Mellel 2.2 rediscovers the freedom to cite, enhances charact

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Ori Redler
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Mellel 2.2 rediscovers the freedom to cite, enhances charact

Post by Ori Redler »

PRESS RELEASE: Mellel 2.2 rediscovers the freedom to cite, enhances character styling options and adds Markers

An html version of this press release is available at: http://www.mellel.com/pressrelease/20070319.html

Note: Mellel 2.2 released today is an English-only user interface. A version including 14 different languages is expected within a week.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — March 19, 2007 — RedleX today released Mellel 2.2, a major update to the premier word processor for Mac OS X.

Mellel 2.2 introduces several new citation and bibliography features, making citation entry, verification and scanning easier than ever before. The new features further solidify Mellel’s position as the leading word processor for writers and scholars. Mellel 2.2 also introduce several exciting and unique character styling options, including sophisticated background, outline, and line option. Another key feature in Mellel 2.2 is the Marker palette, allowing users to mark text as with a highlighter and easily search for highlighted text in the document.

Mellel 2.2 is free to all registered users of Mellel. The update is a for-pay upgrade for user who purchased Mellel more than 3 years ago. A free trial version is also available.

Mellel 2.1 is available for download now, from the servers listed below. The price for a single user license is US$49, Educational license is US$34.99, 5 Pack license (5 separate licenses) is US$99. A Boxed Edition of Mellel is also available for US$59 (including shipping costs).

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Mellel 2.2 in depth
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For a complete list of new features, improvements and bug fixes, please see the release notes at: http://www.mellel.com/releasenotes.html

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Citing better than ever
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An old Hollywood maxim says: good, fast, cheap: pick two. Translated into the field of citations and bibliographic reference the maxim is: easy to use, versatile, reliable: pick two. With version 2.2, Mellel tries to allow you to pick all three.

Mellel 2.2 is a much more versatile in its handling of citations and bibliographies. You can now scan, rescan and unscan citation in document; verify your citations; alternate between temporary and final (scanned) mode per citation (or for the whole document); view citations 'in context' within the bibliographic database. Another new feature allows you to freely position and move the bibliography section within the document. And, finally, if you got a document choke full of citations you don't have in your reference database, you can simply add them to it, complete with all the notes they came with.

Mellel is already the title holder in terms of reliability and stability. Mellel is built for heavy duty work, and Mellel 2.2 is a fine example to this. It will handle a document with 3 citations or 3,000 citations with the same ease.

Last but not least, is ease of use. The Bibliography palette in Mellel places everything at your fingertips, from scanning to unscanning, verifying to searching in the Bibliographic reference. And, to be sure, the list of citations in the document (enhanced) is always there, to browse and navigate between references.

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The text gains Texterity
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Mellel's new character styling features allow you to manipulate text as never before, with an endless number of options you can easily activate from a simply text widget. You can, for example create a stroke (outline) around a character that can be extremely delicate (e.g. 10 percent of the usual outline font weight) or extremely coarse, with a 10 pt. dashed outline.

You can also have the underline, overline or strikethrough thick or thin, using any colour (independent of the character colour) or dash style, add a background colour, and more.

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A real highlighter
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Mellel's unique Marker palette allows you to mark text without changing the text attributes. When you select some text and use a marker (highlighter) to mark it, the text gets marked, but does not change in any other respect. This allows you to use the markers to draw attention without inflicting unnecessary and sometimes harmful changes (e.g., when you already have set a background colour for the text).

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And what's more...
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Mellel 2.2 includes more than 40 new features, enhancements and, well, some bug fixes. To view a complete listing of all the changes go to http://www.mellel.com/releasenotes.html

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Localisations
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Mellel 2.1 is initially released with an English user interface. A version including 14 different languages is expected within a week.



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ABOUT MELLEL
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Mellel is the leading word processors for Mac OS X, with a special focus on scholars, writers, technical writing and multilingual word processing.

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PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
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Mellel is available for download now, from the list of servers given below. It can be purchased for just US$49 for a regular license. Educational license is US$35, 5 Pack license (5 licenses) are US$99 and a Boxed Edition for US$59.

