Manuscripts - New Scholarly Writing Application

[Michael Miles]

I ran into this today while piloting my La-Z-Boy recliner through the bit-space that we all lovingly refer to as the innertubes here at El Rancho Relaxo.  It's a brand spanking new SCHOLARLY Writing application for OS X.  I'm not a scholar and I personally don't spend weekends and holidays playing croquet with any, but I thought that perhaps folks here might be interested in at least knowing about the existence of this coding masterpiece.  No, I have not even downloaded it - but I was so excited at being the first one here to make note of it that I nearly unplugged my electric comforter in my unbridled exuberance.  Ahem.

 

Here is a link to the aforementioned product that you yourself can peruse to navigate your own chair of choice over to take a first hand gander at the goods themselves, so to speak.

 

http://www.manuscriptsapp.com

 

It may or may not handle RTL languages or yet undeveloped Masoretic unicode glyphs, but is IS scholarly, and that's a start.

 

This new offering aimed squarely at the brave souls that converge at the hallowed halls of learning is being offered at a discount for the next several days, so don't say that I didn't give you a heads up.  K?

[Timothy Jenney]

Thanks for the heads up, Michael!

 

I tried to paste some Hebrew in from Accordance just now and wasn't impressed.

[Abram K-J]

As writing apps go, this looks pretty nice. (Makes me think of a cross between Ulysses and Scrivener.) Thanks for the recommendation!

[Michael Miles]

As writing apps go, this looks pretty nice. (Makes me think of a cross between Ulysses and Scrivener.) Thanks for the recommendation!

I think perhaps it might be an appropriate time for a multiple convergence upon the author(s) of this application to steer them towards Hebrew perfection.  

[Michael Miles]

Thanks for the heads up, Michael!

 

I tried to paste some Hebrew in from Accordance just now and wasn't impressed.

It's on sale for only $9.99 today.  Yesterday it was $19.99.  At least the price reduction is impressive.  

[Michael Miles]

It's on sale for only $9.99 today.  Yesterday it was $19.99.  At least the price reduction is impressive.  

I actually purchased it. Next year it will be closer to $89.99, I'd imagine.

[Andrew Mercer]

I bought it whilst in Beta. Shows a lot of promise, but not quite as good as Ulysses at the moment. I'm keen for it to develop as it links really well with Papers, my citation manager

[Michael Miles]

Under the Research Article category they are using an older template for the Student Supplement for the SBL Student Handbook of Style.  A newer outline for this is available in PDF format here:

 

https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/SBLHSsupp2015-02.pdf

 

The one that they have in place is the old one from February of 2009.

 

Just having an SBL research article template at all is quite interesting.  Perhaps this will morph into a nice tool.  As it stands, I can easily paste Hebrew from Accordance into it without it coming out looking like someone spilled a can of Campbell's Alphabet Soup on my monitor.  Not much else going on.  You cannot right justify your Hebrew text.  The  only other thing that it does is turn the Hebrew text upside down when I turn my MacBook Air upside down.  I'm not sure if that's a feature though.

 

EDIT**  You can right justify if you pack your left margin with spaces.  

 

EDIT YET AGAIN**  You can get the February 2009 SBL Student Supplement at this link:  

 

http://tfbis.com/online/pluginfile.php/3077/mod_resource/content/1/SBLHSrevised2_09.pdf

Edited November 27, 2015 by Michael Miles

[Michael Miles]

I bought it whilst in Beta. Shows a lot of promise, but not quite as good as Ulysses at the moment. I'm keen for it to develop as it links really well with Papers, my citation manager

I was looking over Papers yesterday.  It looks to be quite good.  I never have yet bothered to obtain Bookends, which is apparently the citation manager of choice for the Mellel crowd.

[farcas]

Mellel. Simple to use. Complex when needed.

[Michael Miles]

Mellel. Simple to use. Complex when needed.

I actually like and use Mellel and have for a few years now.  Great software.  I just have not found a need yet for the citations manager Bookends that Mellel seems to push.  Bookends may be great as well.  Do you use it?

