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Introduction
Beginning with version 3.0 of KDSS, users of Nisus Writer 5.1 can benefit from some additional features.
Screenwriting Tool: A new toolbar added in the amended “Nisus Floating Tool Bars Tool”, providing button access to KDSS styles and macros. In every other respect, the amended Tool is unchanged from its Nisus shipping version and contains the standard toolbars. If you are going to use the KDSS toolbar, it’s important that your read the rest of this file.
Copyright disclaimer: “Nisus Floating Tool Bars Tool” is copyright Nisus Software, and must not be distributed, or used for any purpose other than use with your copy of Nisus Writer 5.1. The tool is included in its amended form for your convenience. If you are in any doubt regarding your use of it, you may prefer to copy the Screenwriting Tool icon and palette resources into the original Tool with ResEdit, rather than replacing the Tool with this amended version.
Create NW Workset Macro: An AppleScript applet that helps you create macro/glossary worksets. This is a worthwhile thing to do, given Nisus Writer’s ability to open multiple macro and glossary files, and it is especially recommended for users of the KDSS toolbar.
Nisus Macros.KDSS: A cluster of macros around its central “Option” macro that you may like to copy to your Nisus Macros file. This “Option” macro allows you to toggle the letter case of character names between Capital and UPPERCASE by double-clicking them with the Option key held down. This is useful because character names must be uppercase when they are first introduced in a script. Sound effects and camera directions must also be uppercase.
Screenwriting Tool
To make use of this toolbar, you must place the “Nisus Floating Tool Bars Tool” that comes with KDSS inside the Tools folder in the Nisus Writer Tools folder. Quit Nisus Writer before doing this. You may like to keep the original Tool in another location for backup purposes.
The buttons on the toolbar provide access to all KDSS defined styles and macros except the Print Screenplay macro. The top eight buttons apply styles, the next four run slug line macros, the next four run transition macros, and the rest run the other macros. To avoid making undue changes to the Tool, no custom balloon help was created for the buttons.
The first time you use the toolbar you may find that some or all buttons will have a cross through them and will not respond to mouse clicks. This is because they depend on KDSS menu items. For the styling buttons to be enabled, the KDSS defined styles must be in the Style menu—in other words, the frontmost document must be based on the Screenwriting Template. For the macro buttons to be enabled, the Screenwriting Macros must be the first macro file loaded in the current set of open macro files.
Maybe this sounds complex but it isn’t really. The only issue is that because multiple macro files can be open, Nisus Writer creates their menus dynamically, whereas the toolbar can only refer to KDSS macro menus in absolute terms. Hence the requirement that the Screenwriting Macros be first to load in the current set of open macros. Enter the “Create NW Workset Macro” applet.
Create NW Workset Macro
Use this AppleScript applet to painlessly create a Screenwriting workset, consisting of the Screenwriting Macros, the Screenwriting Glossary, and your Nisus Macros that reside in your Macros folder in Nisus Writer Tools folder. As indicated, when creating this workset, it’s important that you choose the Screenwriting Macros as its first item. This will ensure that the toolbar will work. If you would like other macro files open as part of this workset, you can choose them when you create the workset. Of course, once the files of the workset have loaded in Nisus Writer, you can also open or close other macro or glossary files in the usual way.
You may want to know why you should include your Nisus Macros in the workset. This is because you will be asked to place the workset macro in Nisus Macros. By including Nisus Macros in the workset, you make sure that your worksets are always available.
Doesn’t sound very clear, does it? Just consider this: say you have a workset macro called “General Workset”, another called “Screenwriting Workset”, yet another called “HTML Workset”. All of these workset macros reside in Nisus Macros, which load when Nisus Writer starts up. Great, so after startup, you choose the workset to work with. Say you choose the “Screenwriting Workset”. This workset macro will be programmed to remove all macro files and then load the files chosen when you created the workset with the applet. If you did not include Nisus Macros in the workset then you’re stuck, because Nisus Macros have been removed along with any other macro files and you now have no access to other worksets. That’s why you should include your Nisus Macros in every workset you create.
If any of this does not make sense, don’t worry. The applet provides clear instructions: follow them and you will not go wrong.
When you have created the workset macro that launches Screenwriting Macros first, use this workset macro to switch to “screenwriting mode”.
If all the conditions are met for the toolbar to work, but the buttons are still disabled, close and open the toolbar again. (It only registers the menus when it is opening.)
Because you will be launching the Screenwriting Macros with a workset macro, the Screenwriting Macros do not need to reside in the Macros folder in the Nisus Writer Tools folder. It is best that you leave the Screenwriting Macros and the Screenwriting Glossary in the KDSS folder.
When executing a workset macro, the macro will not remove any files that have unsaved changes. If after running a workset macro you see items in the Macro or Glossary menus that should have been removed, remove them individually, and deal with the saving dialogs that will come up.
For future reference, remember that AppleScript applets can be launched from Nisus Writer’s Catalog window.
Nisus Macros.KDSS
Nisus Writer has the ability to perform certain macros when the user double-clicks text with a modifier key held down. The modifier keys supported in this way are Option, Command and Command-Option.
You may already have your own custom macros in your Nisus Macros, so instead of providing a Nisus Macros file to replace your own, the “Nisus Macros.KDSS” file is offered, from which you can copy the macros if you wish.
* You copy macros by selecting the last paragraph ending sign (¶) of the macro preceding the one(s) you want, down to the last letter of the wanted macro(s); then copy, and paste at the end of the target macro file.
When you load the “Nisus Macros.KDSS” in Nisus Writer, an error dialog may come up, saying “Unknown macro command: Nisus Macros:Set Option Normal”. Don’t worry about this, just dismiss the dialog.
Once you have copied the macros, close the “Nisus Macros.KDSS” file, it is not meant to be used for any purpose other than copying the macros.
The Macros
Set Option KDSS: sets the Option macro to toggle the letter case of Option-double-clicked text between Capital and UPPERCASE.
Set Option Normal: sets the Option macro to toggle the letter case of Option-double-clicked text between Capital and lowercase.
INITInit: contains a macro command line that executes the “Set Option Normal” macro, configuring the Option macro to it’s Normal setting on startup. This is required for the Option macro to work.
If you already have your own INITInit macro, do not replace it with this one—just copy and paste the “Nisus Macros:Set Option Normal” command line into it. The place where you paste it in your INITInit macro does not matter, so long as it’s pasted on it’s own line.
Option: the center of it all. Toggles the letter case of Option-double-clicked text according to its setting: between Capital and lowercase when set to Normal, and between Capital and UPPERCASE when set to KDSS.
About These Macros: opens the “Nisus Macros.KDSS” file, displaying a copy of this text.
