NOTA BENE 13


Nota Bene 13 includes a cornucopia of new delights, with streamlining of existing features and advanced new conveniences that should make Nota Bene even more useful to you:

Simplifications everywhere make the program easier to use
A completely re-engineered Ibidem is more elegant, more powerful
A new popup Ibidem makes citing and editing of citations easier than ever
New research tables are consistent with academic styles required by publishers
A radically improved Mac version will delight Mac users
Web research is now easier than ever, with major enhancements to Archiva

Read on to discover how these enhancements, and others, can make a difference in your work.


1. A Simpler, More Elegant, Ibidem
NB 13 includes an all-new Ibidem interface. Among other things (this is just a very short list of only a couple of the hundreds of changes):
  • Ibidem uses the same structure as the new Orbis
  • Ibidem comes with two modes:
    • The traditional pop-up mode, where the search, subset, cite, and links options pop up as dialogs as these are invoked/needed
    • A new “slide-out/docking” mode (shown below), where search, subset, cite, and links options can be open and visible/accessible at all times while you work
  • In the slide-out mode:
    • You can arrange panes in any way you like
    • Any pane can be floated
  • In either mode, there are now two new options that make citing works easier than ever before:
    • A quick search bar (at the top left) that lets you search by author, title, in all fields, or in two fields of your own choosing
    • A quick cite bar (at the top right) that lets you cite entries, with enhanced page number and/or other locator information (everything you need for 95%+ of most cites)
  • A new dockable help pane has been added, so that you can see field help without it popping up over the table view, or without having to manually invoke it


  • You can have multiple (up to 10!) databases open at the same time — your standard database(s), any or all of the Archiva databases, an IbidPlus non-bibliographic database
  • Within each database, you can have multiple views (again, up to 10!) of the database — the entire database, the results of a search, a subset, or works cited in the current paper — open at the same time on different tabs






2. Completely Re-engineered — More Powerful & Useful
Ibidem has been radically enhanced:
  • Citations are properly contextualized (that is, set to full form, short form, and/or ibid., etc.) as they are entered, or as citations are moved or deleted — there’s no need to update them with Alt+F7
  • New enhanced/simplified links (to web pages, local versions of electronic sources, images, etc.) have been added
    • Four new default fields
      • Note-taking link
      • On-line link(s)
      • Local link(s) — local copy of on-line source, or other local linked file(s)
      • Image link(s)
    • Each field can contain multiple links
    • All these links can be opened by clicking on the appropriate link button at the top right of Ibidem (not shown yet in the above image)
    • Each link can alos be shown (with a smaller version of the same icon) in the Links column
  • Importing of records from other sources (especially for those who have Archiva) is simplified and enhanced
  • Enhanced options to suppress updating of reference list
  • Dockable field help
  • New option to regularize/correct “close” citations (pink or purple citations in current version)
  • Ibidem can automatically make any subsequent cite short-form titles you use for a particular work in a particular paper consistent (without you needing to change all instances of that citation in a file)
    • Note: short-form titles are often paper-specific — you might cite Kant’s Critique of Judgment simply as Critique if it is the only such work in a paper, but as Judgment if you cited other of his “Critique” works


3. Popup Ibidem: An Easier Way to Cite While You Work



There is a new popup “mini” Ibidem dialog (on Ctrl+F7):
  • This popup dialog is narrow, so that you can keep it open as you work (it takes up much less screen space than even Ibidem in its smallest size)
  • Everything you need to cite a work as you write is available:
    • You can search for a record (using the same Quick Search options described above)
    • All the cite options (selecting alternate cites, or excluding author or year or using You can use this “mini” Ibidem while you write papers — you can search the database, see results, and cite, without invoking the full Ibidem
    • This dialog is also used when inspecting and/or editing an existing citation


4. Major Improvements to Tables

NB 13 now supports three different kinds of tables:
  • Generic tables (existing option, with improvements)
  • Parallel/text columns (existing option, with improvements)
  • Tables used in academic research papers (new; see next section)
Tables are now:
  • Easier to edit — the popup column editor (Ctrl+Ins) offers six tabs, with formatting and other options for:
    • Normal editing of tables once they have been created
    • The entire table
    • Specified column(s)
    • Particular row(s)
    • Individual cell(s)
    • Critical apparatus (for new academic research tables only)
    (The popup column editor can be floated, or docked on the right)
  • More robust — tables are now a fully implemented feature of Nota Bene
In all three types of tables:
  • Rows and columns can be straddled (i.e., current cell combined with cells to left and/or right, or above and/or below)
  • Guide lines showing cell (i.e., column and row) boundaries can be displayed during editing even when table borders are turned off
  • Rows can be “banded” — every second, third, fourth, or fith row can take on the selected color (see image under Research Tables below)
  • Colors
    • Individual columns can be assigned a color
    • Rows can be “banded” as described above
    • Individual cells can be colored
  • Tabs can be adjusted easily
    • Dragging/adding tabs on ruler line apply to current postion up to end of cell
    • Ctrl+dragging/adding applies change to current column (to all cells, unless overridden in a particular cell)
    • Alt+dragging/adding applies change to overall table (unless overridden in a column style or a particular cell)
  • Borders of various types can be drawn below the current cell


