NB [was RE: text to cmd line]

[cld@xxxxxxxx (Carl Distefano)]

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:

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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
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--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx
http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/