This is somewhat ancient history for me now, but back in the day I was very very happy to step up to Xy4 from 3+. On the one hand there were the additional and well-designed formatting capabilities (footnotes/endnotes, columns of different sorts, indexing, line numbering and on and on. (one complicated project was to output French text using the old-style French quotation formatting, where each new line inside a quote begins with a guillemet�complicated by having it be dynamic, i.e., editable so that the guillemet �moved�)) and, on the other hand, the powerful XPL. > On Jul 12, 2022, at 9:57 AM, Kari Eveli <lexitec@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > John, > > You may right that there is no compelling reason for writing a novel using Xy4. I must say, however, that my impression of Xy4 has changed when I have been doing the Xy4 service pack project (I have been in the Xy3/NB3 camp up to this point finding, like you, Xy4 a bit awkward). While there is no compelling reason, Xy4 will feel much better in the near future as some quirks will be ironed out with the advent of the service pack. The font and print subsystems are and will be even more capable and logical. Foreign language and code page support will be improved (new accent input system, enhanced accented and special characters menus and support for wide variety of CPs, even beyond CP437 and CP850). All in all, Xy4 is more mature but Xy3+/NB3 will remain quite good alternatives as well. > > Best regards, > > Kari Eveli > LEXITEC Book Publishing (Finland) > lexitec@xxxxxxxxxx > > *** Lexitec Online *** > Lexitec in English: https://www.lexitec.fi/english.html > Lexitec English and Finnish dictionaries: https://sk.lexitec.fi/en/ > Home page in Finnish: https://www.lexitec.fi/ > > > John Paines wrote: >> Comparing ancient word processors comes with a measure of embarrassment, but if I can ask, what features would make xy4 to 3 preferable for writing in a novel? I've tried xy4 in the past, but the initial forays were frustrating, and lacking a compelling reason.... >