Mellel 6 released (Mac only)

Posted by Dormouse
Dec 16, 2023 at 09:17 PM

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
I am sometimes forced to use MS Word, and everytime I do I think, “could
>they have made this any more user un-friendly?” I can usually figure out
>what I need to do, but navigating the ribbons and menus and dialog boxes
>is the stuff of nightmares. I don’t use it enough for any of that to
>become second nature.
> >I work for a publisher, and wear many hats, that includes design and
>layout of the books. I’d much prefer getting the manuscripts in plain
>text. Word encourages authors to try to do their own layout, which I
>then undo when I pull the text into InDesign. It’s a waste of their time
>and makes more work for me.
> >Sorry, this is a bit off the track of Mellel.
> >Steve

Not sure why you’re forced to use Word. Presumably you have a docx file which you could open with any Mac-friendly WP like Mellel. idk why a writer would be mucking about with layout directly rather than using styles which would be a one click change; I assume they are at least using headings and one of the outline modes. And Word is happy to save as .txt if you only want the text.

Personally I spend very little time in ribbons or menus, but like most things - including plaintext editors - it can be complex if you are unfamiliar with it. The difference with most (all?) plaintext editors is that any feature you are looking for is almost certainly available and it’s just a question of knowing how to activate it. Certainly it’s not an easy program for occasional dabbling unless you are trying to implement a common standard workflow.