----------------------------In Brief----------------------------
Name: Z-Write
Version: 1.5
Type: Application
Requires: Mac OS X 10.1+ or Mac OS 8.6+
Purpose: An innovative word processor for creative writers
which stores multiple documents within one file.
Cost: $29 -- fully functional for 30-day preview period
Author: Marc Zeedar
Company: Stone Table Software
Address: P.O. Box 872, Lafayette, OR 97127
E-mail: z-write@stonetablesoftware.com
Website: http://www.stonetablesoftware.com/
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LimitationsKey Features
Traditional word processors work in a linear style: chapter follows chapter, and you must create new documents for every new kind of information. You exchange the chaos of thousands of 3x5 notecards for the chaos of hundreds of computer files.
Since books are written in a non-linear fashion, why not a non-linear word processor? That's the core of Z-Write: it allows you to store hundreds of snippets of text in a single file.
Z-Write calls these snippets Sections, but they can be short notes, entire chapters, or revisions of your entire project. Everything is convieniently at hand, ready for browsing or editing. You can view, copy, and paste from one Section to another. You can create as many Sections as you need, and you can organize them in any manner that you'd like. Each Section can be as long as you need.
This makes the process of sorting, finding, and remembering details much easier. You can use Z-Write's Sections as a way to manage multiple versions of some writing. If you've ever tried to keep three versions of Chapter 7 in a traditional linear word processor file, you know it's not fun.
Limitations
Z-Write is not intended to completely replace your high-end word processor. Z-Write is streamlined for writing and organizing. You won't find support for footnotes, WYSIWYG display, imported graphics, tables, tabs, etc. The idea is that you'll use Z-Write for writing and brainstorming. If you need high-end formatting features, you can copy or export the final text to a full-featured word processor like Nisus Writer or Microsoft Word.
With those limitations in mind, Z-Write has features writers will appreciate. Unlike many "idea processors" or "idea notebooks," Z-Write is designed for writing. Z-Write is simple and elegant, streamlined for getting your project organized and finished. There are no limits to length or the number of Sections. Z-Write makes it easy to combine, print, or export only certain Sections. It always remembers where you left your cursor, the document window size and position, even the text you had selected, making it easy to continue right where you left off after a writing session. It offers conveniences like reopening the last document(s) you were working on, and supports find and replace, case conversion, glossaries, digital bookmarks (which allows you to jump to specific places within your text, in any Section), powerful print headers and footers, and multiple export options. In short, Z-Write is an elegant tool you will find indispensable.
Because Stone Table Software feels strongly that users should never be prevented from accessing their data, you will always be able to open and edit your Z-Write documents, even with the demonstration version of Z-Write. We hope that users appreciate all the effort involved in creating a program of Z-Write's quality and don't abuse this feature. For specifics on the limitations of the demonstration version of Z-Write, see the release notes accompanying the program.
Purchasing a License
Registering your copy of Z-Write is easy. You can pay for Z-Write with a credit card via our website, or place your order via e-mail, fax, or postal service via the Kagi payment service.
Once we have received your payment, you will be sent an e-mail that will include your registration code. Go to the Z-Write menu (Mac OS X) or Apple menu (Mac OS Classic) and choose the "Registration Info" item. That will display the "Legal Stuff" dialog.
Click the "Register" button and enter your name and registration code in the "Register" dialog box. You must enter this code exactly as it was sent to you -- the red X will change to a green checkmark when you enter a valid code. Click OK and you're finished!
Important: Keep your code in a safe place in case you ever need it again (like if you need to reinstall Z-Write on a new Mac or reformat your hard drive).
Handy Tip: Many Z-Write users like to use a Z-Write document as a handy database. You can create a "software registration" document and store all your software registration numbers in a convenient single file. Create a new Section for each serial number. Name the Sections the software name and version number, and use the Rearrange Sections' Sort button to alphabetize your Sections so you can instantly find the reg number of any product you've purchased.
General Usage
Z-Write is simple to use. In general it works like most Macintosh word processing applications. Selecting text, editing text, copy and paste, drag-and-drop, changing type characteristics (boldface, size, etc.) all function the way you'd expect.
When you create a new file, the main word processing window is displayed. Z-Write uses a simple dual-paned writing system. On the left is a scrollable list of Section names. (New files have only one pre-defined Section called "Untitled." You can change the default name within Preferences.) To the right of the Section List is a standard text editing area. Any text you type is associated with the Section you have selected on the left. (If no Section is selected, the editing area is disabled.) When you click on a different Section, that Section's text is placed on the right for editing. Each Section can have as much text as you'd like.
At the top of the window is the Z-Write Toolbar where you have tools for quickly formatting your text and bringing up functions such as the statistics window. The Toolbar features help text: if you point the mouse at the button and don't move it for a second, an explanation of the button will appear. You can also read a description of its in the "Hot Help" area below the Section List at the bottom of the window.
If you select a different Section from the list on the left, the text for that Section is displayed on the right. You are free to edit and copy and paste between sections. You can even drag text from other applications into the editing area, and if you drag a selection to the desktop, Z-Write will create a text clipping (if your operating system supports it). You can drag text from the editing area to the Section List to quickly create a new Section with that text.
At any time, you can add or delete Sections to your document. You can create as many Sections as you like, but each must be uniquely named. (Z-Write prevents you from entering the same name twice.) You can write as much as you'd like in each Section. No matter how many Sections you create, Z-Write saves the entire document as one convenient file.
See "Working with Sections" for more details.
Keyboard Navigational Commands
Z-Write 1.5 supports the following keyboard commands for editing text:
Deleting:
[delete] - Deletes next character on the left or the selection
[shift-delete] - Deletes character to the right or the selection
[option-delete] - Deletes word to the left
[shift-option-delete] - Deletes word to the right
Movement:
[left/right arrow] - Moves cursor left/right one character
[up/down arrow] - Moves cursor up/down one line
[option up/down arrow] - Switches to next Section up/down
[option left/right arrow] - Moves one word left/right
[control left/right arrow] - Moves to next/previous paragraph
[control up/down arrow] - Jumps to beginning/end of doc
There is also the freeware spelling checker "Excalibur," which works with Z-Write via AppleEvents. You can download Excalibur at http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~excalibr/excalibur.html. Because you may not have Excalibur installed, Z-Write disables the "Check Spelling" menu command until you have checked the "Enable spell checking" option in Preferences.
