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Losing styles after rtfs being edited in another program

Posted: 2019-04-04 21:22:39
by eureka
Hello there, new user here.

I've been using this app for the last few days. I like it so far.
One thing that is bothering me is that whenever a rtf document is edited by any other program (e.g. TextEdit, DEVONthink Pro Office), it loses the Nisus Writer Pro Styles that's associated with it (Character Styles, Paragraph Styles etc).

Yes, I can restore styles by importing them from Style Library, but the mapping/connection of the existing texts to the styles are all lost. So in order for the headings to show up in the Table of Contents panel. I would have to apply the heading styles all over again.

Anyone knows how to preserve the Nisus Writer Pro styles associated with a rtf?

Losing styles after rtf being edited by another program

Posted: 2019-04-05 04:39:15
by eureka
*removed for double posting.

Re: Losing styles after rtf being edited by another program

Posted: 2019-04-06 09:01:12
by Þorvarður
Hello there, new user here.
Hello and welcome to the Nisus forum. :-)
whenever a rtf document is edited by any other program (e.g. TextEdit, DEVONthink Pro Office), it loses the Nisus Writer Pro Styles that's associated with it (Character Styles, Paragraph Styles etc).
DEVONthink and TextEdit rely solely on Apple’s text engine, and this engine has problems with certain RTF features, such as footnotes. This isn't a big problem though if you know how to handle this.

If you open a Nisus file in DEVONthink and do some changes on the file while you're in DEVONthink, all footnotes and styles will disappear! In order to avoid this, you must tell DEVONthink that you want to open the file in the *original* program (which in this case is Nisus.) To make sure you don’t forget this, you should lock the document in DEVONthink. This will ensure that the file will *always* be opened by an external editor or viewer and that no text elements will be (accidentally) destroyed.

1) Click on the padlock icon in DEVONthink to lock the document
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2) Then make sure that the "Open Externally" icon is visible in the toolbar. If it's not, then drag it from the 'Customize Toolbar' palette to the toolbar:
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Now, if you need to edit your Nisus file, select the file in DEVONthink and then click on the "Open Externally" icon, and the file will be opened in Nisus. You can edit the document and go on using all your styles and footnotes because the the padlock now prevents DEVONthink from making unwanted changes.

As far as TextEdit is concerned, I can't think of any reason why you would want to open and edit formatted Nisus files in TextEdit and thus risk destroying your document. Just make sure that the Finder opens all .rtf files per default in Nisus when you double-click on the icons in Finder.

Re: Losing styles after rtf being edited by another program

Posted: 2019-04-08 06:15:58
by vwnisus
Thank you for posting this information about how to stop DevonThink Pro affecting the formatting of a RTF file.

To open a RTF file in Nisus with the use of the keyboard it is also possible to use Shift + Command + O.

Re: Losing styles after rtfs being edited in another program

Posted: 2019-04-09 13:10:53
by martin
Hello and welcome! We're glad to hear you're liking Nisus Writer so far.

As for the loss of styles, that's a question for the other apps you're using. Nisus Writer's RTF files naturally includes all necessary style information. Apps that support styles and RTF (like Microsoft Word) will preserve them perfectly. If you use an app that strips such styles, then you'll need to contact the makers of that app and hope they can add support. Otherwise there's really no good reliable way to restore the styles to your text, sorry.

Re: Losing styles after rtfs being edited in another program

Posted: 2019-04-09 21:08:41
by eureka
Thank you all for the help!
Sorry it took me so long to reply. I thought my post didn't get posted on the forum.

Yea, that's what I do now. Lock the rtf document in DEVONthink and use

Code: Select all

Cmd + Shift + O
to edit in Nisus Writer.