Auto titles: Introduction and Chapters

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daiyi
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Auto titles: Introduction and Chapters

Post by daiyi »

For all my chapters, I have auto-titles set up to include the chapter number before the chapter title. I don't want this to be the case for the Introduction, however. But I would like the Introduction to still be part of the outline. What might be the easiest way to do this?

Thanks in advance from a Melleler frantically rushing to finish up a thesis.
daiyi
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Re: Auto titles: Introduction and Chapters

Post by daiyi »

After playing around more with the auto-titles, is the best work around to add the Chapter numbers manually for chapters (instead of having them automatically numbered the way I have set up now)? Right now I'm using tag flows for the Introduction and Conclusion. I understand why structural flows are set up hierarchically, but it would be nice to have duplicates for non-numbered equivalents of chapters, such as Prefaces, Introductions, and Conclusions.

Maybe I'm missing something here though.

Thanks in advance.
matthias
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Re: Auto titles: Introduction and Chapters

Post by matthias »

daiyi wrote: I understand why structural flows are set up hierarchically, but it would be nice to have duplicates for non-numbered equivalents of chapters, such as Prefaces, Introductions, and Conclusions.

I fully support this request.
daiyi
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Re: Auto titles: Introduction and Chapters

Post by daiyi »

matthias wrote:
daiyi wrote: I understand why structural flows are set up hierarchically, but it would be nice to have duplicates for non-numbered equivalents of chapters, such as Prefaces, Introductions, and Conclusions.

I fully support this request.
Thanks for your support. So, I guess this means there is no workaround apart from numbering chapters as part of the title itself? If indeed the case, this makes no sense to me at all. I must be missing something, no? Mellel is too well conceived to overlook this.
DylanMuir
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Re: Auto titles: Introduction and Chapters

Post by DylanMuir »

There are a couple of ways to work around this.

One: insert a "pin" level just below the top-level chapter heading, and give it the same formatting for the text and TOC as the chapter heading. In this case it won't appear in quite the right place in the outline, if you have the outline in "separate" view. It sounds like this is what you're already doing.

Two: use the top structural level as the introduction / unnumbered level. This will "waste" a level, and in the outline everything will appear subordinate to the introduction.

Either way, your chapter numbering and TOC will be done automatically, and correctly. The outline will look a little off, though.

DRM
daiyi
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Re: Auto titles: Introduction and Chapters

Post by daiyi »

Thanks Dylan for your reply and suggestions. For now, I'm going with option 1. I had thought of option 2 as well, but it does not help much with the epilogue, thus option one works fine, though actual sections are not represented consistently in the outline.

To my mind, this is something that has to change in Mellel. It can't be difficult at all to all structural tabs for non-numbered chapter-like sections. So please Ori and Eyal, can you add this to the next version?

Thanks.
DylanMuir
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Re: Auto titles: Introduction and Chapters

Post by DylanMuir »

The problem really is that you can only have a single structural flow at a particular level. Although it makes things simple, I don't see why there has to be this hard link. Why not separate the outline level from the flow itself? All flows could be like tag flows, but one could optionally assign an outline level to a flow, indicating that it should reset numbering at that level, and appear in the outline in that position. Other tag flows would exist as they currently do, and not reset outline numbering.

The current system implies that there is no option of mixing numbered and un-numbered headings for a particular outline level. Manual numbering is really not a good option.

DRM
monstordh
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Re: Auto titles: Introduction and Chapters

Post by monstordh »

This has been a frustration of mine for years. I am an author and have written several books with Mellel. However, it has always been frustrating that I can't use the Outline to accurately reflect my chapters, because I generally have an Introduction and it labels it "Chapter 1" and my actual first chapter is labeled "Chapter 2." Any help finding a solution to this would be most helpful.
"You can live opposite of what you profess, but you can't live opposite of what you believe." -Dallas Willard
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