Starting out?

[silvermoonbeam]

Hi Mellel users,

I've read both the Tutorial for Beginners, the Mellel Guide and a few of the other resources, but am still trying to find the best way to proceed. I sense that Mellel will be incredibly useful and time saving for me but I can't seem to harness its features. (Trying to put a different header on even and odd pages in a sample document was unfruitful. And then styles I created for one document show up in others. Will I have an interminably long list of styles as I use Mellel more and more? — I'm missing something very basic here.)

So, my question is this: I've a fairly length book project (150-200 pages, a dozen chapters, many sub sections), which is not quite complete. It's outlined and organized with about a third of the text written (all in another word processor). I thought it would be a good idea to set up the styles for all the different sections and then write away. But this has proved more difficult than I thought, much like diving into the deep end of a pool. How do all of you use Mellel? Do you write undifferentiated masses of text and format the styles later, do you set things up at the outset or do you format on the fly? I know the answers will be different for everyone based on their experience, but I can see the overall structure in my head: It's just not always obvious to me how to realize this in Mellel.

I read the forum almost every day. Any thoughts will be gratefully received!

[jb]

And then styles I created for one document show up in others. Will I have an interminably long list of styles as I use Mellel more and more? — I'm missing something very basic here.)

Among your several questions, let me try just this one.
I, too, was for a while confused about this, so I sympathize. But really it's quite simple. Styles come in Sets and new styles (Page, Section, Paragraph, Character) remain as part of the Style Set active when the new style is created. Just try switching between style sets--or make a new one--and you'll see.

Cheers
James

[silvermoonbeam]

Thanks, James. I'll keep forging ahead with this. The appreciation people have for Mellel in the Forum is encouraging and leads me to believe that the time invested in learning Mellel's features/idiosyncrasies will be worth it.

[jb]

Trying to put a different header on even and odd pages in a sample document was unfruitful.

I never tried this before, but I was able to do it without trouble.
Open the Page palette and under Header & Footer choose Page Type: Even/Odd; then tick “All/Odd header” AND “Even header” then go to your headers and make them what you want them to be.
If you want either even or odd to have NO header, then don't tick the relevant one.

Does this work for you?

Cheers
James

[silvermoonbeam]

Thanks, again. I think I took on too much with the headers for my first try: I was trying to have the right header change with each section (using auto-titles) while the left header (displaying the book title) remained constant. Okay, back to the Mellel Guide!

[lbas]

If you have the right headers working correctly with the chapter names then you have a page style break at the end of each chapter already. Then you can go for the book title in the left headers - I haven't done that before and am not sure of the best way to proceed.

My thinking is, if it's an auto-title it needs to be at the start of each chapter in the text so it can go into the header (but could be invisible in the chapter text, a la the "shortening headers" post), or maybe a document variable would do it better.

Keep us posted.

Woodson

[jsr]

Hi Mellel users,

I've read both the Tutorial for Beginners, the Mellel Guide and a few of the other resources, but am still trying to find the best way to proceed. I sense that Mellel will be incredibly useful and time saving for me but I can't seem to harness its features.received!

Me too. Let me say first that I don't regard myself as necessarily the sort of user Mellel should target, nor do I regard my experience as typical or representative of anything. I offer it only for what it may be worth.

I've tried most word processors, really liked the old Nisus Writer, got to be pretty adept at GREP search/replace, etc., which I mention not to imply that I'm a highly skilled word processor but only to suggest that, when necessary, I can read manuals and usually figure out what I need to do. Well, I now have an article to write and thought this would be an ideal time to dive into Mellel, especially becaue I wanted to use the outline feature in initial brainstorming (or what passes for brainstorming in my brain) and to organize and re-organize as the work proceeeds.

I actually LIKE reading manuals etc., and so I dove right in to the tutorial for beginners and to the two outlining tutorials, supplemented by a bout with the manual chapter on styles. I found all of these very well written, but despite practice and more reading and additional practice I still can't format an outline the way I would like, and I'm even more distant from being able to master styles. Alas, I simply don't have time to climb the steep learning curve here, even though I'm sure I'd be better off -- and my future longer documents -- would be better off if I did.

I'll probably keep updating Mellel as necessary in hopes that the UI is simplified for users like me, but until then, both life and deadlines being short, for now I'll outline in Omni Outline or Scrivener, probably write and organize drafts in Scrivener, and then export to Nisus Writer Express or even (Gasp!) TextEdit for final document formatting.

[BreakNeckRidge]

... in hopes that the UI is simplified for users like me, but until then, both life and deadlines being short, for now I'll outline in [other software]

Hear hear! I paid for mellel and continue to use it as my plain text word processor for writing my drafts because I like the clean gui, but as soon as I need to do anything other than plain text I have to move my project over to another word processor with a usable interface. I won't be upgrading Mellel ever again until it gets a MAJOR usability overhaul.

I'd say this is just my opinion, but I've heard so many other people complain about the same thing that I know this is a lot of other people's opinion as well. This really needs to be issue number 1 that the developers are working on.

[Timotheus]

For a discussion about a very similar topic, see

http://forum.redlers.com/viewtopic.php?t=798 .

This remains a difficult question for many, including myself.

[Mart°n]

… but as soon as I need to do anything other than plain text I have to move my project over to another word processor with a usable interface.

Would you like to share which word processor you’ve meant?