New with Z-Write 1.5, checking spelling with Excalibur no longer loses text formatting (such as bold or font size change) you may have applied to your text.
Finding and Replacing
Z-Write includes powerful find and replace capabilities. You can specify whether Z-Write searches just the current Section or All Sections. Within the Find/Replace dialog you can add special characters to your search string, such as a tab or carriage return (end-of-paragraph). You can also specify if you want the search to be case sensitive.
After completing a find or a replace, you can press Command-G to find or replace again. Z-Write will continue the search from the cursor's current position.
If you choose "Replace All" from within the Find/Replace dialog, Z-Write will replace every occurrence found in the Section or entire document. Note the undo for "Replace All," only works within the current Section, so make sure you really mean it! (As a safety precaution, you can save just before doing a Replace All for All Sections and do a Revert if the result isn't what you expected.) If you interrupt a Replace All (by pressing Command-period) Z-Write will stop replacing wherever it is, leaving some occurrences replaced and others unchanged.
You can also choose the "Find" button on the Toolbar. Holding down the Option key while clicking the button acts as a "Find Again" (Command-G) command.
Bookmarks
One of Z-Write's most useful features is its support for electronic bookmarks. You can place a bookmark anywhere in your text using the Insert Bookmark command. When you do that, Z-Write prompts you for a bookmark name. Use any text you'd like to describe the bookmark (like "plot problems"). Then Z-Write will insert "<bookmark plot problems>" into your text at the cursor position.
Note: Even though bookmark tags are visible within Z-Write, they will not show up when your document is printed or exported.
To jump to a specific bookmark, choose that boomark's name from either the Bookmarks menu or the Bookmark popup menu on the Toolbar. (You can also select bookmarks from the contextual menu that pops up when you Control-click the text editing area.) To jump to the next bookmark in your document, press Command-J or choose the Jump to Next Bookmark command.
Note: Z-Write's bookmarks must follow the bookmark pattern exactly or ZWrite won't be able to find it. You can type them in manually, but using the Insert Bookmark command is easier. When you delete or change a bookmark manually, Z-Write needs to know to update your bookmarks. Use the "Rescan for Bookmarks" command on the Utilities menu to force Z-Write to update its list of bookmarks. For example, if you accidentally typed "plor problems" instead of "plot problems" when you created your bookmark, you could just edit the text manually and choose "Rescan" to have Z-Write learn the new name.
The simplest way to add a hyperlink to a Section is to drag from the Section List the Section Name you wish to link to, into your current Section. Z-Write will insert a Link Tag similar to the following:
<link sectionname>
Of course, "sectionname" would be the name of the Section you'd dragged.
There is also a new "Insert Link" menu command (Utilities > Insert > Section/Link Tag) which will prompt you for the kind of tag you'd like to insert and allow you to choose a Section from a popup menu.
Whenever you see a Link Tag like the above, you can jump to it by clicking on its leftmost point (the "<" character) while holding down the Command key.
You may also insert links to bookmarks as well as Sections. Just replace the "sectionname" above with the bookmark name. You may have Z-Write generate the Link Tag for you by holding down the Option key while selecting a bookmark from the bookmark menu.
Currently, bookmark links are deleted when exporting to HTML, but in the future Z-Write will generate HTML to use these tags as anchors.
Hyperlink tags are automatically deleted when you export to text or RTF or print your document.
Section Insertion
Z-Write also supports the abilty to insert one Section inside another via a special Insert Tag. It looks and works similar to the Link Tag, except that when you print or export, the full text of the Section you name replaces the tag. For instance, you could have a Section with the following inside it:
<insert chapter 1>
<insert chapter 2>
<insert chapter 3>
<insert chapter 4>
When you printed this Section, it would contain the first four chapters of your book. Then you could have another Section with the following:
<insert chapter 1>
<insert chapter 2b>
<insert chapter 3b>
<insert chapter 4>
This would also print your book, except that since it inserts chapters "2b" and "3b," the book would be a little different.
You could even use this to include alternate text within the middle of a Section. For instance, let's say you use Z-Write to write a sales letter. The bulk of the letter would be the same, but the middle paragraph would be customized, depending on if it's going to a national contact or a state contact. Instead of writing the letter twice, create one letter and insert in the appropriate Section. That inserted Section would only have the one paragraph that's different.
This is an extremely powerful feature. Experiment with it to see what it can do.
To insert an Insert Tag into your document, hold down the Option key as you drag a Section Name into the current Section. Instead of inserting a Link Tag, Z-Write will put in an Insert Tag. You can also add an Insert Tag via the "Insert Tag" menu command.
Command-clicking at the start of an Insert Tag will jump you to that Section, just like a hyperlink.
The Toolbar
At the top of the main Z-Write window is a handy row of buttons for frequently used options. This is a standard Mac OS X-style Toolbar, with larger icons and text labels underneath. Via the Toolbar menu on the Edit menu, or via a contextual menu (Control-click) on the Toolbar itself, you can set the Toolbar to display in one of three modes: Icon and Text label, Icons only, or Text labels only.
If you prefer not to have the Toolbar, you can hide it by pressing Command-Y (or choosing "Hide Toolbar" from the Toolbar submenu). You can bring it back by using the same command again ("Show Toolbar"). Z-Write will remember the state (on/off, Toolbar mode) for each document, so you can have the Toolbar displayed for some documents and not for others.
If you prefer to not have the Toolbar for new documents or always want the Toolbar in a certain mode, simply set it the way you like it in your Default Template document and all new documents will be created that way.
Note: Below the Section List are several buttons for manipulating Sections. These buttons are displayed even when the Toolbar at the top is turned off. See "Working with Sections" for more information.
Briefly, here is what each button on the Toolbar does.
Save Button
When this button is active, you have modified your document and it needs to be saved. Clicking the button will save your document. If you haven't saved the document previously, Z-Write will prompt you to name the file and save it in the appropriate location on your hard drive.
Open Button
Prompts you to select a new file to open. You can open Z-Write files or files Z-Write supports for importing (text, RTF, Palm DOC, etc.).
