The great thing about the Mac is its a computer. Yes, a Mac can do everything a Windows machine can and often better. This includes one of the world's most performed functions of a computer; word processing. Heck, I'm doing it now in one of the word processors listed below (I'll keep that private until the end of the list). You don't have to spend money to get a good application, though. A few in this list are free. I would like to make one note, though. I am not listing any applications whose installation requires anything more than dragging it to the Applications folder or running an installer. This list also isn't exhaustive and I'd not necessarily consider any of the individual entries an in-depth review. If that's all good with you, here we go:
- Microsoft Word 2008 (Commercial, US$499.95) Microsoft's Word is part of Microsoft Office:Mac 2008, a collection of office applications. Word is generally considered the de facto standard for word processors and most people who use word processors know how to use it. One nice thing about the Mac version is that its not the Windows version (Word 2007) which sports that stupid Command Ribbon.
- Apple Pages '09 (Commercial, US$79) Pages, like Word, comes as a part of Apple's iWork suite of applications. Pages is a fantastic word processor which has many of the features Word has, including Word file format support. Its also one heck of a lot cheaper. If you receive a file with a DOCX extension, the new file format for Word 2007/2008, Pages can open and edit that, too.
- Nisus Writer Pro (Commercial, US$79) Nisus Writer has been around since the early days of the Mac and still remains one of the best word processors which is Mac only. There is an Express version (US$45) but its the Pro version which brings its game to the table. Nisus Writer Pro has a load of powerful features for creative and functional document creation and control.
- Redlex Mellel (Commercial, US$49) If you are seeking a word processor with powerful multi-lingual support, Mellel is one of your top choices. According to Redlex, the makers of Mellel, the application is designed for scholarly, creative, and technical writers. Its feature set isn't as robust as Word, Pages, or Nisus, but it does have a powerful user interface and numerous nice features, not to mention a sweet price.
- Mariner Write (Commercial, US$49.95) Mariner Write has been around almost as long as Nisus and is also a pretty powerful word processor. Also like Nisus, Mariner Write is designed exclusively for the Mac and features a powerful, comfortable Mac user interface and a lot of quality capabilities.
- OpenOffice.org (Open Source, Free) The open source powerhouse has finally made its debut as a native Mac OS X application and its not too shabby, if I do say so. OpenOffice.org is an office suite which competes directly with Microsoft Office and is designed to be nearly an exact clone of Office 2003. The word processor component supports all of the features of Word 2003 and then some, and its free.
- Google Documents (Online, Free) If you're cool with going online to get your simple word processing fix, then Google's own Documents feature has a lot to offer. While it doesn't have advanced editing features, it does have some very powerful document management capabilities and works with Google's own Gears functionality which allows you to work with certain Google applications offline (and WordPress, for all you bloggers).
- TextEdit.app (Included in Mac OS X, Free) Let's not forget the one and only word processor which ships with Mac OS X and costs nothing at all. Sure, TextEdit is a rudimentary word processor, but it is capable of all basic word processing functions and is very reliable.
That's it for this edition of Word Processors for Mac OS X. Make sure that if you are going to purchase a word processor that you research what each product offers and select the one which gives you what you need. Oh, and please don't hesitate to mention anything I may have forgotten or was previously unaware of.
Comments
Nisus Writer Pro is described in the article as being around since the early days of the Mac, but I don't remember hearing about it until System 7 or 7.1, which would be around 1990 or ’91. It definitely was great at that time, though, because it was the only word processor that truly supported Unicode in WorldScript.
Microsoft Word, however, was indeed around from the early days of the Mac, being the word processor that we were using when Windows users only knew WordPerfect as their de facto standard, and long before PC users switched from DOS to Windows 3.1 and eventually Windows 95. Word 5.1a was the last decent version, though, and Microsoft hasn't made a stable or intuitive version since then.
I absolutely love Pages 4 (iWork ’09) and now use it full-time instead of Word, except when Pages doesn't support some elements of the imported Word document. I still have to rely on Mellel for Hebrew, but iWork handles my Japanese and Chinese quite well, despite the relative lack of support for non-Roman/Latin languages even compared to the very unstable and bulky Word 2008.
My bad, Andrew. Thanks for calling me on the carpet. I was recalling Nisus from the early days when they were called Paragon Courseware. That was in 1983. My recollection apparently tied them together. Nisus, which wasn't called Writer back then, was released for the first time in 1989. A quick check of the Nisus site clarified the dates on this.
Thanks again!
Just some comments...
Word 2008 for Mac is much worse than Word 2007 for Windows in fact... it uses far more memory (150 MB vs. 30 MB), it shows some formatting incompatibilities with documents saved in its Windows counterparts (seriously), it crashes more, it lacks Macros, and it does not work well with Spaces. Microsoft should have done a better job here. The Ribbon in Office 2007 is perhaps just a question of taste, but it works great for me.
Pages is not exactly a fantastic word processor. It does have great layout features, but it lacks key features such as cross-references. However, it is becoming better and better with the release of new versions. In fact, it is a great word processor/desktop publishing cross-over.
Nisus 1.0 was released in 1989. The "Writer" was only added in 1994. Nisus Writer Pro/Express is a brand-new word processor, for MacOS X, although it keeps the name of the old software.
You can't really say that the feature set of Mellel is less robust than Word, Pages or Nisus. It certainly lacks some important features (indexing, text wrap around text), but it has unique features found in no other word processor (the way it handles styles and cross-references, its tight integration with Bookends and Sente, great outlining). Different features, you might say, as Mellel is oriented towards academics, while Word is made primarily to the business environment and Pages to the home user. But not inferior features.
Never used Mariner Write, so I can't say a word about it. Gotta try it sometime.
OpenOffice.org Writer, you should have said (OpenOffice.org is the office suite, and we're talking word processors). It's OK, a Word 2003 wannabe, heavy and sluggish as Word 2008, but perhaps not with all of its features.
Google Docs: it's OK, but lacks many features.
TextEdit.app: c'mon, not an option at all.
You forgot to mention OpenOffice.org-based software such as Sun StarOffice, IBM Lotus Symphony and NeoOffice. There is also the open source AbiWord. And other Mac-specific programs such as Ulysses, Scrivener, etc. But your list is not exhaustive, so it's OK.
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