Awesome update! But a few things....

Feature requests, and in-depth discussions of features and the way Mellel works

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kga1978
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Awesome update! But a few things....

Post by kga1978 »

I have voiced my concerns about the future of Mellel in previous comments, but 2.7 clearly shows that the versions are still progressing!! Very very nice job guys!

Whilst I really like the new 'float around images', there's a couple of things that I would like introduced and which is currently preventing me from using this feature properly:

1. The ability to adjust padding (extra space) around the image/object by adjusting top/below and left/right padding, rather than just 'extra space' as it is at the moment. The problem is that when I place an image in my text, the text to the right of the image is immediately next to the image, whereas the text above and below flows nicely according to my text spacing settings. If I could only adjust extra space to the right of my image, I would be all set.

2. The ability to give images/objects a name and/or a proper legend - preferably using auto-title settings.

Also, tables appear to be working so much better in the new version, although the program is still a little slow when working with really big tables. BUT as I said - it has been much improved in 2.7! However, I have a few requests:

3. The ability to treat tables as objects - this would allow me to use floating around images, etc.

4. The ability to use auto-titles in tables - I think this is a feature that has been requested a couple of times before.

Thanks for keeping up the good work!
criens
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Re: Awesome update! But a few things....

Post by criens »

I second that, points 1 and 2 in particular. I feel that images or graphs are oddly disconnected from their title.

One more thing: is there any way that the floating option lets me tell Mellel to move graphs/pictures/objects always to the top a page?!
DylanMuir
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Re: Awesome update! But a few things....

Post by DylanMuir »

At the risk of re-re-repeating myself, I'd like to again point to this topic:
http://forum.redlers.com/viewtopic.php? ... 20&start=0
where a system for automatic layout of figures and captions (managed as a unit) was discussed. It seems to me that captions for tables, figures etc, should be kept with their associated figure or table and placed automatically by Mellel.

One could require that all figures appeared at the top of a page, close to their first reference, for example. Mellel would put it in an optimal spot, with it's caption attached. With Mellel's new text wrapping code, the document text could just flow around the figure and caption automatically.

DRM.
Timotheus
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Re: Awesome update! But a few things....

Post by Timotheus »

Like criens, I second kga1978's requests, in particular the first two.

And I must confess that I find the implementation of floating images and wrapping text in 2.7 a bit disappointing. It's not bad, but it's mainstream and incomplete. From Mellel, I was expecting something more 'special'.

I hope 2.8 will offer what 2.7 didn't bring.
badolina
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attaching captions to floating images

Post by badolina »

Here is an idea that may solve most of our needs: What if the Object palette had the additional choices:
- no caption (default, like today)
- caption below
- caption above

So Mellel will place the caption right below or above the figure, and they move together, since essentially they become the same object. Everything in the object palette will apply to the combination of figure+caption.

There should be a way, naturally, to add autotitle (Figure #, Table #, etc) to the caption field.
nicka
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Re: Awesome update! But a few things....

Post by nicka »

Indeed. This is more or less what I was expecting. Perhaps in a point-release before the Redlers get seriously into implementing Track Changes... ?
pepe
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Re: Awesome update! But a few things....

Post by pepe »

I have to agree with the previous posters. The new figure floating feature really needs to support attached legends and anchoring to a paragraph to be useful for serious work.
Timotheus
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Re: Awesome update! But a few things....

Post by Timotheus »

But it would be nice to hear from Ori c.s. what the future will bring in this respect.
euanmckay
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Re: Awesome update! But a few things....

Post by euanmckay »

criens wrote:One more thing: is there any way that the floating option lets me tell Mellel to move graphs/pictures/objects always to the top a page?!
I would like to see two options:
1) option always to show object (table, object, image, etc.) at top of page
2) option to display object on the following (preceding) page on its own, with page numbering enabled/disabled by choice for that page.
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