nisus.com

Please take pity on my complete lack of savvy on the following issue:

I want to set up Nisus Writer Express, through its Style Sheets, so that I can write in the BBC Radio Drama house-style. (Example here (downloadable PDF) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insigh ... hive.shtml - "Killing Maestros", under Radio 4 - Afternoon Play). Very simple formatting, I know.

However, I've never really delved into the world of WP Styles before. I've been doing it all 'longhand' , so to speak, up to now. I've read the Nisus Help Manual, and been everywhere on the net I can think of to get a simple explanation of how to make this work for me, all to no avail. Trial and error has yielded an approximation but when I move from the Character field (left indented) to Dialogue (centered) it pops down to the next line and I don't know how to fix it.

I'm sure someone is reading this now, shaking their head at my ignorance... if you could point me in the direction of an Idiot Guide for this kind of problem, I'd be incredibly grateful. The fact that it's such a simple thing is what's making me persist!

michaeldennis,

I'm sorry you experience difficulties with Nisus Writer Express.

If you send a copy of the file in question to me as support@nisus.com, I'll take a closer look at it and give you some direct personal feedback on who to proceed.

When I've had a chance to see what the issue is, we can post a more general response here about how to use the Style Sheets in Nisus Writer Express.

That's the AV double column thing I was asking for sometime ago...

Just double column table rows - next to impossible to do with a word processor, because the table rows should page break any line within, but won't.

Final Draft AV would be the way to go - though that's thought for parallel scripting of Audio/Video, no problem to abuse it...

Would still be interested in getting this work- for a friend of mine..

HE

Elbrecht

I'm another one on the never ending quest to find some way of doing dual column AV scripts easily. So far the best bet is, sadly, Word (not least because it minimises compatability issues with clients). I tried Final Draft AV but just found it awkward; maybe I'm too used to Word.

I don't quite get what you mean by

the table rows should page break any line within, but won't

If you find solution I'd love to hear about it, or help out with testing etc. I'm no techie though, just a writer with a thriving inner geek.

Well -

you can fake AV's 2 columns with Nisus 2 columns table feature - BUT any page break will happen from row to row only, i.e. between rows and NOT within rows as text flow happens to run...

Would be great to have this feature available in Nisus - Word compatible; so FinalDraft can import...

stay tuned
HE

Ah. That's different to Word then. Mind you, I prefer not to break shots over a page, but it could be a problem with a long speech.