Desired NWP 1.3 features

[Matze]

NWP becomes better and better and still I am missing some features NW had in good old crashing OS9 times.
- New Number Chapter, - Section, wherever you want to have it, just by hitting a function-character-combo, no new section needed. Current Number AND Define Numbers! Where you could tell allmighty NW what kind of numbers you wanted, where they should start counting, if they should have be with or without a dot (.) and so forth.

- Select Sentence by clicking three times.

- Search Summary

[innlaeufer]

As an editor of a scientific journal, I would really appreciate the following:

an easy way of counting all words and characters in a document, including spaces and footnotes/endnotes
a way to increase the space between characters as that is sometimes used for emphasis in my journal

[Hamid]

a way to increase the space between characters as that is sometimes used for emphasis in my journal

You can do that from the Format:Kern:Loosen menu.

[Kino]

You can do that from the Format:Kern:Loosen menu.

Yes, but it is tedious to do so manually as you may have to apply the command ten times or more until you get an expected result. So, the addition of a new style (Sperrsatz?) would be welcome. In the meantime, a macro like this might be useful:

Code: Select all

$n = 10
   # 'Loosen' will be applied $n times.
   # Increase or decrease the value until you get a satisfying result.

$str = Read Selection
if $str == ''
	exit 'There is no selected text, exit...'
end
while $n > 0
	Menu ':Format:Kern:Loosen'
	$n -= 1
end

On this occasion, I'd like to repeat here my past feature request: a new macro command for setting the kerning value as point. The Japanese typographic rules require that a negative kerning is applied on two or more consecutive 約物 (quotes or ponctuation marks) and the value is calculated based on the font size.

[GwiDan]

This will sound pretty shallow in comparison with other requests, but I'd really like Nisus to be made prettier. I find it to be such an ugly application to use - fantastically easy to use and equally useful, but it's not very nice to look at.

[xiamenese]

This will sound pretty shallow in comparison with other requests, but I'd really like Nisus to be made prettier. I find it to be such an ugly application to use - fantastically easy to use and equally useful, but it's not very nice to look at.

De gustibus non est disputandum ... Des goûts et des couleurs on ne se dispute pas … There's no accounting for tastes …

What do you think would be pretty? Making it look like iTunes? To me it looks really good ... and it's highly functional and that is what really matters.


(Edited to correct language error )

[mrennie]

As far as looks are concerned, I would really like to see the following two changes at some point:

* gradient colours for the page backdrop
* a prettier application icon

The icon has been annoying me ever since Nisus Writer Express. Granted, it has certainly improved with age (the shiny aqua look has been toned down), but it still doesn't look right in my Dock. I know, de gustibus, but still...

[greenmorpher]

I second the "prettier" motion, so long as prettier = increased utility. See my post under the new thread about Find & Replace.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout" -- how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print; "Success in Store" -- go retail, enjoy it and make money. Real business smarts @ just $29.95. See these books and more at http://www.worsleypress.com

[joehardy]

My main feature request remains Track Changes.
With the advent of Pages '09 and with NWP's ability to truly export to .doc format, I find I really don't need Word anymore. NWP and Pages each offer things I need and if I export an Nisus document to Word format and open it in Pages, the Comments are preserved.
So I can use the the import/export abilities of Pages and Nisus Writer Pro with Word documents without having to use Word at all. Since I have Office 2004, Word lacks the speed - especially in scrolling - of either Nisus or Pages.
If Track Changes could be added to NWP, I'd have just about everything I need to create documents.

[Bob Stern]

One caution regarding Kino's kerning macro: Nisus designed the kerning commend to apply to the kerning among the selected text AND to the space to the right of the selected text. If, like me, you find it more intuitive to apply kerning only within the selected text, the macro should reduce the length of the selection by one character before applying the kerning command. The following macro does this.

My macro also allows works if there is no selected text, in which case the kerning affects the spacing at the cursor location, i.e., it loosens the space between the characters on either side of the cursor.

You can change the value assigned to variable $N from 4 to some larger number if you want more space.

# Kern Apart selection or 2 characters adjoining insertion point
# Macro works only on contiguous selection.
# e.g., if select all occurrences of a string, will ignore all but first.

$N = 4 # Number of times to apply Loosen command. Originally 6.

$selectedRange = TextSelection.activeRange
$oldLength = $selectedRange.length
$oldLocation = $selectedRange.location

# If no text selected, select characters before & after insertion point.
If $oldLength == 0

If $oldLocation == 0
Prompt 'Error: Insertion point is at beginning of document.'
Exit
end

# Define new range with length=1.
# Change length to 2 if Nisus fixes bug in which
# kerning applies to one more character to right of selected range:
$newRange = Range.new ($oldLocation-1, 1)

Else

# Decrement length until Nisus fixes bug in which
# kerning applies to one more character to right of selected range:
$newRange = Range.new ($oldLocation, $oldLength-1)

End

TextSelection.setActiveRange ($newRange)

$i = 0
While $i < $N
Menu 'Loosen'
$i += 1
End

[Bob Stern]

Does anyone share my feeling that the gray background that indicates the currently selected style in the Styles palette is too subtle? It certainly is on my Macbook Pro (which has impaired contrast because you cannot open the lid far enough to view the screen at a 90-degree angle).

My suggestion is to supplement the gray background with a bar or dot to the left of the selected style to provide a second cue that does not depend on the contrast of the display.

[greenmorpher]

Hiya Bob

You're singing my song -- at least in part. Have a look at the thread I started on the Find and Replace dialog box, which has now gone beyond that into interface in general.

Cheers

Geoffrey Heard, Publisher
The Worsley Press

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- the secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter" -- real publishing smarts. Both now just $29.95. See the books at http://www.worsleypress.com

[greenmorpher]

Further to the above.

Here's how I suspect the US flag might look if the Mac interface designers had done the job.

Cheers

Geoffrey Heard, Publisher
The Worsley Press

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- the secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter" -- real publishing smarts. Both now just $29.95. See the books at http://www.worsleypress.com

[ninjagame]

Further to the above.

Here's how I suspect the US flag might look if the Mac interface designers had done the job.

ahem - last time I checked, it was 7 red and 6 white horizontal stripes, AFAIK symbolizing the first 13 states...

ninjagame

[greenmorpher]

There you go, you see, ninjagame, I read 13 stripes on the Mac interface and my left brain gets scrambled and I can't do simple arithmetic!

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout" -- how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print; "Success in Store" -- go retail, enjoy it and make money. Real business smarts @ just $29.95. See these books and more at http://www.worsleypress.com