Word Processor
Developer: Nisus
Shareware: $45, $35 (Educational)
Version: 2.7
Release Date: 2006-06-09
Last Updated: 2007-02-06
Pros: Compatible with MS Word (saves in rtf); Multilingual (Unicode); Offers macro-scripting.
Cons: Lacks important features necessary for academic writing; Relatively slow; Outdated interface.
Description
Compared to its closest competitor Mellel, Nisus Writer Express lacks functionality as an academic word processor but comes with some features which can make it the tool of choice for certain purposes.
Nisus Writer Express has been around for a while and you
can partly tell from looking at the interface, which does
not convince through clarity. It does however feature a
drawer, where you can stack your palettes, and a reasonably
designed toolbar. It has the usual suspects of features any
serious word processor should have (columns, lists, tables,
notes - but no outlining!) as well as styles, which are
easy enough to use but do not offer the same flexibility as
they do in Mellel. On top of that there are these small
hidden gems which can make Nisus Writer Express a real
treat to use, such as paragraph sorting, great unicode
implementation, multiple clipboards, powerful
find-and-replace functions, macros and saving to RTF or
Word-format (including styles formatting).
Insofar Nisus Writer Express' feature list does not seem
to leave much to complain about, but unfortunately it is
their implementation and the absence of a very few but
crucial features, which gives away some of the software's
potential. One of Mellel's biggest strengths is its
outlining capabilities and these are completely missing in
the Nisus software. This does not matter when you write a
short letter, but any text with chapters and sub-chapters
would be a nightmare to edit without some kind of outline
panel. Nisus Writer Express also does not support citations
and TOCs, and while it does have footnotes, one cannot use
multiple note streams (e.g. 1,2,3,... and a,b,c,... as
separate streams) or tell exactly how much space of a page
should be occupied by footnotes.
The decision between Nisus Writer Express and Mellel can
be a difficult one. Generally, if you want to write a long
academic text or even a book or a thesis, then you should
stick to Mellel. But if you mainly write short texts which
require further editing on Windows computers, then Nisus
Writer Express might be the right word processor for you.
In any case, test and maybe even buy them both, as they are
both reasonably priced at $35 (educational) each.
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