Hi all,
Quick question I hope,
Is there a way to make Project Targets not include annotations in the word count ?
It kind of makes the project target figure not much help, for what I am doing just now anyway, when you use a lot of annotations when they are included in the word count.
Thanks
PG
If you are doing something that requires an exact word count sans any unpublished material, it is best to use the Project Statistics window to keep track of things. In the Options tab, you can specify exactly what is to be counted. There is an alternative method, though.
I am working on a project right now (NanoWriMo) that requires an exact word count threshold (I can go over but not under a certain amount), but at the same time I want to take notes for future editing, and I’d like to use the Target window as well. So what I have been doing is actually writing outside of the Draft, and then using the Copy Without Annotations or Footnotes feature to dump into the Draft folder. I’m not really keeping that organised because I don’t care—it’s just for word count. Once I’m done, I’ll delete the entire Draft and then move the actual working copy up.
The nice thing about this method is that even though Project Target can be set to Draft only, the Session Target counter still goes up for external typing. So I can meet my daily quota using the Session graph even though I am typing outside of the Draft area.
Thanks for the info there Amber,
Can you tell me is there a fast way to do this rather than manually for each folder and document in my current draft.
Ideally I would like to keep the same structure in the draft as in the annotated copy just so that if I do make any changes to an already written part I can easily replace the old part in draft with the new one - if you see what I mean.
Is there a copy folders / document function maybe, I cannot seem to find it if there is.
And yes it is the NaNo thing that I am doing also 
PG
Hmm. Retroactively, no there isn’t an automatic way to duplicate an entire tree of documents without annotations. However, done a certain way this could be done rather quickly. I would first Duplicate (Cmd-D) and drag that into the Draft. That will give a complete mirror copy of everything down to the last detail. Next, just go through each file and press Cmd-A; Cmd-Opt-Shift-C; Cmd-V. That will select all, copy without annotations & footnotes, and then paste over the existing text. Then move on to the next. You should have an accurate word count in no time.
And good luck with Nano.
Hopefully the next update should make this easier… Too late for NaNo, though. For the next update, the current annotation system has been renamed “Comments”. There is a separate “Annotate…” command, which makes the selected text a link that, when clicked on, opens a post-it note-esque window holding the annotation. You will be able to convert between the current system and the new link system and back again, so that you can use which system you prefer or a mix of the two:
Needless to say, the pop-up annotations aren’t included in the word or character count because they aren’t part of the text.
All the best,
Keith
Keith, the new comment system does sound nice, no question.
That said for those of us that like to have the annotations in the text is there any chance of an option to not include these in the Project Targets window in the same way they can be omitted from the other statistics figures ?
Not sure how much work that would be, but I assume your tracking what is an annotation and what is not anyway for other features to work.
Anyway reasons I ask are:
Existing project statistics window is an easier keyboard shortcut and importantly can be dissmissed either with the escape key or by hitting the keyboard shortcut a second time, very natural and very easy to just pop up the word count for a fast peek and then remove it without breaking the flow, either keyboard wise or visually - since the window pops up where you last positioned it and not in the middle of the screen all the time like the statistics panel does.
Project targets also gives important information on how your set target for this session is progressing, something that is not covered at all by the other statistics panels. It juts is nice to have all the relevant information in one place.
Having the annotations in the actual text - in context as it were - is a very natural way to work, no extra windows or clicking needed to get at the notes. Kind of mimics what you might do when annotation a printed copy of the text. It just feels very natural - to me at any rate.
It just seems odd that the annotations should be included in the Project Targets figures by default anyways. Again maybe that is my misunderstanding or something but why are they included given that they are essentially meta data of sorts and certainly not, I would think, part of the finished piece in most cases.
Ok enough rambling from me apart from one last little thing, who do I have to bribe to get a copy of the beta ?
PG
Hi,
I’m afraid there is no really good way of having the inline annotations omitted from the target count. The reason for this is that the count is live, so there would have to be additional calculations to omit them that you wouldn’t want going on whilst typing - it would slow typing down, which would be far worse.
All the best,
Keith
The new pop-up annotation looks fantastic. Can’t wait for the new version. Very nice job, Keith. Brilliant!
Ah. Yes I do see your point, I had forgotton / overlooked that the count was live as I don’t use it as a live count, preferring to just pop it up and down as needed - Ah well, cant have everything I guess.
And thanks for the explanation as well btw.
Best
PG