Forum

I fully agree with Hans-Reinhard. Version 2.7 came out in september 2009, with the long desired picture placement within text but without its natural and indispensable complement, caption legend / text boxes. I did presume or hope then (together with others who noticed the same lacuna), that this feature would be added within a couple of months, but in the meantime sixteen months have passed, and caption legends or text boxes still haven't shown up.

And now, with 2.8, we have track changes: certainly an important addendum in itself, but rather useless (at least in my case) without better communication with the doc(x)-format (for how many of our colleagues, students and friends work with Mellel, like we do?), and without the indispensable Comments, which is part of track changes in both Word and Pages.

I must confess that sometimes I really don't understand the logic behind certain choices.

Good point about figures and auto-titles, and again, just the kind of thing I meant.

Thanks for the invitation, Eyal, to submit this kind of thing in the next beta cycle. I will. Still, we may as well collect them here for the moment, I suppose.

Some of the improvements that would make Mellel easier to recommend are really small things to do with making existing capacities more obvious to new users.

Ages ago I suggested that endnotes should be turned on by default as well as footnotes. Mellel's flexible and advanced handing of note streams is great, but if endnotes were available by default (as well as footnotes) then the vast majority of new users wouldn't have to worry about all that stuff. Mellel is far more capable than other word processors as far as its handling of notes goes, but out of the box it looks less capable.


And still on foot/endnotes and small changes: Mellel still defaults (at least sometimes -- I have checked just now) when opening rtf files with footnotes to a) numbering them (which is OK) and b) resetting by page (which is an odd choice, I think). Numbered footnotes usually increment through a book or paper; if resetting every page it's more usual to use symbols, I think.

In any case, surely it would be better to default to continuous numbering through the document (which is what Word does with the same rtf file).

Might we get an update on the status of the features promised in this road map from the Redlers?

An update would be nice.

The first post in this thread is by Ori, dated August 2010. I'm pretty patient. But after the developers acknowledged that they had been "slacking off" and that all that was about to change, it's disappointing that major features promised have yet to be delivered.

I will continue to use Mellel. But I hope to see the comments feature and indexing available in a release sometime soon. If not, at least be open and transparent with your loyal user base.

Thanks.

Bumping this thread.

Track changes and comments: this feature is already running (in an Alpha). It was written to play nicely with track-changes features with other word processors (we also intend to add, though I'm not sure if it will be with this release) the ability to export and import track changes, so you will not have to lose formatting and other niceties and continue to work on changes within Mellel).

Other features planned, in no particular order of doing (i.e., the last may be first, etc.):
* Sort: would be what you get elsewhere, but with some additions that will make it much
* An "embedded Mellel": you will be able to send Mellel files to others, and they will be able to read them even if they don't have Mellel.
* Indexing: will be a real killer feature.
* Revamped interface.
* iPad version (that would initially be similar to the reader).
* Mellel reader: a reader and, perhaps later on, also with the ability to add track changes and comments. Again, this is to allow you to collaborate without being forced to switch to other products at the end stage.
* Major improvements to tables, image handling, text boxes, and so on. There are several areas where Mellel do need an overhaul - we'll address them. Tables are perhaps the first item on our plate here.

The bolded items have, to my knowledge, been implemented.

Any chance we can get an updated on the rest?

IMO, cross-references, though present, should be revamped (as in another thread). It takes a minimum of 6 clicks to insert a cross-reference, unless there's a shortcut I don't know about.
Also, Auto-title elements should be dragable from a well (like tabs).

Well, that is good news then. I look forward to the next version of Mellel.

daiyi wrote:Well, that is good news then. I look forward to the next version of Mellel.

You might not want to hold your breath while you wait; this topic is over three years old.

Another update would be nice. I won't be switching word processors anytime soon. But I do like to see consistent development in applications. Any news, Redlers?