you want.

Then do the same for Heading 3.

If you change your mind about the font, or if you want to use a different font in the headings for a specific documnent, you just have to change Heading 1 ... the others will also change.

3. I'm having a hard time with the dialogue box that asks me about pasting existing styles when I paste something into a document. What is the right answer for having the pasted material take on the font and size of the document I am pasting into?

Yes, I agree, confusing wording ... what is meant by "existing styles", as technically there are two sets of existing styles: the styles set in the source document; and the styles set in the target document? In this context it actually means the styles set in the target document. So choosing that does not carry over the styles from the source. Actually, I find it easier to use "paste text only" from the paste sub-menu <Shift-Cmd-V> and then set the styles within the target document. I work a lot with documents produced under Chinese Word for Windows, which come with about 150 useless pre-set styles, that the authors don't even know exist. Before editing a document, I usually copy the entire document and paste-text-only into a new document of my own, simply to get rid of them and save confusions ... the Chinese never use styles anyway ...

HTH

Mark

[Candace]

Craig wrote:
"Click the X in the upper right corner of the palette."

AHHHH. Got it.

Craig wrote:

"To get all headings into my chosen font, do I need to adjust each one, or is there a way to tell NWE I want all headings in that font and size?...
Edit the style. (Switch to the Style Sheet. Select the style in question. Edit to your satisfaction.) (Note: If you have applied font attributes over a style, these may obscure the changes you make to the style. You would then need to remove the font attributes. Status bar tags help with this. Simply reapplying the style will override some font changes.)"

Still working on this. "Applying font attributes to a style" is not clear to me - I thought a style included font attributes. I don't yet know what status bar tags are.

Craig wrote:

" To stick with the document's styles, click the "Use Existing Styles" button. If you checked the "Do not ask" box and want it to ask again, quit Nisus Writer Express and launch it again."

Got it. I do think the language is confusing, for the reasons Mark points out so deftly.

Craig wrote:
" Open the tool drawer. Click the pencil icon at the top of the drawer. Find the palette titled Styles. The gear should be just under the list of styles."

Ahh. By "gear button," you mean the little round thing that looks like a gear. Got it.

Craig wrote:
"Styles are specific to a particular document or template. If you create a document from scratch, it will have whatever styles are in the default template (the Nisus New File). Other documents could have different styles, particularly if you are bringing them over from Nisus Writer Classic.You can, if you want, paste styles from a Nisus Writer Express document into a document brought over from Nisus Writer Classic. Switch to the Style Sheet in each document window. In the NWE document, select all the styles you want to copy. That is select them in the main part of the window. (Command-clicking works.) Copy. Switch to the NWC document window. Paste."

I will continue to work on this.

Now, to enable me to post more elegantly, can you explain how to put my quotes from what you wrote into the style that appears in your posts? I pressed the quote button, but it quoted your whole message, and not in that sophisticated greyed out way...

Thanks. Candace

[cchapin]

"Applying font attributes to a style" is not clear to me - I thought a style included font attributes. I don't yet know what status bar tags are.

You're right. Styles can include font attributes. But you can also apply font attributes on top of styles. For instance, you might italicize or underline something in the midst of a paragraph set in Heading 1 style. I just worked on a document created by someone else in Microsoft Word. Word loves to turn styles in local formatting, so I had to select everything in a certain style and wipe out font attributes before I could adjust the style effectively.

The status bar tags are those little colorful icons in the bottom right corner of a document window. Clicking a tag brings up a menu, which gives you some handy controls.

I do think the language is confusing, for the reasons Mark points out so deftly.

Blame me. I thought the original language was confusing, so I suggested this wording. Obviously it still needs work.

Now, to enable me to post more elegantly, can you explain how to put my quotes from what you wrote into the style that appears in your posts? I pressed the quote button, but it quoted your whole message, and not in that sophisticated greyed out way...

Use the Quote button that you found and then just delete extraneous text. When I quote several snippets (as here), I just cut and paste the opening and closing codes, for example [ quote="Candace"] and [/quote]. The process is not all that elegant.

--Craig

[Candace]

The process is not all that elegant.

This is a test. Certainly the process is not elegant; I hope the result will be. Candace