Nisus Writer Express 3.5 Release Notes

These are the release notes for an older version of Nisus Writer Express.
For current information, please see our version and release notes archive.

Major Changes

Added support for Mac OS X document versioning, where a user can browse and revert to older versions of any document.
Added support for Mac OS X autosave, where changes to all opens documents are saved regularly.
Added support for iCloud.
Switched to 64-bit.
Runs inside the Mac App sandbox.
Changed: discontinued support for Mac OS X 10.6. The required system is now Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later.
Changed: Nisus Thesaurus is now integrated directly into Nisus Writer; it is no longer a separate app.

Highlighted Changes

Added: new options in Saving preferences pane that control where autosave keeps new documents.
Added: enabled preference that allows user to choose the language of Nisus Writer's GUI (menus and dialogs).
Added: added menu Edit > Repeat that will repeat the last used menu or palette command. Note that this only works for commands on the main menubar and palettes, not arbitrary actions.
Added: will now expand entries from the OS X system-wide text replacements as the user types. Added option to disable this in QuickFix preferences.
Added: added ability to set keyboard shortcuts for intermediate menus (eg: the Paragraph Style menu) which will show that menu and allow the user to make a final choice from the submenus.
Added: if running on Mac OS X 10.9 or later, the user can now define keyboard shortcuts that use the Space key.
Added: added menu to set document hyphenation to "Manual", where automatic hyphenation is disabled and only soft-hyphen characters are considered.
Added: spell: added attribute to prevent spellchecking that can be applied to arbitrary pieces of text or as part of style definitions.
Fixed: MathMagic equations should paste using PDF image data and a proper image baseline.

Other Changes

Improved Feedback Reporter.
When creating a printout or PDF, the status bar should show some progress information
Added: palettes: if a word is spelled correctly and has no entry in Nisus Thesaurus (eg: perhaps because it is not English), the language palette should display the system dictionary definition for that word, if one is available.
Added: lang: preferences allow user to customize language icons by pasting/dragging an image.
Added: added menu File > New Plain Text File that uses the plain text template.
Added: added menu commands to show the Thesaurus browser (contextual menu and Edit > Spelling > Thesaurus Window).
Added: added a menu command that shows the system typography panel directly, under Format > Fonts.
Added: added menus to jump to specific preference panes.
Added: spelling: the user can customize the color of the dotted underlines that show spelling mistakes.
Added: user should be able to sort recently opened and saved file lists in the Document Manager by natural ordering (eg: list most recently saved files at the top). This sorting can now be done by sorting by the file icon column.
Changed: new file templates, glossaries, and macros now prefer to be stored in the Document Manager. This is because the standard OS X file open and save dialogs will not show any folders inside the sandbox.
Changed: when saving a document, progress is now always immediately shown in the document's status bar (instead of popping up a status panel after a delay). Progress reporting during saving has also been made more accurate.

File Fidelity

Fixed: Microsoft Word no longer ungraciously shows formal PostScript font names when opening Nisus files.
Fixed: lists: Apple's RTF sometimes uses a special empty list style to indicate that the list style should be "none". We should detect that and not apply a numbered list.
Fixed: to avert issues with Sente document scans, changed how special characters are saved to RTF.
Changed: tables: when importing floating tables from Microsoft Word, if the table is very large, it is now converted to be an inline table so that it can be paginated.
Fixed: text from Accordance bible study could be imported with the wrong font and possibly garbled characters.
Fixed: style names should not be (re)localized when opening a document unless they are loaded from the Nisus New File template.
Fixed: images: when opening RTF files from Microsoft Word with EMF/WMF images, Nisus Writer should resave that image data in a way that's compatible with Microsoft Word, even if NWP cannot display the images directly.
Fixed: import: if the import process for a document does not yield an explicit zoom, the default zoom from the user's Nisus New File should be used.
Fixed: if memory is exhausted when saving an RTF file, should not hang the application.
Fixed: drag-dropping a file into an existing document, when that file required a file importer (eg: DOCX file format), would incorrectly insert undecoded bytes from the source file.

