Which word processor (aside from Scrivener) do you primarily rely upon?
Abiword
Bean
Mariner Write
Mellel
Microsoft Word
NeoOffice/OpenOffice Writer
Nisus Writer Pro/Express
PageHand
Pages
Other
0voters
I’m interested in what word processor people primarily rely upon (excluding Scrivener of course).
I was using Mellel primarily (despite its quirky interface, it is a very powerful word processor) but my hard drive died on me, thus, I lost my copy of Mellel (and I’m outside the two year free upgrade thing and I didn’t have a backup copy). Since I didn’t want to spend more money on a word processor, I’ve been using OpenOffice/NeoOffice.
I used to use WordPerfect 3.5 (which had a superb easy-to-use interface), but when I got my Intel-based MacBook, it was easier to switch to another word processor than go through the hassle of an emulator.
(I was unsure as to whether I should include Bean as it is often seen as a text-editor rather than a word processor. But it seems to border between text editor and word processor (and I’ve seen it has been advertised as a word processor!))
Have you tried contacting RedleX regarding your situation? If you have your original information, they might be able to hook you up with an older version. If you have a lot of .mellel files hanging around, that would certainly be the easiest option. I don’t know of anything else that reads that format.
For myself, I voted other. I sometimes use Mellel as well, but more often I use LyX or just a text editor and the LaTeX engine. That’s kind of stretching the definition of “word processor” though.
I have tried both Mellel and Nisus Pro. What I did like about Mellel was its way of treating styles and how easy the formatting would change across the entire document. That said, however, I much prefer NisusWriter Pro for its interface and ease of everyday formatting, without having to set an official style for it (although there’s no limit to the style you do want to add and save for future projects).
I found myself getting much too frustrated with Mellel and it reliance upon styles to do even simple formatting commands like headers and footers!
Shrumpkin, in my experience Mellel doesn’t penalise you for straying out of style. Using the palettes you can adjust everything there is to adjust about the character or paragraph attributes of a range of text. The only thing that happens is you get a little black diamond in the style guide, which indicates you have customised the base style and that the text is no longer linked to anything central.
Here’s another vote for Nisus Pro. I tried my best to love Mellel, like when you enter a marriage of convenience, but we never hit it off. Then I had a blind date with Nisus and fell in love. She seems to be able to read my mind; she willingly does all I ask of her and more.
Mellel is now my ex and we tend to avoid one another…
I had to choose Word.
Not because I want to, but I have yet to find any other software that handles Word documents as well. And since I have to use Word docs for my University, fidelity is important.
For myself, I tend to use Pages, especially for anything where presentation is important (e.g. information sheets for clients). Almost my main WP, but not quite.
I haven’t liked the other WPs I’ve tried enough to justify the price (or the lack of compatibility with University requirements). I’m open to persuasion, but so far, Word still wins
Note: if Word followed Mac UI like “native” apps (e.g. Cmd-Shft-S does nothing in Word) I might not even consider alternatives. But it doesn’t, and the discrepancy bugs me every single time I use it.
Used (and loathed) Word for years, then tried Mellel. Never quite got the hang of it. TextEdit was simpler and cleaner. Once Scrivener came along, it and TextEdit were all I needed. Briefly flirted with iText before Bean appeared; now, the latter is all I need except when I deal with footnotes, paleolithic editors, or the rare occasions when I need change tracking and/or greater MS Word compatibility; that’s when I trundle out Pages, which came bundled with my Mac. In general that means using Pages with my book (my coauthor uses Word and footnotes), and Bean with my magazine journalism and everything else. I’d happily use TextEdit if it provided live word count (there are add ons that do that), easy highlighting (there’s a workaround for that, too) and first line auto naming when saving a new document. Bean is really quite nice (it tends to crash occasionally but saves everything so functionally it doesn’t really matter; you just reopen it and all your work’s still there), the price is right, and of course there’s the whole coffee connection with Lit & Latte. So I’d give it a try first and see if it’s enough for your needs.
