Unable to create new note stream

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rwg
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Unable to create new note stream

Post by rwg »

In the past I have happily used multiple note streams, but recently I have found that I am unable to create any new note streams. I have a document with footnotes, and I wish to add endnotes as well. I create a new note stream for endnotes in the Edit Note Attributes Sheet, set it up as I always have, save the changes, and close the Edit Note Attributes Sheet. But when I go to the Insert > Note menu item, there is no new item for endnotes, and when I open the Edit Note Attributes Sheet, all signs of the new note stream have vanished. Can anyone suggest why this might be happening?

Rolf (Mellel 2.8.2, OS 10.4.11)
DRB
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Re: Unable to create new note stream

Post by DRB »

I suspect you forgot or mixed up the sequence required:
1. Click the + to indicate that this is to be a new Note style.
2. Click on New Style.
3. Type a name for your new (endnote) style.
4. Set the details for how you want the attributes to be.

I just tried this with the current Mellel and had no difficulty.

Don Brodribb
rwg
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Re: Unable to create new note stream

Post by rwg »

I tried doing it in the order you suggest, but the result was the same, so I downloaded a new copy of Mellel (which was the same Build 3 I already had), and now there seem to be no problems. Very strange.

Rolf
redlers
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Re: Unable to create new note stream

Post by redlers »

rwg wrote:In the past I have happily used multiple note streams, but recently I have found that I am unable to create any new note streams. I have a document with footnotes, and I wish to add endnotes as well. I create a new note stream for endnotes in the Edit Note Attributes Sheet, set it up as I always have, save the changes, and close the Edit Note Attributes Sheet. But when I go to the Insert > Note menu item, there is no new item for endnotes, and when I open the Edit Note Attributes Sheet, all signs of the new note stream have vanished. Can anyone suggest why this might be happening?

Rolf (Mellel 2.8.2, OS 10.4.11)
I'll try to go over how I do that, hoping this helps:

A. Insert > Note > Edit note attributes...
B. Click the + button at the bottom of the Note streams list.
C. Rename and assign a keyboard shortcut.
D. Set the Position of the notes for this stream (still selected) to End of Document.
E. OK.

If this does not work, it seems that for some reason the changes to the document are not saved. If the method above does not work, do this:
A. Write down your registration details (from Mellel, choose Mellel (menu) > Registration code). Quit Mellel. 
B. Go to ~/Library/Preferences/ and remove the file com.redlex.mellel.plist
C. Go to ~/Library/Application support/ and remove the Mellel folder there. 
D. Run Mellel again. 

Now try this again. If the problem is with the preferences, somehow, you'll be able to create a new stream.

Ori
rwg
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Re: Unable to create new note stream

Post by rwg »

I thought downloading a new copy of Mellel had solved the problem, but I now find that even in a new document no changes to the Edit Note Attributes Sheet are being saved. I don't really want to remove all the preferences, as suggested by Ori, since everything else seems to be working properly. Perhaps it is time to give the new version of Nisus a workout. But then I remember the things I don't like about Nisus…

Rolf
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Re: Unable to create new note stream

Post by DRB »

Since this is a problem which the rest of us have not run into, it seems like it is not a bug in Mellel but a corruption of your preferences, as Ori suggested. Every computer program suffers from such a problem at one time or another, and merely reinstalling the program does not necessarily resolve the problem since every program leaves some bits of itself behind and unreplaced if its previous incarnation in your computer has not been totally removed. Mellel, like most other programs, regenerates its own preferences automatically when you manually remove the previous set. I have never encountered a situation in which Mellel's preferences did not regenerate properly when due to some corruption they had been manually remote. I think you would find that it would not be much of a job to adjust the preferences once Mellel had regenerated them.

Don Broadribb
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Re: Unable to create new note stream

Post by rpcameron »

rwg wrote:I thought downloading a new copy of Mellel had solved the problem, but I now find that even in a new document no changes to the Edit Note Attributes Sheet are being saved. I don't really want to remove all the preferences, as suggested by Ori, since everything else seems to be working properly. Perhaps it is time to give the new version of Nisus a workout. But then I remember the things I don't like about Nisus…
A quick and easy way to test whether it is a problem with the preferences (and other support files) or if it is a problem with the application itself is to use another user. What I mean is this: create a new user account on the system (assuming you have the privileges to do so), the log in to that account. From there, it will be a clean slate. Run Mellel, and attempt to add the note stream as you were unable to do so before.

(Perhaps you should also make available a copy of the document in question (using the "Duplicate" command in the Finder), then you could also attempt to create the note stream in a blank new document, as well as the existing one. This is also a good way to determine if the problem may actually lay with a corruption in the document, rather than in the application itself.)

In any case, this is one easy way to test for corruption in an application—or specific document—without damaging or deleting any of your existing files or settings needlessly.
— Robert Cameron
rwg
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Re: Unable to create new note stream

Post by rwg »

Thanks for reminding me to try running Mellel under a different user. It turned out that the problem seems to be confined to my main user account. For the moment I have resorted to making a duplicate of a previous document already set up with the necessary note streams and pasting new documents into that.

Rolf
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