RE: NB [was RE: text to cmd line]

["Nancy Friedman" nancyf@xxxxxxxx]

I'd like to receive the digest version of the XyWrite e-mail discussion. How
do I request it? I've gone to xywwweb but couldn't find an appropriate link.

Thanks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Words should be an intense pleasure, just as leather should be to the
shoemaker."
-- Evelyn Waugh

Nancy Friedman
Chief Wordworker
Wordworking
tel 510 652-4159
fax 510 655-8662
www.wordworking.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xywrite@xxxxxxxx
> [mailto:owner-xywrite@xxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Carl Distefano
> Sent: Monday, November 12, 2001 7:11 PM
> To: XyWrite List
> Subject: NB [was RE: text to cmd line]
>
>
>
> Reply to note from Bill Troop  Mon, 12 Nov 2001
> 21:05:20 -0500
>
> > Speaking of NB, I hope its layout capabilities will continue to
> > evolve. As I start working on the 2nd edition of this damned
> > book, I keep on wishing for a XyWrite-based program that would
> > give me enough typographical and image manipulation capability
> > to go straight to the typesetter, without having to do the
> > layout in Quark or Pagemaker. Is it really so much to ask?
>
> The following recent post to the NB list re NBWin v6 pre-release 1
> may be of interest:
>
> ----------
> Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2001 14:20:04 -0500
> From: "Mark D. Szuchman" 
> To: "Multiple recipients of list NOTABENE" 
> Subject: A peek at NBW 6 Pre-rel 1
>
> It is only after a little bit of playing with, experimenting with, and
> teasing out the limits of some of the new features of the 6pr that one
> can begin to understand the amount of time it has taken a small company
> to produce the new features. I've made only tentative experiments with
> some of them, but new they certainly are. The index, for example ...
> this is *not* your NB4 DOS indexing engine -- and I have produced four
> book indexes with NB. This indexing apparatus is from another dimension
> -- more like indexing on steroids.
>
> Just for starters, the naively lazy among us can index automatically
> all terms to a limit of 12,000 to 16,000 unique words, depending on
> length of file or manuscript file. You can discriminate types of
> selections even in the hands-off auto-marking. It comes with pre-built
> (plus user-customization) categories (general, persons, place, things).
> Thus, it can perform multiple indexes for the same document. It can
> index and identify footnote content, tables and figure contents; it can
> do cross-reference phrasing ("see also" "see under" , etc.)
> automatically. I haven't yet scratched the surface, but it's pretty
> darned sophisticated.
>
> As for frames and OLE, I discovered that NBW -- at user's option -- is
> now DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) enabled. This permits changes in a file
> generated by some other program to be automatically and simultaneously
> reflected in the data that had been pasted into NBW. For example, you
> bring into your document data from a spreadsheet file (Lotus 123, MS
> Excel, Corel Quattro Pro, whatever happens to be in your computer. Once
> you change anything in the spreadsheet file, it is automatically
> reflected in your NBW document. This has the advantage of exploiting
> fully not only multi-tasking, but also saving the user from having to
> edit NBW's files containing data that undego changes in some program.
> This dynamic exchange works across the spectrum of graphic data also,
> including changes in charts and graphs.
>
> By having DDE, v.6, I've discovered that NBW can compensate for its
> designed inattention to graphic frills. As we know, the program is
> truest to the wordsmith and not to the graphic atist wannabe. Grid
> lines in cellular tables represented one of the few tips of the hat
> given to the graphic environment, frames was another. Still, the grid
> lines given for cellular tables are minimalist, in keeping with NB's
> legacy of parsimonious graphic interest. DDE allows for the fanciest of
> cellular table aesthetics to present itself in an NBW document with all
> the work done by the originating program, which invariably is designed
> to embellishing tables, such as a spreadsheet program. Put color
> around the borders, for all NBW cares. All that is needed is the
> copying of the needed area of the data in program X, and then Paste
> Special in NBW, clicking on the selection to Link the pasted data with
> the originating program. Any post-pasting changes or formatting that
> might be needed is done in the originating program and is automatically
> reflected in NBW. If no dynamic linking is required, then one Pastes
> Special and that's it. In the case of no linking, what you paste
> special is what stays -- no editing or fine-tuning in the originating
> program will update the image in NBW. But then, you can always delete
> the frame and paste special it back again, this time using the link
> option, then do the fine-tuning in the originating program and have the
> results reflected in NBW.
>
> I haven't looked at everything yet, but for the first time since
> version 5.0, one can actually talk about new capabilities that weren't
> there in the most advanced DOS version. And Log and Resume is back.
> Mark
> ----------
>
> --
> Carl Distefano
> cld@xxxxxxxx
> http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/
>
>