Print Button
This button will print the current Section. Holding down the Option key when clicking the button will prompt you to select which Sections to print.
Convert Case
On the Toolbar is a handy popup menu for converting the case of selected text. You can quickly make the text uppercase, lowercase, capitalize each word in the selection (titlecase), or capitalize sentences (sentencecase). This button is disabled if you have no text selected. Note: formatting of the selected text (bold, italic, etc.) is lost when you use this feature.
Adding Bullets, Numbers, or Sorting Paragraphs
Next to the Convert Case button is the Paragraph button. It will let you add bullets or numbers to each of the selected paragraphs. This is handy if you're creating a list of items. Type in them in, select the whole bunch, and choose "Bullet Paragraphs" or "Number Paragraphs" from the Paragraph popup. You can also sort the selected paragraphs alphabetically (A-Z) or in reverse order (Z-A). This button is disabled if you have no text selected. Note: formatting of the selected text (bold, italic, etc.) is lost when you use this feature.
Statistics Button
If you want to see your document's statistics (word count and other details), press Command-I or click the "Statistics" button. Z-Write will display a floating window showing the number of characters, words, sentences, and paragraphs in your selection, Section, and entire document. (You may leave this window open while you type, but its contents are not updated until you click one of the Update buttons within the window.) Z-Write will remember the location and size of Statistics window between launches.
Find Button
This button activates Find and Replace command described earlier. Holding down the Option key while clicking the button acts as a "Find Again" (Command-G) command.
Bookmark Button
This button displays a popup menu of bookmarks in your document. Choose one to jump to that location. If you have no bookmarks in your document, this button will be disabled.
Glossary Button
This button lets you select pre-defined glossary items and insert their text into your document at the cursor position. See the "Glossaries" description for more information about glossaries. If you have no glossaries, this button will be disabled.
Typestyle Buttons
Also on the Toolbar are standard typestyle buttons (plain, bold, italic, underline) and a color popup, which lets you color the selected text. There are several common colors predefined, but if you choose "Other" from the menu you are prompted with a standard Apple color picker so you can select your own.
Copying and Pasting Attributes
On the Edit menu you will find the Copy Attributes and Paste Attributes commands. They will memorize the formatting of a selection of text: font, size, color, and other features are saved and can be "pasted" onto another selection without replacing the text. This is a great way to keep headings consistent. Simply format the first heading the way you'd like it to appear, then copy the attributes of it and paste the attributes onto the other headings. They will each take on the size and style of the first, but their text will not change.
Special Formatting Commands
On the Insert menu there are two special printing options, Insert Page Break and Insert Center Tag. On screen these show up as special codes, <N> and <C>, respectively. These commands only work when you print: the Print Preview feature will show you how these effects will look when printed.
The Center Tag will center the text of the current line. It does not work with an entire paragraph -- it is designed for headlines you wish to be centered. The Page Break command forces a new page to begin on the line where you put the tag. Both of these tags are only valid at the beginning of a line; the menu commands are disabled when your text cursor is anywhere else. If you manually type them in elsewhere, they will show up as text within your document.
Just like with Bookmark codes, Center and Page Break tags are removed when your document is exported.
Glossaries
Z-Write allows you to store snippets of text into glossary entries (abbreviations). Glossaries are cool because you can type just the short name of an entry and Z-Write will "type" in the predefined text for you. This is great for frequently used text like your name and address, letter templates, abbreviations, etc.
You define glossary items with the "Edit Glossary Items" menu command (on the Utilities menu). Each glossary entry has a unique name. To edit the entry, select it from the list at the left and edit the name or the entry's text on right. To delete an entry, select it from the list and click the "Delete" (minus) button. To create a new entry, click the "New" (plus) button and type in a name on the right.
You can put any text you want into a glossary item, including carriage returns. There are two special commands you can insert into a glossary item: #d and #t. These characters are replaced by the current date and time (in the format specified within preferences). This allows you to create a custom date and time stamp. You can even map your glossary item to one of Z-Write's date/time insert commands to customize the way dates appear when inserted (see "Preferences" for more details on this powerful feature).
To activate a glossary entry you can just type the name and Z-Write will automatically expand it. (If this bothers you, you can turn this automatic expansion off within Preferences.) Z-Write normally expands a glossary item when you type a space or other end-of-word character (like a return). If you hold down the Shift key as you type a space, you can prevent Z-Write from expanding your glossary item.
Other methods to activate a glossary are to either choose the glossary's name from the Glossary menu or the menu button on the Toolbar, or type the name of the item and press Option-Tab. (The text cursor must either be exactly to the right of the glossary name or the glossary name must be highlighted for the Option-Tab method to work.) For example, in my Z-Write if I type mbz and press Option-Tab Z-Write will replace mbz with Marc Zeedar.
You also can quickly choose one of the first ten glossary items by holding down the Control key and pressing a number key (numbers 1...0 correspond to glossary items 1 through 10), or use the contextual menu that pops up when you Control-click in the text editing area.
External Glossaries
In addition to the main Glossaries feature, Z-Write also support External Glossaries. These are text files of glossary entries stored in the Glossaries folder. You can create as many of these external glossary files as you'd like, but you have to relaunch Z-Write to activate them. Z-Write ships with the TidBITS Autocorrect Glossary which features many common typos which will automatically correct when you type them (if Auto-expansion of glossary items is on within Preferences).
If you prefer to not have these External Glossaries active, you can either move them into the "Unused Glossaries" folder or turn off External Glossaries in Preferences.
Working with Sections
Sections are the most significant feature of Z-Write. You can create as many Sections as you want and they can be of any length. Sections could correspond to chapters in a book, or they could be sub-chapters; whatever you want. All commands for working with Sections are found on the Section Tools menu, the buttons below the Section List, or on the contextual menu that pops up when you Control-click the Section List. Note that the Section Buttons will enable or disable themselves as appropriate: for instance, you cannot duplicate a Section when no Section is selected.
Hiding/Showing the Section List
You can hide the Section List by clicking (not dragging) on the Move Bar between the Section List and the text editing area. This will collapse the Section List so the Move Bar is at the far left, giving you the full window for typing. While the List is hidden, you can still switch between Sections via keyboard commands (option-up/down arrow), and you can still manipulate Sections (rename, duplicate, etc.) via keyboard commands or menus. To make the Section List visible again, click on the move bar at the far left of the window.
