![]() An ongoing war broke out between two factions. Then, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, research groups at MIT and Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center began to develop the tools that fleshed out the graphical user interface of workstations like the Xerox Star and, later, the Apple Lisa and Macintosh (and finally the Johnny-come-lately imitator, Microsoft Windows). Programs like WordStar led the way, until WordPerfect took the market in the early 1980s by adding the ability to edit two or more files at the same time in a split screen view. As the first 8-bit personal computers appeared (largely consisting of the Apple II and the rival CP/M ecosystem), programmers tried to develop a hybrid tool called a word processor: a screen-oriented editor that hid the complex and hostile printer control commands from the author, replacing them with visible highlight characters on screen and revealing them only when the user told the program to "reveal codes". ![]() These tools were fast, powerful, elegant, and extremely demanding of the user. One early and particularly effective combination was the idea of a text file, containing embedded commands or macros, that could be edited with a programmer's text editor (such as ed or teco or, later, vi or emacs) and subsequently fed to a variety of tools: offline spelling checkers, grammar checkers, and formatters like scribe, troff, and latex that produced a binary page image that could be downloaded to a printer. There was an era before Microsoft Word's dominance when a variety of radically different paradigms for text preparation and formatting competed in an open marketplace of ideas. I've been using word processors and text editors for nearly 30 years. Its pervasive near-monopoly status has brainwashed software developers to such an extent that few can imagine a word processing tool that exists as anything other than as a shallow imitation of the Redmond Behemoth. Worse: it is a near-monopolist, dominating the word processing field. The MacUpdate site also provides user reviews of the software and recommended alternatives for the software.Microsoft Word is a tyrant of the imagination, a petty, unimaginative, inconsistent dictator that is ill-suited to any creative writer's use. MacUpdate links to the specific product page at the developer's web site, so it is easy to check whether there is a trial download. It is worth checking the links to the MacUpdate site and the developer's web page since a number of Mac apps that are in the Mac App store may have trial versions that you can access using these links. According to the developer's site description, the Express version does not have support for features such as Table of Contents, Indexing, Cross References, Bookmarks, Track Changes, Comments, Watermarks, Export to ePub, and Export to. You can go to the developer's web site and download 15-day free trial versions of both Nisus Writer Pro and Nisus Writer Express to check accessibility and also compare the feature sets for yourself. supported file formats: - RTF (import and export) - Word (import and export) - OpenOffice (import and export) - PDF (export only) - WordPerfect (import only) - Plain Text - ePub (export only).No matter what you write, from a simple letter to a sophisticated thesis, Nisus Writer Pro will allow you to create stunning documents with ease. You can write in just about any language supported in OS X (including right to left languages) thanks to the multilingual support built into Pro. Collaborate with others using track changes and comments that are compatible with Microsoft Word. Polish your documents with our sophisticated, yet easy to use tools including our powerful find (including regular expressions), or add shapes and callouts using the drawing tools. Create great looking documents quickly using our exclusive style sheet view. Nisus Writer Pro starts with an intuitive, customizable interface that allows you to write how you want to write. An intuitive interface, powerful writing tools, and unmatched compatibility make Nisus Writer Pro the choice of serious writers everywhere. Nisus Writer Pro is the powerful word processor for OS X.
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