Mellel 3.1

[eduardus]

So I tried 3.1. Then I found that I had to re-do my standard template from scratch. Mellel had messed with the line-spacing (WTF?), the line justification (left to expand-to-fill-the-width), the style of the page numbers (plain to bold), page size (letter to A4), and had selected for me a different default font. Likely, there's more yet to fix with the format of footnotes which I haven't discovered yet.

Then I found that even in a short document of a few pages, scrolling up and down from page to page was jumpy. Even typing and deleting is jumpy. A half-way fix is to make sure that the line you're writing is not the last line of the document. Typing and deletion speeds up considerably IF you have a paragraph break after your cursor, even if that new paragraph is empty. But even if you make sure that's the case, if you have a long paragraph, maybe 3/4 of a page, try holding down the delete key. The pausing/jumping of the deletion and the joltiness of page scrolling are features of 1990s word processors re-introduced by Mellel 2.8 and carried forward now with every subsequent release. Mellel 2.7 did not behave that way, nor does any other word processor I have ever tried on any of the Mac's I've owned in the last half decade. Mellel 3.1 is lovely to look at but think twice before tossing your older version. I think Mellel 2.7.2 was probably as good as it gets.

Another thing... I'd actually like to use 2.7.3, but there's nowhere on the site to download older versions despite the fact that people have repeatedly requested it. Fortunately 2.7.2 is out there floating around the internet. Redlers, would you please post older versions on the site?

UPDATE: Two things I like a lot about 3.1... Track changes now works pretty much like a comments feature, which is great. Maybe that was already the case with 3.0 but I don't recall. Second, the track language according to keyboard layout is great. General joltiness in scrolling and jumpiness in deletion are dealbreakers, though. I suspect most people haven't noticed this or have just acquiesced to it as the price of progress on other fronts. Try a pre-2.8 version of Mellel or just compare typing/deletion in Mellel and pretty much any other word processor or in the TextEdit app native on Macs and you will see what I mean.

[Eyal Redler]

Regarding default documents. Mellel should have imported your old defaults and created a template ("blank-migrated"), it should contain your old defaults.
Regarding the performance issues. I understand you are experiencing these consistently but we have not been able to reproduce them here so it is very hard to comment on this. Please contact us directly and we'll try to investigate.

[eduardus]

<<Regarding the performance issues. I understand you are experiencing these consistently but we have not been able to reproduce them here so it is very hard to comment on this. Please contact us directly and we'll try to investigate.>>

Thanks for the response Eyal. I've contacted support before and I have yet to ever receive any response whatsoever from anyone at Mellel. That's why I've posted on the forum. As you remember my previous post on this issue, I'll just refer to that. I think it was called "choppy deletion." I described there at length what I had tried to do address the problem and what hardware I'm using.

The general jumpiness and choppiness are subtle, but subtly annoying. You don't notice until you compare the new and old Mellel, or compare Mellel to other text apps.

Regarding the blank-migrated template... Yes, the new Mellel did create that template. That's the template that was screwed up (A4, new paragraph spacing, etc.).

[Eyal Redler]

Please contact us again. I recall that we had a discussion about this in the past but, as I've mentioned, I was not able to reproduce the problems you describe over here.

[simifilm]

AFAICS Mellel 3.1 lost the ability to define the standard zoom factor. When I open a new document, I always get "fit page" as zoom factor which is not what I want. Wasn't there a prefs setting for this? Please re-add this.

[Eyal Redler]

With Mellel 3.1 we've changed the document defaults system. Everything is now based on a template which gives you much better control over how things look by default.

What you need to do is simple:

1. Open a black document
2. Adjust it settings (style-set, zoom factor, autotitle setup, "show hidden options" etc)
3. Choose File->Save as Template
4. Type a name (if you wish)
5. Check the "Make Default" checkbox
6. Click save

[simifilm]

I don't think that it really makes sense to make the zoom factor a property of a document template. The zoom factor depends mainly on the screen size/computer you're working on. A document template on the other is computer-agnostic. I would plead to move this setting back to the general prefs.

[shades]

I second this request to make the zoom independent of the template. There are too many variables and needs to constrain it like this.

[Eyal Redler]

I can certainly see your point and we'll consider this.
I encourage others to sound their opinion regarding this and in more general terms: Which defaults should be part of the template and which should be set via the preferences?

[redlers]

I don't think that it really makes sense to make the zoom factor a property of a document template. The zoom factor depends mainly on the screen size/computer you're working on. A document template on the other is computer-agnostic. I would plead to move this setting back to the general prefs.

I did not thing about this this way, but it certainly makes a lot of sense. Perhaps we've viewed this too much from our point of view (trying to make the Templates look as we want them to look) and not enough from a user's perspective (wanting the doc. to fit on his screen.

[ed]

After updating to Mellel 3.1 it shows all the menus in
German. I'm not fluent which makes it difficult to understand and work with.
But the biggest problem is that I can't change back to english.

ed

[HOV]

After updating to Mellel 3.1 it shows all the menus in
German. I'm not fluent which makes it difficult to understand and work with.
But the biggest problem is that I can't change back to english.

ed

Download and install 'Language Switcher'. With this little application you can choose any language available in Mellel.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31850/ ... e-switcher

[tvaughan]

I am just about at the end of my wits with styles and especially default styles since the latest update. The new default document had all of my settings replaced with different ones. Since then, I have tried resetting styles under the "styles" menu, but that doesn't seem to change the styles as they are set in the tool palettes, so I also have to edit the styles by clicking on the little edit button in all of the tool palettes. (There are a lot of these and it takes a lot of time.) I have tried opening a blank document and resetting everything and then saving as default template, but now when I open the styles editor, I see three sets, each titled "default set". Now when I open a new document, it always opens using the default setting that I do NOT want. I can't figure out how to change the styles globally in my document, nor how to force Mellel into using the default set that I want to actually be set as the default. I am in the middle of writing my dissertation on deadline, and this is absolutely the last thing I need to be spending my time on. If I were not already naturally bald, I would be tearing all of my hair out right now. For the time being, I have just resorted to saving a copy of a document that is set up the way I like and renaming it, and using that as my new document. It is definitely a kludge but it gets it done for now.

[eduardus]

Redlers, It's been more than a month since I wrote support once again describing my issues with Mellel 2.8 and later. You even suggested earlier in this thread that I try writing support again. So I did, but haven't gotten any response.

tvaughan, I recall that same issue. I don't recall exactly how I solved the problem but have you tried trashing the plist file(s) and any of the style sets you have created? Yes, it's a pain because it means starting over once again in building your template, but eventually I did get Mellel 3.0 working with my new template (before I reverted to using 2.7).

[sourdoughpablo]

I have experienced the same problem eduardus describes, with jumpy screen rewrites. But it gets worse than jumpiness. Images disappear. And then the document hangs completely, and refuses to save. This happens to me quite frequently now, especially if I have a long document open, or if I have several documents open. The only way to protect my work is to save and close all documents and then restart the program, any time the jumpiness appears. This is not a functional solution to the problem.

I'm using OSX 10.6.8, because I still need its Rosetta function for some legacy software. I have no idea if this is part of the problem.

I don't know if I could open files saved in 3.x with an older version of Mellel. It's an intriguing idea to retreat, if I knew how. I've often wished that I hadn't upgraded.

I wrote tech support about this back in September 2012, and sent them another post on the subject today. It is difficult now to recommend this word processor to my friends.