Section Toggle
You can jump between the current Section and the last Section you were in by pressing the Escape key. Pressing it a second time takes you back to the original Section. This is useful if you're editing two Sections at the same time.
Adding a Section
To create a new Section, click on the New Section button or choose Add Section from the Utilities menu. Z-Write will prompt you to name the Section. Section names can be anything you'd like, but each must have a unique name (Z-Write won't let you enter a duplicate name).
Renaming a Section
If you'd like to rename a Section, simply double-click on the name, choose the "Rename Section" menu item (Command-R), or click the rename button. Z-Write will display a dialog box where you can edit the name. Z-Write will not let you name two Sections identically.
Duplicating a Section
You can duplicate an existing Section with the Duplicate command. If you have the "Auto-name" Preference set, Z-Write will generate a unique name by appending "copy" and/or a number on the end to distinguish it from the original; otherwise Z-Write will prompt you to enter the new name. The duplicate command is handy for rewrites, alternate versions, and backups.
Merging Sections
When you choose the "Merge Sections" command or click the Merge Sections button, Z-Write will prompt you with the "Select Sections" dialog box. Sections with a checkmark in the "On" column will be merged into a single Section. Sections are always combined into the topmost selection and always in the order they appear in the document.
Rearranging Sections
You can rearrange the order Sections appear in the Section List simply by dragging them. If you're doing a lot of rearranging, you can bring up the "Rearrange Sections" dialog via the command on the Section Tools menu or the Section button. In the resulting dialog box you will find a list of Sections on the left. You can select one or more Section names and click the Move Up or Move Down buttons to move the items up or down a row. If you wish to move the items you have selected to the very top or bottom of the list, you can click the "Move to Top" or "Move to Bottom" buttons.
You will also find Sort and Revert buttons. Revert returns your Sections into the original order before you changed them, and Sort will alphabetize your list of Sections. (If you hold down the Option key when clicking Sort the order will be reversed, Z-A.)
Selecting items in the list works as standard on the Macintosh: clicking selects only the line you click on, Shift-clicking selects a continous range from where you clicked first, and Command-clicking lets you select items non-contiguously. For instance, to select two Sections not next to each other, hold down the Command key while clicking on them. To select two items and everything between the two, click on the first one and then the second while holding down the Shift key. When you have one or more items selected, you can use the move buttons to move all those selected as a group.
There are also keyboard shortcuts you may use instead of the buttons. The up/down arrow keys move the selected items up or down one row. Option-up/down arrow moves the selected items to the top or bottom of the list.
Deleting a Section
To delete a Section, choose the "Remove Section" command or click the Delete Section button. If the Section contains text, Z-Write will confirm your request before removing the Section. There is no undo, so be sure you are removing the correct Section. (If you hold down the Option key when clicking the trash can, Z-Write won't bother to confirm your delete request -- handy if you're wanting to delete a number of Sections and you're sure of what you're doing.) You can also drag a Section to the Delete Section button or press Command-Delete with a Section selected.
Moving Between Sections
To move between Sections, you can use Option-Arrow Up and Option-Arrow Down to move up or down the list of Sections. This works even when the Section List is hidden.
View Windows
While you are working you might find it would be nice to see a different Section than the one you're currently working in. Z-Write has a unique feature: it lets you open Sections in separate "read-only" windows. You cannot edit text within a View Window -- but you can select and drag text from it into your main window.
To open a Section in a View Window, simply "Open Section as View Window" from the Section Tools menu, or Option-doubleclick on the Section's name. The Section name will be displayed in italics to show you that it's open in a View Window. The View Window is named "Document Name:Section Name." This allows you to quickly see which View Windows belong to which Z-Write documents and which Section is displayed. You will note the crossed-out pencil icon on the View window reminds you that you can't edit text in a View window. To edit it, select the Section within the main Z-Write document window and edit it there. (Editing a Section won't automatically update its View window -- you must bring the View window to the front to display its current text.)
Window Menu
If you have several documents open or more than one View Window open, use Z-Write's Window menu to bring the window you select to the front.
Preferences
Z-Write is customizable to the way you work via preference settings. There are two types of preferences: application-wide settings that apply to all documents are set via the Preferences command on the Z-Write menu (Mac OS X) or File menu (Classic), and document preferences that apply on the current document (see "Document Settings").
The Preferences window is divided into several tabbed panes, with each panel allowing you to change various settings. These are briefly explained within the "Hot Help" feature within the dialog box, but here's more detail about each option.
General Preferences
The General area lets you set various preferences for how Z-Write operates.
Tab Key Inserts
Unlike some word processors, Z-Write does not support tabs or tables. To align text you'll have to use a monospaced font (like Monaco) and use spaces. When you press the tab key or import text containing tabs, Z-Write will replace the tabs with spaces. This is where you specify how many spaces Z-Write uses in place of each tab character. If you prefer to insert an actual tab character, you may specify zero as the number of spaces to insert. In your text the tab key will appear as a single character, but if you move the text to another word processor that supports tabs for alignment, the tabs will be included.
Spelling Checker
Since Z-Write uses the free Excalibur spelling checker, you must have downloaded and installed it for Z-Write to allow the checking of spelling. To prevent you from selecting spelling without installing Excalibur, you must enable spelling within the Preferences dialog before the Check Spelling command is available. You only have to do this once. There's a handy button within the window to copy the Excalibur URL to the clipboard for you so you can visit the website at your convenience.
Date/Time Formats
Since Z-Write has handy tools for allowing you to insert the Date and Time within your document (such as clicking on the document's clock in the lower right corner), it allows you to set the format used (such as "7/4/04" versus "Sunday, July 4, 2004"). In fact, Z-Write lets you pick two formats: a primary and a secondary. If you Option-click the date or time clocks (or hold down Option while you choose Insert Date or Insert Time from the Utilities menu) Z-Write will use the alternate format.
