• Greetings From Nisus Land
  ".docx Mania!"
• Nisus Writer Express
  "Share Your Documents Without Worry"
• Tips and Tricks
  "Inserting A Non-Breaking Hyphen"
• Odds And Ends

Greetings From Nisus Land
".docx Mania!"

Now that it has cooled down here, we have moved to the Nisus bunker, located several miles underneath Solana Beach. We did this for the distraction free scenery, and to escape the smell of the rendering plant just out of town. Mainly though, it gives us a chance to get some work done on some things we will be able to talk about shortly.

In the meantime, there have been some people getting worked up about Microsoft again. No, not the Zune, but the fact that MS will not be releasing a converter for the new .docx file format for Mac users until the spring of 2007. For those who do not know, .docx is the new default file format for the new version of Word for Windows and Mac. It is XML based, and is not compatible with earlier versions of Word.

I can't imagine why people are upset, though. Office hasn't yet been released, and frankly, the reality is that for Microsoft, Mac users will always come second. It's not an issue now, but it will be after January.

So what to do?

If someone sends you a .docx file, politely have the sender re-save the document in something your word processor can read, like RTF. Or, you can use this online converter, Docx Converter.

This converts .docx files to plain text files. The downside is that you lose formatting, but you can view the text of the document.

The key is to not panic. There will be plenty of time for that later.

Nisus Writer Express
"Share Your Documents Without Worry"

Now, for those of you who need to share your documents with others NOW, you can choose to use a word processor that has RTF as its native file format. No, not TextEdit, but Nisus Writer Express!

This is important because most people just write and save their documents with the default file format. With Express, that is RTF, or Rich Text Format. Just about every word processor around can read RTF, let alone write it. This means that you can write in Express and not be worried about someone else on another platform not being able to read it.

Of course, there are lots more reasons to use Express. We have features such as non-contiguous selection, powerful find and replace, WYSIWYG font viewing, right to left text input, Multikey Keyboard Shortcuts, full screen and draft view, and an easy to understand interface that does not get in your way.

You can read all about Nisus Writer Express at our Express product page.

You can also download the fully working demo and purchase from that page.

Speaking of ordering, the cost is only $69.95 for the download, a CD version is $10.00 more plus shipping. There is also a family pack (three licenses, an excellent value!) for $109.95 and an Academic version for only $39.95 (proof of eligibility is required).

You can also purchase a printed manual for Express for $18.00 plus shipping from the above page.

So if you need to share your documents without the hassle of importing and exporting to another file format, Nisus Writer Express is your choice.

Now go forth and spread the word!

Tips and Tricks
"Inserting A Non-Breaking Hyphen"

Rock Strongo is back, this time to praise, not to bury.

In our user forums a user known as "dybkdad" asked if there was a way to insert a non-breaking hyphen.

After a few good suggestions, such as using the system's Special Character palette, which is usually located under the Edit Menu in most applications. Enter 2011 in the search field, double click the "Unicode" item from the popup menu, then click the "Insert" button. It works, but it is a little awkward.

However, one of our intrepid engineers, whose name I will not reveal (see, I told you I wouldn't do that, Martin!) has written a macro that accomplishes the same thing but is much easier to use.

1. Download the archived non-breaking hyphen macro.
2. Extract the macro from the archive.
3. Move the extracted macro into your home folder at ~/Library/Application Support/Nisus Writer/Macros

Now you can insert a non-breaking hyphen by choosing the menu "Macros > nonbreaking hyphen".

The lesson here is that if you have a question, ask it in our support forums. The folks in there are knowledgeable and friendly and very happy to help.

Don't be afraid, give it a shot!

Odd And Ends

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