Nota Bene Word processor

[Enoch]

A few years back, I ran into a family friend who was all excited about a law a politician he personally knew was trying to pass. The law would require all cell phone makers to use a standardized plug so that no matter where you were, you could plug into someone else’s cable and charge your phone. I told him it was a horrible idea. He asked why. I told him that besides stifling innovation by requiring electronics to use one specific technology that would one day be obsolete, more importantly, those cables were not the same. And I went on to explain the differences (this link is an equivalent summary of what I told him). 

 

The titles produced for Accordance are not ebooks. They’re not simple electronic versions of print books. Converting an Accordance title to Logos, BibleWorks, Wordsearch and back is not like converting a word processing document back and forth between Word, Pages, NotaBene, Mellel, etc. where the most important factor is to make certain that the same content can be viewed in any of those word processors. I would suggest that Accordance developers are more detailed-oriented than any other platform when it comes to identifying different kinds of text as well as hyperlinking to other resources. Simple comparisons with our competition speak for themselves. But this kind of detail that our developers add to a title means that it can’t simply be swapped back and forth, even if we did all agree on an interchangeable format. It’s just not going to work. And we continue to improve to our format, such as with the embedded charts in our genealogy module. Having a standard format that’s interchangeable would stifle improving upon formats that already exist. I realize that this kind of innovation is not important to everyone. Some folks just want to read the content. If that’s the case, Kindle versions, which are often cheaper, are adequate. Accordance allows you to do so much more, though.

 

NOTA BENE??? ANYONE STILL USE THAT? I did back with DOS 3.3.

[R. Mansfield]

NOTA BENE??? ANYONE STILL USE THAT? I did back with DOS 3.3.

 

You’d be surprised. They just released version 12 this week. Technically, if you count the XyWrite origins, Nota Bene is the longest-running word processor in history.

[Michel Gilbert]

Hi,

 

Now that I’m crossing over to Accordance from BW, my two main programs will be Accordance and Nota Bene.

NB can now index its own files, and .txt, .doc, .docx, .rtf, .html, and .pdf. I indexed over 90,000 files, including my BW notes and user lex files that I converted to .rtf. So, with Orbis, the indexing portion of the suite, I can instantly search the last fifteen years of my notes, files, lectures, half-written articles and books, etc. That alone is worth the price. It is also the only word processor, literally, that handles English and Hebrew perfectly - put the cursor where you want it, change to Eng, Heb, or Greek, and that is what you will get, where you want it. Even Mellel has problems changing paragraph direction in the same line, at least, when you add punctuation at the end of an English line in a Hebrew rtl paragraph. There is a solution, but it doesn’t compare to NB’s. NB also allows you to build custom keyboards. It is multi-platform - it is bottled in Wine in Mac, and it also works in Linux with Wine. Admittedly, there are a few problems with 12 on the Mac, but they are being ironed out. Btw, it now opens .docx, and can save to .rtf and .pdf.

I’m writing this in NB on my Mac.

 

Regards,

Michel

 

[R. Mansfield]

Michel, I haven’t upgraded to NB 12 yet. Does it handle unicode any better than previous versions? Specifically, how is it handling content pasted from Accordance?

[Michel Gilbert]

Hi Rick,

A straight copy and paste from Acc always drops some consonants. It’s the only problem I’ve had with NB. FWIW, if you copy and paste Hebrew from BW or Logos into TextEdit or Word, then copy and paste from there into NB, it does work (Acc doesn't this way either). It is the same problem I’ve experienced with all the word processors I’ve tried - everyone seems to handle Unicode a bit differently.

 

Regards

[Michel Gilbert]

I also have the entire Unicode HB in a NB file. It copies and pastes fine from there! And, you can scroll through it like it was a ten page file.

 

[Alistair]

You’d be surprised. They just released version 12 this week. Technically, if you count the XyWrite origins, Nota Bene is the longest-running word processor in history.

After the pencil.

[Alistair]

NOTA BENE??? ANYONE STILL USE THAT? I did back with DOS 3.3.

 

Slightly off topic, but since it came up here I have looked at Nota Bene for my research and writing needs, but never got as far as trying the demo.

Also I have dabbled with DEVONThink Pro Office (got a free licence for non-profit work!) but never got to grips with it.

I've puzzled over Tinderbox, but I don't know if it will be any better.

At the moment I search inside a massive set of files (1.5TB) using FoxtrotPro Search and write stuff in Scrivener and Pages.

If anyone can recommend a better way please let me know. Has to be a Mac solution!

 

I am looking for something that will allow me to search for "Martin Luther" and get results that show me that "Martin Luther" is linked to "Reformation" and "Philip Melancthon;"

but also shows "Martin Luther King Jr" who is linked to "Jesse Jackson" "Rosa Parks" etc.