A powerful secondary feature of this is that you can map Glossary items to a Secondary format. Simply choose the glossary name from the popup menus to assign it to that function. This is mainly for creating custom date/time stamps. For instance, you could have a stamp that prints out "This document was last modified on Wednesday, July 7, 1999 at 9:16:31 PM." Rather than piece that together with several clicks of the mouse and some typing, simple create a glossary item that reads like this: "This document was last modified on #d at #t." When you call the glossary item, Z-Write will replace the "#d" with the primary date and "#t" with the primary time. Once you've mapped a glossary item to, for example, the secondary date function, option-clicking the date would execute your glossary (instead of the regular date routine).
Smart Quotes
Here you can turn on Z-Write's "Smart Quotes" feature. Smart quotes are sometimes called curly quotes, since they curl in and out depending on if they are at the beginning or ending of a phrase. Smart quotes give your work a more "typeset" look, but they aren't always compatible across platforms. On Macs you can type curly left and right doublequotes with Option-[ and Option-Shift-[, but that's not the easiest. Z-Write will replace standard quotes with curly quotes as you type if you turn on the "Automatic Smart Quotes" feature. If Z-Write types the curly quote in the wrong direction (which can happen if Z-Write is unsure whether you're at the beginning of a phrase or not), don't panic -- just press the same quote key again and Z-Write will just change the quote's direction. (You can also convert between smart and straight quotes via the commands on the Convert menu -- useful for text you've already typed or you're preparing to e-mail.)
Auto-Expand Glossary Items
Z-Write can automatically expand glossary items when you type the item's name. If you use an ordinary word as a glossary item name, however, this could prove awkward. Therefore Z-Write gives you the ability to turn off auto-expansion with this setting. Some users have found that auto-expansion slows down typing; if typing is sluggish, uncheck this option.
Use External Glossaries
You can disable external glossary files by moving them out of the Glossaries folder, or you can disable the feature entirely by simply turning it off here.
Auto-Name New Sections
If you turn off this option, Z-Write will prompt you with a dialog to type in a Section name when you create a new Section (either with the New Section command, dragging some text to the Section List, or via the Duplicate command). With it on, Z-Write will automatically generate a unique name.
Display Date/Clock
Set this if you want the clock in the lower right corner of documents to be displayed.
Display Clock with Seconds
If the clock it turned on, this will display it as hours:minutes:seconds.
Text Styling Info
This will display information about the current text selection on the Hot Help area at the bottom of the document window. It displays the current font, text size, any styling characteristics (bold, italic, etc.), and text color.
Live Stats
If you check this option, Z-Write will display (in the Hot Help area) "live" statistics about the current Section: number of characters, words, and paragraphs. Recalculating these stats takes a fraction of a second, so the stats are only updated when you pause in typing. You may force an update by clicking the Hot Help area.
Page Calculations
Many users requested a way to count pages within Z-Write. Unfortunately, this is technically difficult as the number of pages changes depending on many factors: text size, margins, paper size and orientation, word wrap, and more. Calculating the exact page count of a document is time-consuming (try Print Preview to see the time it takes). So Z-Write will estimate the page count of Section (when you display a document's Statistics) by simply dividing the average number of words per page into the total words in the Section. This is where you can specify how many words will appear (on average) on each of your pages. A typical setting for a U.S. letter-sized page double-spaced is 250 words. You may change this to whatever fits your standards. Note that the page count in the Statistics window is still an estimate, but this can at least give you a fair idea of how many pages your Section may be.
Section Preferences
This area lets you control how the Section List appears and how merged Sections should handled. (The Section List is the list of Section names to the left of the editing area.)
Section List Divider Lines
If you wish, you may turn on divider lines between names on the Section List. There are three types of lines: Thin Dotted, Thin Solid, and Thick Solid.
Section List Font/Size
This lets you set the font and text size of the Section List.
Section List Text Divider
One of Z-Write's key features is the ability to dynamically merge Sections when printing or exporting to create a single document. You have full control over which Sections are merged via the Select Sections dialog. However, you may wish to have some text automatically inserted between the merged Sections. This is where you specify that text.
The default is two returns, the word "Section: " followed by the Section name, followed by two more returns. The returns add in blank lines that give some division between one Section and the text. To add a return, type in <r>. To insert the Section name, you put in <Name>. You can insert these from the "Insert Variable" popup menu.
Z-Write also needs to know how you want this divider text formatted. You may pick a Stylesheet from the popup menu and Z-Write will format the divider text with that Stylesheet's font, text size, and other settings. If you'd prefer to just use the document's existing formatting, set the popup to " Launch Preferences When Z-Write Opens Software Update If there's a new version available, the program will alert you and give you a brief description of the new version, including what changes or improvements have been made. You may then decide to download the new version or wait for a more convenient time. If you choose to download, Z-Write will launch your default web browser and begin the download immediately.
Once an update has been downloaded, follow the instructions included with the update on how to install the update. Minor updates may simply be a new version of the Z-Write application, while others may be a whole new package of files.
Note: The software update feature will only download the version of Z-Write appropriate for your operating system. If you want a different version, either run the "Check for Updates" feature under that operating system or go to the STS website and download the update manually.
Don't Display Splash Screen Autosave Preferences Autosave Autobackup Backup items are named the same as your original file, with a number appended on the end. You can specify the maximum number of backups per document. When that many copies of the backup file exist, the oldest backup is deleted and replaced by a new backup file. For example, if you specified 10 copies as the maximum, when "Novel 010" is saved, the next backup with be "Novel 001".
You can use this feature to control how many backups of each document you save. If you modify your documents only occasionally, a small number of backups -- like 5 or 10 -- might contain a week's worth of revisions. If you edit your documents heavily or your older versions are important to you, you might prefer to save a larger number of backups. The more backups, the older the oldest backup.
HTML Preferences General Document Settings Printing Preferences Important: If you are using a Default Template, printing options affect only the current document. To set default printing settings for new documents, change the settings within your Default Template file.
Margins Header/Footer Line Spacing Z-Write uses proportional leading, so if you make some text in the middle of a paragraph extra-large, the leading will be different for that line.
Sections Start On New Page
Auto-Resize The advantage of Auto-Resize is that it allows you to edit your text at a large, readable size, then print it at a more appropriate 10- or 12-point. This is better than using the percentage reduction feature of your print driver, as that reduces the entire page, giving you distorted margins. Z-Write recomposes your document at print time at the new size, so it's also great for making more text fit on fewer pages.