To purchase Mellel go to:
http://store.kagi.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi ... D=MQK_LIVE&&
For details about other purchasing options to to: http://www.mellel.com/supportpurchase.html

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DOWNLOAD INFO
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Main Download server:
http://www.connectnw.com/redlers/mellel22.dmg.zip
http://www.connectnw.com/redlers/mellel.dmg.zip

Second download server:
http://www.mellel.com/download/mellel/mellel22.dmg.zip
http://www.mellel.com/download/mellel/mellel.dmg.zip

Third download server:
http://forum.redlers.com/mellel22.dmg.zip

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ABOUT REDLEX
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RedleX was founded in 2002 by Eyal Redler, Ori Redler and Guy Hivroni. The company is privately held and headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Our site: RedleX site: http://www.mellel.com/
Ori Redler from RedleX
ochsenmeier
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Post by ochsenmeier »

Thank you for the update.
BUT… can you give us any hint about indexing and xref ? This is a whole lot more crucial to me than some of the new features. I have been waiting for 2.2 to transfer long documents written in Framemaker Win. Without indexing and xref, Mellel is a nice note taking tool but simply unusable for long academic docs. My documents absolutely require both features. I'd hate to have to switch to another writing tool.
Education
kga1978
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Post by kga1978 »

Again some nice new features, but the oldest requests are still not fulfilled. Including frustrating things like:

1. Indexing
2. Table navigation (you still can't press down-arrow)
3. Table equalise row heights
4. Text wrapping around images

I still don't understand how you can sell this software as 'academic' software, when it lacks these absolutely essential features.

I like certain things in mellel, but I am starting to think that the new iWorks suite will do the trick for me instead.
joewiz
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Post by joewiz »

ochsenmeier wrote:I have been waiting for 2.2 to transfer long documents written in Framemaker Win. Without indexing and xref, Mellel is a nice note taking tool but simply unusable for long academic docs.
Who said 2.2 would have indexing and xref?
kga1978 wrote:I still don't understand how you can sell this software as 'academic' software, when it lacks these absolutely essential features.
I love these guys. Any release is an opportunity to complain that some feature never promised for this release wasn't added. Did you really buy this software without testing what features it has and doesn't have? To invest in a piece of software despite it lacking substantial features critical to you -- that is just silly. Until Mellel had the features I needed, I didn't buy it; once it did, I laid down the cash.

Kudos to the Redlers for a rock solid release with 2.2. What could be more academic than citing sources -- and 2.2 makes using Bookends and Mellel tons better for students and scholars.

We all look forward to future releases, particularly as we discuss features and implementation here on the forums. But I bought Mellel for what it was, because it meets my needs and did so much better than other programs; new features that come within the period of my license are a nice bonus. I also appreciate being able to contribute to ideas here that may make it into the feature set of a future release. Mellel may not please everyone today, but the Redlers are quite aware of how Mellel stacks up and make that available to you: Competitive Comparison -- indeed, how many other companies give such a fine-grained analysis of what their product lacks? It would be one thing if the product was getting worse with each release. But these releases do build the groundwork for future features, and with each release the Redlers chip away, steadily and methodically, at that competitive comparison. Just sit back and enjoy the show.
Phil82
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Post by Phil82 »

joewiz wrote:
Who said 2.2 would have indexing and xref?
That's the thing. Who knew what 2.2 would have? Who knows what 2.3 would have? All most of us know is that xref has been in the "works" and was scheduled for a release last year. It is obvious that didn't happen, and the months quietly slipped by. I have been waiting for this release hoping to see the much anticipated xref capability, but the release notes has been disappointing.
I love these guys. Any release is an opportunity to complain that some feature never promised for this release wasn't added. Did you really buy this software without testing what features it has and doesn't have? To invest in a piece of software despite it lacking substantial features critical to you -- that is just silly. Until Mellel had the features I needed, I didn't buy it; once it did, I laid down the cash.
Mellel works great as a tool for short academic papers. I tested it out by writing a paper which has since been submitted and accepted at a conference. It worked great then, and I bought it because it worked great as a tool for short papers. The lack of cross referencing isn't much of an issue with a paper < 10 pages long.

