How Nisus Writer Is Different You may still remember the shift you made from pencil to typewriter and from typewriter to computer and then perhaps from some other computer to a Macintosh. You can expect to experience something similar when you move from another word processor to Nisus Writer. You can scroll through this file to read how Nisus Writer differs in ten major categories: 1. An unparalleled Find/Replace ability — if you can describe it you can find and change it in Nisus. 2. The ability to Open multiple documents at once and search for files by file name. 3. Unlimited Undo lets you undo even after a save. 4. An interactive Layout (preview) window. 5. Ten editable Clipboards. 6. Use Macros to automate repetitive tasks. 7. Integrated Graphics layer lets you draw in your text and have the words wrap around your drawing. 8. The ability to place electronic bookmarks, Markers, in your text and jump to them automatically. 9. Nisus lets you create Cross References to a page, line number, or even marked text and updates your references automatically. 10. Languages! Powerful and practical, Nisus now has Multilanguage Capability so you can mix left to right (English, Russian, etc.) and right to left (Hebrew, Arabic etc.), East Asian two-byte languages such as Japanese word processing with ease. Whatever your language, if you have the System Script, Nisus Writer can write it. If you are intrigued, but not yet convinced, then test drive Nisus Writer and see for yourself what word processing power is all about. Read on to find out more about the features listed above. Below is a list of Nisus features discussed in this document. • To jump to a topic: press the Option key and double-click the topic. • To return to the list: press the Option key and double-click the word "Nisus Writer" wherever it appears. Open .........................(page 3) Undo .........................(page 3) Preview .....................(page 4) Clipboards .................(page 4) Find ..........................(page 4) Macros ......................(page 5) Graphics....................(page 6) Markers.....................(page 6) CrossReferences ........(page 6) Languages .................(page 6) More .........................(page 9) Open Other word processors can only open one file at a time. In Nisus Writer you can use the Catalog to open multiple documents at once. If you have a long list of files you can even search in the Catalog for a file or folder name. You can examine the Catalog by choosing Catalog… from the File menu. It should resemble this: Notice that you can resize the Catalog window. You can change the font, size and/or style of the display to whatever you wish so that you can see the full name of long titles. In Nisus Writer you can even open a file directly from another document. To open a document that contains information about Nisus Software, Inc. select and highlight the following underlined words: Nisus Info and choose Open Selection from the File Access sub-menu of the File menu. Undo In other word processors you can undo only 1 or 2 actions. In Nisus Writer you can undo any number of past actions. You can work back to when you first opened a document and then redo, or work forward again. You can even undo after a save. All actions that change the text or its format (including page layout actions) are undoable. Page Preview Most other word processors have a Page Preview. In Nisus Writer you can view your layout page window while editing the document and watch it update immediately, you can resize it and reposition it anywhere on the screen. Plus, you can adjust your margins simply by clicking and dragging. Clipboards The others have only one, uneditable Clipboard. In Nisus Writer you have ten, fully editable Clipboards. What's more, you can open any Clipboard to see what you're working with. You can even append text to a Clipboard: 1. Choose Show Clipboard from the Edit menu. 2. Select this phrase: “The quick brown fox jumped… 3. Choose Copy from the Edit menu. 4. Now select the following phrase: over the lazy dog.” 5. Press the Shift key and choose Append Copy from the Edit menu. In the Clipboard you will see both phrases. Now you can change the text and/or font size and style before pasting it back into your document. Find Other word processors have limited Find/Replace capabilities. In Nisus Writer you can choose to search or replace in the active window, all open windows, or in any number of unopened files. In Nisus Writer you can use wild cards to help you find "generic" text such as any set of numbers in the form of a telephone number, any address, any proper name in the middle of a sentence… anything you can describe, Nisus can find. Plus, in Nisus Writer you can search and replace just the text or the text with any of its style attributes. For example: to find every reference to a page number in this document do the following. (Read the instructions first, because following them will hide this window.) 1. Select the following expression, including parentheses: ( a-z 0+ Soft Return Any character ) then choose Copy to Find from the Tools menu. 2. Choose Find/Replace from the Tools menu. 3. Click the words Normal Search and a menu will pop down. Choose PowerSearch from it. 4. Click Find to locate the next reference to a page number as in: “(page #).” Macros No other word processor makes it as easy to automate repetitive actions. You can actually create custom menu items using macros. In Nisus Writer you can turn on the macro recorder, and have Nisus Writer copy your actions; you can edit the macro you've created; you can run through it step by step to confirm that it acts as you've designed it; you can have your macro call another macro, write a macro or even modify itself. Nisus ships with a number of utility macros which add functionality depending on your needs. One of the shipped macros automatically creates a monthly calendar to help you plan your work. Choose Create Calendar from the Macros submenu under Tools to see a calendar for any month. This demo includes a few custom macros you may want to try (Some of these macros do not work correctly under System 7). A. Imagine you need to format a number of documents identically for a newsletter or report. Or you need to format data imported from a data base or a news wire. Nisus macros can do the work for you. Go to the Catalog and open the files Demo Import File, Demo Experiment Data, or Demo Stock Data to try it. B. Nisus Writer macros can automatically extract addresses from a document containing addresses, phone numbers and notes and create a new document for you to name and save. Go to the Catalog and open the file Demo Address list. C. If you need to work out some quick calculations or want to format a mathematical equation, try using a macro. Open the file: Demo Calculate and Powers. D. If you are a teacher and would like to see what Nisus macros can offer as a teaching tool, choose Algebra Example from the Macros submenu under Tools. Graphics Nisus Writer makes it easy to mix both graphics and text. In Nisus Writer one click on the Graphics Palette icon: puts the drawing tools at your fingertips ready to draw. With one menu choice you can have the text flow through or wrap around the graphic. With one click and drag you can draw an arrow to point to something, and another click and you can type a text box and move it anywhere on the page. Click the graphics icon and try moving this ball: Click the Graphics Palette icon again to return to the text layer of Nisus Writer and continue. Markers Unlike other word processors Nisus Writer allows you to jump directly to any marked text, much like using an electronic bookmark. In Nisus Writer you can mark any text (chapter headings, figures, etc.) as you prepare your document. To quickly move to your marker, choose the marker name from the Jump To menu (under Tools). Cross References Nisus automatically updates cross references. In Nisus Writer you can mark a figure in your document then insert a cross reference to the page number on which the figure appears. If your figure moves to another page, Nisus automatically updates the page reference. You can test this now. Watch the page number reference change from page 6 to page 7 as you follow steps below. 1. Click to the left of Figure1 below. 2. Choose Insert Page Break from the Format menu. 3. Choose Undo from the Edit menu to cut the page break. Figure 1 Figure 1 is now on page 6. Languages Most word processors only allow you to type from left to right and in English script only. In Nisus Writer you can type in any System Language Script and type from left to right or right to left with a click of the mouse. Your insertion point moves to the appropriate spot in your file and the text wraps appropriately for each language. Nisus is the only high-end word processor able to take advantage of all the languages available in the Apple WorldScript™ system. Below is sample text created in Nisus 3.4 using six different WorldScript Language Extensions. Because you would need each of the six Language Extensions to read and modify the text, it is placed here as a graphic and cannot be edited.