[powermacj7]

Has anyone used Nisus Writer Express? I have been using it, and have to say it seems like a nice app. Seeking other people's feedback on their experience with it.

[AmericanPsych0]

I haven't used it a great deal, yet, but from the school papers and stuff I've made with it thus far, it's great. There are a few things I don't like much, like when you go to the next line, change the format, type a bit, erase it all, and it goes back to the old formatting (from the line above). But it's great, I actually like the little tray it has, the fact that you can customize it is great (though I haven't taken advantage of this as much as I would've liked) and it's just a great program in general.

[Shades of Gray]

I had used Nisus Writer in OS 9 for many years. Liked it, but not the tables.

I moved everything to OS X on my new eMac in June of this year. I upgraded MS Office to 2004 (some specific needs), but for word processing I was not happy. I began using Mellel and liked it, for many reasons. But some of the limitations were enough to make me continue looking. Once Nisus Writer Express moved to 2.0, I began to see promise of what the old Nisus could do (even though it is not technically a replacement for Nisus Writer).

With 2.1 and the improvements in speed, the addition of tables, etc, NWE is now my primary word processor. Yes, there are a few things that I would like to see implemented. But for my work with theological articles (Hebrew, Greek, German, Latin, and English) I am finding much to like about NWE. The closest is still Mellel, but for my style of working, adjustments, etc. NWE is my choice.

[midwinter]

Originally posted by Shades of Gray:
I had used Nisus Writer in OS 9 for many years. Liked it, but not the tables.

I moved everything to OS X on my new eMac in June of this year. I upgraded MS Office to 2004 (some specific needs), but for word processing I was not happy. I began using Mellel and liked it, for many reasons. But some of the limitations were enough to make me continue looking. Once Nisus Writer Express moved to 2.0, I began to see promise of what the old Nisus could do (even though it is not technically a replacement for Nisus Writer).

With 2.1 and the improvements in speed, the addition of tables, etc, NWE is now my primary word processor. Yes, there are a few things that I would like to see implemented. But for my work with theological articles (Hebrew, Greek, German, Latin, and English) I am finding much to like about NWE. The closest is still Mellel, but for my style of working, adjustments, etc. NWE is my choice.

I'm with you. There are still some annoying things about NWE (lists, etc.), but it's showing a tremendous amount of promise.

[Mr Heliums]

It's excellent, certainly the best Mac application I've bought this year. I use it to work on documents that originate from PC environments, and I've never had a problem with it when passing stuff back and forwards.

[Cadaver]

If you're dependent on 100% importability of complex Word documents, there are still issues with both Nisus Writer and Mellel, though that's no ones fault but Microsoft's. However, for general word processing, Nisus 2.1 does a fine job.

I've paid for both Mellel and Nisus, and they both do a good job. I find Nisus more intuitive to use, and prefer its standard Aqua interface to Mellel's metal (with unique metal palette) interface. I also prefer Nisus' use of .rtf as its standard format compared to Mellel's proprietary format - I don't have to remember to export something to .rtf if I'm going to send it to a Windows user or a Mac user using some other application.

[powermacj7]

After using for a few days, here is my impression.
I like it overall. I find the fonts are smooth and vivid. The side drawer is somewhat an annoyance, not really. The page layout view is great for my purposes. It has just the feature I need, it appears not to be overdone. Although I could not find a way to insert bullets into a section. I am leaning toward purchasing it after the demo period. Thanxs for the all input.

[kcmac]

Without bullets and numbering, it is useless to me. The app overall will be very nice someday.

Seems Nisus bought Okito Composer about 2 years ago when they decided for the Cocoa rewrite. I just don't see that much progress. Whenever you ask for a feature, like bullets, they say it is at the top of their list for the next non maintenance release.

Yeah, they've been saying that for 2 years.

You really can't expect any of the word processors to match Word in compatibility. Word can't even match other versions of Word.

Maybe in another year or two Nisus will be more usuable for me. Maybe by then Apple will have something even better.

Until then, I will use Word when I have to and TextEdit for the remainder of the time.

[midwinter]

Originally posted by kcmac:
Until then, I will use Word when I have to and TextEdit for the remainder of the time.

Let me get this straight: you're complaining that NWE is "useless to you" and yet then you go on to say that you'll just use the far less powerful TextEdit?

[kcmac]

Instead of plunking down $60, yeah. I'll keep using TextEdit.

[brettcamp]

The third Word alternative I keep hearing about is Mariner Write, though I haven't tried it myself. Maybe someone else here can compare it to Nisus etc.
I've been trying out Mellel and have been impressed so far, though not sure yet if I'll actually buy it, since I do have Word and AppleWorks already.

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by brettcamp:
The third Word alternative I keep hearing about is Mariner Write, though I haven't tried it myself. Maybe someone else here can compare it to Nisus etc.
I've been trying out Mellel and have been impressed so far, though not sure yet if I'll actually buy it, since I do have Word and AppleWorks already.

I'm not fond of Mariner Write's UI, personally. I tried the demo version, but didn't buy it.
I prefer Mellel and Nisus Writer personally.