We have had a busy week at Rhetoric.
In the last few days, we shortened the gap between Word and Rhetoric with respect to document formatting by adding support for images. We also tightened the interoperability story: default line spacing matches Word out of the box (1.15x), justified lines now reach all the way to the right edge of the content box (properly ignoring trailing spaces), letters are kerned so that pairs like AV sit just a bit closer together, and paragraphs support fine-grained placement rules like widow/orphan control and keep with next. Together, these changes mean that export to Word is going to give you a pixel perfect replica of what you see in Rhetoric.
We added a few quality-of-life features as well, like print support and an outline view; you can see the full release notes here. The thing I am most excited to show off this week though is the slash menu. If you have used Notion or Slack, you might be familiar with the concept already: type a slash ( / ) character in the middle of a document or chat box and get a list of contextually relevant commands.
This is what it looks like in action:
The slash menu gives you instant access to a list of all the cases you have already cited in the document, as well as an id. shorthand command to repeat the closest prior citation, all without leaving your keyboard. It also lets you define placeholder citations, for when you are in the zone and just need to drop a pin to come back to; placeholders are rendered with a distinct orange background so that they are hard to forget.
The slash menu allows you to express this rich context about citations and leverage the features that Rhetoric offers based on that context without picking up a mouse or interrupting your train of thought. It brings us that much closer to our vision of the ideal writing experience: one that is powerful and effortless at the same time.
Find your flow state again.
Until next time.
Peace.
Mustafa Moiz, Esq.
Co-founder & CEO, Rhetoric