[Ιακοβ]

I tested this out. For me it has a massive deal breaking flaw. When you press ctrl+I to start typing italic, it converts the word before the curser into italic and highlights it. So if you type:  "This next word should be {ctrl+I}italic". What you end up with is "This next word should italic"

[Michael Miles]

I tested this out. For me it has a massive deal breaking flaw. When you press ctrl+I to start typing italic, it converts the word before the curser into italic and highlights it. So if you type:  "This next word should be {ctrl+I}italic". What you end up with is "This next word should italic"

You should join their forum and let them know.  They just popped this out of the oven, and if you have ever programmed software, you know that as soon as you release it, there are a few face palm sessions that take place when users point out obvious flaws.  I used to write what was known as "doorware" back in the days of BBSing before the internet, and some of my Turbo Pascal masterpieces took me a bit to get under control.  I sure miss Turbo Pascal.  MS-DOS, maybe not so much.

 

Let the folks know what your issue is and generally they will take great pains to get rid of the problem ASAP.  No software leaves the developers computer in a perfect state.  I used to spend hours playing with assembler code trying to speed up my stuff.

[Alistair]

I've been using Scrivener for years an love it, but it's a bit of a pig when it comes to page layout, i.e. no proper indenting/bulleting of paragraphs etc. My only gripe but I use that a lot in e.g. Pages documents. I will check out this MSS.app while it is cheap.

 

Update: I tried it and I like it, but I am not convinced enough to switch from Scrivener. Scrivener is probably overkill for what I do, but while Manuscripts has a very nice GUI with lots of colour and other cool stuff I am not tempted to dump Scrivener.

 

To anyone considering Scrivener, I say try Manuscripts as well, it may just be all you need. Watch this space.

Edited November 29, 2015 by Alistair

[farcas]

I actually like and use Mellel and have for a few years now.  Great software.  I just have not found a need yet for the citations manager Bookends that Mellel seems to push.  Bookends may be great as well.  Do you use it?

 

Mellel + Bookends. Hands down the best for academic writing. Some frustrations in UI and sharing with word. But otherwise, good stuff.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. With Dr. J. - Not impressed with RTL.

[Andrew Mercer]

Mellel + Bookends. Hands down the best for academic writing. Some frustrations in UI and sharing with word. But otherwise, good stuff.

 

 

I have Mellel and Bookends, mainly from recommendations from here. It never seemed to fit my workflow like using Papers and a WP. But I'm willing to give it a try as I have a 40,000 word dissertation coming up during 2016. To that end, how does Mellel on the iPad go? There are no ratings on the iTunes store (at least the Australian store). If it's good in the iPad, it may be worth me putting in the time to learn both M & B, especially now that I have my iPad Pro

[Abram K-J]

I've used the Mellel iPad app (some, not a ton)... one major limitation (for me) is that you can't export to .pdf, but they're working on that for a future update. It handles pretty well--the interface is nice, though document mangagement could be improved.

[farcas]

I have Mellel and Bookends, mainly from recommendations from here. It never seemed to fit my workflow like using Papers and a WP. But I'm willing to give it a try as I have a 40,000 word dissertation coming up during 2016. To that end, how does Mellel on the iPad go? There are no ratings on the iTunes store (at least the Australian store). If it's good in the iPad, it may be worth me putting in the time to learn both M & B, especially now that I have my iPad Pro

Well worth getting into it. But the iOS version is not the place where you will have the features you need for the academic writing. Best to start with OS then use iOS as a viewer/typer. While Mellel iOS will allow you to see everything you create in the OS, its not going to let you do all the set and customization etc. And fonts - unless I'm missing something, my SBL fonts don't show up in the iOS.

 

For heavy academic writing, plan out how you want everything to look first. The way everything fits together - character styles and variations with paragraph styles etc. - is the way to go for large projects.

 

Also, Bookends. Perfect integration.

 

Lastly, RTL. Can't beat it.

 

 

Enjoy.

[Alistair]

Manuscripts is available as part of a bundle, at https://creatable.co...016-mac-bundle#! 

 

Worth $276 available for $15

 

Bundle includes:

 

Espionage

Manuscripts

Photo Scissors

mSecure

Labels and Addresses

Calendar 366 Plus

PhotoStitcher

RoboPostman

Roboform Everywhere

Elite Keylogger Pro