However, cross-referencing was due by the end of last year. I'll be honest, that did factor into me buying Mellel as I expected cross referencing to be available by the time my thesis is due. Even if it is one or two months late (as most software projects are) it would still be in time. I'll go so far to say that if they actually said what happened with cross referencing and when it will actually arrive, that would be really helpful to all who use their software. It will then allow us to plan what we're going to use. Personally, I've dumped all I've spent a week moving everything from Mellel back to LaTeX. I'm nowhere near as productive in LaTeX as I am in Mellel, but it is an unfortunate move that I have to make for the very obvious reasons.

I'm waiting for the day that Mellel includes cross referencing. Sadly, it hasn't arrived yet.
donb
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Post by donb »

<3. Table equalise row heights

I have pointed out in my Tutorial that this can easily be done with Mellel.

Select the whole table with the Table palette.

With the Alignment & Spacing palette set exactly what height you want for your rows. Note that if you prefer extreme exactness, you can specify the height in points and decimals of points.

Don Broadribb
ptram
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Post by ptram »

While I still await indexing and cross-referencing in Mellel, because I'm sure they will be of the same high quality of the other features, and will give the program a new power, I too must testify of its good use in short "academic" papers.

I could use it for my speech at a conference on electronic music, and the bibliography and multiple note systems were a great help for that. I didn't need idx and xref in this 15-pages long document, so Mellel worked fine.

Also, it is working nicely for my technical meeting notes at work, thanks to the clever outlining and auto-title system. I guess markers will even improve both this type of application, and any type of draft.

The only problem, with technical documents to be shared with others, is that Mellel doesn't export paragraph styles in Word very well, so I'm obliged to use a more compatible program when writing specs or business plans.

If I had to write a thesis, I would probably do the preliminary draft in Mellel, and then complete the work in something less pleasant to deal with, but more complete like NeoOffice.

Paolo
Last edited by ptram on Tue Mar 20, 2007 5:16 pm, edited 3 times in total.
jannuss
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Post by jannuss »

donb wrote:<With the Alignment & Spacing palette set exactly what height you want for your rows. Note that if you prefer extreme exactness, you can specify the height in points and decimals of points.
Don, this is a good workaround, but it does have some drawbacks:
-- first, I'd like to be able to set row height by measure (cm), not points or lines,
-- second, I often place several rows in each table cell.

My solution is first to do the math and convert cm to points [not fun, but doable] and second to create a one-character wide column and apply the line spacing only to it.

Since I use accurately-spaced tables to create mailing labels, it's no big issue. I create a standard file and reuse it. If I needed to create new accurate tables often, I would not be happy with such a demanding workaround.

Janet
danzac

Post by danzac »

Ori and gang,

Thanks very much, this is a great update and most welcome.

Mellel is already a giant, and once cross-referencing hits it will be an unstoppable juggernaut.
Riad
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Post by Riad »

Thanks a lot for this release. As it is clear, Mellel it is not perfect yet for everybody. It might be that it will never be. . . but. . . go ahead in improving it. . .

I’m very happy for its new features.

Thanks again. . . .
kga1978
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Post by kga1978 »