Find & Replace

Changed: find: Nisus Writer is more liberal in importing the shared system find string.
Added: find: when importing/exporting the shared system-wide find string, Nisus Writer now properly uses relevant metadata (ie: whether the search is case sensitive and if regex mode is enabled).
Fixed: find: the "whole word" find option did not allow matches that started or ended with whitespace.
Fixed: find: some bugs where the beginning and end of line anchors ($ and ^) did not match the last empty paragraph.
Fixed: find: the count reported for replace all operations should not include unmodifiable matches (eg: tabs in list items).
Fixed: find: replace all operations that include unmodifiable matches (eg: tabs in list items) could have the wrong text selected afterwards.
Opt: find: improved performance when doing an attribute-sensitive Replace All, and no actual characters are changed, ie: only formatting is introduced.
Opt: find: making a huge number of Find & Replace matches while preserving the selection is much faster (eg: redaction macro that replaces every single character).

Images

Fixed: MathMagic equations should paste using PDF image data and a proper image baseline.
Added: resizing an image or table cell will show a pop-over (tooltip) that indicates the exact dimensions.
Added: images: contextual menu for images now includes submenu that lists some basic image information.
Changed: images: when pasting images into a document, improved image data type recognition, yielding better automatic image file extensions (for RTFD, drag-drop, etc).
Fixed: images: if linked image is set not to include copy of data in the document, should not include image in RTFD.
Fixed: images: applying a web link to a smart/linked inline image can cause hangs when saving the document.
Fixed: potential hang when opening documents with certain combination of inline images and other features.
Fixed: images: just dragging an inline image should not mark the document dirty, unless the drag is completed and is actually moved within the document.
Fixed: images: drag-dropping some images from Safari would create a link instead of the image itself.
Changed: PICT data should not always be probed when pasting images, since OSX now does a poor job of handling it, possibly leading to hangs/crashes.
Fixed: images: image borders were not properly saved to RTFD (the border was lost when reopening a file).
Fixed: images: if a linked image changes externally, and the user tries to undo past the point when the image was reloaded, should not crash.
Fixed: images: if a linked image changes externally, any resizing, cropping, etc, from the image should be applied to the newly loaded image.
Changed: images: the default for newly inserted inline images should be OFF for "clip drawing to line", so the user can see the whole image.
Changed: if the user inserts text just after a newly pasted image is still selected, the image should not be deleted.
Fixed: images: when pasting an image that was copied from outside Nisus Writer, if the source prefers to use PNG, we should use that PNG data instead of TIFF data.
Fixed: some issues with the way stroke/fill menus are enabled/disabled depending on the selected inline image.

Tables

Fixed: tables: pasting tab-delimited text into an existing table should not reset the appearance of any table cells.
Changed: if the insertion point is directly before/after a table, should be able to enter the first/last table cell by using the left/right arrow key.
Changed: tables: better behavior when using Shift + Tab to navigate backwards through spanning table cells.
Changed: tables: using the command "Fit To Contents" in Draft View should not limit the width of the table to the page size.
Opt: tables: less redrawing required when typing in main body text if tables did not actually shift position/size.
Opt: tables: smoother redrawing and repositioning of tables when working in long documents.
Fixed: tables: wholly selecting a single table cell and copying it should preserve the table-ness of the content, eg: text should paste as a new table cell.
Fixed: tables: incorrect handling of typing attributes when inserting text into table cells, which could incorrectly reset formatting when inserting newlines, etc.
Fixed: tables: typing on the line of text just before or after a table could be very slow if the table was very large.
Fixed: tables: a table's horizontal offset should never place it completely out of view.
Fixed: tables: should not crash/hang when opening a file with an RTF field at the start of a table cell.
Fixed: tables: sometimes autoscrolling a table selection would be too aggressive, unnecessarily scrolling when the selected cells were already visible.

