Release of Atlantis 1.6.5.9 (beta)

Atlantis Word Processor 1.6.5.9 is now available for betatesting.

It is a minor release with an improvement to the Save as eBook feature.

You can find details on this new version of Atlantis on the Betatesting page.

Release of Atlantis 1.6.5.8

Atlantis Word Processor 1.6.5.8 has been released.

This version of Atlantis Word Processor is a minor release with a number of important adjustments and improvements. Click here for details.

There are multiple ways to upgrade your copy of Atlantis Word Processor to the latest version.

If you do not have Atlantis Word Processor on your computer yet, you can install this new version of Atlantis by running the latest setup file of Atlantis. Click here to download it.

Release of Atlantis 1.6.5.8 (beta)

Atlantis Word Processor 1.6.5.8 is now available for betatesting.

This version of Atlantis has a number of important adjustments and improvements.

You can find details on this new version of Atlantis on the Betatesting page.

Release of Atlantis 1.6.5.6

Atlantis Word Processor 1.6.5.6 has been released.

This version of Atlantis Word Processor is a micro-update with critical bug fixes to the "Open DOCX" module of Atlantis. Click here for details.

There are multiple ways to upgrade your copy of Atlantis Word Processor to the latest version.

If you do not have Atlantis Word Processor on your computer yet, you can install this new version of Atlantis by running the latest setup file of Atlantis. Click here to download it.

Terminating support for the U3 platform

As previously announced, the U3 technology is no longer supported in Atlantis. Starting from the release of Atlantis 1.6.5.5, there will be no more updates to the U3-smart version of Atlantis Word Processor. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Note that even so, you'll still be able to install the standard version of Atlantis Word Processor on any memory flash drive, and use it from there.

Release of Atlantis 1.6.5.5

Atlantis Word Processor 1.6.5.5 has been released.

This version of Atlantis Word Processor is a maintenance release with bug fixes and minor improvements. Click here for details.

There are multiple ways to upgrade your copy of Atlantis Word Processor to the latest version.

If you do not have Atlantis Word Processor on your computer yet, you can install this new version of Atlantis by running the latest setup file of Atlantis. Click here to download it.

Micro-updates

We are announcing a change to the way fixes and other minor changes to Atlantis Word Processor get delivered to our users. Previously all the fixes and minor changes had to wait for the next beta version of Atlantis, and then after a period of betatesting, were released as a part of a new public version of Atlantis. As a result, you sometimes had to wait for weeks, maybe months to see a problem fixed.

From now on, there will be no more waiting. A minor update will be released publicly as soon as a problem is encountered and fixed, or a new minor feature is implemented in Atlantis. In this way, fixes will be available within days, sometimes even within hours of being reported, simply by updating your copy of Atlantis in any available way.

Note that the "bigger" changes and features introduced in Atlantis will still be released as beta versions for testing before proper official release.

Celebrating 10 years of Atlantis Word Processor!

Ten years ago, February 25 2001, Atlantis Word Processor 1.0 was released.

We want to thank everyone who has helped us along the way – our users and our betatesters, those who are with us since the beginning and those who only recently joined the Atlantis community. We want to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. Without you we would not be where we are now.

We are celebrating the 10th anniversary with a discount on the Atlantis registration fee.
If you have not registered your copy of Atlantis yet, you can now do this with a $10 discount. The reduced price will be available until the end of February 2011.
So hurry up to register your copy of Atlantis Word Processor.

Release of Atlantis 1.6.5.4

Atlantis Word Processor 1.6.5.4 is available as a public release.

This version of Atlantis introduces a new Navigation tool. It also includes a number of important fixes and improvements. Click here for details.

There are multiple ways to upgrade your copy of Atlantis Word Processor to the latest version.

If you do not have Atlantis Word Processor on your computer yet, you can install this new version of Atlantis by running the latest setup file of Atlantis. Click here to download it.

Adding phrases to the spellchecker dictionary

Most spellcheckers do a reasonably good job of detecting individual misspellings. But when it comes to checking full phrases, spellcheckers do not perform so well, including those found in top-end word processors.

Let's take a real life example.

Let's suppose that you regularly use popular Latin proverbs like "corruptio optimi pessima" (this is a Latin phrase meaning "the corruption of the best is the worst"). If you type this phrase in Atlantis, the spellchecker will red-underline all three words separately:


This is because none of them is present in the Atlantis spellchecker dictionary.

Now if you regularly insert this proverb in your texts, you won't like to see it systematically flagged as a misspelling. You have two ways to go about this.

The first solution will work with any spellchecker (including that of Atlantis). You simply add all the individual words from the phrase to the spellchecker dictionary ("corruptio", "optimi", and "pessima" in our example). In Atlantis, this is done by right-clicking the red-underlined words one after the other, and choosing "Add to Dictionary" from the context menu:


When all three words have been added, Atlantis will not report "corruptio optimi pessima" as a misspelling.

