Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
In 2005 , I reviewed Nisus Writer Express and gave it good marks , while noting that it may not appeal anyone who ask the pecker find in Microsoft Word . Since that review , Nisus has releasedNisus Writer Pro , and I have to admit that Nisus Writer Pro might really be able to court some exploiter aside from Word . Nisus Writer Pro competes with Word good than any word processor I ’ve check in a very foresightful time .
Express and Pro
For average writing , Nisus Writer Pro and Nisus Writer Express are equally equal to . Both have splendid penning surroundings with a sort of ways to see your writing . My favorite has always been full - cover survey , which removes menu and button from the screen and leave me alone with my thoughts ; but there is a WYSIWYG page eyeshot and window - breadth conscription view , if you favor .
Both programs have fantabulous support for paragraph and character styles for initialize your text systematically . I am a bit confused by the style that style sheet opinion in Nisus Writer Express and Pro replaces document - editing position . I prefer Word ’s access , but Nisus Writer ’s overture works , too . Both Express and Pro support page - layout rudiments such as multi - column sections , inline nontextual matter and introductory tables .
add together in powerful grep - base search tools , non - contiguous selection , supporting for non - Roman languages , canonical macro , and the ability to create your own keyboard shortcuts for about every carte du jour command , and either Nisus Writer Pro or Nisus Writer Express is a very attractive option for serious writers .
Creating a merge letter in Nisus Writer Pro 1.4 couldn’t be easier. In this example, data is going to be pulled from a merge (.mer) data file exported from FileMaker Pro 10, but Nisus Writer Pro 1.4 can access your Mac OS X Address Book directly.
Prose about Pro’s pros
If Express as salutary as Pro in all those respects , why would anyone bother with Pro ? Express is designed for students , business drug user , and , well , ordinary author ( which is to say , most users ) . Pro is designed for writing professional person and has the advanced text file management features that are required by users who are not just pen , but producing documents .
When it comes to coalesce tools , you may find that with Nisus Writer Pro you may not even need to take the documentation to blend . I found creating my first dim-witted merge document in Nisus Writer Pro much well-to-do than doing the same matter in Microsoft Word . It was a gingersnap to pull data from a single group in my Address Book ( or multiple choose groups , or all the disc ) , but it was only slightly more difficult to export a merge ( .mer ) file from FileMaker Pro or a comma - separate value ( .csv ) file from Excel . ( Tip : Use one - discussion placeholders , for example , FirstName or else of First Name . ) And like Word , Nisus Writer Pro can also infix placeholder free-base on the rating of conditions , although this take a wee piece of macro instruction coding . For the kinds of merges that most of my node have done over the years , Nisus Writer Pro does a terrific job and I ca n’t see how it could be made any gentle .
For scholars , Nisus Writer Pro offer hired man - in - baseball glove desegregation with the very pop citation management political program for Mac users , Bookendsfrom Sonny Software . Back in my old life-time as a university professor , I did all my bibliography and footnotes “ by hand . ” For this review , I tested Nisus Writer Pro 1.4 with Bookends 10.6.1 . While it did n’t make me languish to be cloistered once again in the inquiry library , I will allow that I was very impressed at how nicely the two programs sour together .
create a merge varsity letter in Nisus Writer Pro 1.4 could n’t be easygoing . In this example , data is going to be pulled from a merge ( .mer ) data file export from FileMaker Pro 10 , but Nisus Writer Pro 1.4 can access your Mac OS X Address Book directly .
Nisus Writer Pro also patronage note numbers ; auto - update variables for affair like date and prison term ; endnotes and footnote ; finding by text attribute ( for example , finding the next textbook in italics ) . And it can be program with macros written in Perl , if that sort of thing turns you on .
If you share your documents with anybody else , single file - format compatibility may be an important issuing . Fortunately , both Nisus Writer Pro and Express uphold one of Nisus ’s original 1989 strokes of genius — namely , saving document by default as RTF ( Rich Text Format ) . RTF is n’t proprietary and is supported by nearly all word processor and even by more basic programs like OS X ’s Text Edit program , so if you need to give a Nisus Writer Pro data file and the only program you have ready to hand is , say , Microsoft Word , you will be able to do it . ( In the early days , Nisus Writer “ Classic , ” as it ’s now call , used a textual matter data formatting . )
Nisus Writer Pro ( as well as Express ) also provide splendid meaning and export support for Microsoft Word ’s wide used .doc formatting . However , support for .docx , Microsoft ’s new Office Open XML file cabinet data format , is more special . Nisus Writer Pro can not write .docx file and .docx files imported into Nisus Writer Pro may recede complex initialise element such as footer . Nisus Software explained that they bank upon the Text Services prick built into OS X edition 10.5 and afterwards for spiritual rebirth of .docx file , so livelihood for .docx files might ameliorate on its own in the future if Apple strengthens this aspect of the OS .
Macworld’s buying advice
Nisus Writer Pro still is n’t Word , though , and for some user , this may still be a muckle breaker . Nisus Writer does n’t mix with Excel the room Word can , nor does Nisus Writer support change - trailing as in full as Word ( orOpenOffice.org ) . Nisus Writer ’s outlining options are less useful than Word ’s , and its Sir Frederick Handley Page - layout option are also not as across-the-board as those constitute in Word ( or Apple ’s Pages ) . Nisus Writer ca n’t generate a effectual table of citations and it lacks some of Word ’s very advanced tenacious - written document management feature .
For an dreaded deal of substance abuser , including users with modern document - yield needs , Nisus Writer Pro is a solid and very satisfactory option to Word , offer more than two - thirds of Word ’s feature film in an easier - to - use user interface , for about one - third the damage . In particular , for SOHO commercial enterprise users , and for postgraduate pupil and scholars using Bookends , Nisus Writer Pro 1.4 is an unvanquishable deal .
[ William Porter is a database applications developer and photographer who lives in Dallas , Texas . ]
