🚀 go-pugleaf

I should start off by saying that I was a beta-tester for Nisus 3.0, but I was
a user long before I was a tester.  On the other hand, that bias may still
come through a bit....  So, here goes.  I'll answer the questions first, and
then get to a few notes of my own.  My comments refer to version 3.0.5 (v 3.0.6
is now available through on-line updates on Compuserve and other sources)...


In article <1765@vtserf.cc.vt.edu> cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu (Andrew M. Cohill) writes:
>Given the price ($129) of the Excel 3.0 upgrade, I expect to see similar
>pricing for Word, which I've been using for 4 years.  It seems like a
>good time to make a change.  I have some questions about Nisus:
>
>Can someone provide a pointer to a review in something like MacWorld or
>MacUser?

I forget which it was (MacWorld, I think) did a reasonably large word processor
review within the last 6-8 months, in which they reviewed Nisus, Word, and
WriteNow.  Their impression was that Word was the best (which I disagree with,
but that Nisus had some strong points that the others lacked).  Byte magazine
also did a WYSIWYG word processor review, and they liked Nisus a lot.

>
>Is there educational pricing available, or special offers if I send you
>my Word disks signed in blood, or something similar?

Don't quote me on this one, but I believe there are educattional pricing
packages available.  If not (and if anyone out there at Paragon Concepts is
listening) there should be.  On the other hand, I do happen to know that some
people from Paragon read this, so if there aren't, hopefully there will be
by the time you call them up (real nice people, over there)...

>
>I understand that that automatic re-numbering of figures and tables is
>included;  can you also assign variables in the text?  E.g., "....see
>Figure figOfSomething for more information....."  where the caption of
>the figure is:  "  Figure figOfSomething:  Important sounding title"
>and the numbering is all automatic....

Any paragraph (figures are generally assigned to a pargraph (but see below)
can be assigned a Mark.  This mark is then what you reference.  So, you can
then reference the marked area's page number, line number, paragraph number,
or the text itself (this latter feature is especially cool -- if you mark
something you're goign to change and then later change it, one menu item
will change them automagially in your document).  So in your example, you can
set a mark called Fig1 and then say "See figure, page <x>" where x changes
automatically.  Or, if you were to actually mark "figOfSomething" as the mark,
you could do that too.  You can't, however, have it do numbering in the
sens e that it starts at 1.1 and moves to 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, ... 2.0, etc, except
by using the Command Language (more later).

>
>Does Nisus handle floating blocks?  These are usually figures and
>illustrations that you want to "float" to the top or bottom of the
>nearest page and have text automatically flow around them.  MS-Word lets
>you anchor blocks, but does it badly; often two nearby blocks end up at
>the top of the same page, and Word happily draws one right over the top
>of the other--really, really stupid.  If you have to put figures on a
>page by themselves (no text), you are in deep doo-doo.  You want the
>figure to float to the top of a page, but I have never found a way to
>anchor a page break to the block.  (I'll probably be flooded with RTFM
>replies on this one....)

Nisus does handle floating blocks.  You can anchor a graphic either to a 
paragraph (teh default), or a position on the page.  Either way, the text
will flow around them (only in rectangles, no jaggy wrap here), although,
I've found (and have reported a bug in 3.0.5) that sometimes these blocks
move to the bottom of the next page or the top of the precedign page if 
they're too close to the margin.  The bug is a little hard to explain,
but tech support assures me that they're working on it.
>
>How is Nisus with rudimentary page layout stuff like multi-column
>formats, flowing text around odd-sized blocks, and such. MS-Word is
>actually pretty good at this sort of thing.

