First Look: Nisus Writer Express 2.0. Write Now With Class.

Continued from Page 1…

There’s three main areas to Nisus Writer Express. First, the writing window (duh). This is where you spend most of your writing time so it needs to be simple and not cluttered. It should also reflect exactly what’s going to print out (a problem I still have with Microsoft’s Word and AppleWorks—WYSIWYG isn’t always the case). With NWX2, it does.

The tools you need aren’t buried among 14 levels of buttons, menus, and nested menus. They’re right there, laid out in a logical (for writers, anyway) form.

Second, the top toolbar area ,which can hold plenty of tools so a wide screen Apple Cinema Display, comes in handy. The list is impressive but you control what goes where: copy, cut, paste, redo, rulers, save, undo, print, insert table, and so on. Think of the top toolbar as the basics. Everyone needs these tools just to get something written and formatted.

Click the Tools icon and the tools window pane pops out to the right; the third area of tools.

The side window pane is where you’ll find the rest of the formatting tools. There’s plenty and they’re context sensitive, too.

Formatting
This shows font family, font options (bold, italics, size), paragraph options (line spacing), and borders for sections of text and tables. This is much easier than Microsoft’s Word. Below that are shading, headings, and other styles. Both graphic icons and text are used to describe each function. Small “grabber” handles allow you to move Formatting sections up or down, revealing more features.

Sections
Now we’re getting more advanced yet all these functions are one click away. Your document can be broken into sections, header and footer. Margins are controlled here, too, including the all-important gutter. Multiple columns? They’re a cinch.

Tables
Yes, how about tables? This is an area of using the window pane tools that make writers happy. There are multiple ways to do the same thing. Tables can be selected and modified with easy-to-understand icons. Format an entire table if you wish. Or only sections, and cells. Add borders, change fonts, add and delete headings. The whole Tables menu is one click away.

Writing
This is a more advanced context sensitive menu that contains the NWX2 Thesaurus, a Styles section (set up your own styles, implement them with a single click), paragraph formatting, and one of my all time favorites—stats. Character count, word count, paragraph count.

The User-Defined Styles section lets you create a pre-determined style so everyone in the office can use it (am I suggesting that MS Office can be replaced? Think about it…). Each style carries its own properties of text, attributes, and so on. Click, and you’ve got style.

Those are the basics. How does Nisus Writer Express “feel”?

Well, it feels good, comfortable, as if everything is where it’s supposed to be. Having come from years of Word and AppleWorks use, it didn’t take long to recognize that Nisus put lots of time into figuring out how to make NWX2 “feel” good to the user.

NWX2 also feels quick, but I’m biased. My Mac is a new dual 2.5 ghz PowerMac and everything feels quick these days. One thing I’ll say right away is how quickly files open in Nisus Writer Express. My Mac tends to open everything quickly, but file opens for NWX2 RTF files were even faster than AppleWorks, and faster than Word.

Nisus did such a good job creating a steady, simple learning curve that it’s easy to forget how much raw power is in NWX2. Features I didn’t expect in a word processor for $60. For example, there’s both File and Template support for Microsoft Word documents and Templates.

What else? Language.

Of course, Mac OS X makes language use a breeze and Nisus brings it all together. Pick a language. All the ones that I can’t speak are right there, just a click away. Little touches like language sensitive Smart Quotes and automatic typo fixing (lordy do I ever need that). A click away.

Imagine that. A language palette.

The old Nisus Express for OS X had a klunky interface for a feature most of use often; search and replace. I’m happy to report that not only is Search and Replace back to where it “feels” good, it also works well.

What’s missing? I’m one who writes constantly and there’s not much. A few items popped out right away. The side window pane needs icons and text to define Formatting, Sections, Tables, Writing instead of the pull-down menu. That saves time and brings the potential tools to mind visually rather than after a click.

What else? Automatic line numbering would be handy, but I’m using BBEdit for coding, so that’s more of a nit. Footnotes and Endnotes required some effort to find (for those who publish documents and want to create the nearly finished document on the fly as they work).

I’d also like to see a small section in the menu bar that’s always visible and displays stats. Now, the stats list is in the Writing section of the window pane, and down at the bottom (easy to move, though). However, it updates the stats (words, characters, paragraphs) in real time. Sweet.

After using the pre-release version of NWX2, I’m convinced that Nisus didn’t miss much. This is not a kitchen sink word processor (can you say “Microsoft Word”). It’s an elegantly designed, pleasant-to-use, thoughtfully intuitive application that’s fast, efficient, and comes with more true “word processor” features than most users require.

For a writer, Nisus Writer Express 2.0 is a worthy addition to your Mac and worth every penny.

Click Here to review the Nisus Writer Express details page.

Got a need for more specialized word processing? Click Here to review the Best Mac Text Editor on the Planet.

Do you write more email than anything else? What email application do you use. Click Here for a review of the Best Mac Email Program on the Planet.

We’re a planetized group, aren’t we?