[KenDallas]

Greetings all,

I do a lot of writing and am looking for a robust word processor. Although I have been using Word, its just way too slow for large documents. I assume its slow due to all the functionality MS tried to add which are not really useful to 99% of the users.

I would love some comments about some of the more powerful word processors that I should consider that may be faster for large documents.

Thanks in advance.

[Jay Condon]

Try Nisus Writer or Mellel. Both offer free demos over at versiontracker.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by KenDallas:
Greetings all,

I do a lot of writing and am looking for a robust word processor. Although I have been using Word, its just way too slow for large documents. I assume its slow due to all the functionality MS tried to add which are not really useful to 99% of the users.

I would love some comments about some of the more powerful word processors that I should consider that may be faster for large documents.

Thanks in advance.

It depends upon what you need. I'm a word users, but for FAST documents, I use TextEdit. Call me old fashioned.

[Randman]

Yep, I also use Text Edit for when I'm writing articles. Afterward, I copy into Word and run it through grammar checks and compatability tests.

Mellel is a solid program, though.

[D'Espice]

You may also take a closer look at AppleWorks

[brettcamp]

The third prominent Word alternative (besides suites like AppleWorks and OpenOffice) is MarinerWrite. I've never tried it, nor AbiWord, but I have tried Mellel and liked it enough to consider buying it.

It's interesting to hear others here using TextEdit and then running the finished doc through Word for spellchecking. One prominent Mac writer, Charles Moore, recommends using Z-Write to better organize long documents, and then (if necessary) using something like Word at the very end to format it. I've heard of others doing the same with CopyWrite, iOrganize, AppleWorks and OmniOutliner.

Even those of us who have Word often find it so clunky or crash prone or slow that we'd prefer to use sleeker, more reliable alternatives. With so many functions like spellchecking and word counting now available via OSX Services and little free standalone programs, maybe the day's coming when a behemoth word processor that tries to be all things and does none well are coming to an end.

So if you already have Word, you might check out limited-function apps like CopyWrite, Z-Write and the others mentioned here, saving Word for final formatting. I think everything we've mentioned here so far costs less than $50, some quite a bit less.

Starting a year or so ago, I started saving all my word processing documents in rtf. That's what most of the programs I mention here use as a default or at least export format. That way, whenever you do make the switch, it'll be less trouble for whatever you settle on to open the docs you're creating now than converting from a proprietary format like .doc.

The things I really want in a WP are autospellchecking, word count, easy and intuitive formatting, and outlining that lets you see the outline and the text simultaneously, like Z-Write, CopyWrite, and Mellel's sections. (Since you say you use large documents, that section-navigating ability might make them useful to you.) From what I've seen so far, the one that offers the best combination of those is Mellel. But I might just use keep using something I already have, AppleWorks, and then do final formatting in Word.

Who knows, Apple might even overhaul AppleWorks or just keep gradually adding features to TextEdit as a stealth Word alternative -- enough to give Mac users a real alternative, but not enough to tick M$ off enough to stop developing Office for Macs. I doubt the current justice dept. would intervene in such an anticompetitive move, and it'd seriously damage Apple's credibility as a business platform.

[wataru]

I do light stuff in TextEdit. Long papers I do in LaTeX via TeXShop.

[VEGAN]

Mainly I use OpenOffice.org Java version! and LaTeX.
The latest OOo is pretty good. Check it out

[[APi]TheMan]

Originally posted by VEGAN:
Mainly I use OpenOffice.org Java version! and LaTeX.
The latest OOo is pretty good. Check it out

LaTeX makes use of a bunch of inline syntax to format stuff, right? I imagine you could make some pretty papers with that, no?

I've never gotten into TeX...

[RedHerring]

If you want to give AbiWord a try, a new version was just released (including an OSX version). There are still a few things missing from the Mac version, but I did a quick little formatting test of the new version and everything seemed to work just fine as far as sharing with Word users goes. The readme file that comes with it mentions the couple of things that aren't done yet.

Download Abiword 2.2.0 Here

Maybe that will work for you....

[VEGAN]

Originally posted by [APi]TheMan:
LaTeX makes use of a bunch of inline syntax to format stuff, right? I imagine you could make some pretty papers with that, no?

I've never gotten into TeX...

If you need to do (math) formulae, there's nothing like (La)TeX

[KenDallas]

Thanks everyone for your comments. I have heard a good bit about Tex and LaTex from many people. I personally have not gotten into it yet but have heard that its pretty cryptic. Is that true?