Nisus does have a built-in graphics layer, and this is pretty good, especially for simple graphics.  This allows you to do text over and under graphics, as
well as around.  They have rudimentary multi-column support, but they claim thatthe correct way to do multiple columns is that you use what's called an
included document.  Nisus gives you teh ability to include any other document
(I guess the technical word is embed) as a "placed page" in any other document.
This coan be manipulated as a graphic, so you can have a page of included
pages, each of different column width, and that works.  On the other hand,
their multi-column built-in support is one of the program's main weaknesses (see
below).  It allows for variable column spacing and multiple columns, but only
once across a document.  It turns out that things like headers and the like
are trivial to span documents (use them as a graphic), but it's still a pain.
Hope they do something about this for the next version...

>
>Does Nisus have a preview mode, where you can see a small full-page
>depiction of the what will be printed?

Nisus doesn't have a preview "mode".  I make that distinction because it's
non-modal.  There is a page preview (They call it "Layout page") but it appears
in its own window and you don't have to dismiss it to work on your document.
The preview updates automatically as you work on your document.
>
>Does it have true "page view" mode that lets you edit your pages in
>their final format?  I have a full page monitor and use Word this way
>frequently.

Nisus doesn't let you do anything else.  Also has a vertical ruler, which is
kind of keen.  Footnotes, endnotes, all of this stuff appear as they would
on the printer (hidden text will print on the printer too unless it's hidden
on the screen when you print it).
>
>Does Nisus reference fonts by name?  Microsoft persists in referencing
>by number, which causes havoc if you move the file to another machine.
>

Nisus not only references fonts by name, it stores the names with the document,
so that if you are missing a font on the target machine, it will still let
you select the area, put things in the missing font, and then when you move
it back, the font changes will be applied already (if you don't have the fonts
on the local machine, however, it won't print them on an attached lasser
printer -- this is a problem with the way that the Mac handles printing of text).
Word in the case mentioned above changes all unknown fonts to the default font
and then will actually save that as a real change... AAAARRRGH!

>I know I've asked a lot of questions, but I have a feeling that there a
>lot of Word users who will be interested;  I'm sure I'm not the only one
>tired of Microsoft's arbitrary and capricious upgrades and pricing.

My faviroite Microsoft peeve is the pagination.  Print out a document and
it doesn't paginate th same way.  Oh, the printer driver was different.  Of
course, why didn't it warn me?  Wait, I've done that and it's still different,
oh, the background pagination was just slow and didn't update my screen
before I printed.  I see....

Nisus also has a few other thigns that are really nice.  GREP style pattern
searching (really nice for programming), the Microlytics thesaurus, the
ability to find (search) text in multiple documents at once (even if they're
not open on the desktop), 10 clipboards so you can save your text and pictures
and work on them sequentially, and (virtually) unlimited undo (user setable
to how many you want) back to the last save.

Nisus also has a complete command language.  This si a programming language
(the Paragon Programming Language) which, although it is extremely powerful,
or so I'm told, I've never used.

Where Nisus falls down,though, is in its lack of decent column handling,
its particular implementation of macros (really powerful, but only one macro
file can be open at a time -- why?).  I also didn't like their styles, but 
uipon going back and using them to give you a concrete example why, I realizeed
that I didn't remember why I disliked them.  Sometimes, as I mentioned the
graphics anchoring is a bit buggy, but they apparently are working on this.

The absolute worst thing I can possibly imagine about Nisus, however, is its
help system.  The system is one that I like so little, that I actually prefer
to go and find the manual, look up what I'm looking for and read it rather
than look up the item on help, even for things like a simple keyboard command.
The help system is based on menus and is written in the command language, I 
think, but it is among the clumsiest things you've worked with.

On a ftures note, Nisus is apparaently coming out with an XS package that will
incorporate System 7 AppleEvents, publish and subscribe, and sound input
(allowing you to add a sound button to any character or paragraph) for a fee.
I suppose that since some people won't need the features, they're not offering
a general upgrade but rather an add-on package.  At any rate, please feel
free to mail me with any other questions (I've laid out two books using Nisus
as my layout program, so I've put the program thourh its paces and, I think,
know where it fails miserably).

Sorry for the overwhelming length of this article.  Enjoy!

 - Edwin Aoki
  (aoki@husc9.harvard.edu)