Bug Fixes

Fixed: could hang when pasting content from Apple apps (eg: Safari or Mail), if a particular sequence of hyperlinks and tables was encountered.
Fixed: fixed some possible crashes related to text layout.
Changed: improved behavior when the Apple text engine encounters certain kinds of bugs: instead of crashing or hanging Nisus Writer, an error is displayed for the relevant document, allowing the user to save, close, and reopen it.
Fixed: could crash when switching into Draft View and restoring the prior zoom/scroll location.
Fixed: fixed some potential crashes related to toolbar items.
Fixed: fixed line spacing could be incorrectly enforced during text layout when editing in certain mixes of formatting.
Fixed: should be able to change the text color of just combining marks, leaving the base character's color unaffected.
Fixed: when creating a printout or PDF, automatic numbers could show incorrect total number of pages, words, or paragraphs.
Changed: inserting a newline in front of whitespace at the end of a line of text should switch the paragraph style to the appropriate "next style" as necessary.
Fixed: doc man: the last accessed date in the Document Manager should match the date shown in the Finder, instead of using the last data access date.
Changed: the Open Recent menu now obeys Document Manager preferences that control whether the file extension is shown, and whether deleted and trashed files are shown.
Fixed: the "Edit Link" and "Remove Link" commands should be enabled if a zero-length selection rests inside an applied link.
Fixed: QuickFix should not expand an entry if the result is already in place. For example, if the user has a correction to turn "!" into " !", QuickFix will not turn "Hello !" into "Hello ! " if the user inserts a space after the exclamation.
Fixed: should never hyphenate after a parenthesis.
Fixed: the degree character ° should not wrap to a line without its preceding character.
Fixed: if a line of text is forced to the next page while typing due to paragraph layout options (eg: prevent widows & orphans), it could incorrectly be displayed both on the old and new pages.
Fixed: inserting a break in front of an existing section break could incorrectly convert the section break to a page break.
Fixed: lists: list items updates could sometimes fail to generate the correct final display formatting.
Fixed: improved response when dragging page guides to adjust margins and header/footer areas.
Fixed: automatic numbers that show the count of characters, words, or paragraphs should use thousands separator.
Fixed: notes: the very first line of text in an endnotes section could be obscured if it started at the bottom of a page.
Fixed: if a line of text cannot fit at the bottom of a page, and the region/column is not full height due to a same-page section break, the line forced to the next page can improperly be too short, clipping the line.
Changed: when adding a link to some selected text, if a valid URL is selected, should not default to a different URL on the pasteboard.
Added: styles: duplicated the commands that add a style based on the selection so they also appear on the Format menu.
Changed: users may choose any file extension when using the plain text file format.
Fixed: dragging the inner/outer page margin guide lines in a Right To Left (RTL) section would modify the incorrect opposite margin.
Changed: added En and Em spaces to the default special character set; added congruence and identical symbols.
Fixed: possible crash when inserting section breaks.
Fixed: cleaner drawing of focus ring when editing inside header, footer, and footnote areas.
Fixed: insertion point should blink when inside an empty header/footer area.
Fixed: palettes: activating Nisus Writer or a document window should never switch the palette editing mode.
Fixed: editing a clipboard should show the same toolbar configured in normal documents.
Fixed: should refresh cached OSX keyboard layout icons after every system version change.
Fixed: if LinkBack connection throws exceptions, should not prevent document from saving or closing.
Opt: improved speed of Document Manager preview generation for large files, as well as the delay when gathering information for the Recovered Files group.
Fixed: worked around an Apple bug in OS X 10.10 where the selection does not always draw completely.
Fixed: if a document is in Draft View and the print dialog is shown, background page layout should commence and continually update the preview area as page layout progresses.
Fixed: the font menu did not reliably show a mixed font state if font substitution occurred.
Fixed: if a font used in a document is not installed on the Mac, the font menu should show a tick mark next to both the desired original font and the actual display font.
Fixed: palettes: clicking into the Character palette's font name field should select the entire font name.
Fixed: palettes: should always be able to use the Escape key to exit palette controls and restore focus to the document area.
Fixed: palettes: the Character palette's font family area should show mixed state using dash marks.
