Date and Time Stamps

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

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Vaissiere
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Joined: Sun Dec 26, 2010 10:46 am
Location: Paris

Date and Time Stamps

Post by Vaissiere »

Dear Mellel

currently, Date and Time Stamps offer 3 possibilities, one dynamic (last opening) and 2 statics (creation and current day). Would it be possible to add a 4th one, a dynamic one : "last save". With your "last opening," in a way you are supposing that we are closing our file each evening and reopen it the next day, so that the "last opening" is the latest, current, version. But I think many of us do not work that way: I almost never shut down my labtop, and never close my Mellel file (a book on which I have been working for several years). With that workflow, the "last opening" dynamic stamp is basically worthless because it wan be 2 months old and will not reflect the current date of my manuscript, while a "last save" date would indeed reflect this current date, are all of us are saving our work very often.

yours, thanks a lot for all your work

Etienne
Icelander
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Re: Date and Time Stamps

Post by Icelander »

I don't understand why you would want to do this, so it would be good if you could clarify a few things.

Do you want to manually enter the date and time when the document was last saved into your document? If yes, where? At the bottom, at the end of the text?

If the document is autosaved in regular intervals, a dynamic time stamp would keep changing all the time. Wouldn't such a constantly changing time stamp be more or less useless? Unless it were programmed like in Nisus, where you can make the "Document Last Saved Date" and "Document Last Saved Date & Time" behave as a 'stale' content, that is, it doesn’t change unless you want it to show the latest value by telling it to update all stale content.

The Finder keeps track of when your document was last saved (modified.) You just have to select the icon in Finder and hit Command i to see when it was last modified.

Or you can select File > Revert To > Browse All Versions… to see when the document was last saved.
Vaissiere
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Location: Paris

Re: Date and Time Stamps

Post by Vaissiere »

Dear Icelander

let's say this dynamic stamp is on the first cover page of your work, then, when you print an intermediate version of your work, you would have automatically the date of this version, while in the current system you have only the dynamic date of the last opening of this version, something which might be very different if you do not close your file during long periods. It seems to me quite basic to be able to have in the file itself or the printed version of it (not in the finder) an automated way to know which version is it.

Yours

Etienne
Icelander
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Re: Date and Time Stamps

Post by Icelander »

Hello Etienne,
So you want to print an intermediate version of your work. Thanks for explaining.

Then the date stamps "Document Last Saved Date" or "Document Last Saved Date & Time" would be the right thing. Nisus provides both and a plethora of additional date formats. All in all 12 formats, and the possibility to customize them ad infinitum. Mellel has just 3 formats!
It seems to me quite basic to be able to have in the file itself or the printed version of it (not in the finder) an automated way to know which version is it.
I absolutely agree, of course. But since many basic features are still missing in Mellel, I'm trying to suggest a walkaround.
while in the current system you have only the dynamic date of the last opening of this version, something which might be very different if you do not close your file during long periods


This is not correct. The Finder Info is updated immediately every time you save the file, albeit only the time stamp. The Finder also does this when the file is open (at least in High Sierra.) So the walkaround would be: Insert Current date (text) from Insert menu > Date…, then copy and paste and insert the modification date from Finder.

Another trick worth considering is to have Mellel automatically enter the number of the day in front of the current date, like this:
[54]—23.02.2020; 17:44

To do this, you go to System Preferences > Language & Region > Advanced > Dates
Drag the day of year into one of the configurable slots and add a space or "—" to set the date number apart.

When you now enter Current date (text) in Mellel and choose the right format, you'll first get a number which should stand out. Thus you should be able to see at a glance which version is the latest. This works fine for one year, but next year the day-number will be reset, of course.
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