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The Top 10 List Of Word Processors For Mac Users
A few dozen, apparently. I made a list of all the Mac word processors I knew, then did a search online and came up with a dozen more. Word processing is alive and well on the Mac. Here’s a list of 10 of the best, some free. Is your favorite on the list? Of all the applications we use on our Macs, word processors may be the category with the broadest definition, and the most personal of anything we do on the Mac. What is a word processor? Is the popular text editor BBEdit a word processor? Is Apple’s TextEdit, included in OS X, a word processor? Let me say no to each. Arguably, BBEdit is a text editor, not a word processor. There is a difference. Generally speaking, a text editor is used for creating code, whether it be HTML, CSS, PHP, or some other programming language. Text editors, at least traditionally, don’t fall into the category of word processors because of different objectives and functionality. One writes code, the other writes words. What about TextEdit? I won’t include that on the list, though it is popular and used by many Mac users as a poor man’s substitute for Microsoft Word or Apple’s Pages. Why isn’t it a word processor? It’s very short on features and ease of use, and is put to shame on both counts by even free word processors. For this list I’ll also avoid including Word and Pages. Both are popular, both are used as word processors, and adequately so. What else is out there? Even I’m surprised at what I dug up, both from the standpoint of flexibility and features, as well as the breadth of usage.
#10 - Bean It’s more than TextEdit and far less than Word or Pages, not even giving you footnotes or pre-defined style sheets. It’s only partially compatible with Word’s file format. Did I mention it’s free? #9 - Schreiben #8 - Scrivener It’s an outliner, a project cork board, exports in most popular formats, has a full screen mode and great at managing multiple writing projects. #7 - CopyWrite It comes with a full screen editor, notes drawer, project export, and a somewhat simple but efficient writing mode (the word processor). #6 - Jer’s Novel Writer There’s an automatic outliner, a full screen mode, margin notes, word count, page count estimates, chapter organization, and a database which makes searches a breeze. #5 - Story Mill Story Mill is elegant, highly Mac-like, and features something writers truly love—a timeline view. Track scenes, characters, locations, and the whole creative process. #4 - AbiWord This is an elegant, though somewhat antiquated word processor full of multi-platform goodness. It’ll run on Macs, Windows, Linux, and more esoteric operating systems such as QNX, Solaris, or FreeBSD. AbiWord handles many file formats from Word to HTML, Word Perfect to RTF, and more. The feature set and price make it a good choice for the casual non-pro writer.
#3 - MarinerWrite Feel is one thing, functionality is another. Mariner Write should feel cramped with all the features, but isn’t. Mariner seems to specialize in writing tools, including dictionaries, screen writing software, journaling software, and novel writing (StoryMill). #2 - NisusWriter Both are popular, both have been around awhile. Express is more limited in features but still does basics like bullets and numbering, tables, floating graphics, widow and orphan control, glossaries, hyphenation and much more, including the ever present full screen mode. NisusWriter Pro does all that and more, including full infringement on Microsoft Word’s feature territory. Comments, mail merge, table of contents, indexing, bookmarks, line numberng and much more. If you write for a living, NisusWriter’s twin offerings are a good example of elegance and feature set. #1 - Mellel Mellel is highly dependable, compatible with many document formats, can handle documents of over 1,000 pages, comes with automatic back up, style sets, templates, keyboard shortcuts, an outliner and multiple views. All the basics are included in my favorite word processor, too, from pages and section capability, to auto titles, hyphenation, even right to left writing capability for Hebrew, Arabic, Persian and other languages. Word processors may be the most personal of all Mac applications. We like what we like, what we’re comfortable using, and what gets the job done. Changing word processors is like leaving town in the dark. On foot. In the rain. It’s not a comfortable experience. What did I miss? What’s your favorite Mac word processor? Share your experience with other readers in the Comment section below. Off Topic Note: Are you ready for a new web site that’s all about Apple? AppleHits covers the Mac, iPhone, iPod, and everything else that’s a hit at Apple. Click here for AppleHits. Also, I’ve updated the Mac360 Store with over 100 new categories—More Macs, more iPods, more Mac books, more software. Click Here and select any category for more detail, or use the handy search function. Whenever you buy from Amazon through the Mac360 Store you help support Mac360. Finally, here’s a few questions for Mac users: (1) What’s the world’s fastest browser? (2) What’s the best notebook for Mac users? (3) What’s a good back up strategy for your Mac? • Article by Alexis Kayhill • Published on Monday, October 6, 2008
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Talk Back to the folks at Mac360 Franklin McCoy says:
Do any of the 10 word processors listed have grammar check and the ability to make and read track changes made in MS Word? Th — Posted on Tue Oct 07 at 1:14 pm by Franklin McCoy
Craig Turner says:
Nisus is the standard I hold to with word processing. An elegant and versatile word processor I recommend to my teaching/scholar friends who need its power. I use Scrivener to develop and brainstorm my initial manuscripts, then pour into Nisus for final edits and formatting. Connect to Bookends for footnotes and bibliographies and it’s done. — Posted on Tue Oct 07 at 8:26 am by Craig Turner
Mister Ron says:
Even with Microsoft Word on my dock, my WP of choice is usually Tex-Edit Plus. Fast, fast, fast!—and easy to use, with virtually any feature you can hope for in a Word Processor. It’s been around for a long time, and the product has evolved over the years to a robust, full-featured program, without the perplexing quirks of MS Word… — Posted on Mon Oct 06 at 9:09 pm by Mister Ron
mr. wonderful says:
Doesn’t that describe Adobe Acrobat? If you need the feature you got to pay the price. It’s from Adobe. It’s not cheap. — Posted on Mon Oct 06 at 8:00 pm by mr. wonderful
Stevew says:
I was checking out word processors recently and ironically the one feature that was a ‘must have’ for me wasn’t available in any of them. That feature was to be able to output to .pdf and have the table of contents provide links to the different pages in a document. The links should not be underlined in blue or have any such visible markings. Apple doesn’t provide this in its frameworks so printing to pdf doesn’t work for this task. Does anyone know of any such app? — Posted on Mon Oct 06 at 5:57 pm by Stevew
Ian Betteridge says:
And the irony of WriteNow not making it to OS X, is that its original debut was on the NeXT Cube. I believe it was actually bundled with the first NeXT machines too. — Posted on Mon Oct 06 at 12:27 pm by Ian Betteridge
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