The Road Map, updated August 2, 2006

[Jerry]

I haven't updated this in a while, but here's about where we stand right now. Some of the items in the "future" section may be in the past now, I didn't check it very closely.

<ul> <li>❑ To Do: <ul> <li>❑ 0.6.1.0 <ul> <li>✓ 'Print Fonts' tab renamed to 'Print Styles'</li> <li>✓ contextual menu item 'make this style the default' reworded for clarity</li> <li>✓ ability to delete notes pages</li> <li>✓ selectable list of notes pages</li> <li>✓ typewriter mode</li> <li>✓ split text into any structural type</li> <li>✓ bugs <ul> <li>✓ 'space between paragraphs' and 'indent first line' settings not applied to existing text <li>✓ Close button not repositioning correctly in cover sheet editor <li>✓ cover sheet does not print with correct text alignment <li>✓ redo delete did not put the cursor at the delete point <li>✓ Find does not work when there is no section being edited. (e.g., after a secion has been deleted)</li> <li>✓ there were different undo/redo stacks for full-screen and regular mode</li> <li>✓ not releasing some parts when document is closed, can lead to crash later</li> <li>✓ Removed unused database manager nib file from project</li> <li>✓ Removed obsolete Database Categories menu item</li> <li>✓ Crash when deleting database category</li> <li>✓ Delete database category button active at times it shouldn't be</li> <li>✓ after undo when a keystroke replaces a block of text, jumps to top of section.</li> <li>✓ tab chain broken in appearance pane</li> <li>✓ tab chain broken in print styles pane</li> <li>✓ cursor not visible or wrong size when document opens (text view incorrectly sized)</li> <li>❑ resizing database info in drawer causes "No Item Selected" to float on top of the info.</li> <li>✓ Cannot Reproduce - Find Previous, when the text is not in the document, causes crash.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li>❑ 0.7.0.0 <ul> <li>❑ universal binary</li> <li>❑ typing drawer pane's shortcut (e.g., Cmd-Shift-O when the outline is showing) closes the drawer</li> <li>❑ 'reset all text to default' option with warning</li> <li>❑ save toolbar item</li> <li>❑ split toolbar item</li> <li>❑ display font size in appearance pane</li> <li>❑ preserve numbering when printing a subsection</li> <li>❑ &quot;open database window when adding to description&quot; preference</li> <li>❑ bugs <ul> <li>❑ crash when changing description in outline http://jerssoftwarehut.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=534</li> <li>❑ margin notes lost when splitting text section http://jerssoftwarehut.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=509</li> <li>❑ beach ball of death when moving margin notes several times http://jerssoftwarehut.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=536</li> <li>❑ bookmark name disappeared from menu http://jerssoftwarehut.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=477</li> <li>❑ crash after quit http://jerssoftwarehut.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=461</li> <li>❑ Moving margin note does not mark doc as dirty</li> <li>❑ Move to beginning of paragraph, end of document, etc, do not escape section currently being edited</li> <li>❑ Move to beginning of paragraph, end of document, etc, do not obey typewriter scrolling</li> <li>❑ Move and modify selection does not obey typewriter scrolling</li> <li>❑ When setting a style as default, if the font size has changed, text will be re-resized proportionally. (Reapplying the default fixes)</li> <li>❑ the buttons in the Text Format window have no effect when modifying the default styles</li> <li>❑ in at least one converted file, database folder icons not showing up</li> <li>❑ in at least one converted file, all and uncategorized smart items not appearing</li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li>❑ 1.0.0.0 <ul> <li>❑ overhaul spelling checker</li> <li>❑ cmd-v preference</li> <li>❑ allows change of document color</li> <li>❑ preserve numbering when printing a subsection</li> <li>❑ replace release notes in download with link to notes on Web</li> <li>❑ cover page template</li> <li>❑ at least a little bit of help</li> <li>❑ app opens in exact state it was when closed</li> <li>❑ more control of paragraph styles in screen view</li> <li>❑ registration and payment including haggle option</li> <li>❑ preference to allow lengths in dialogs to be input as points, inches, or cm</li> <li>❑ &quot;open database window when adding to description&quot; preference</li> <li>❑ rewrite credits window</li> <li>❑ review code for localizability</li> <li>❑ change prefs to allow shadows and any other page edge dragger preference</li> <li>❑ bugs <ul> <li>❑ Undoing dragging between text sections, if text that was at the start of a paragraph is dragged to a paragraph with different paragraph style, when undoing the text will take the other paragraph settings with it.</li> <li>❑ Paste text with page break truncates paste.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li> Tool bar buttons <ul> <li>see wish list in forums</li> </ul> </li> <li>❑ Future <ul> <li>❑ minimize margin notes</li> <li>❑ show/hide invisibles</li> <li>❑ tool bar save, show ruler buttons</li> <li>❑ print with margin note anchors showing</li> <li>❑ print database and notes</li> <li>❑ improved spelling checker</li> <li>❑ more attractive icons</li> <li>❑ splitting all kinds of sections</li> <li>❑ merge sections feature</li> <li>❑ margin note overlap detection</li> <li>❑ margin note list view</li> <li>❑ ability to save different project structures and select one on file->new</li> <li>❑ extended outline with scene participants and durations</li> <li>❑ RTFD - images in text</li> <li>❑ multiple select in Table of Contents (currently called Outline)</li> <li>❑ spotlight support</li> <li>❑ locking text for distribution and comments</li> <li>❑ lazy image loading</li> <li>❑ timeline view for a selected character</li> <li>❑ boneyard</li> <li>❑ auto-scroll when dragging notes</li> <li>❑ enhanced scriptability</li> <li>❑ import structured data like outlines</li> <li>❑ search/replace gives list of all occurrences of the string</li> <li>❑ text section separator string</li> <li>❑ XML and HTML export options</li> <li>❑ right-click on a word that matches a database entry has option to open the databse to that entry</li> <li>❑ system to allow users to share project setups</li> <li>❑ to-do list</li> <li>❑ Unscheduled bugs <ul> <li>❑ redo of delete database item does not work if the undo was done while the window was closed</li> <li>❑ tool bar not toggling when triggered with the main menu when focus is in drawer</li> <li>❑ Pasting text from Classic apps, e.g. Word 9, when the text uses extended characters, can lead to all kinds of odd things happening.</li> <li>❑ when tool bar is in text only mode, the Open/Close tool does not change its label</li> <li>❑ window does not adjust to screen size when project is moved between machines</li> <li>❑ home and end keys do not have the expected behavior</li> <li>❑ changing a database item will cause all open projects to be marked as dirty</li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li></ul>