Document Preferences
Default Font, Size, and Section Name Toolbar Visible by Default The default font and size set here are used when you use the "Set all text to default font" menu command.
On Launch For instance, let's say you like to write short stories and you've got a nice Z-Write document with certain common sections you need for your stories. Tell Z-Write to open it as a template -- use the Open Template menu -- and Z-Write will make a blank copy of it ready for a new story.
While a default font is nice, sometimes you'd prefer more control over how Z-Write creates new documents. If you define a Default Template file -- a Z-Write document with whatever settings, text, and Sections you'd like -- Z-Write will automatically create a duplicate whenever you select "New" from the File menu.
The Default Template document is a file within the Templates folder inside your Z-Write folder. Simply open (double-click) the file to change it to suit your needs. For instance, one user had a large monitor and wanted Z-Write documents by default to open to the full size of his screen. By saving the Default Template with a larger window, all new documents open at the new size.
HTML Since Z-Write can generate HTML files, it can be helpful to have Z-Write make the files match the Creator of an Internet program of your choosing. This could be your preferred web browser, such as Internet Explorer, or perhaps an HTML editor like Adobe GoLive.
Z-Write knows the Creator codes of several popular programs by default and you can choose them from the popup menu. You may also choose the "Select an HTML Editor..." option to choose any application installed on your computer. Once you have set this setting, Z-Write will generate HTML that can be opened in that application simply by double-clicking on them in the Finder.
Print Preview
Within the Print Preview window, you can move between pages with the buttons on the screen, or use the left and right arrow keys. Holding down the Option key while clicking the Next or Previous page buttons or using an arrow key jumps you ten pages forward or backward. There are also buttons that take you to the first or last page of the document.
You have the option of turning the print header or footer on or off. When you are ready to print, press the Print button.
Warning: Print Preview uses a considerable amount of memory. (There's no way around this; Z-Write essentially must draw the entire document in memory in order to show it to you.) You may need to allocate more RAM to Z-Write if you are printing long documents or many Sections. For instance, one of my novels is a 315K Z-Write document. I had to increase Z-Write's memory to nearly 20MB before I could preview the entire thing at once! (Another solution is to preview fewer Sections at once.)
Note: Z-Write's headers and footers always print centered within the top and bottom margins you've selected, so make sure you leave enough room for them to fit!
While the header and footer text is limited to one line and one style of attributes (font, size, color, etc.), you have three alignment options. By default Z-Write flushes your text to the left. If you press the Tab key, Z-Write will type in <TAB> within the text line. This is a special code that Z-Write uses so you can see you've typed a tab (since tabs are invisible). Just like tabs in a regular word processor can align text in various ways, these special header/footer tabs will align your text.
The first bit of text you type is flushed left. After the first <TAB>, however, the next bit is centered. After another <TAB>, the third bit is flushed right. This allows you to easily create a header with some text on the left, some centered, and some aligned on the right! If you wish your header to be only flushed right or centered, simply enter the appropriate number of <TAB>s (one for centering, two for flushed right) and no text before them. (See the examples below for more.)
Z-Write's headers and footers also support print variables. These are very cool tags that allow you to insert special information that isn't known until print time (like the name of the current Section being printed, or the length of the document). The following variables are supported (which are replaced at print time):
#d (print date)
#t (print time)
#p (current page number)
## (total pages being printed)
#s (name of the current Section)
You can type these codes manually, or you can use the handy popup menu in the Edit Header/Footer dialog box. The following are some examples of headers/footers:
Example 1: The Great Novel<TAB>#s<TAB>#d
Prints like this: The Great Novel Chapter One 10/04/99
Example 2: <TAB><TAB>Page #p of ##
Prints like this: Page 7 of 29
Note that the Total Pages code is the total of pages being currently printed, not necessarily the length of your entire document. If you're only printing one Section, it's the length of that Section.
As you type or change settings within your header or footer, the result is graphically previewed within the dialog box.
Importing a File
Importing a Folder
If you have no document open, this command will create a new document with a Section for each file (the Sections will be named with the filenames of the imported files). If you have a document open, the new Sections will be added to the existing document.
Note that the Import Folder command does not support sub-folders; that is, it does not look inside folders inside the folder you choose. It will also simply skip any invalid (unopenable) files it finds.
With all of the export options you are presented with Z-Write's standard "Select Sections" dialog which allows you to pick which Sections you wish to export (Sections marked "On" will be included in your export). If you choose multiple Sections, the text for each Section is combined into a single file. The text for each Section is labeled with "Section: Section Name" so you can easily find the various Sections.
When you export any HTML there are two settings that effect the kind of HTML generated. You can set Z-Write to use all uppercase or lowercase HTML codes. This has no effect on performance or quality -- it's simply a subjective issue for people who like to edit HTML by hand. You can also set whether or not Z-Write uses FONT tags to preserve font information. If you turn this option on, the document should look the same within your browser as within Z-Write. If you're planning on publishing the document on the Web and you've used fonts others viewing the document may not have, it might be better to turn this option off (meaning the document will be displayed with whatever default font the user has set for their browser).
Special Conversions
Z-Write will also make any URLs it finds "hot" on export. That is, if you include a URL like http://www.apple.com or stevej@apple.com it will appear as an HTML link. (Note that for a web or FTP site, you must include the "http://" or "ftp://" designation or Z-Write won't be able to detect it as a URL.)
There are no options for RTF Export. Simply select the Sections you'd like to export and enter the filename in the save dialog.
About the Author For years I ran my own graphic design company, DesignWrite, in Northern California. More recently I have moved to the beautiful Willamette Valley in the heart of Oregon's wine country and I am mainly a specialty magazine publisher. Programming is done in my "negative" spare time (i.e. the time I should be sleeping or having fun).
I maintain a number of websites: You can also find my opinion column, Less Tangible, at MacOpinion, and I sometimes write articles for AppleLinks and other sites.
I got into programming in high school when I owned a PC clone and no software (or money to buy it with). Back then when I wanted software to do something I had to write it myself. Today I work as a graphic designer and I have ideas for all kinds of (seemingly) simple utilities that would make my life much easier, but no one is writing them. So I'm diving in and doing it myself. Z-Write is a terrific example of this process at work. I wrote it as something I'd like, but then figured others might find it useful.