joewiz wrote: I love these guys. Any release is an opportunity to complain that some feature never promised for this release wasn't added. Did you really buy this software without testing what features it has and doesn't have? To invest in a piece of software despite it lacking substantial features critical to you -- that is just silly. Until Mellel had the features I needed, I didn't buy it; once it did, I laid down the cash.
Obviously I tested it before buying it - but unlike you I am willing to buy an unfinished product in order to support its development. However, when I send the developers an e-mail pointing out that tables works very poorly in Mellel and I get the reply back, that this will be finished very very soon, then I expect that to hold true - if not I will be disappointed and will therefore post in the forum.
joewiz wrote: Kudos to the Redlers for a rock solid release with 2.2. What could be more academic than citing sources -- and 2.2 makes using Bookends and Mellel tons better for students and scholars.
I do agree that the new 2.2 has some great features incl. the integration with Bookends - however this is again one of those things that are absolutely essential in order to use Mellel for academic purposes. However, that in itself is not enough to sell it as an academic - and certainly not a scholarly - word processor. There are so many other things that are required - some of the extremely important ones being x-refs and wrap around text. I am not talking about writing a thesis here - yes I will be doing that very shortly, but I don't care about that - what I do care about is writing papers, speeches etc. And especially for papers you need better handling of text and images as well as tables. We just wrote a paper for PNAS and am currently writing one for Science and Nature Medicine, and I am afraid that Mellel just wont cut it for these purposes as it lacks in features. This is supposed to be a replacement for Word - not a 'well we do this in Mellel and then copy-paste it all into Word afterwards!".
simifilm
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Post by simifilm »

kga1978 wrote:
joewiz wrote: I do agree that the new 2.2 has some great features incl. the integration with Bookends - however this is again one of those things that are absolutely essential in order to use Mellel for academic purposes. However, that in itself is not enough to sell it as an academic - and certainly not a scholarly - word processor. There are so many other things that are required - some of the extremely important ones being x-refs and wrap around text. I am not talking about writing a thesis here - yes I will be doing that very shortly, but I don't care about that - what I do care about is writing papers, speeches etc. And especially for papers you need better handling of text and images as well as tables. We just wrote a paper for PNAS and am currently writing one for Science and Nature Medicine, and I am afraid that Mellel just wont cut it for these purposes as it lacks in features. This is supposed to be a replacement for Word - not a 'well we do this in Mellel and then copy-paste it all into Word afterwards!".
The point is of course, that even inside academia the needs are different. I don't need wrap around text, never have, probably never will. But for me, citation can't be improved too much. Mellel 2.2 is a giant in the right direction for me. I too would like to see cross refs, and I certainly don't need the new character widget, but needs are different.
aechallu
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Post by aechallu »

I don't need wrap around text, never have, probably never will. But for me, citation can't be improved too much.
I agree with this, absolutely. In my area (history, US academia), text formatting and image and table positioning are practically irrelevant in journal and manuscript submissions. And so far I've never seen anybody embarrassed by turning in a paper that says "<PLACE TABLE/FIGURE ONE HERE>". I was actually concerned that the last releases were so much geared toward handling final-product publication matters ("Mellel as a framemaker replacement") that I thought that maybe Mellel was not for me anymore. I'm glad this version focused on issues I do care about (citations & markers). Maybe next time is the turn for users with xref/index/in-house publication needs and not my priorities (which, by the way, are style exporting in RTF, rethinking the GUI, versioning/undo, live--no scanning--bibliographies, and at the end of the list better handling of tables/images), that's the way it works when development resources are limited.

In any case, I also think that Mellel needs to cater to a broader spectrum of academic users, and it should implement xref and better table/image handling ASAP. It would attract more people and make more likely that Mellel continues as a viable project in the long run. Gauging the users' interest through the forum, xref should be slated for release in 2.3 and I hope it doesn't take too long.
bashosfrog
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Post by bashosfrog »

Let's get some context here. Redlex is three people. Mellel is four years old. Every release has added something significant, often in an entirely new way, without compromising Mellel's rock-solid stability. It still doesn't have things I'd like, either - but I only have to flick back to Word to know what an infinitely better experience Mellel provides.

I guess Mellel is at a crunch point in its development, where it's more than just an alternative word processor but still doesn't do all that the world has come to expect from Word. It never will, either.

Mellel is evolving, steadily, solidly and strategically. There will never be a point at which the world choruses, "This is perfect". But at the end of each year, it is better than it was 12 months ago. That's enough for me.


Matt
Last edited by bashosfrog on Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ptram
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Post by ptram »

All this, without saying that markers are a great, unexpected addition. I find them very useful in everyday revision tasks.

Paolo
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