Unscan the documents in Mellel

Yoshi Itoh · Post by **Yoshi Itoh** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 11:58 am

Hi, I am testing Mellel with Bookend, and I have a question. In word2004, it shows the pallette of scan adn unscan, which are quite useful when you need to change the type of biblio format to submit different journals. I cannot find one in Mellel. I looked into manual of both Mellel and Bookend, but I could not find how to do it. I wonder if you have some idea. Thanks for you help!

Yoshi

Post by **Jon** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 12:35 pm

Yoshi Itoh wrote:Hi, I am testing Mellel with Bookend, and I have a question. In word2004, it shows the pallette of scan adn unscan, which are quite useful when you need to change the type of biblio format to submit different journals. I cannot find one in Mellel. I looked into manual of both Mellel and Bookend, but I could not find how to do it. I wonder if you have some idea. Thanks for you help!

This is not possible with Mellel yet...

Jon
Sonny Software

Yoshi Itoh · Post by **Yoshi Itoh** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 6:12 pm

Hi Jon,

I think 'unscan function' is very useful perticularly when paper is rejected by one journal. The paper then needs to be reformatted to another journal format which require changing bibliography format. Thus, 'unscan function' is indeed essential when it happens. I thus decided that I will use Word2004 for now though Mellel has quite nice feature to work with Bookend. Nevertheless Bookend works very nicely with Word2004! Thank you for your support!

Yoshi

Post by **Jon** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 6:38 pm

Yoshi Itoh wrote:Hi Jon,

I think 'unscan function' is very useful perticularly when paper is rejected by one journal. The paper then needs to be reformatted to another journal format which require changing bibliography format. Thus, 'unscan function' is indeed essential when it happens. I thus decided that I will use Word2004 for now

Note that with Bookends and Word you do not need to Unscan if you format for a different journal. Just rescan and choose a new journal format. The only time you need to Unscan is if you want to add or remove a reference that is in a citation group (i.e. several citations within one pair of curly brackets).

Jon
Sonny Software

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 12:33 am

Note that with Bookends and Word you do not need to Unscan if you format for a different journal.

Isn't this also true for Mellel? As I understand it, an "Unscan" feature is unnecessary with Mellel, because when you scan a Mellel file to produce a bibliography, Mellel doesn't alter your original file. Instead, it creates an entirely new document (which now includes your formatted bibliography) and places this new document in front of your original file.

Thus to produce a bilbliography in more than one citation format, just return to the original file and scan it again (and again, and again). (You can use the Window menu to find your original file.) I've done this many times, and it works great. In fact, it seems much easier than an "unscan" feature.

I hope this helps, but feel free to correct me.

Best regards,
Matt

Post by **Jon** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 8:13 am

Anonymous wrote:
Note that with Bookends and Word you do not need to Unscan if you format for a different journal.
Isn't this also true for Mellel? As I understand it, an "Unscan" feature is unnecessary with Mellel, because when you scan a Mellel file to produce a bibliography, Mellel doesn't alter your original file. Instead, it creates an entirely new document (which now includes your formatted bibliography) and places this new document in front of your original file.

Thus to produce a bilbliography in more than one citation format, just return to the original file and scan it again (and again, and again). (You can use the Window menu to find your original file.) I've done this many times, and it works great. In fact, it seems much easier than an "unscan" feature.

Hi Matt,

That is correct. Just keep and rescan the original document, as you have been doing.

My point about Word, however, is that you can edit the already-scanned doc and then rescan it without having to unscan it first, which eliminates a step.

Being able to unscan/rescan documents is not necessary, but it is a nice feature because (a) you need to keep only one copy of your document (with backups, of course), and (b) you can scan as many times as you want during the preperation of the document, while you continue to add/edit.

Jon
Sonny Software

nicka · Post by **nicka** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:08 pm

Jon wrote:

My point about Word, however, is that you can edit the already-scanned doc and then rescan it without having to unscan it first, which eliminates a step.

Being able to unscan/rescan documents is not necessary, but it is a nice feature because (a) you need to keep only one copy of your document (with backups, of course), and (b) you can scan as many times as you want during the preperation of the document, while you continue to add/edit.

In Mellel, the citations are special objects, aren't they? So it should be possible to have much better integration than with Word, I suppose. For example, it would be very useful to be able to see the citations in the document exactly as they will print, but keeping the citation object present, rather than 'flattening' the document to text as scanning does now.
Then if a section of text were designated as the bibliography, adding a new citation and refreshing the references could update the bibliography. Also, changing the citation or biblography format in Bookends could trigger an update of these elements in Mellel.

I wonder if any of these things (or better ideas) are planned by Jon and the Redlers.

Post by **Jon** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:35 pm

nicka wrote:I wonder if any of these things (or better ideas) are planned by Jon and the Redlers.

Hi nicka,

I don't want to get into the specifics of what we and RedleX have discussed, because until Bookends 8 is out the door we won't begin implementation, and things are still a bit fluid. But we have considered some of the things you mention (seems kind of like EndNote/Word CWYW), as well as some things that don't currently exist in any application (or pair of applications).

Jon
Sonny Software

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 3:19 pm

I would also like unscan in Mellel. Often before a paper is submitted, last minute changes are made. Usually, one is in too much of a hurry to always restrict these to the archival copy. Sometimes the final document is quickly modified.

The capacity to unscan would be wonderful. This is not a trivial feature.

chao,
Nigel

Post by **Jon** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 3:26 pm

Nigel,

Agreed. But I would point out that this is a feature that must be implemented in Mellel, not Bookends. Bookends would have nothing to do with it.

Jon
Sonny Software

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 2:07 pm

Is it really true that it would have to be implemented totally from Mellel?
If Redlers provided info on the file format couldnÂ´t you open and manipulate their file?

Or could it be applescripted?

Even if it were all done in Mellel, it would probably only happend with interest and input from your end.

Nigel

Post by **Jon** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 2:18 pm

Nigel wrote:Is it really true that it would have to be implemented totally from Mellel?
If Redlers provided info on the file format couldnÂ´t you open and manipulate their file?

Or could it be applescripted?

Even if it were all done in Mellel, it would probably only happend with interest and input from your end.

Yes, it is true it can only be done from Mellel.

But don't you think I talk with the Redlers? And you of course can contact them with this request (you know they are very responsive).

Don't worry -- we are both committed to continued improvement of the integration between our apps. The unscan feature is one, among a number, that I think would be good to have.

Jon
Sonny Software

Sonny Software