Word count in bottom bar

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swartzfeger
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Word count in bottom bar

Post by swartzfeger »

Scrivener, Pages, Word... none of them have come as close to being my perfect word processor as Mellel... I finally got around to downloading/demoing 3.5 and it's nearly perfect. I nearly bought a license.

But the statistics in a separate pane, and only a separate pane, is a deal breaker for me. Will 4.0 support showing different data in the bottom bar? Seeing "Page: regular" in the bottom bar for hours while writing seems like a lost opportunity (for me -- I'm very word count goal-oriented).

Anyway, I hope word count integrated into the bottom bar is in the pipeline for upcoming features. For now, I'll be sticking with Bean as it's nearly as good as Mellel for what I want and is fast and free. But it is also unsupported at this point. I really hope Mellel can feature pane-free statistics!
Icelander
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Re: Word count in bottom bar

Post by Icelander »

swartzfeger wrote:Scrivener, Pages, Word... none of them have come as close to being my perfect word processor as Mellel
Why don't you mention Nisus Writer Pro? It's usually considered the best.
But the statistics in a separate pane, and only a separate pane, is a deal breaker for me. […] I'm very word count goal- oriented.
Have you tried to tear off the palette and place it somewhere else? If you put it in the upper left corner, you'll have it close to your text and see it all the time.
[img]/Users/neu/Desktop/1.png[/img]
For now, I'll be sticking with Bean as it's nearly as good as Mellel for what I want
If you find Bean good, then your requirements are indeed very modest.

Have you checked out Ulysses? It has the best word count/goal control I have seen. It has a big circle which changes according to how close you are to your goal. Ulysses is good for short stuff like blogging, but I would never use it for long papers or books.
[img]/Users/neu/Desktop/2.png[/img]

Lastly, it all really depends on what type of writing you are doing and what you are trying to accomplish.

P.S.
I tried to insert screenshots above, but I'm not sure whether they can be displayed in this forum.
Icelander
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Re: Word count in bottom bar

Post by Icelander »

OK, I see the screenshots were not included in my previous post. What a bummer.

Is there any way to send screenshots in this forum? — What's the "Img" button for anyway, if it can't be used???
swartzfeger
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Re: Word count in bottom bar

Post by swartzfeger »

Icelander wrote:
swartzfeger wrote:Scrivener, Pages, Word... none of them have come as close to being my perfect word processor as Mellel
Why don't you mention Nisus Writer Pro? It's usually considered the best.
But the statistics in a separate pane, and only a separate pane, is a deal breaker for me. […] I'm very word count goal- oriented.
Have you tried to tear off the palette and place it somewhere else? If you put it in the upper left corner, you'll have it close to your text and see it all the time.
[img]/Users/neu/Desktop/1.png[/img]
For now, I'll be sticking with Bean as it's nearly as good as Mellel for what I want
If you find Bean good, then your requirements are indeed very modest.

Have you checked out Ulysses? It has the best word count/goal control I have seen. It has a big circle which changes according to how close you are to your goal. Ulysses is good for short stuff like blogging, but I would never use it for long papers or books.
.
Ulysses/Scrivener usually don't work for me because 1) the main doc view is very hard to customize and/or 2) scrolling speed/latency. Scrivener is fantastic for worldbuilding, plotting and research. When it comes to the actual task of writing? IMO it's sub-standard. Even with no text in the main doc view it feels slow. I can't imagine what it would feel like with 100K or 200k words.

Nisus -- I downloaded a demo after not using it for probably 15+ years. It crashed after spending a few minutes in the preferences (not a good sign). And like Mellel, it's one of the few word processors that puts the word count in a separate pane. Additionally, it puts 8 or 9 icons in the bottom status bar that I don't want or need and that I can't get rid of. I think Nisus is great if you're a multi-language writer and need that in a single doc. But for $80, a 600mb app that crashes right away? No thanks. But it is quick and responsive like Mellel.

It may seem like I'm being stubborn, but I want a word count integrated into the bottom status bar, not in a separate pane. When I write (fiction), I'm ripping through a few thousand words a session and I get a sort of 'tunnel vision' -- my main focus is on the page, not on the sides or periphery. If my eyes are flicking to the left or right to check word count, I jar myself out of rhythm. I want something clean, front and center, and not a pane floating off to the side. It may be I'm the wrong type of user for Mellel, and that's ok. I'm off the next few days and will try Mellel some more in my workflow.
Icelander
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Re: Word count in bottom bar

Post by Icelander »

swartzfeger wrote:Scrivener […] Even with no text in the main doc view it feels slow. I can't imagine what it would feel like with 100K or 200k words.
I just crammed Scrivener full with long text documents that I downloaded from Gutenberg (long novels), over one million words. Scrolling was no problem; it was as snappy as ever!
Nisus -- I downloaded a demo after not using it for probably 15+ years. It crashed after spending a few minutes in the preferences (not a good sign).
Considering the fact that Scrivener feels slow by you and Nisus crashes, it may be something at your end that is not in order. I would run Disk Utility and see if your disk is working properly. Also, this could point to a problem with the system's sandboxing security features. Some files (and folders) need to be given new access permissions. I have never encountered this problem, but I have read about it in the Nisus forum. You should try again (in the preferences), and if it happens again, tell me what you were doing at the time, or ask in the Nisus forum <https://nisus.com/forum/>.
But the statistics in a separate pane, and only a separate pane, is a deal breaker for me.
It is very easy in Nisus to extract all the statistical data you want and place it with a macro wherever you want. As an example, you can put those data automatically on the Clipboard, and you can have them written into your document with attributes that really stand out, so that your eyes can spot them immediately. The only limit here is your imagination.

I often just press a key combination and let Nisus insert the number of words I have written so far at the end of the text. I have it inserted in the form [/2109/]. Thus I can immediately see that I have written 2109 words at a particular section in the document. You can, of course, also include the character count or how many words you still need to write to reach your goal. And with another key combination I can make all statistical data disappear from the document, if I don't want them anymore.
Of course you don't have to put the statistical data at the end of the text; you can have it inserted where your insertion point is, or wherever you want (after each chapter, after every 10th paragraph, etc. etc). — Believe me, there is hardly anything you can't do with Nisus. If you run into difficulties, ask in the Nisus forum <https://nisus.com/forum/>
Additionally, it puts 8 or 9 icons in the bottom status bar that I don't want or need and that I can't get rid of.
You will appreciate those tiny icons when you start working with Nisus. They give you, among other things, an easy access to your character and paragraph styles. Character attributes can be selected or removed; you can quickly find all text with certain attributes, etc. It's a big time saving for writers. Very useful. You can also change footnotes to endnotes there, and vice versa. Very convenient too.
When I write (fiction), I'm ripping through a few thousand words a session and I get a sort of 'tunnel vision' -- my main focus is on the page, not on the sides or periphery. If my eyes are flicking to the left or right to check word count, I jar myself out of rhythm. I want something clean, front and center, and not a pane floating off to the side.
You should have said that right at the beginning. This explains the idiosyncrasy. :lol:

If you tear off the small Statistics palette in Nisus and place it *on* the bottom status bar, it will come pretty close to what you are looking for. It will show you the number of characters, words and paragraphs. It's very small, always resides on the bottom status bar and won't interfere with your 'tunnel vision'.

Just out of curiosity, why are you “ripping through a few thousand words a session” to get this tunnel vision? Most writers use the Navigator in Nisus and the Outline in Mellel to quickly move around in long documents.
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