Save certain preferences as Mellel's defaults?

[drdstny]

Hi, don't know if this is really worthy of a feature request but I can't find how to do it and know Würd can do it...

I'd like to change the default document behaviour. I don't like Times as the default font, want to change the default spacing to 2x and want to change margins all around. Maybe some other stuff down the line, but these are biggies.

In Wordless, you can sort-of semi-select a default font, but to do the rest requires some bizarre style changing. The reason I like Mellel so much is because it's LIGHT, and I don't want to pollute that with style nonsense. I just want to save my way.

Yes, I know I could make a template or (as I'm doing now) a document that I constantly open and Save-As, but it would be so much easier to just know that everytime I open Mellel, it'll be Courier and double-spaced.

Think of all the public defense attorneys' time you'll be saving by letting them do motions and subpoenas faster.

Thanks very much for a great product and enthusiastic user group.

[zoul]

I think you can easily do this by creating a new, customized style and setting it as default (Preferences/Styles/Default style set).

[rpcameron]

Think of all the public defense attorneys' time you'll be saving by letting them do motions and subpoenas faster.

Many in the legal field still use WordPerfect because of the immense amount of time and energy that has gone into templates and macros for WP. It'd be nice to see Mellel make in-roads into this area, but it's not going to happen until Mellel gets line numbering; Mellel cannot even be considered for legal work until an acceptable form of line numbering is implemented.

As far as your actual question, this is already implemented. Just edit the styles to your liking, and save it as a default style set. I don't like to sound like a mean individual, but please reference the provided documentation (the guide and tutorial) before asking for help, let alone making a feature request. Sorry if that's callous, but just a courtesy to others.

[drdstny]

Oh, what a drag. I can't delete the post. Boo hoo.

Say, there's a reason for saving default style sets, and there's a reason for saving fonts and such as default preferences. The lawyer reference was just to put the image of my default format at arm's length so I wouldn't have to explain it.

Tell you what: you love WP so much, go grab it. My only advice to you and others is address the concerns raised (how do I do this in Mellel) instead of telling people how YOU would do it with something else.

I just paid actual money for a program that doesn't do everything I need it to do, and what I need it to do is very slight indeed. I know it's slight because even Jer's Novel Writer does this. Word does this. Hell, even your precious WordImperfect does this, ALL of them without tainting styles or even loading styles or modifying what a paragraph is or showing me how cleverly organized the software engineer's thought processes are.

And as for referencing the documentation, I did. Maybe if it was written by a writer instead of a software engineer I could cite it as something that I tried but is not exactly what I want to do. So, you see, it is NOT already implemented. I do not LIKE the Times Roman font in my word processor at all, it makes me defecate and vomit uncontrollably, and since I do use styles fairly regularly, I don't ever want to switch styles or open a style and have TNR ever pop up. What do you propose I do, good sir, edit every single style in Mellel and change the default font? Isn't that a bit...complex for complexity's sake? Why not just change the default font in the application? Maybe you should actually read and understand a poster's request before flapping your lips at it like an aged Mastiff.

Sorry if that's callous, but just a courtesy to others, old chap. Right then.

[zoul]

I know it's slight because even Jer's Novel Writer does this. Word does this. Hell, even your precious WordImperfect does this, ALL of them without tainting styles or even loading styles or modifying what a paragraph is or showing me how cleverly organized the software engineer's thought processes are.

Then why did you settled for a text processor that does not suit you, if all the others seem to do a better job for you?

And as for referencing the documentation, I did. Maybe if it was written by a writer instead of a software engineer I could cite it as something that I tried but is not exactly what I want to do. So, you see, it is NOT already implemented. I do not LIKE the Times Roman font in my word processor at all, it makes me defecate and vomit uncontrollably, and since I do use styles fairly regularly, I don't ever want to switch styles or open a style and have TNR ever pop up. What do you propose I do, good sir, edit every single style in Mellel and change the default font? Isn't that a bit...complex for complexity's sake? Why not just change the default font in the application? Maybe you should actually read and understand a poster's request before flapping your lips at it like an aged Mastiff.

Maybe my English seems to be the limit here, but I feel this is a bit over the top. We’re not used to such behaviour here, I suggest that You slow down and start behaving. No offence (yet), but we are all simply trying to get ourselves a better text processor and your post does not seem to fit that task.

We both tried to explain how to accomplish what You want using the current Mellel interface and features. If You think it’s not good enough, that is perfectly fine with me – the poll will show if there are other people who think this should be done differently.

[drdstny]

It does not do this. I tried to be clear on what I was requesting and was told, basically, that I was wasting peoples' time in asking because the respondent felt that HIS way was "good enough" for what I was asking.

Harsh? Perhaps. I'll tone it down.

Oh, and in response to the "why did you buy" question, it's simple: had I known about Jer's Novel Writer before I paid for Mellel, indeed I might not have posted this question.

Then again, I did not even know about Jer's until I was reading through this forum, looking for a Mellel FAQ or something to help me do what I want it to do. Jer's does it, Mellel doesn't, Jer's is (currently) free, Mellel is $49. Call it buyer's remorse easily cured by a thoughtful response and easily exacerbated by callousness.

Look at it this way: what if--no matter WHAT I am writing, no matter what style I am using--I always want my font to be FancyScriptCond, in 18 pt, pink in color? What if I'm such an eccentric that even when I type formal letters I use this uncommon font?

Styles won't cut it. A default font will, and a style should reference the default (well, the typeface at least) unless it's changed. In fact, that's what WordImperfect does.

I'll be nicer next time.

