15 replies to this topic

[rinodattilo]

I am just curious to see what most of you use. Though I use Word mostly I have been giving Pages a try. There are a lot of things that I like about Pages, also since we went to using and loving Keynote - Pages looks and acts pretty much the same. For a v1 it is really nice but there are things that I wish it did different - which I know it will when they upgrade it.

I am not a MS basher per say, but I do like the feel and look of the apple apps.

Would love to hear you choice and why.

[R. Mansfield]

I still use Word 2004, although the Unicode issue frustrates me. That has made me branch out and try other programs including Pages and Mellel, but neither are as full-featured as Word enough to make me switch (yet).

Granted, I don't need ALL the fetures of Word, but it can be frustrating when you're using one of these other programs and suddenly it won't do the little things that Word will do.

But I'll keep watching these other programs in hopes that they improve. I think Mellel 2.0 should come out any day now.

The only program on the Windows platform that I'm ever envious of is Nota Bene. I've asked them before if they ever plan to create a Mac version, but so far, they don't. But can you imagine the possibilities of using Accordance and Nota Bene together? That would be a powerful combination.

[miqraot]

I'm a Mellel User.
The reason why I use Mellel is only for Hebrew, because Mellel supports Multi-Language without any problem.

In my case, I am usually using Hebrew (Right to Left writing).
MS-Word doesn't support Hebrew language system completely.
Often the word order of Hebrew is changed.

Actually, I agree that MS-Word is a very advanced application in MAC and PC.
But, If one who want to type Hebrew, he cannot reach what he want with MS-Word in MAC.

Edited by miqraot, 20 September 2005 - 04:55 PM.

[Roger]

I us MS Word, becuause it's fairly decent, and mostly because the Mission Board's home office uses MS Office. I defected from the Windows camp about six years ago, and my only regret is that IBM's Lotus SmartSuite is not available for Mac! It is so far superior to the MS Office Suite, that I have no idea (other than marketing) why MS Office remains so strong, when a much better option is available at a much better price.

[R. Mansfield]

I think you can blame that squarely on IBM. They don't seem to have marketed Smartsuite in years, let alone updated it. Thus they have abandoned the venerable Lotus 123 and WordPro (which was originally AmiPro, the first Windows word processor). Then today, I read that IBM is putting its resources behind a brand new office suite: http://blogs.zdnet.c...887&tag=nl.e539

Unless it is a major update (which I doubt), I think they have abandoned SmartSuite altogether.

[Chris]

I'm a Mellel user. I found Word too advanced and it keeps telling me what to do! Mellel is a much smaller app and does what it does extremely well. I still use Word form time to time, for me Mellel's lack of columns (which I'm told are coming soon) is a bit of a pain, but I find it crashes on me far too oftern (about once an hour, often when accessing the HD). I'm running Office 2004 with the update - anyone else find this?

[Graham]

I have to admit to being very unwilling to install MS Office. I used the first version for OS X, and that was enough for me! One problem is because the version I used did not support Services I couldn't use the Service available for 'Remove multiple spaces' which I find essential when quoting from things like Psalms.
Pages I really like, but I wish they would allow style selection via the keyboard, which would make it faster. I haven't had a problem with it, but that is a minor irritant.
I have Mellel, and have hopes the future - I like the interface and the support is good, but I need columns which I understand is on the way.
Nisus Writer Express is for some reason my real favourite. I think I like the interface and the RTF native format. It has irritated me in the past because there were a few too many bugs, but the latest version (2.5) seems fine.

[R. Mansfield]

Contrary to what I posted on August 1, Mellel has been growing on me, and I've been using it almost exclusively for the past few weeks.

[Helen Brown]

Nisus Writer Express is for some reason my real favourite. I think I like the interface and the RTF native format. It has irritated me in the past because there were a few too many bugs, but the latest version (2.5) seems fine.

The big question for many of our users is how does Nisus handle right-to-left Hebrew text. I heard that it was not doing so in the early release, but has improved. Any comments from those who use it?

[Graham]

The big question for many of our users is how does Nisus handle right-to-left Hebrew text. I heard that it was not doing so in the early release, but has improved. Any comments from those who use it?

I don't have Hebrew, so I can't answer directly. However, this is from the Nisus Writer Express Help file:

Nisus Writer Express supports writing in English (or other European Romanic languages), or in a mixture of these languages and English or other European Romanic languages. It supports writing in languages where the shape of the alphabetic character changes depending on its position in relation to other characters (Thai). It also supports writing in languages where writing is syllabic or ideographic rather than alphabetic such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Due to limitations in Bidirectional text handling in Panther, full Bidirectional text manipulation is available in Nisus Writer Express version 2.5 only when run in Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) and above.

Nisus Writer Express supports Unicode, which means it can mix and match characters from any language.

It would be interesting to know if any Hebrew users have tried NWE 2.5.

[Freddie L]

The only thing that keeps me from going all Pages are Templates, Templates, Templates. I know it is just a word processor but they need to make it a suite. Then I would use it for everything from small lables to invoices. One Template for each category is not enough, when Word has like 5 or 6 per category.

[DavidKrishef]

I use Nisus. I have never used Mellel, because the file format was not easily compatible with Word -- and hey, like it or not I have to share documents with the PC-MSWord world. I understand that Mellel 2.0.1 is more compatible with .rtf, but NisusWriter Express uses a native .rtf file format, so it is completely compatible with Word. Nisus 2.5 handles right to left Hebrew beautifully (OK - there are a few quirks in mixed language text), but it is a functional and easy to use Word Processor, less expensive than the bloated overpriced MSOffice package, and being developed by a team of very responsive engineers (including a rabbi, which makes tech support for Hebrew so much easier).

David Krishef

[R. Mansfield]

The only thing that keeps me from going all Pages are Templates, Templates, Templates. I know it is just a word processor but they need to make it a suite. Then I would use it for everything from small lables to invoices. One Template for each category is not enough, when Word has like 5 or 6 per category.

Have you thought about converting Word templates to Pages?

[Steve Raine]

Hi folks--

What is the best/easiest way to make Mellel-created docs accessible on Word?

Thanks,
Steve

[Martin Shields]

What is the best/easiest way to make Mellel-created docs accessible on Word?

This is probably a question better placed on the Mellel forum, but the answer is to Export the document from Mellel as an RTF file (in Mellel, choose "Export" from the "File" menu and select RTF) and then open that in Word. Although there is also a "Word" export option, I think RTF produces more reliable results.

[miqraot]

Hi folks--

What is the best/easiest way to make Mellel-created docs accessible on Word?

Thanks,
Steve

There is the option which you want in Mellel.
[File]-[Export]-[Word Format]

Good Luck.