A Novel Writer Milestone

If I do say so myself.

This one talkes on printing, along with some other cool things. It occurred to me as I was preparing documents for submission to publishers that I was going to have to reformat my whole document to make it look good on a printed page and to match publishers guidelines. But I didn’t want to end up with a small, serifed font when I went back to edit the document. Switching back and forth would be a real pain, even with a modern word processor with styles. CSS-based solutions could do it, but there’s still setup and making sure each block of text has the right tags. My program already knows what all the pieces of the document are, so why couldn’t it reformat the text differently for different purposes?

Well, now it does. You can print with the screen settings, with or without margin notes, or you can create any number of presets with different fonts and styles to apply to each of your document elements. Now I can print a manuscript for marking up without messing up the settings I have for editing. Well, I could if I had a printer.

Here’s a complete list of changes for this release. Some of them won’t mean much to Non-JNW users, but I’m really happy with the way things are progressing. Expect to see some further upgrades to margin notes in the next months – every word processor in the world will have these some day, but why wait?

  • resizable margin
  • export by section
  • print by section
  • print cover page option
  • print margin notes
  • print with separate manuscript settings
  • Created Project Menu for access to operations that modify project data not in the main document view.
  • Moved project layout settings from preferences to new project menu, since they are specific to the project
  • Added fields for title and author, along with fields in anticipation of manuscript printing
  • Added ability to export Microsoft Word format (OS X 10.3 and later)
  • add preference to turn on/off alternate text color onscreen and when printing
  • add preference to change text highlight color
  • Made a change to make big files load faster, but it didn't help much
  • bugs fixed:
    • database window not correctly clearing description field when new is clicked
    • splitting text section messes up margin notes
    • disable split menu item when chapter title is active node
    • fix layout recursion bug when splitting large sections with margin notes
    • Fixed bug that would cause parts to display in the incorrect order when there are multiple top-level items (e.g., Books in the default structure)
    • Fixed potential crash when removing project levels in project structure panel


If you’re on a mac, drop by the hut and take a gander!

13 thoughts on “A Novel Writer Milestone

  1. Sorry about the sporadic posting lately – I’ve been amazingly busy for an unemployed guy, and I still don’t have Internet access in my house. I’ve selected a DSL provider now – all that remains is to get them to come out and in return give them lots of money. Hopefully I can make that happen soon.

  2. Speaking of giving service people lots of money – how exactly do expatriots bank? What do you do with your money and how will next year’s taxes work?

  3. I’m going to try it out, although my writing has been striclty online as of late.

    Good question Jesse. I’m here in Norway and couldn’t get a bank account or much else, (electricity, phone) in my name until I was approved for a visa. Now I can do it all with a Norwegian personal number. As for taxes, sadly, I still have no idea. I am hoping the answer is nothing, but I doubt it. I plan to plead innocent by complete ignorance if the time ever comes.

    I mean, should I put Man-Whoring down as taxable in both Norway AND the US?

  4. Theoretically the US and all European countries have an agreement to only tax income once, in the place where it was earned. So far I’m on course to simplify the issue by earning no money here. If I sell my novel can I write off my bar tabs? We’ll see…

  5. And in most countries other than the US, paying the taxes is a lot less complicated. They get withheld from the paycheck, and that’s what one pays. No need to file a tax return, no complicated fiddling about paying underpaid taxes or getting a refund.

    The drawback is that in the US, part of why one files is to claim all sorts of exemptions and rebates. Paying a mortgage? You get a tax break. Got children and a low income? You get a really nice tax break. The US uses tax breaks to reward all sorts of behaviors or compensate for undesirable conditions. That’s a major reason that US income taxes are so complicated.

    Every year, American politicians scream for tax reform so the income tax process will be less taxing. But then the same politicians holler about preserving all those tax breaks that make the system so complicated.

    BTW, Jesse, it’s “expatriates,” not “expatriots.” Jerry, pL, and Dr. Pants may not live in the US at this time, but they’re still patriots.

  6. Ahhh, thanks CAB. I knew patriots didn’t “sound” correct, but I couldn;t remember the right way to say it. Perhaps we shouldn;t beat around the bush anymore and call them what they are: ugly americans.

  7. Listening to people discuss it here, while it may be less complex, it is certainly not simple. And they do file returns, so it seems.

    Note to self: continue to make no money.

  8. Jer,

    Just in case (and I’m hoping you make money at writing despite any efforts to the contrary), put those bar tabs in a manila envelope labeled “Research”.

  9. As for Jerry, pL, and Dr. Pants still being “patriots” … ??

    Unless we’re talking about the United States of Intoxication, I’m not sure “patriots” is on the money.

    We need a Zen-Kung Fu-Brewmaster Monk (or perhaps just the next poll) to give us a working definition of “patriot”.

  10. I would imagine everything and nothing are business deductions. It all depends on A) can you afford a good accountant, and B) is he really really good. I have no doubt, that alcohol has been written off before.

  11. Mortimer (rhymes with extraordinary), a patriot? Not in the mind of all right thinking ‘Murkans including W and Mortimer (rhymes with extraordinary) himself. We all know that he is a shameless, stinkin’ hippie.

    And we (including Mortimer (rhymes with extraordinary)) would have it no other way.

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