[zoul]

Styles won't cut it. A default font will, and a style should reference the default (well, the typeface at least) unless it's changed.

Aha. Then Your feature request is justified (although I doubt other users need it, but that’s what the poll is for). We have both mentioned the styles because they are so close to what You want and it was quite probable that they would solve Your issue.

I tried to be clear on what I was requesting and was told, basically, that I was wasting peoples' time in asking because the respondent felt that HIS way was "good enough" for what I was asking.

You could have mentioned that styles are not an option, but on the other hand it took just several hours to get the issue straight :) I am pretty sure rpcameron did not mean to be rough – it’s just vital that the forum is kept as clean as possible, otherwise it won’t be much useful to the developers nor users. Your feature request looked like something that could be solved using current Mellel interface and therefore redundant. Looks like it was not; now we understand each other and everything can fall back to perfect harmony (now where the hell are the pants?).

[donb]

>Yes, I know I could make a template or (as I'm doing now) a document that I constantly open and Save-As, but it would be so much easier to just know that everytime I open Mellel, it'll be Courier and double-spaced.<

I think that there is some misunderstanding here. If you make a template that uses Courier and double spaced, and in the Mellel Preferences' "Open & Save" the Open a New Document is checked, and the default template choice is also checked and your Courier+doublespacing template is the one chosen, then all new documents will have courier and double spacing automatically.

If lower down in the same Preferences section you tick "Update document styles", then when you reopen earlier documents they should use the Courier+doublespacing choice also.

Don Broadribb

[jannuss]

Styles won't cut it. A default font will, and a style should reference the default (well, the typeface at least) unless it's changed

I believe you are mistaken, Styles will exactly and precisely solve the problem you have raised.

Chapter 19 of the Mellel Tutorial for Beginners describes how you can set the default Style Set to do exactly what you want.
I also dislike Times; I have my default set to 12 point Verdana (main font) with 14 point Rosenberg as secondary font.

The way I learned to use Mellel was like this: I bumped around in the program for a while, trying different ideas out and generally making a mess of things. Then I set aside an evening to read through the tutorial. Since then, everything's gone quite smoothly. If I do get in trouble, I come here to the Forum. People here are very friendly and helpful.

The tutorial (if you haven't already downloaded it) is available from
http://www.redlers.com/supporttutorials.html

Janet

[rpcameron]

My apologies to the original poster, as I did not realize by pointing in the correct direction we would be chastened.

Here are the steps to do what you would like within Mellel:

1. Change the default font. To ensure that the default font is changed, you need to change the Regular Character style of the “Default” style set. To do this:
   1. Go to the Style Set > Edit style sets… menu entry, or use the keyboard shortcut ⇧⇧⌘[Shift]+[Cmd]+[A]
   2. In the Style sets window, make sure “Default set” is selected in the left–hand “Style set:” list. Select “Regular” from the “Styles: > Characters:” list. Click on the “Edit” button at the bottom of the list (the one that looks like a pencil, second from the right).
   3. In the “Attributes:” pane of the Character style: Regular window, choose how you would like your default font to appear. (Don’t worry about character spacing, as that’s in a different setting.)
   4. After you have made your changes, press the Save button to make your changes take effect.
2. Change the default line spacing. To change the default line spacing, the change must be made to the “Default” style set, just as was done with the font. This change takes place in the Regular Paragraph style:
   1. While still in the Style sets window, select “Regular” from the “Styles: > Paragraph:” list, and click on its “Edit” button.
   2. Adjust these to match your preferred settings. To emulate something similar to Word, but with double–spacing, change the “Paragraph spacing” so both ‘Above’ and ‘Below’ are set to 0. Then, change the “Line spacing” so that the ‘Units’ are ‘Lines’ and the ‘Amount’ is 2. (At this point you may also want to change the default alignment to “Left” instead of “Justified”. This is achieved by clicking the appropriate button above the simulated text display area towards the bottom of the window.)
   3. Ensure that the “Associated character style:” is ‘Regular’.
   4. Click Save to save your changes.
   5. Once you are back in the Style sets window, click the icon of the lock next to “Default set” in the “Style set:” list. This will stop you from inadvertently making changes to your defaults in the future when you do not want to.
   6. Finally, click Save in the Style sets window to make the changes for your default font and line spacing permanent.
3. Changing the default margins. The default page margins are set through Mellel’s preferences. To change them:
   1. Use the Mellel > Preferences… menu item (or the [Cmd]+[,] keyboard shortcut) to open the preferences.
   2. Click on the Document setup tab to activate that pane of the preferences. In the bottom–right of the window are the “Page Margins:” setting. Modify these to match your preferred margins for new documents. (These can later be changed on a per–document basis.)
   3. When these match your desired settings, just close the window. These new settings will be used for all new documents; the settings in the preferences will not affect documents presently open.

And there you have it. Those are the steps necessary to make the default changes you need. However, because you have indicated that you do not want to use styles, let me give you this instructions with a caveat: do not attempt to use styles and ad hoc. style changes within the same document, as it will lead to confusion. Mellel has a very powerful style system, but it does not work well when one also uses ad hoc. styling.

Again, I’m sorry you were unable to find what you were originally looking for in the provided manual and tutorials. As far as myself wanting to use WordPerfect, I do not, nor have I ever regularly used, WordPerfect. I was simply responding to your comment of Mellel in the legal profession. Many of us using Mellel would love to see line numbering as a feature, but it’s not currently implemented. Personally, I have been using Mellel as my (almost) exclusive word processor for over 3 years.

Hope this step–by–step will lead you to settings, features and functions that you were not able to find earlier.