LEV  Now that Nisus does comments -- which make the round trip to Word seamlessly -- there's even less need to have the Beast of Redmond on your machine. Some may need revision tracking (which Pages does quite well) but for the rest of us who work with editors who comment our mss., Nisus has pretty well everything we need.

For writers who use Scrivener for the actual process of composition, Nisus seems the perfect partner. For pure academic writing with multiple footnotes etc., Mellel perhaps still has the edge, particularly with the stunning implementation of cross-references in the latest 2.5 beta and its perfect integration with Bookends (and, I believe, Sente). This is a fine time to be a writer -- of whatever kind -- using a Mac. There are solutions for everything, and none of them involve The Beast. Nisus, Scrivener, Tinderbox, Schreiben, Bean, Mellel, Screenwriter 6, Montage, Ulysses... the list is endless and we're spoiled for choice. Hooray.  (Version 1.1p1)

CROBERTS  What started out as a good idea has become a fantastic word processor. It's powerful, it's simple, it's gorgeous, and it does just about everything you'd want a word processor to do (I'd sure like to see watermarks and text boxes, but I'm willing to wait). There are few word processors out there that let you customize the interface to the extent that NWP does, and this makes it terrific to use. The developer is also very responsive, and the price is great. Do yourself a favor and give it a whirl.  (Version 1.0.2)

M-RICK  This version is very fast, the interface is very good, and languages compatibility very good too.

But the compatibility with Word looks to be just a dream ...  (Version 1.0.2b)

EASER  I haven't tried this Pro version although I have the other version of Nisus. Although I like this program a lot, I found that files I save in Word format did not always open in an identical way in Word itself. (Nisus is the best at saving in Word format, nonetheless.) But the bottomline for me is that I found, ultimately, that I need to use Word. And Word has not been problematic for me, like it or not. Ultimately, I'm saving my money for the newest version of Word. I've played with the PC version, and it's actually pretty nice. Since Word owns the market, and I need to play in that market, then Word is what I shall own.  (Version 1.0.1)