As a reward to those of you who've delved this deep into the manual, here's a secret Easter Egg. Within any blank Section type "Marc story" (no quotes) and press return for something special. This will only work if that's the only text in the Section.
There's at least one other Easter Egg hidden in Z-Write. It's a "Connect Four" game (it's pretty smart, too -- I usually lose). It's been in there since version 1.0 but very few people have found it. Can you discover it? Hint: it involves Option-clicking on something, but not a button.
I am not a programmer by training, yet REALbasic made creating my own word processor possible. The initial version of Z-Write (in 1998), which I whipped up for my own personal use to test the concept, was working (add/delete Sections, switch between Sections, open/save the file) in less than 20 hours of programming time. That's partly because I was able to reuse some code from another project, but mostly because REALbasic is so easy.
Adding extra features like importing and exporting, find/replace, printing, preferences, glossaries, and polishing the program took many hundreds of hours.
How do I get text out of Z-Write and into Word Processor X? I write in languages other than English and Z-Write won't let me type certain words! What's going on? I want all my new documents to have certain settings. How do I do that? You may use the preview version of Z-Write for a limited time, but you may not sell this software. You may distribute the complete, unmodified package via the Internet, but it may not be included in a CD-ROM collection without written authorization from STS.
All users are encouraged to offer suggestions, comments, and bugs reports.
This program is not public domain and is fully protected under international copyright law. It may not be modified in any manor without the express written permission of Stone Table Software. This program is provided with no warranties, expressed or implied, and STS is not liable for damage or loss of work caused by this program. Use this program at your own risk. The maximum liability of STS under any circumstance is limited to the purchase price of the software.
Support Disclaimer (double ugh!)
Here you can set various things that happen when Z-Write is launched.
Some people want their word processor to always open with a blank document. Others prefer it do nothing. Z-Write gives you those options, plus will either open the last document you were editing (the last frontmost file), or you can have it open all the documents you had open the last time you quit the program.
Note: Z-Write must be able to find the documents on your computer in order to open them. If you've moved or renamed them, Z-Write may not be able to find them.
With rapid technology changes today, it's important to keep your software up-to-date. This feature lets you check the Z-Write server to see if there's a new version available. If you have a full-time Internet connection, you can have Z-Write check the server every time it launches. Otherwise you may click the "Check Now" button (or choose the "Check for Updates" menu item on the Help menu) to manually check for new versions.
A "splash screen" is a window with the Z-Write logo and copyright information that displays briefly during Z-Write launch. If you wish this not to display, you may turn this off. Note: This option only functions for registered users. For unregistered users, the window will always be displayed.
If you're a writer, your words are priceless. Modern computers are incredibly reliable, but power outages, software bugs, or even pets playing near a power cord can derail the best of intentions. We don't want you to lose any of your work, so Z-Write supports two kinds of automatic saving technology.
Use this feature to have Z-Write automatically save your document at regular intervals. You set the time between saves in minutes. Set it to zero if you don't want Z-Write to save your document automatically.
Z-Write can do more than just periodically save the document you're working on; it can also save a backup copy. You can set how often it does this, in 15 minutes intervals. The backups are stored in a folder you designate (click the "Select Backup Folder" to choose a folder).
The only option in this area is to let you define the creator and type code of the HTML files Z-Write generates. This isn't as necessary under Mac OS X, which can map file extensions to certain applications (so all .html files open in Safari, for instance), but included in case you have a particular browser or editor you prefer.
Document Settings
Document-specific settings are set via the Document Settings command on the File menu. Changes you make to Document Settings are saved within the current document. If you make these changes while editing the Default Template file, those settings are used for all new files.
There's no text here yet because I haven't put any here yet.
The Printing tab of the Preferences dialog lets you modify Z-Write's printing options.
This is where you specify the top, bottom, left, and right margins for your document. Measurements are in inches.
The "Edit Header/Footer" button allows you to customize the Header and Footer of the current document. If no document is open, editing this will set the Default Header and Footer, which are used for all new documents if you are not using a Default Template (the Header and Footer set in the Default Template takes priority). (See the "Headers and Footers" section for specific details.) You can also turn the header and footer off or on here.
Z-Write also lets you set the leading, or line spacing (the space between lines of type). By default Z-Write uses the typesetting standard of 120% (so 12-point text prints with 14.4 points of leading). This is a line spacing of one. You can set your line spacing to 1.5 (150%), 2 (200%), or 3 (300%). Note that this setting is global to the entire document: it affects everything that is printed. There is no way to set a particular paragraph to a different amount of leading.
This option automatically puts in a page break at the beginning of a Section when you are printing multiple Sections. (You can manually insert page breaks wherever you want with the Insert Page Break menu command.)
The most innovative print feature of Z-Write is the "Auto-Resize" option. This allows you to enter in a number (in typeface points), and Z-Write will resize all text in your document by the specified amount. If you enter a positive number, the text is enlarged. If you enter a negative number, the text is shrunk. For example, a "-2" would make all 14-point text print as 12-point, and 18-point subheads would print as 16-point.
The settings here are used for all new documents.
Here you can specify the default font and font size Z-Write uses for new documents. There's also a place where you can put the default name for the Section when Z-Write creates a new document. (By default this is "Default" but you can change it to whatever you want.)
Set this if you want new documents to have a Toolbar or not. This only affects new documents. Z-Write will remember the Toolbar state for each document when it is saved.
Within this area you can specify what Z-Write does when launched. Check the "Do nothing" radio button if you don't want Z-Write to do anything. Check "Open blank document" if you want Z-Write to open an empty, untitled document. You can have Z-Write reopen the last file you were working with by choosing the "Open last file" option.
Templates
Template files are standard Z-Write documents. Z-Write will simply make a duplicate of the file you specify and open it as an untitled document. Why is this good?
There currently is only one option to set on the HTML panel: you can set the Creator type of exported HTML files. The Mac OS uses a unique code (called the Creator type) to identify which program created a file. (That's how it knows to open Simpletext when you click on a Simpletext document.)
Printing
Z-Write has a powerful Print Preview feature. This allows you to see your document on screen exactly as it will be printed without wasting paper. You can print a single Section or a group of Sections. When you choose the "Print Sections..." command from the file menu, you are presented with the "Select Sections" dialog. Click on the Sections you wish to print (Section names with a round bullet next to them will print). Sections always print in the same order as they appear in the document.
