Vika, et. al,
None of that's going to work quite correctly until we release version 2.5.
So, as a reminder:
Benjamin,
Thank you for your interest in Nisus Writer Express.
Nisus Writer Express was first released in July of 2003. It is all new, it is not a port of Classic Nisus Writer. It is not like any version of Nisus Writer that has come before. We know, there are features missing at this point, but in time this application will be a lean, clean (even elegant), word processor that will compete with anything out there.
These first versions of Nisus Writer Express are aimed at the 98% of the market that does not use Nisus. These people have basic word processing needs, and probably have no clue as to what Nisus is about. We believe (and we are gaining real world evidence to support our belief) that this group will be very glad to learn what they can now do with an OS X Cocoa word processor.
In February of 2004 we released version 1.1.2 which included features such as a Language Palette, show invisibles, back to front printing, an integrated thesaurus (Nisus Thesaurus, to be exact!), the ability to change the background color, (limited) WordPerfect translation and Panther (Mac OS X 10.3) compatibility (some features work better (or only) in 10.3). It did not, however, have a whole variety of features that so many Nisus Writer Classic users (myself included) so appreciated… most of those features are on the list for future versions.
In September of 2004 we released version 2.0 which implemented three crucial features: footnotes (and endnotes), tables and user defined styles. These, along with many smaller touches are significant additions to the feature set of an elegant writing environment. In November of 2004 we released version 2.1 which significantly increased the the application's speed and in December we released a minor update that resolved a number of bugs. On April 29 (to coincide with the release of Apple's new Operating System Panther (OS X 10.4)) we released Nisus Writer Express 2.1.2. This enables our dedicated public to continue using Nisus Writer Express with the new OS as we prepare a new version that utilizes its new features.
Regarding BiDirectional text in particular, we had it on good authority, though unofficial, that “Panther” Mac OS X 10.3 was to solve *most* of the problems with BiDi text. We were disappointed with the initial release of Panther, and hoped for a fix in an update. That was not forthcoming from Apple. This year at Macworld in San Francisco (2005) I was able to give Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4) a five minute test of BiDi text processing. From this very limited test I was able to confirm that Apple has increased its support of BiDi text from 95% complete to 99% complete. I have been told via a reliable source that Tiger solves the final problems that OS X has with BiDirectional text editing and display. I have not had the opportunity to test this yet. In addition, we have not finished implementing our code that utilizes the fixes in Tiger.
We are now about to release the public beta of Nisus Writer Express 2.5 which will work with Macintosh OS X 10.4 (Tiger) it will have the ability to do numbered lists, and BiDirectional text and have an improved style sheet navigator and support for "LinkBack" <http:// www.linkbackproject.org/>.
Version 2 of Nisus Writer Express does not have the Graphics Layer (as we know it). This is so often requested by our users that we are likely to implement it in another upgrade (though it will take some coding to make sure it works).
While that represents a lot of progress in a short time, please believe me when I state: We are still working on the Nisus Writer that fulfills *your* needs, because then, it will fulfill *ours*.
On 7 May, 2005, at 4:29, Vika Gardner wrote:
Perhaps a dumb question. Feel free to redirect me if this is the wrong place.
I am trying to get functional Unicode diacritics (for
Persian/Arabic/Chaghatai) using Nisus Writer Express 2.1.3 (:-).
I know how to type them, but only some of the fonts, despite the
Keyboard viewer showing the existence of the correct diacritics
for that font when selected (option-a for macron, option-h for
under-line, option-x for under-dot), when typed the serif fonts
largely revert to a non-serif (arial?) letter. Vowels with
macrons seem to default to a serif face, consonants to a
san-serif (and wow, does that make for ugly words!). This
despite the fact that the font name in NEx (Tools, Formatting, Font Family) continues to show the font originally selected.
I downloaded Gentium from the web, and this works perfectly, but it doesn't have a bold. Arial Unicode downloaded from Brill also seems to work correctly.
Is there something I'm missing? Should I get a larger set of fonts from somewhere (Nisus?) that will work as I expect? Is the problem that the fonts bundled with the Mac OS are not "real" unicode fonts?
Thanks!!
Vika
OS 10.3.9, Powerbook G3
Vika Gardner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> www.umich.edu/~vika _______________________________________________ Nisus-interactive-nisus.com mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nisus.com/listinfo.cgi/nisus-interactive-nisus.com
`//rite On! ,\\ark Hurvitz Vice President for Communications Nisus Software Inc. <http://www.nisus.com>
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