COLUMN OPTIONS:

• Set Layout
• Add/Insert
• Delete
• Copy
• Move
• Clear Text
• Replace Text
  (only in current column)
ROW OPTIONS:

• Insert Regular Row
  › New
  › Based on Current
    (text +/- format)
• Insert Straddle Row
  › Regular (Full Height)
  › Border Line
    (set color & thickness)
• Delete
• Copy
• Move
• Clear Text
• Replace Text
  (only in current row)

As for tables themselves, they can be:
  • Copied/pasted
  • Deleted
  • Split (into two tables, at the designated row)
  • Combined (specify the two tables to be combined [they must share the same column structure])
  • Sorted (by any column)


5. New Academic Research Tables
New academic research tables have been added:


An academic research table, with banded rows and critical apparatus



In addition to the generic capabilities described above, which apply to all three kinds of tables, these research tables:
  • Include a (configurable) table caption
  • Are pre-built with the required top and bottom straddle borders
  • Automatically conform to the rules dictated by the active style (Chicago, Turabian, APA, MLA)
  • Provide support for all the required critical apparatus, as shown and outlined below
CRITICAL APPARATUS OPTIONS
• Set caption, numbering system, format







• Add source (can auto copy from Ibidem)



• Add general explanatory note for table
  in its entirety — normally full width
• Add notes for specific column, row, or cell
  content (with options as displayed,
  including with run-in capability)





• Add single- or doubled-tailed probability
  notes (with options as displayed)






6. Eye-Catching Improvements on the Mac

NB 13 runs on Catalina and Big Sur and on computers with Apple’s new M1 chips.

Beyond this major change, efforts have gone into improving the NB experience on all Mac systems on which NB runs:
  • All file-management is handled via the regular Apple Finder dialog — whether opening files, or saving them, you have all the options that you have in any standard Apple application
  • NB now supports Retina display — fonts are as crisp as they are in other Apple applications — in four different sizes
    • Small — 120 DPI
    • Medium 1 — 144 DPI
    • Medium 2 — 160 DPI
    • Large — 180 DPI
  • NB now comes bundled with Codeweavears’ Crossover program, which allows Windows applications to run on Macs
    • This is an updated, more robust, version of Wine
    • Because Codeweavers programmers have done most of the work on the open-source Wine project, we are not in a better position to fix Wine bugs (by having them fix them)
  • All your Nota Bene data is much more accessible, whether you save this to your Mac Home folder, or in the cloud (see below)
  • Archiva now works on the Mac almost exactly like it works on Windows


7. A More Powerful & Fully Integrated Archiva


Archiva, Nota Bene’s add-on module that captures and converts bibliographic data ,has been enhanced. Users with Archiva will discover that:
  • On-Line Library searching has been enhanced
    • The list of searchable libraries has been increased (and old ones that no longer allow access removed)
    • Searching is now faster
    • Searching should no longer be interrupted when our servers (on bluehost) go down, since a local search client on your machine does the searching
  • Capture of citations from the web is more thorough:
    • Capture of citations from JStor and Project Muse should now give you much more thorough information
    • ISBN capture now also gives you much more complete data than previously
  • Archiva is now much more closely integrated with Ibidem — the search results (and the Archiva temporary databases) are opened/displayed in Ibidem (no longer in a separate dialog)
    • As noted above, Ibidem can have up to 10 databases open at a time — you can switch to the desired database using the database tabs
    • It is thus now much easier to transfer records between Archiva results and your working database


8. Easier Access to All of Your Work

Nota Bene 13 introduces a simpler way of organizing and accessing all of your work, whether from Nota Bene, or from other programs, with the concept of a “home” folder.

This Nota Bene home folder can be:
  • A Nota Bene folder in your standard (Windows or Mac) user folder (on your local machine)
  • A Nota Bene folder in a sync folder in the cloud, which can be accessed from multiple computers
    • This sync folder can be an iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or other sync system folder
    • Setup is very easy — simply select the desired folder from the list of available options that are displayed during installation, and you are set to go — there’s no need to manually configure this, as there was in NB 12 (with its rather complicated dialog)
  • Under/equivalent to the current (legacy) \NBWIN program folder (the way NB has worked since the beginning)
NB 13 makes the transition from the orginal legacy structure to this new one (should you choose to do so) very easy — your Nota Bene files under the original Document folder, and your Ibidem databases (under C:\NBWIN\IBIDEM\DATABASE) will be copied to the corresponding folder under new home folder.