Headers and Footers
Z-Write supports flexible headers and footers that appear when your document is printed. Headers and footers can be any text you want, and you have the ability to specify the font, text size, color, and various style options for the text. You also can add a divider line which separates the header/footer from the body text, and you can set the thickness of the line.
Importing Text
To make it easier to bring in your existing writing, Z-Write includes some tools to import your files into a Z-Write document. At this time, Z-Write will only import plain text files or Simpletext-style styled text files. (To bring in text from other word processing formats, you can copy and paste your text into Z-Write, or export it to text and import the text file.)
To bring in a single file as a new document you can just open it within Z-Write. Z-Write will convert it and place the text in the first Section of a new document. If you'd like to add a file to an existing Z-Write document, use the "Import File" command on the File menu. This will add a new Section with the name of the imported file.
If you have many files (i.e. dozens of files associated with a novel), you can import them all at once with the "Import Folder" command. This will prompt you to choose a folder and it will import all importable documents inside it.
Exporting Text
Z-Write is designed as a research and writing tool. For final production, you'll probably want to export the text you've created in Z-Write in a format other programs support. Z-Write allows you to export its text in one of three formats: styled text (Macintosh "Simpletext" format, readable by nearly any Mac program), HTML, and RTF (Rich Text Format). RTF is readable by many word processors such as Microsoft Word. You can also copy and paste text from Z-Write into other programs, and vice versa. Z-Write also supports "text clippings" -- drag some text to your desktop to create a clipping file, or drag a clipping file into your document to import it.
HTML Export
HTML export is a little more complicated. You can create a single file or export each selected Section as a separate file. If you choose the latter option (multiple files), you can have Z-Write generate a TOC (Table of Contents) file. This is a very basic HTML document with the title of your document and bulleted list of documents. Each of these is the name of a Section and is hotlinked to that document. The documents themselves are linked to each other via "Previous" and "Next" buttons, and to the TOC document via a "Contents" link. This makes it easy to put your document on the Web. If you'd like to enhance the look of the basic HTML documents Z-Write creates, you can edit the files within an HTML editor like Adobe PageMill or by hand if you know HTML. (Remember, you can set Z-Write to make exported HTML files have the same Creator type as the HTML editor of your choice. See the HTML panel within Preferences for more.)
Note that Z-Write automatically handles several special conversion issues when you export to HTML. For instance, Link Tags are converted to HTML links if you export to multiple files. If you export to a single file, Link Tags are deleted. (At this time, Bookmarks and Bookmark Links are not converted but simply deleted.) Center Tags are converted to <CENTER> HTML tags, and New Page Tags are converted to <HR> (horizontal rule) divider tags.
Rich Text Format (RTF) Export
Rich Text Format is a text-based cross-platform format that preserves text formatting. Most word processors can interpret RTF. If someone would like you to send them a Microsoft Word file, RTF is an excellent substitute.
About Stone Table Software
Stone Table Software released their first product, the popular freeware graphics utility ScanCalc, in 1996. The company was founded by Marc Zeedar, a graphic designer, freelance writer, and Mac enthusiast, with the idea of creating simple, innovative, useful tools that follow the Macintosh Way. In 2000 STS released their flagship product, Z-Write, a word processor for writers with several unique and innovative features. Z-Write is garnering praise and sighs of relief from writers around the globe. In addition to Mac programming, Marc is a columnist for MacOpinion.com, runs a graphic design studio, DesignWrite, and is actively writing two novels. Stone Table Software is based in Northern California, where Marc lives with his cats, Mischief and Mayhem.
My name is Marc Zeedar. I've been using the Mac since '88, and computers since high school. (For some reason my ancient semi-compatible PC clone hasn't been touched, since, well, 1988. Gee, I wonder if there's a connection somewhere. ;-)
Technical Specs (ugh!)
Z-Write was entirely written in REAL Software's REALbasic, an absolutely incredible object-oriented programming environment. I encourage anyone interested in Mac programming but intimidated by the high learning curve to check out the REALbasic demo at http://www.realbasic.com/.
Known Issues
While every effort has been made to ensure that Z-Write functions correctly, there are a few problems. The following was known at the time of this release:
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the answers to some common questions about Z-Write.
The best solution is to export as RTF -- Rich Text Format -- which preserves formatting and is specifically designed to be a transfer format. A quicker way is to use the handy "Copy Sections" command on the Edit menu: it lets you select multiple Sections, joins them together, and puts them on the clipboard so you can switch to another program and paste.
That would be the TidBITS Autocorrect Dictionary kicking in. It's an external glossary with a number of common English typos and abbreviations. Of course those often cause problems for languages other than English! The simple solution is to turn off external glossaries (in Preferences) when you are not writing in English. If you need an external glossary file active and thus can't turn them all off, just move the TidBITS file into the Unused Glossaries folder to deactivate only it.
That's easy! Just open the "Default Template" file in Z-Write's Templates folder. Any changes you make to that document will be used for all new documents. This means you can resize the document window to create a standard size for all new documents, set a default stylesheet, add additional stylesheets, establish printing settings such as your preferred Header and Footer, add Sections that will appear in all new documents, and even include text in those Sections. Once you save and close the "Default Template" file, any new documents you create will take on all the characteristics of that file (Z-Write just duplicates and opens an Untitled version of that file).
Licensing
This program is commercial software and requires you to purchase a license to use it. You may preview the program for two weeks with no limitations. After two weeks Z-Write will remind you to register each time you launch it. After 30 days, Z-Write will revert to a demonstration version. See the release notes for details about the limitations of the demonstration version.
Technical support for registered users is handled via e-mail. Send bug reports to bugs@stonetablesoftware.com. Please include your name, e-mail address, operating system version, Z-Write version, and a description of the problem.
This product is being distributed as is with no warranty whatsoever. The author, DesignWrite, and Stone Table Software are not liable or responsible for any failure of this product to perform to your expectations or for any data or performance loss you experience as a consequence to your using this product. Use of this product is at your own risk!
Stone Table Software
P.O. Box 872
Lafayette, OR 97127
support@stonetablesoftware.com
http://www.stonetablesoftware.com