Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

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SDempsey
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Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by SDempsey »

I have many subscripts and superscripts in my figure captions, but when I apply the Figure Auto-title, all formatting is lost. (I have a character style associated with the Figure auto-title that includes these formatting features.) I have been inputting the text, unformatted, into the Auto-title, then formatting afterwards. I would prefer not to do it this way, but that's minor.

A big issue, though, is inserting a List of Figures into my TOC. This loses the formatting again, and I really do not want to go through and re-subscript dozens and dozens of characters.

Am I doing something wrong, or is there just no way around this?
Bulow
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by Bulow »

Yes, please! I have been looking for a solution to this problem for years, but I do not think there is one. In my case it is about importing papers for editing in a journal. Of course they normally arrive in doc or docx, so I have to pass by Nisus to turn them into rtf that I can import into Mellel. Up to this point superscripts are preserved, but as soon as I apply the journal's style set, all enhancements disappear, superscript, underline, baseline shift &c, while, fortunately, type faces (Italics, bold &c) stay, at least if the author has done his/her writing correctly. Footnote references become correct, when I apply the correct style. It would be nice not to have to search and correct these occurrences manually.
Bülow
Eyal Redler
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by Eyal Redler »

Thanks for pointing this out. We'll investigate the issue.
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redlers
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by redlers »

Indeed, one to look into.
SDempsey
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by SDempsey »

Thanks! In the resolution of this issues, could you make sure that OpenType formatting gets preserved as well?

I bought my favorite font, Arno Pro, and it supports proper subscripts via OpenType, so I would like to be able to use them. :)
Eyal Redler
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by Eyal Redler »

The next build of Mellel 3.3 beta will include a change in the way this feature works. Quoting the (to be) release notes:
"Smarter conversion of text to auto title when creating an auto title from a selection: if the format specifies a character style (or an associated character style to the paragraph style) then the style is applied on the text by mapping the text attributes to the variations in the style (unless the format also specifies a style variation in which case the variation is applied on the whole text). When the format doesn’t specify a style, the styling inside the text is preserved."
Please test the beta when available and let us know if all this makes sense.
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SDempsey
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by SDempsey »

I've just tested the new build of 3.3 (3.3.0b27). Character formatting is kept in Figure Auto-titles. This is good!

Unfortunately, the major problem is not solved. Character formatting is still not kept in Table of Contents. The same character formats are associated with the the original text, the Auto-title (Figure in this case), and the ToC title-flow.

I attempted to send a bug report with Mellel, but got an error 500.
Eyal Redler
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by Eyal Redler »

First of all, if the automatic send beta report feature doesn't work. Please report this via the web form on our site. Make sure to mention your OS version etc.

Regarding the TOC. I was able to have superscripts and subscripts in the TOC if the style that I was using for the TOC "title" element contained appropriate variations.

Here's an example of a setup that should work:
1. Have a character style with superscript in one of the variations (say, H) - Set this style as the style of the "title" element in the main format. Make sure the variation is base in the format editor.
2. Hav another character style with superscript in the same variation as 1 - Set this style for the "title" element of the TOC format.
3. Type some text with superscripts as ad hoc formatting.
4. Select that text and apply an auto title - your ad hoc formatting should map to variations in the style (I guess this far has worked anyway for you)
5. Now, insert a TOC - the variations in the main format title style should map to the variations in the TOC format title style.
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SDempsey
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by SDempsey »

Yes, I've gotten text formatting to map to Auto-title formatting.

I cannot get the ToC formatting to work, though.

I edited the "Regular" character style so that G was subscript. The "Regular" character style is associated with the "Regular" paragraph style.
I applied the "Regular" paragraph style to the Auto-title Figure Format (in Edit title flows..).
This successfully retains character formatting when selecting text and applying the "Figure" auto-title.

I applied the "Regular" paragraph style to the Figure "TOC format" (in Edit title flows..).
I insert a Table of Contents.
The formatting is not preserved.
SDempsey
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by SDempsey »

Oh, and I also tried to select the "title" element and apply the appropriate character style directly (in ToC format), but was still unsuccessful. The character formatting doesn't make its way to the ToC.
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by Eyal Redler »

I see. I will investigate. It seems like we have an "issue" here.
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by Eyal Redler »

After much research and discussions we've made some changes which will be available in the next beta build. (Not out yet, may take a few days until it is released). Make sure to check how it works when the beta is available and let us know.
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SDempsey
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by SDempsey »

It's a shame that fixing the Auto-title issue didn't automatically fix the ToC issue as well.

Good to hear that it's resolved. I'd like to try the new build as soon as possible.
SDempsey
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by SDempsey »

Annnnnd, with Mellel 3.3 beta (build 29) everything seems to be working properly now. I haven't extensively tested it, but a quick trial ToC insert seems to retain character formatting!

As soon as my advisor comes back with my dissertation corrections, I can quickly remedy the formatting errors in my list of figures. I wrote my entire dissertation in one Mellel document. Worked like a charm!

Thanks.
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Re: Character formatting not kept in Auto-titles (Figures)

Post by Eyal Redler »

Great!
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