But there are drawbacks to this method. All the words that you add to the dictionary ("corruptio", "optimi", and "pessima" in our example) are treated by the Atlantis spellchecker as proper single words. They are not reported as misspelt if you use them separately. This can have undesirable consequences: if you mistype "corruption" as "corruptio", it might very well be a typo, but the Atlantis spellchecker will not notice because both "corruption" and "corruptio" are now in the spellchecker dictionary. And there is even worse. Atlantis might very well suggest any of these Latin words as possible replacements for misspellings that you make. These suggestions will probably be inappropriate most of the time.

So Atlantis offers you a much better solution with none of the above drawbacks. Instead of adding each word making up a phrase, —one after the other—, you can add the entire phrase to the Atlantis spellchecker dictionary at one go: simply right-click the first of the red-underlined words, and choose "Edit Dictionary..." from the context menu:


Then type or paste the phrase in the "Words" edit box:


Click "Add". "OK" out of the dialog.

From then on, Atlantis will not report the phrase "corruptio optimi pessima" as a misspelling. However, if you type any of these components separately (either "corruptio", or "optimi", or "pessima"), each will be reported as a possible misspelling (they will be red-underlined).

More ways to follow us

From now on you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Follow our tweets and the Facebook page to get our news, as they happen.

Release of Atlantis 1.6.5.4 (beta)

Atlantis Word Processor 1.6.5.4 is now available for betatesting.

Atlantis 1.6.5.4 is a maintenance release with a number of important fixes and improvements. It also includes a new Navigation tool.

You can find details on this new version of Atlantis on the Betatesting page.

U3: rather dead than alive

Microsoft Windows, the world's most popular operating system, has turned 25 this month. A quarter of a century has passed since the release of Microsoft Windows 1.0.

25 years is not much for a human being. But for a software, it is a quite impressive age.

Regrettably not every software project is that long-lived.

As you probably know, we have been offering a special portable version of Atlantis for U3-smart memory flash drives since 2007. Initially, the U3 technology looked quite promising. But, sadly, it does not show signs of life any more. The official site of the U3 technology, u3.com, has been a nearly dead link for months now. Visitors to "u3.com" are automatically redirected to a site completely unrelated to the U3 technology and which is still "under construction". Not the brightest prospects for the U3 project it seems...

Understandably, the developers of Atlantis Word Processor cannot keep supporting a technology already abandoned by its own creators.

We will keep releasing updates to the U3-smart version of Atlantis until mid-2011. Existing owners of U3-smart Atlantis will be able to pick up these final updates through the "Help | Check for Updates..." command of Atlantis. Then, we will stop offering the U3-smart version of Atlantis Word Processor altogether.

But, please, do not worry. Atlantis Word Processor still remains a fully portable application that you can install on any memory flash drive. Only Atlantis Word Processor will no longer support the discontinued U3 technology.

Release of Atlantis 1.6.5.3

Atlantis Word Processor 1.6.5.3 is available as a public release.

This version of Atlantis introduces a new document viewing option "Hide White Space". Click here for details.

There are multiple ways to upgrade your copy of Atlantis Word Processor to the latest version.

If you do not have Atlantis Word Processor on your computer yet, you can install this new version of Atlantis by running the latest setup file of Atlantis. Click here to download it.

Getting rid of section breaks, but not section formatting

Sections are a powerful mechanism to compose documents with complex page layouts. Formatting options like page margins, page orientation, note numbering, etc, which are normally document-wide, can be particularized for individual document fragments if you include these within specific sections.

Now at times you might want to do just the reverse operation, i.e. merge several sections into one. Most of the time, it will be because you want these sections to share a common format.

The simplest, and to many, the most obvious way to merge two neighbouring sections is by deleting the section break separating them:


Note that section breaks are special symbols displaying in Atlantis only when the "View | Special Symbols" mode is on.

Section breaks can be deleted like any other character in a document. You only need to click before the section break symbol, then press the Del key. This will merge the section above the section break with the section following it.

But then you might have some issues with the formatting properties found in the resulting section. This is because in such cases Atlantis automatically decides which of the two original sets of formatting properties is assigned to the merged section.

So now and again you will want to change this default behavior and tell Atlantis which of the two original sets of formatting properties you want to be used for the resulting section. This is done through the Sections panel of the Atlantis Control Board. Here is how to proceed:

First, click anywhere in the section whose formatting you no longer care to preserve. It will automatically become the "current" section for Atlantis.

Then make sure that the Atlantis Control Board is displaying (check the "View | Control Board" menu command or press F6 if necessary). Then click the "Sections" button at the top of the Control Board to display the Sections panel:


Two scenarios are possible here.

A. If you want the current section to be merged into the preceding section, click "Merge highlighted and previous section" at the bottom of the Sections panel:


The current and the preceding section will become one, using the formatting properties of the section that was originally placed before the section break.

B. If you want the current section to be merged into the next section, click "Merge highlighted and next section" at the bottom of the Sections panel:


The current and the next section will become one, using the formatting properties of the section that was originally placed after the section break.

Note that, in both cases, merging the two sections of course entails automatic removal of the section break that separates them.