NWP and FontCard now working together ... almost

[greenmorpher]

Hello all

I’m pleased to see that NWP and FontCard are now working together better, so that when I go menu bar > Format > Font I get the FontCard menu rather than the NWP font menu.

Or rather -- that's what happens the SECOND TIME I look at it in a new document. With a new document, I mouse down to Font and get the drab NWP font menu. Just continuing the process but going up or down one further item, then back to Font, then gives me the colourful, informative and very useful FontCard menu.

So we are nearly there in having FontCard seamlessly replace the apps font menu, as it does with other Cocoa and Carbon apps. Just one more little step, and the last seam will be out of sight.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout" -- how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print; "Success in Store" -- go retail, enjoy it and make money. Real business smarts @ just $29.95. See these books and more at http://www.worsleypress.com

[Elbrecht]

Sorry Geoff -

what's this FontCard of yours?
I get Cocoa "Fonts" in NWP with "⌘ T" as shown in "Format/Font/Show Fonts"...
All I need.

HE

[martin]

How FontCard works I don't exactly, but likely it's a haxie that swaps out the standard system font menu with its own. The thing to know is that NWP does not use the standard system font menu. This is done so we can provide our own WYSIWYG option, along with other features, like showing fonts that are used in a document but not active/installed on the computer. That makes NWP a difficult target for font menu haxies.

Previously I don't believe FontCard worked with NWP at all, correct? So apparently they must have made a special effort for us, or changed their haxie strategy, which is nice to hear. But if for some reason it's not working all the way, that's something you'd want to contact them about.

[martin]

what's this FontCard of yours?

FontCard is a third party font menu haxie.

[Elbrecht]

OK Martin -

I even seem to remember now: Geoff had this haxie posted ago.
I don't want anything haxie - fonts are enough for me...

HE

[greenmorpher]

Hiya Elbrecht and Martin

Yes -- a haxie it is and very useful it is too. What's the problem with haxies? This one has been around for years now, and works fine.

As I said, it works across the whole range of Cocoa and Carbon programs. It has a colourful interface that shows as folders bunches of fonts you have made up in the built-in FontBook, it hides stuff you don't want to see, it shows the most recently used fonts and it shows duplicates and/or hides the duplicates as you wish. It identifies TT and PS fonts with a blue or red icon, and, of course, it gives you WYSIWYG if you want that (I do!).

It is a little chancy with NWP 1.2. The first new document I launched this morning showed the FontCard menu immediately; the second one showed the NWP menu, but switched to the FontCard menu when I rolled the mouse up one then down to "Fonts" again in the Format menu.

This is all on OS X.4.11, by the way.

They haven't done anything, Martin -- FontCard hasn't changed for a fair while -- so the fact that it works better now must be "collateral damage" resulting from something you guys did in the upgrade from 1.1 to 1.2. Whatever, that kind of "damage" I can take!

It doesn't appear in the type palette, of course. Pity.

In NWP 1.1 and NWE, FontCard did not replace the NWP font menu, but it did appear as an item near the top of the menu, and I could access it through there. That took a lot of screen space, though, even on my 22" wide screen.

Thank goodness it is fixed now -- right at the moment I am down to a 13" wide screen lap top.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout" -- how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print; "Success in Store" -- go retail, enjoy it and make money. Real business smarts @ just $29.95. See these books and more at http://www.worsleypress.com

[greenmorpher]

This is what the FontCard menu looks like. I haven't set up the fonts to my preferred structure on this computer yet (I'll do that later today) but this is with the OS X default structure.

I really like its happy colours. OS X's muted variations on gray are boring.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout" -- how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print; "Success in Store" -- go retail, enjoy it and make money. Real business smarts @ just $29.95. See these books and more at http://www.worsleypress.com

[shades]

I see what you are saying. I have not ever used haxies (in OS X), having read about some problems. But this one might prove useful.

Just out of curiosity, in your last screen shot, on the dock what are the second and third applications below NeoOffice?

Rich

[Groucho]

Just out of curiosity, in your last screen shot, on the dock what are the second and third applications below NeoOffice?

I guess they are TextEdit and PageSpinner.
Hey, it's nice to see another guy, besides me, still using PageSpinner!

Henry.

[greenmorpher]

That's right, Henry.

The list runs Temperature Monitor, Personal Organizer, Firefox, Eudora, NWP, NeoOffice, Text Edit, PageSpinner, Canvas X, PhotoLine, iPhoto Buddy, Colorutility, Calculator, Preview, PDFPen, Acrobat Reader, Mike's Cards Lite, Font Book, SmartWrap, Google Earth, Grab.

I do websites for myself (e.g. marketnow.com.au) and clients in Canvas X (also all kinds of graphics, raster and vector, and DTP, including books). The Canvas HTML output filter has a couple of weaknesses, so I open the pages in PageSpinner and edit them a little, mess around with the headers, and so forth. It's an excellent tool. I dare say I could do it in NWP or TextEdit, but PageSpinner has the advantage of formatting elements of HTML so I can easily recognise them (making it quicker to find stuff) and working in association with a browser, so I can see the results of what I am doing (this is mainly to guard against mistakes which might turn the pages into mud or something).

Canvas is a great program, no longer supported on Mac, there is no replacement for it, so I guess it is going to have to see me out.

iPhoto Buddy is a great little program. Allows you to set up multiple libraries for iPhoto (I really worry about gigantic databases). I have about 20 separate libraries of up to 1000 pictures each.

Actually, that's what I have had for some time, but I just dumped TextEdit, because I never use it from the dock, I only use it when there is something that automatically opens it. If I want to do anything WP, it is NWP. Occasionally, I open something in NeoOffice if NWP doesn't translate it well. With the new translators in NWP, presumably those days are gone.

And, of course, in the background is EarthDesk so I can watch the days drift by ... updated live from satellite, every five minutes.

Now that is something the Fat Mac *couldn't* do!

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout" -- how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print; "Success in Store" -- go retail, enjoy it and make money. Real business smarts @ just $29.95. See these books and more at http://www.worsleypress.com

[shades]

Thanks. It was PageSpinner and Canvas that I didn't recognize.