Using "system-defined" styles?

[jgarbers]

As a new switcher I was pleased to notice today that a style that I defined in TextEdit also appeared in VoodooPad. I didn't know that there was an OS X-defined mechanism for sharing styles across applications. I'm hoping to make NWE our family's new word processor, so I'm curious to know if there is any way to import or otherwise use these system-defined styles in NWE. I was sort of hoping to just see them appear in the style sheet... maybe there's an easy way? Thanks!

[martin]

The styles you define in TextEdit are not available in NWX. Styles in NWX are defined on a per document basis. The logical way to get TextEdit styles into NWX would be to create a document in TextEdit using all these styles and then open that file in NWX.

Unfortunately TextEdit styles do not appear to be "proper" styles. Documents have a special way of encoding style information so a style definition is separate from the actual application of that style in the text. TextEdit does not save this special information in files it saves. Indeed, that limitation might be guessed from the fact that you cannot alter an existing style in TextEdit and have it update all your text automatically. Eg: if you decided your "Notes" style should use a highlight color instead of a bold font.

So then the final answer is no, at this time there is no way to make TextEdit styles available in NWX. I hope this explanation made some sense.

[martin]

I will add that you can customize the styles made available in new documents created with NWX. You simply modify the styles in your Nisus New File:

1. Open your NWX Preferences.
2. Switch to the New Document preference pane.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Click the Edit File button. The Nisus New File will open.
5. Switch to the stylesheet view and make any changes you want.
6. Save your changes.

Those changes will be available in any new documents you create. You can also move existing styles between document.

[jgarbers]

Thanks very much for your response. I figured that TextEdit styles were more sort of macro-like, rather than the NWX model where a change to the style changes the document. Indeed, I don't even see a way to change those styles!

For what it's worth, I did notice this over on

http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/i ... 60986.html

The custom "styles" set up in "TextEdit" are usually stored in the ".GlobalPreferences.plist" file in each user's "~/Library/Preferences" folder as "dict" entries under the "NSFavoriteStyles" property.

I have no idea if anybody uses this feature, but it seems like it'd be nice if NWX automatically imported those styles at new document time, so if I'm used to using style X in TextEdit, I'll just see it there in NWX when I start using it instead.

Thanks!

[martin]

Thanks for the additional information, cheers!