In all cases:
  • Subfolders of all kinds — for your Ibidem databases, Orbis management files, Archiva databases, and custom settings (including user spelling dictionaries, etc.) — are grouped under this folder
  • Documents can be stored under this Nota Bene home folder, or in the standard Windows/Macs Documents folder
Note that this option also lets you install the Nota Bene program in the standard Program Files folder, without requiring you to run as an administrator, something that will make IT people at universities much happier.

See new setup options for a fuller description of this new home folder option.


9. Simplified Cloud Setup/Access

You can now easily keep all of your Nota Bene work — files, Ibidem databases, Orbis textbases, etc. — in the cloud, simply by selecting a sync folder in the cloud (e.g., OneDrive, iCloud, GoogleDrive, Dopbox, etc.) as your Nota Bene home folder.
  • With the Nota Bene home folder set to be a sync folder, all of your important user settings (custom spelling dictionaries, phrase libraries, etc.) will be accessible from all computers that share this same Nota Bene home folder in the cloud — no additional setup is required
  • Even with a shared home folder, Nota Bene is able to keep track of computer-specific settings (for example, screen size and available printers), so that the settings used are appropriate for the version of the program that is running
  • You can easily see all the computers that share that home folder (and their properites) by going to Tools, Preferences, Computer Information


10. File, Folder, and Drive Remapping

Nota Bene has long offered the option of having hotkeys/hyperlinks to all kinds of other resources, including web pages, as well as PDF files, images, and other Nota Bene files. When moving to a new system, sometimes the files being referenced are in a different location. NB 13 offers a simplified way of opening these files, even when their location has changed, without having to edit all the hotkeys/hyperlinks:
  • When opening a hotkey/hyperlink, if the file is not found in the location saved in that link, you can tell Nota Bene (including Ibidem) where that file is now located, thus "re-mapping":
    • A specific file
    • All files of a particular type, in a particular folder (including or excluding subfolders)
    • All files of any type in a particular folder (including or excluding subfolders)
    • One drive letter to another (that contains the same folder structure for the files in question)
  • You can also use this remapping option for file actions on the Action Line
    • You can set shortcuts to entire paths, using the form ".[shortcut]." (and then designating what path that substitutes for)
    • You can also tell the programm to look for the file in a series of folders, one after another (and open the one in the first folder in which it is found)



11. Run Multiple Copies of Nota Bene

You can open/run multiple instances of Nota Bene at the same time:
  • Up to 10 such simultaneous versions can be open
  • These instances can be displayed on different screens (on a multi-monitor system)
  • The positions of the last instance(s) are remembered, so they will be displayed in the location where they were last opened (but you need to open each instance yourself -- Nota Bene does not automatically restore them)
  • While you can open instances of Orbis and Ibidem in each, their initial location on startup will overlap any already open Ibidem or Orbis in another instance, before you drag them to another location

This allows Nota Bene to retain the various advantages of its original Multiple-Document Interface (MDI), while also being able to benefit, when needed, from a Single-Document Interface (SDI), but with a twist — each additional instance of Nota Bene allows you to open 36 windows from within it, giving you MDI-like options within an SDI interface!


12. Improved Multiple Monitor Setup

Improvements have been made to running Nota Bene on systems with multiple monitors:
  • When running NB on a system with multiple monitors, when NB or the various modules are restarted, with a monitor on which NB was previously displayed now missing, the program checks to make sure that they will be displayed on a currently available monitor (rather than, for example, at the location where they ere last positioned on a now unplugged monitor)
  • Any of the multiple instances of Nota Bene can be positioned to display on an external monitor (these positions will be remembered when restarting these various multiple instances)


13. It's the Simple Things That Matter

Hundreds of improvements to the program -- ranging from tweaks to operationally significant ones -- make for a more satisfying experience in creating and editing. In version 13, the smallest changes can have a big impact on ease of use and smooth operation. Here are 13 of our favorite little improvements:

1
When you drag the thumbnail/elevator on the scrollbar through a file, the display now moves with you, so that you can see the text at that location in the file in real time (and not only, as previously, when you stopped dragging)