I am personally not opposed to learning a new piece of software as long as the learning curve is not too steep. As much I try to get away from Word its hard to get away from it altogether since majority of the people within the PC environment swear by it. Therefore, the program that I ultimately end up selecting should play nice with the �MS-Word� world. Is Tex or LaTex able to read/write Word filee?

[cpac]

If you need full Word compatibility, you should really just fork over for Office 2004 - it's actually not that bad a program

If you can get by with mostly-word compatible, then I'd go with Nisus Writer Express.

Finally, if you can deal with the imperfections of Open Office (whether through X11 or the Java version), you can't beat the price.

[Theodour]

My largest documents so far range between 20 and 80 pages, with TOCs and graphics (I have yet to do an index.)

OpenOffice.org (v. 1.1.2 in X11) performs just as well with a large paper like this as with a small one, and I find it easier to use than Word, ie. altering and accessing styles is quicker ... Word X for Mac makes this difficult (by default--you can customize this).

Word also performs well with this size document, but is a little more clunky, and slower with graphics.

Doing this in TeXShop is the fastest, but LaTeX is a markup language ... easier than HTML by far (for my type of paper--you could learn it in 10 min.), but still not WYSIWYG.

I've started works in both Nisus Writer (like it a lot so far ... but no TOC) and AbiWord (the latest 2.2 (?) is just amazing ... this will be the one to beat when they iron out the rest of the bugs) just to feel them out--jury is still out.

When I want something to both look good, with sharper layouts, plus the possibility of bell-and-whistle PDF export (with hyperlinked TOC and other links) I always bring it into InDesign (ver. 2), which imports RTF and .doc styles. It helps to make it a book file, and break chapters into files.

This is a slow performer (G4 533x2), and I had to fork out way too much money for a footnote-ing plug-in that only half works (Grrrr)-- but it flows text as well as TeX (the "leader" of typography) and can import AI and PSD files directly (OOo and Word don't do eps's so well, and can't do AI and PSD at all -- though AI are actually PDFs ... but I ramble), whereas TeX needs PDFs* for it graphic format.

Also, yet to do anything with it, but LyX (harnessing the power of TeX without the "markup") is supposed to be a great long-document tool.


*This is actually misleading, as it depends on what you are working on ... various "add-ons" and variations to the TeX universe can import many different things, I believe. TeX is unbelievably vast.

[bborofka]

Apple iWrite. Coming soon. I hope.

[wataru]

Originally posted by KenDallas:
Thanks everyone for your comments. I have heard a good bit about Tex and LaTex from many people. I personally have not gotten into it yet but have heard that its pretty cryptic. Is that true?

That depends a lot on how complicated your stuff needs to be. I've spend hours on end trying to figure out some things like inserting images and managing citations. But if all you need to do is a simple text document, it's pretty easy. Certainly no harder than HTML.

[madmacgames]

When I was looking for word alternatives I tried many. MarinerWrite I by far liked the best, but they did not yet support TOC, which I needed. So I just of MS Office. The buy from Mariner Software told me that they were working on TOC support. I'm not sure if they have successfully implemented it yet or not.

*edit* TOC support is not scheduled until version 4 of MarinerWrite (Q1 2005 they told me).

[brettcamp]

Here's a recent article that sketchily covers most of the major Word alternatives.

[D'Espice]

Nice article but needs an update

Btw, I just downloaded and tried AbiWord and it's surprisingly sluggish compared to Office v. X and especially compared to AppleWorks or Mellel. Don't really understand why but typing lags a bit.

[threestain]

Just to resurrect an old thread.

AbiWord is alright now in 2.3.5, but still a bit buggy. As in all the lines are ripped and it doesn't work very well overall.

But hey what do you expect with unstable versions?

[brettcamp]

I tried 'em all over the last few weeks and finally went with Mellel, primarily for the terrific outlining feature (great for navigating through long docs), superb text rendering, clean interface, and supportive developer and community. AbiWord proved unstable on my Powerbook and lacked a few features. NeoOffice was surprisingly good in its latest revision, but is still a bit slow and lacks proper outlining. I'd use it over Word, though, and it keeps getting better and more Mac-like. Mellel is soon to release version 2, which will add new features and probably a price increase. You can download a 30 day demo at redlers.com.

[threestain]

Mellel is really really, really unintuitive. I can't even make it change fonts when I want to. It does look very pretty, but it also is annoying and stops my flow. Which is slow enough at the best of times, let alone when I'm fighting Word's evil twin.