Untitled document opens whenever I open Mellel

[eirikharris]

Hi,

I am sure that there is a quick fix for this that I am just missing. Whenever I open up Mellel, a new "untitled" document opens up. (Actually, if I don't have a document open, it does this every time I click on the mellel icon in my dock, even if it is already open). Since I usually want to open up a previously created document, I'd like to keep this untitled document from opening. I checked Mellel preferences and couldn't find an obvious cure, but I may be missing something (I don't remember earlier versions of Mellel doing this).

Thanks for any help!

[rpcameron]

I'm not sure there is an easy fix for this. This is Apple's way of trying to be "helpful" by thinking that you want to create a new document, and RedleX are merely following suit. The easiest fix (if Melle is already running) is to Cmd+Tab to Mellel, which will stop the annoying behavior. If Mellel is not running, but you want to open a previous document and know its name, use Spotlight.

[Bulow]

The button you want has disappeared. It used to be (e.g. in version 2.5 of which I still have a working copy) in prefs>open and save, where there was the option 'do nothing', but this has been eliminated by 'progress'. Instead we now have the templates and I still have to understand what use they are, but at least there is still a button that permits you to pass directly to your own default template.

[vinesy]

Mellel Preferences>Open&Save>With New Documents, set to: "open template browser." From there you can click on "Recent Documents."

Or open the document directly by using spotlight (cmd-space), type the filename you want and press enter.

Or put the file on your desktop and double-click it.

[rpcameron]

I think the problem that this thread brings to light is the removal of features that many used. Additionally, now we are all left with kludges and workarounds to fix a problem that stemmed from a regression.

[Eyal Redler]

If you're working on Mountain Lion then you should note that you can turn off the "Open new document" when switching to an application by going to system preferences->General and unchecking the "Close Windows when quitting an application", when this option is not checked, the system will restore the open documents (if any) when you re-launch or switch back to Mellel.

[rpcameron]

If you're working on Mountain Lion then you should note that you can turn off the "Open new document" when switching to an application by going to system preferences->General and unchecking the "Close Windows when quitting an application", when this option is not checked, the system will restore the open documents (if any) when you re-launch or switch back to Mellel.

Yes and no. What that feature does is save Mellel's state when you exit the program, and returns the user to this state when the program is launched again.

What this thread is asking for (unless I'm mistaken) is for Mellel to only present the user with a blank and/or new document (and its selector) when explicitly asked to do so. In any other case, Mellel should not present anything to the user, including clicking on the application's icon in the dock, even when the program is already running.

[Eyal Redler]

I see now that the behaviour on mountain lion was changed. It used to be that turning on the auto-restore would restore "no documents" to nothing which isn't the case anymore.

At any rate, while I understand the people are missing that feature (which was actually quite unique to Mellel), we've decided to stick with the way the system behaves by default to make it more consistent with other applications.

I would also like to mention that the 'Open Template' window contains a section for recent documents. If you set the preference for new documents to show the templates browser and then click "Recent" when the template browser opens then you will be able to pick one of the recent documents for opening and the next time you switch to Mellel or launch it, this is the window that you'll see which is also automatically dismissed if you open a document some other way (open or drag and drop).