I’m a Nisus Pro man, through and through. I do resort to Pages if I have a word doc to edit with complex tables in it — that’s the only point at which NWP gives me problems. I also have Neo and OpenOffice as a back-up for when I occasionally get an .odt and for the rare occasions when I have to turn a Keynote presentation into a PowerPoint <ugh!> presentation, as it means checking fonts, transitions, etc. etc.
Mellel just didn’t work for me because of Chinese, and the convenience of Nisus having RTF as its native format wins hand down, as well as the interface.
My four pieces of software that get used extensively every day are:
Scrivener
Nisus Writer Pro
Tables (Spreadsheet)
OmniWeb.
My word processor of last resort is Papyrus. I use the Author version which has a lot of special features for, exactly, authors. Not the most beautiful word processor in the world (this might be Pages), but indispensable as soon as you’re in the rewriting phase, especially if you write in German (as I happen to do).
I voted for Pages, because that’s what I use when I need to open and edit .doc files. However, I am fond of plain text editors, and I’m now trying out myTexts, which offers the distraction-free environment of WriteRoom, but with some nice organizing features:
I’ve used Word since V1.01, and although I can’t say I especially like it, I can say that I haven’t found anything else that works as well with other Word users–important to me, because half of my time is spent editing works written by other Word users. Like English, .doc is the default communications mode, and nothing else I’ve tried arrives safely in InDesign with so few wounds.
My own stuff is all written in Scrivener almost to the point of submission, and then I port to Word and do a final edit and reformatting. I’ve tried Word replacements of various sorts, but none so far has been worth the trouble. This goes for updating from Word 04 to Word 08 or whatever it was. I didn’t see what I’d gain.
For quick documents and exchange, NWP works well. For those times that don’t, I use NeoOffice/OpenOffice.
For theological papers, Mellel is premier for me (Hebrew support is essential, which leaves out Word). With the recent announcement (Aug 04, 2010) of changes, Mellel looks to improve considerably in the future.
Four years ago I published a book using Papyrus. I tested the German version and found enough I could manage (took German 45 years ago!); eventually bought the English version, and in three months I had the first draft completed, with about 100 photos. Flawless, but not always intuitive, and it never crashed. With Hebrew, I can type the individual words correctly, but not two consecutive words with proper order (confirmed with developer), so it can’t become my primary theological word processor.
I had used MS Word from 1990-2002 (which progressively got worse with each upgrade), but never fully used the OS X versions. I had hoped MS Office 2011 would support RTL, but alas, not to be.
Word. I only use it for a few minutes every month or so – mostly to send out invoices – so it hasn’t been worth my while to investigate alternatives. Plus a client wanted me to have the current version badly enough to pay for it, so it was free.
That is still too expensive for my anti-MS tastes. But then again I am fortunate to have a employer supplied Winblows system that gets choked by Word and cronies.
I use Pages, but that is only because I don’t really make a living at my writing. If I did I would be much thinner due to starvation. Something about actually being able to complete a project and type coherent sentences.
Word. No choice really. None of my publishers or coauthors will work with anything else. This is for the final versions or for comments. All my real work is done in Scrivener.
In a thread in this forum in October 2008, it was suggested that an English version of the Autor software was under development. It would be good to hear about that when it comes out.
(What you modestly don’t mention above, Andreas, is that Papyrus Autor is based largely on your ideas… )
“based largely” is exaggerated. I just gave some input from the view of a writer, plus I donated a methodology for improving the self editing/rewriting process I had developed over the years during the seminars I gave. In exchange for this donation I got a program that applies this methodology automatically, which is a big improvement over having to do a lot of preliminary work by hand. But “Papyrus” was already a powerful and intelligent application when I first met it.
BTW, the guys who created Papyrus have originally invented the way misspellings are signalized today everywhere - these small red underlinings.
Vic-k downloaded Mellel over a year ago. He opened up the Mellel guide, saw there was over 300 pages, and went into denial. He sat in his chair, immobilised, shut down to the rest of the world. Fortunately, his swivel his chair had wheels, so it was an easy task for the female human to wheel him into a corner, out of our way, while we used Bean, to pander to our authorial needs…as always.
Do take care
Fluff
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