 

Thanks

Edited June 9, 2018 by Alistair

[Michel Gilbert]

Hi Alistair,

FWIW, and in case others are interested, I was in the same situation as you. I had been using DocFetcher in Linux and Mac. But I wanted to find a solution in one program or suite. Orbis does have boolean and wildcard searches, so you should be able to do those kinds of searches. I know the boolean searches highlight the hits in entire files. You can have eight million files and a trillion characters in the database. The results are instantaneous, just like in Accordance.

Using English only, I've found the Mac version of NB very stable. I think my few problems, which I've reported, may have to do with running BW in another Wine bottle, that is, both programs are offered as bottled Wine versions, and there seems to be some conflict in the clipboard. I don't think NB will ever have a native Mac version, but Wine does seem to be getting better, and they support the program and Wine in the latest version.

Regards,

Michel

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I'm one who uses Nota Bene and upgraded to 12. 

 

I have some instructions on Accordance/NB copy/pasting which so far work well. 

[Alistair]

I've been exploring data mining or text mining/analytics and am currently experimenting with RapidMiner (or I will be once I can figure out how I can get it to read data from PDF files).

 

I'll have a go with the NB/Orbis demo and see how far I get. Thanks.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Alistair

[Enoch]

So the Dragonfly still flieth. I still have my old 5" floppies around; I think I upgraded as far as version 4.  But seems like last time I priced it years ago it was selling for something like $500.

[mgvh]

I wrote my nearly 600 page dissertation in Nota Bene for DOS. I even wrote up the code for a 9-pin printer Syriac font.

I heard it might be possible to convert those old NB files into a modern format which would be nice. For now, I've PDFed the whole thing by running my printed pages through a scanner.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I wrote my nearly 600 page dissertation in Nota Bene for DOS. I even wrote up the code for a 9-pin printer Syriac font.

I heard it might be possible to convert those old NB files into a modern format which would be nice. For now, I've PDFed the whole thing by running my printed pages through a scanner.

I think if you upgrade to a current version of NB, you can import in NB for DOS files then export out to RTF, Word, or PDF.

[Michel Gilbert]

Hi,

 

Since I once recommended Nota Bene, I feel obligated to say that since the update to version 12 I have had many problems using their bottled Wine version on my Mac. I don’t think it is appropriate to go into details here. But, others have noticed some of the same problems as well, a few have even been fixed in 12.0.7. The bottom line is that I don’t want to responsible for recommending it any more. I’m reverting back to Word and Mellel.

 

As an aside, I also find FoxTrot more useful and stable than Nota Bene’s Orbis. It indexes almost all of my files, including Scrivener, and it hasn’t crashed. Thank you Alistair for recommending it.

 

Regards,

 

Michel

[Alistair]

Hi Michel,

 

Well, I never got anywhere with Nota Bene and your comment has convinced me to not bother any more.

Unless they bring out a native Mac OS X 64-bit version.

 

I'm happy using Foxtrot Pro and since upgrading to Mojave everything feels a little bit snappier.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Strangely, since upgrading to NB 12, overall it's been solid for me on a Mac using WINE. The beta was buggy, but the shipping version has been pretty stable.

 

One issue I had with NB was going from Windows to Mac and copying over my NBWIN folder from Windows. That introduced some issues and even made NB 11.5 unstable. What I did was perform an "Archive and Install" as I like to call it. I moved out my NBWIN folder into a separate directory, re-ran the NB installer to get a clean install of NB, then migrated my NB documents and Ibidem database back. I went ahead and created a fresh Orbis textbase of my documents. Once I did that, NB on Mac has overall been running well. 

[Michel Gilbert]

Hi Nathan,

I bought NB mainly for Hebrew word processing, sometimes for mixed Hebrew and English. I also bought it for copying and pasting hieroglyphs from JSesh, but that also doesn't work as advertised.
Except for a short period in 11.5, it has been a nightmare. I won't go on and on; I don't want to break the Forum guidelines. But, here is just one example that is relevant to Accordance users, Gen 1:1-(part of vs.)4 pasted from Accordance into NB, first with regular paste, then with all of the Edit > Paste Special options:

 

I didn't expect all of the options to work, but I expected at least the Unicode and .rtf options to work. There are also other various problems pasting Hebrew from other programs. And, there are major compatibility problems with decades of my .doc and .docx files that have Hebrew in them, either opening them or copying and pasting from them.

Perhaps English and Greek and other ltr languages work well. It also works if you type Hebrew in NB, although I have also had some trouble with custom keyboards. Overall, my workflow with it has been a nightmare. Since it is a small community and I once recommended it, I felt obliged to unrecommend it.

Regards,

Michel

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Hi Michel,

 

If you need solid Hebrew word processing on Mac, try Mellel. It's the best Mac-native word processor for Hebrew (I used it during my Hebrew classes).

 

With that said, I have been able to successfully paste Hebrew from Accordance to NB. I sent the instructions to Anne back when I first tried it. I can dig up what I did and let you know if you need to take it for a spin.

