A clarification regarding Mellel 4.0.3 and "Diamond styles"
Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:20 am
As you may have noticed, after the 4.0.3 update the styles list in the palettes and in the menu contains some additional styles whose name is preceded by a diamond sign. Styles that were not there before. I would like to use this post to explain what's going on and perhaps offer some advice on what to do.
First, what are these styles anyway? The diamond sign appears before a style name if that style doesn't belong to the document's style set. We call these "Document styles" meaning that the style is refereed to by the document and not by the style set.
In the past Mellel only showed you the document styles that were applied in the part of text you were editing. For example, if you were editing a header, the palette or menu would show the document styles that were applied in the text of the header (if any). But, if you were to edit the main text in the same document, you would not see these header-only document styles in the palette or menu.
With Mellel 4.0.3 we made a change to the way document styles are detected and made it more sensitive: instead of showing you only the document styles in the text you were editing, Mellel now shows you document styles in the entire document, including all the headers and footers and even things like auto-title formats. This means that if the page number element in the TOC format for level 10 is applied with a certain document style, that document style would appear in the styles menu even if you didn't use level 10 in the text or inserted a TOC.
Another 4.0.3 change in that area is that the document styles will not be immediately eliminated simply by removing the effected text or applying the effected text. The document styles are eliminated only after saving, closing and re-opening the document.
Note that all the document styles you now see in the palette/menu existed there before, you simply didn't see them. If you're worried that something is not right with Mellel or that your document is somehow damaged - worry not - the only effect of these changes is the content of the palette/menu and nothing more.
What to do?
First, if this doesn't bother you per se (that is, seeing these in the menu/palette) you can simply continue to enjoy life and Mellel as you did till now.
If you want to eliminate these then you need to follow this procedure
1. Locate where the style is applied.
2. Select the text where it is applied.
3. Apply a style that does belong to the style set.
4. Save, close and re-open (no need to do this after every single change but unless you do so the document styles will persist until you close the document even if there are no longer referenced by any part of the document)
Where are these styles hiding? Beside the actual document text (which you can cleanup using File->Replace Styles) you might want to look in the following locations:
1. Auto-title setup formats (especially frequently unused ones like the formats for the upper levels etc)
2. Hidden headers & footers (for example, a first page header for a style that doesn't have a separate first page, the header is still there but not used)
3. Unused footnote/endnote streams
First, what are these styles anyway? The diamond sign appears before a style name if that style doesn't belong to the document's style set. We call these "Document styles" meaning that the style is refereed to by the document and not by the style set.
In the past Mellel only showed you the document styles that were applied in the part of text you were editing. For example, if you were editing a header, the palette or menu would show the document styles that were applied in the text of the header (if any). But, if you were to edit the main text in the same document, you would not see these header-only document styles in the palette or menu.
With Mellel 4.0.3 we made a change to the way document styles are detected and made it more sensitive: instead of showing you only the document styles in the text you were editing, Mellel now shows you document styles in the entire document, including all the headers and footers and even things like auto-title formats. This means that if the page number element in the TOC format for level 10 is applied with a certain document style, that document style would appear in the styles menu even if you didn't use level 10 in the text or inserted a TOC.
Another 4.0.3 change in that area is that the document styles will not be immediately eliminated simply by removing the effected text or applying the effected text. The document styles are eliminated only after saving, closing and re-opening the document.
Note that all the document styles you now see in the palette/menu existed there before, you simply didn't see them. If you're worried that something is not right with Mellel or that your document is somehow damaged - worry not - the only effect of these changes is the content of the palette/menu and nothing more.
What to do?
First, if this doesn't bother you per se (that is, seeing these in the menu/palette) you can simply continue to enjoy life and Mellel as you did till now.
If you want to eliminate these then you need to follow this procedure
1. Locate where the style is applied.
2. Select the text where it is applied.
3. Apply a style that does belong to the style set.
4. Save, close and re-open (no need to do this after every single change but unless you do so the document styles will persist until you close the document even if there are no longer referenced by any part of the document)
Where are these styles hiding? Beside the actual document text (which you can cleanup using File->Replace Styles) you might want to look in the following locations:
1. Auto-title setup formats (especially frequently unused ones like the formats for the upper levels etc)
2. Hidden headers & footers (for example, a first page header for a style that doesn't have a separate first page, the header is still there but not used)
3. Unused footnote/endnote streams