The vertical scrollbar also now includes buttons to:
  • Change the zoom size of the document
  • Move to the previous or next page
  • Move to the beginning and end of the file
2
It now takes a double click to open a header or footer — no more inadvertent opening of these elements when, for example, you click back into NB from another program
3
You'll no longer inadvertently delete an opened element (note, annotation, header/footer, etc.) ‐ the icons/options have beeen changed, and moved, so the default is effectively simply to close it
4
You can now get important information — file size, number of pages, full path and filename — about your active file just by hovering over the name on the tab workspace
5
The right click menu now works in the File Open/Save As dialog on Windows 10, even when not using the basic System Skin (View, Visual Appearance; this was a Windows issue, not specific to NB, but we've circumvented it)
6
In many places, behind-the-scenes distinct edits have been grouped together in a single unit, so undoing a multi-step operation will require fewer invocations of Ctrl+Z
7
It's now much easier to to select files for inclusion in a manuscript — you can use the standard File, Open dialog (with its access to Favorite folders), in multi-select mode
8
You can configure the speller (Proof, Configure Spell) so that auto expansion of abbreviations can now be activated regardless of your active language
9
It's easeir to change indentation, and tab settings, in styles — if you hold the Ctrl key while you drag the relevant icons on the ruler line, the changes will be made to the active style (either the active framework/outline style [at the current level] or some other style you have defined and used [the active style at that place in your file]), rather than simply applying to the current paragraph
10
A new option has been added to the background color dialog that allows the background color you select to be printed
11
When inserting a new heading into a framework/outline document (either using Ctrl+Ins, or from the Options Bar [Alt+O]), you should no longer need to manually add or remove paragraph markers before or after the newly inserted heading
12
A new fancy line-drawing option has been added (Insert, Extended Line) for those who want to spice up a document by drawing a horizontal line &mdash you can specify thickness, color, and type (solid, dotted, dash-and-dot, etc.)
  • This was designed initially for tables, but is available as an option at other places in the program
13
You can launch any executible program from within Nota Bene (Tools, Other Program options)
  • Among the preset options are to start the NB debugger from within the program, and opening the command prompt
  • This is particularly useful on the Mac — it should let you run other Windows programs without them needing to be made into Apps

One of these little tweaks just might end up being your favorite new "feature" in the program.



14. Text Wrap Around Frames

You can now control how text wraps around frames (with or without images) that are narrower than the page width:
  • You can suppress automatic wrapping, or allow wrappig only if a user-specified amount of (horizontal) space is present
  • This setting can vary from file to file, but it applies to all frames in the file
    • If you want to have text wrap in some cases, but not others, set the menu option (from the frame popup dialog) to allow wrapping, and then prevent wrapping in individual cases by adding enough paragraph breaks to move the text so that it starts on the line after the frame ends



15. Improvements to Track Changes

A number of changes have been made to track changes:
  • Insertions and deletions are shown in color (you can select the colors to use)
  • Deletions can be hidden (making it easier to read the edited text)
  • Track changes now works inside of notes (footnotes/endnotes)
  • A new dialog makes it easier to accept/reject changes:
    • The dialog shows the name of the person who made the change, and the date/time it was made
    • When the only change is the addition/deletion of formatting commands, those otherwise hidden commands are displayed (see the image below)
  • The right click menu now provides an easier way to accept or reject edits — when on an insertion or deletion, you can:
    • Accept/reject only the current edited
    • Display all of the accept/reject options, selecting the desired one





16. New Lingua Rendering Options

We have added a Unicode font option to replace the Linguist Software fonts previously used in Lingua
  • Users starting use of Nota Bene for the first time with version 13 will only have this new Unicode option
  • Users who licensed Nota Bene before version 13 will be able to use either these new Unicode mappings, or the original Linguist Software fonts
    • You can select which version you want to use at the bottom of the General tab under Tools, Lingua (Extended Alphabets), Font-Rendering Options
    • Even if you install on a new system, you will be able to have access to both versions, as long as you began using Nota Bene before version 13
  • Note that the glyphs in the Unicode font may be different in some cases (larger, positioned slightly differently, etc.), and the font metrics will almost certainly differ
    • If you have a fully paginated document where page breaks matter, you should continue to use the Linguist Software fonts unless you are willing to check pagination
  • One of the advantages of the Unicode option is that the accents are drawn from the active font, rather than from a generic accent font, as they are when using Linguist Software fonts
    UNICODE OPTION
    Accents, modifiers, etc., come from the font in use (e.g., Times New Roman, or Palatino, etc.), and thus match the font (varying from font to font)

    LINGUIST SOFTWARE OPTION
    Accents, modifiers, etc., are picked from the generic corresponding serif, sans serif, or monospaced font (instead of using that character from the font in use) Note that while the base characters are the same in both modes (drawn from the active font), in the Linguist Software option the accents/modifiers are not taken from the actual font, but are instead either a generic serif (as in the first two examples above) or a generic sans serif (the last four cases above) font
  • Note that in either case, you must make sure that the font you are using has support for the Unicode characters you need; if they are not in the active font, you need to switch to a font where they are present



17. And, as Always, the Best Technical Support Around

An upgrade to Nota Bene 13 entitles you to on-going no-cost technical support (as long as it is the current Nota Bene release, as described in our support policy.

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