[Guest]

Good list. Nice to see the future.

I may have missed it but really need a Select All that takes in all sections at once, and a Select in outline to select and copy more than one section at a time.

Have I missed something?

Strephon

[Jerry]

I will be updating the road map shortly, and I will be adding multiple select in the outline. It turns out Select All in the document is going to be a real pain, so it may be a while. In general, I have tried to put things that apply to all the text in the project setup. I'll keep working on the select all problem, but in the meantime, what is it you do with the text after you select it?

[meika]

select all in order to nuke style, cohere style, maintain ruler control, in particular over styled orphans that are not obvious

think imported, pasted text

i just wish that italic and bold were _not_ styles and optionally excluded from styling, they should remain aloof from paragraph style changes, font changes, etc

unless specifically included

indeed elsewheere too, i need nested styles i think

i wish i could describe this better

[Jerry]

When you apply the default style, it shouldn't affect italic and bold. Unfortunately, changing a default only affects text that is already using the previous default. Coming up will be a choice to paste text without retaining the style of the source.

[meika]

make the paste an optional default, and except for some database work (export) I'll ask for nothing more

[Strephon GUEST]

[quote="Jerry"]0.5.2.2 is coming together, and will be out soon. As you can see, there are a lot of bugs fixed, and a couple of new features tucked in.

I downloaded version 5.2.2. but got confused since the Info still says 5.2.1. This lad to me doing download twice. Needs changing.
-Strephon

[Jerry]

Sorry about that. I was updating my release procedure list, and somehow typing the instructions on updating the version number became (in my head) actually doing it.

[Gaijin]

Jerry, this is an excellent list for the future.

I will confess -- I have been cheating on your program over the last couple of weeks with CopyWrite and DevonThink.

In the end, I came back to your Novel Writer... it simply meets my needs better. I still keep DevonThink to back up my files to, however...

I especially like the design of the Ouline that you're thinking about.

[Chet]

I downloaded version 0.5.3.2, but the downloaded file on my PowerBook says 0.5.3.1. After installing, I checked "About Jer's Novel Writer" and the version number there says 0.5.2.1.

I think the last version I used was 0.5.2.0.

[CheepnisAroma]

<li>Future
boneyard</li>

Hi

I don't quite follow . . . what do you mean by boneyard?

[Jerry]

The boneyard will be a place to stick fragments that don't belong in your work anymore, but you want to keep handy.

[Kayara]

The boneyard will be a place to stick fragments that don't belong in your work anymore, but you want to keep handy.

Ooooo..... I use discards as fodder for other things all the time! That would be awesome.

[Jolanth Szatmary]

Wow, quite a list! My favourite Mac-Application just gets better and better.

Alas, I'm unable to discover my dearest wish in there: a mouse cursor in the same colour as the text to make it visible in full screen with dark backgrounds. BTW: Word has this feature as well when the blue background thingy is activated.

[Jerry]

You wish has now come true! It wasn't as easy as I had hoped, but it wasn't as difficult as I feared.