The latest version of PageFour was released today. This release contains one new feature, as well as a number of small changes, improvements, and bug fixes. They include:
- 1. Overhaul of the way smart quotes work.
There were a number of inconsistencies in the implementation of smart quotes, particularly when editing existing work. These have all been corrected, and smart quotes should be working perfectly now.
2. Shortcut key combination (Shift+Ctrl+’) to switch smart quotes on and off.
Opening the Options dialog can be a little time consuming, particularly if you need to switch between smart and plain quotes on a regular basis, so the new short cut should help speed things up.
3. New Quick-Insert shortcuts.
This option allows the user to set a series of shortcut keys for commonly used words, phrases or characters. It is especially useful for long names or unusual keyboard characters that require multiple key strokes to implement.
The keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3, etc. have been adopted for use by this feature. Simply type the character, combination of characters, word, or phrase, into the edit box next to the control key combination of your choice, and from then on that key combination will insert the corresponding characters into your text. This dialog can be opened from the right click Insert menu in the word processor, or from the main Edit | Insert menu.
In order to locate an unusual character, click on the Insert Character button at the bottom of the dialog. This opens a second dialog listing every available character. Double Click on the character you wish to use before leaving the dialog, and it will be inserted into the Quick-Insert edit box.
A side effect of this new feature is that the shortcut keys for changing the color of text have been changed from Ctrl+1,2,3 to Shift+Ctrl+1,2,3, etc.
4. Insert Date shortcut.
This option works within the word processor, as well as in the edit box on the new page dialog and comes with an accompanying global date format setup on the Miscellaneous page of the Options dialog. Once you set up the date format you wish to use, the current date will be inserted into your text, or into a new page name by using the shortcut key Ctrl+D.
5. Background color extended to side windows.
A new checkbox has been added to the word processor page of the Options dialog called “Apply background color to side windows.” This will change the background colour of the Notebooks list, current Notebook tree, and Smart-Edit windows to correspond to the word processor.
6. Font Dialog Improvements.
The Font dialog has been improved to allow any color to be chosen and set as the default, rather than the limited selection of only 8 colors.
The early release of version 1.63, with only a limited selection of new features, is due to the importance of the smart quote corrections. As always, if anyone encounters any problems with the changes, please let me know.
August 29th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Darren,
What a very nice surprise this morning! I was tinkering around with the smart quotes a few days back and noticed a few inconsistencies, but nothing major. Then the nice update comes out!
Best thing for me is the shortcut keys for inserting common phrases or characters (perfect!) and even better is inserting the date (super-perfect!)…
Thank you so much!
-dan
August 29th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
We aim to please. Though there is still a problem with smart quotes for users in countries where English is not the first language. All those different keyboard layouts - enough to drive a man to drink!
August 30th, 2007 at 4:38 am
… Or maybe just drive one to drink a bit more than usual… I’ve spent a good amount of time globalizing software products and it is awfully tricky to get everything working for everyone.
Keep up the good work. Hope sales are going well for you…
-dan
September 9th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Where do I download this version at?
September 9th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Hi Scot. 1.63 is the current version on the download page.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Got it. I think I asked you the same question last time you released a new version. Sorry to bother.
November 8th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Darren
It’s an intesting piece of software you have created. You mentioned how you were wondering on what features to add, and how you wanted to avoid making this into bloatware.
Have you thought that what you have created is, in one way, a document creation or document management program? The idea of being able to refer to various sub parts of the project you are creating is one conventional wordprocessors try to offer. You’ve just done it better.
So, in that case, why not offer the idea as an add in to Word and the other wordprocessors? I appreciate that this may be very difficult. Just a thought.
Kind regards
Will (not a writer)
November 9th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Will, that’s an interesting idea, and not one that I’d ever considered. Unfortunately, I’ve already experienced the pleasures of writing code to directly access Word’s features (the import Word docs feature in PageFour accesses Word directly). It was not a pleasant experience, primarily because the multitude of different versions of Word have a habit of reacting differently to the same actions, even though Microsoft will swear it isn’t so. It was a hair pulling experience, and not one that I’d voluntarily choose to repeat.