Changed: increased priority of background spellchecking thread.
Changed: if drag-dropping a PDF file into a document, and textual content cannot be extracted, we should fallback to inserting the PDF as an image.
Fixed: if user has the preference enabled to restore open documents upon relaunch, the Document Manager window should also be restored as necessary.
Changed: the "footnote reference" and "endnote reference" character style names should always be localized when opening files.
Fixed: notes: using the left or up arrow key in the first footnote/endnote could incorrectly place the selection at the end of the first note.
Changed: moved recent file lists from general preferences to separate files in Application Support folder.
Changed: guard against possible crash when generating Thesaurus synonyms.
Fixed: if Nisus Writer crashed, any available draft documents that were not explicitly saved (but were autosaved) should always be reopened.
Fixed: when launching Nisus Writer, documents should be reopened after all other startup activity.
Fixed: sometimes when the user was dragging the mouse (eg: to move a page guide), could result in a weird state where the mouse up event was not noticed. In this state Nisus Writer seemed unresponsive but was not hung.
Fixed: if feedback cannot collect the console log, should show a button to launch Apple's Console app instead.
Fixed: lang: if a document's text mixed CJK text and English text, but did not have separate language attributes applied, the word count could be too high.
Fixed: styles: redefining a paragraph style from the selection could introduce spurious attribute overrides if a list style was present.
Fixed: notes: if a selection is saved inside the footnote/endnote text area, the file should be reopened so that at least the corresponding note reference remains selected.
Opt: improved performance when selecting (or deselecting) all text in a large document opened in Draft View.
Changed: removed the option to "suggest completions as you type" from the preferences.
Fixed: indexing: copy-pasting indexed content within the same document could result in (harmless) warnings when reopening the document later.
Opt: automatic text that displays the document's last save time should not be forced to update immediately during a save, but instead only be marked dirty and updated later as necessary (eg: if document is printed).
Fixed: lang: possible exception/crash when saving custom user language QuickFix corrections.
Fixed: lang: triple-click to select by sentence did not always select grouping punctuation at the very end of a text area.
Fixed: spelling: the dotted underlines that show spelling mistakes should appear clean at high zooms, and should not "shimmer" when scrolling.
Fixed: Apple typography panel does not update properly when first shown.
Fixed: drag-drop insertion point indicator can fail to be cleared away after finishing or cancelling a drag.
Fixed: styles: if the user adjusts the Normal paragraph style, any paragraphs in the document without any styles applied should adjust their displayed font/size immediately (if necessary).
Fixed: any edits to text field values (eg: full screen width percent) in the preferences should be committed if the user quits application or switches back to a document window, so they are not lost.
Changed: notes: if a default note style needs to be created (eg: if converting footnotes to endnotes in a document with no Endnote style), attributes of an existing note style should be cloned.
Opt: performance improvements to our font list caching and the way languages generate their secondary font.
Fixed: formatting applied to final empty paragraph of document should not be lost after saving and reopening a file.
Fixed: using the menu "Save Copy As" with the plain text file format should not discard the formatting in the document window.
Fixed: if saving a plain text document, and the only formatting is that enforced by the Plain Text template, the user should not be warned about discarding formatting.
Fixed: if the user does choose to discard formatting when saving a plain text file, the formatting from the Plain Text template should be applied, and the change should be undoable.
Fixed: opening/previewing large text files with non-standard line endings could be unreasonably slow.
Fixed: possible exceptions when opening or laying out document.
Changed: if Nisus Writer exits abnormally, the background file importer should automatically terminate itself.
Fixed: spell: email addresses should never be marked as misspelled.
Fixed: lang: custom languages with certain special characters (eg: curly quotes) in their name are incorrectly read when reopening files.
Fixed: drag-drop of web links should insert the marked text and the link/URL.
Fixed: styles: fixed some inconsistent enabling/disabling of Style menus in the Stylesheet View.
Fixed: could hang when balancing text in sections with multiple columns.
Fixed: styles: attributes added to style definitions that prevent hyphenation or allow hyphenation could be lost when saving and reopening a file. The menu's checkmark state was also not always shown correctly.