Mellel as a tool for drafting contracts.

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tomita
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Mellel as a tool for drafting contracts.

Post by tomita »

Hello everybody.

I am posting this topic because I am trying to switch from Word to Mellel as a tool for drafting contracts.

So far, I am having two problems that kind of prevent me from making the switch. :(

First of all, I cannot define terms as I would like to. In order to make a definition, the term is to be written in bold, between quotes and parentheses.
The problem is that the qotes (and the parentheses) are set in the regular type, thus breaking the kerning between them and the bold set term.
In Word, I would just manually kern – which I can't seem to be able to do in Mellel. This is a bummer.

Second, I would like to be able to hang lists (auto titles, mostly). In word I would just use a right alignment for the numbers and they would fall out of the left margin.
In Mellel, the only possible solution (I could find) was to indent everything, but the numbers. A hack, I would say, and not a desireable solution.

I would like to know if these problems of mine are going to be addressed so I could still consider the switch.

Thank you very much.
rpcameron
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Re: Mellel as a tool for drafting contracts.

Post by rpcameron »

As far as the kerning issue, you are correct; Mellel's does not support manual kerning. A workaround might be to use a family with better kerning/hinting in the fonts themselves.

As far as the number issue, I would suggest looking at either the combo-tab, or looking at the flexibility of the margin/indent paragraph setting.

Part of what makes the transition from Word so difficult is that it uses a slightly different paradigm for things, so you have to adjust the way you approach problems.
— Robert Cameron
tomita
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Re: Mellel as a tool for drafting contracts.

Post by tomita »

The font files have nothing to do with this: the embeded kerning only works within characters of the same style. My problem involves characters of different styles, thus no auto-kerning.
I looked at those options, but neighter seem to work with negative values? Am I missing something?

Thanks.
rpcameron
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Re: Mellel as a tool for drafting contracts.

Post by rpcameron »

As far as kerning goes, I'm uncertain if Mellel supports OpenType GPOS tables, which is how kerning is generally handled now. In addition, because of the manner in which they are defined, they may allow some control between different faces/weights.

In regard to to negative indent: why not think of everything as zero-based? Your 'negative' hanging indent starts at zero, and the rest of your document is indented. In Mellel, you'd set a paragraph indent at 0, and a left margin at 0.25", for example. This, coupled with a right- or decimal-aligned tab should give you hanging right-aligned numbers. Then, for the rest of the document, your regular paragraph style would have both an indent and left margin of 0.25".

Again, this may also be a place to consider a combo tab, which allows subsequent lines in a paragraph to have a separate indent level from the first line.
— Robert Cameron
tomita
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Re: Mellel as a tool for drafting contracts.

Post by tomita »

That's exactly what I did. :D
But it is pretty odd to see everything but the numbers doesn't align to the document's left margin. This is probably just my OCD kicking in, but still.

Thank you so much for the help. Now let's hope for the tracking/kerning implementation.
rpcameron
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Re: Mellel as a tool for drafting contracts.

Post by rpcameron »

To align your numbers, insert a right- or decimal-tab between the 'hanging' portion of the margin and where you want the rest of the paragraph to begin (and possibly, another at the start of where the paragraph is to be, at the position of the left margin). Then, for each line with the hanging numbers, start the Line with a tab, enter your number (and then optionally, tab again) and your numbers will be right-aligned, and the text will be vertically aligned with the rest of the text below it.

You can even combine the above paragraph style with Auto-Titles to handle automatically numbering those paragraphs, and allowing them to be arranged using the outline pane.
— Robert Cameron
rpcameron
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Re: Mellel as a tool for drafting contracts.

Post by rpcameron »

A second note regarding kerning: perhaps try a different family known to have rather robust GPOS OpenType tables, such as Minion Pro. If the results are satisfactory, then it would follow that families using GPOS for kerning would indeed make a difference.

I am aware that legal documents in certain jurisdictions have rather specific style requirements, however more often than not those styles are merely habit rather than necessity. Matthew Butterick's excellent Typography for Lawyers is a great resource for style and legal documents.
— Robert Cameron
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