 

DOC files I've had issues with on NB for Mac. DOCX opens OK on NB for Mac, but DOC isn't. I've just converted any DOC files to DOCX before bringing them into NB, then usually convert them to NB format.

 

I have plans to put together some videos of using NB with Bible software, but I've been overly swamped and haven't had the chance. :-)

[Michel Gilbert]

I told Steve a while ago that if Nota Bene fixed the issues with Hebrew I would recommend it again.

 

Version 13 bundled with Crossover for Mac works well in Monterey and works well with Accordance. Regarding Hebrew, Copy As > Citation and paste into NB works as expected; you just have to adjust the font size. Also, I pointed out an issue with customizing keyboards and Steve fixed it and made some improvements. Now my custom SIL keyboard works perfectly.

 

Nota Bene’s website says its Mac version also works on the M1 chip.

 

Maybe I should mention that this is on a clean install of Monterey. I installed NB yesterday and Accordance this morning.

 

Michel

 

 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I can even get NB working well on Linux using CrossOver. In fact, it seems to run a little zippier than it does on my iMac Pro!

[Teddy24]

On 6/9/2018 at 9:26 AM, Alistair said:

 

Slightly off topic, but since it came up here I have looked at Nota Bene for my research and writing needs, but never got as far as trying the demo.

Also I have dabbled with DEVONThink Pro Office (got a free licence for non-profit work!) but never got to grips with it.

I've puzzled over Tinderbox, but I don't know if it will be any better.

At the moment I search inside a massive set of files (1.5TB) using FoxtrotPro Search and write stuff in Scrivener and Pages.

If anyone can recommend a better way please let me know. Has to be a Mac solution!

 

I am looking for something that will allow me to search for "Martin Luther" and get results that show me that "Martin Luther" is linked to "Reformation" and "Philip Melancthon;"

but also shows "Martin Luther King Jr" who is linked to "Jesse Jackson" "Rosa Parks" etc.

 

Thanks

Check out Logseq, it is an outlier that lets you link to pages and so when you search for Martin Luther, you can get all the people you asked for since you will link them 

 

[R. Mansfield]

Reviving this old topic because I got an email that Nota Bene has been updated to v. 14. I've maintained a copy of it for a long time, but I never use it anymore, so I don't know if I will be upgrading (I do have v. 13). Anyone still using it as a primary word processor? 
 

I'm a bit disappointed that the interface still looks like it was created in the mid-90s (which it was). 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I still use it. I do have 14 running on my machines. I plan to review it on my personal blog coming up (I'm asking the NB team for the greenlight that my version is ready for review before I do it since I'm using a beta, and I want to ensure there aren't some unreleased features not in the public version I'm not supposed to spill yet). I also have a discount code on my personal blog.

 

I use both it and Mellel. I use it for my Turabian formatting since I can whip up a Turabian formatted paper with it easily, then if I need to combine docs or do post-production stuff, I use Mellel for that. While NB has a way to combine docs, I can perform those tasks quicker in Mellel (plus it gives me an extra backup format for my documents).

 

I just fired it up on my M2 MacBook Air using Rosetta. It still seems faster and runs better on Apple Silicon than it did even natively on my Intel iMac Pro. Apple Silicon is beginning to impress me.

[Michel Gilbert]

3 hours ago, R. Mansfield said:

I don't know if I will be upgrading (I do have v. 13). Anyone still using it as a primary word processor? I'm a bit disappointed . . . 

 

I was hopeful, but I don’t see any improvements with importing docx files that have (lots of) Unicode Hebrew in them, or with pasting Unicode Hebrew into the program. The latter was working on my Intel Mac mini, but never worked on my M1 mini. Basically, pasting Hebrew into NB from Acc or L simply doesn’t work—some of the consonants are correct but there is always gibberish, or some final forms appear in the middle of words, or sometimes the Hebrew is backwards (and that’s trying all of the Paste Special options). If I can’t copy and paste Hebrew into it as part of my normal workflow, and I mean sometimes working with only or mostly Hebrew, and not just a Hebrew word or phrase or even verse here and there, it's almost useless on the M1.

 

Unicode Hebrew always worked better in NB on bare metal (non-virtual) Windows, so I was hoping for better Hebrew performance in Windows 11 ARM in Parallels Desktop (latest version). But NB (13, and now 14) is the only program I have that won’t launch in W11 ARM. It seems to install normally, but it won’t launch; I only see a splash screen for a split second and then nothing happens.

 

I’ll give you an example. Someone just wrote me and asked a question about the Hebrew Bible. Your post reminded me that I own NB 13, so I tried to type my response in it, part of which was quoting Deut. 29:28 (28:29 Eng.) in Hebrew. I tried to copy and paste the verse from Acc and L, and neither worked, in v. 13 or trial v. 14. I ended up switching to Word to type the email.

 

The only thing I use it for now is indexing (in English), something that I never thought of when I bought the program. It helps me get a head start before indexing the galley proofs.

 

I would say, save your money.