 |
DESCRIPTION
Mellel is the leading word processor for Mac OS X, and has been widely considered the industry standard since its inception. Mellel focuses on writers, scholars, technical writing and multilingual word processing. Offering special tools to help you write and organize long documents easily. If you need multilingual support or are writing bi-directional text, Mellel is just the thing for you. Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and Syriac never looked better on a Mac. If you don't need all the bells and whistles Mellel is still the right choice for you: clean, stable, and easy to use.
WHAT'S NEW
Version 2.7.3:
- Supports additional citation options with Bookends, allowing citations to come in the format of "Carpenter (2009)".
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
| SCREENSHOT
| Developer: | RedleX |
| Downloads: | 101,453 |
| - Version d/l: | 2,549 |
| Business: | Word Processing |
| License: | Shareware |
| Date: | 16 Feb 2010 |
| Platform: | PPC/Intel |
| Price: | $49.00 |
|
|
 |
|  |
 | |  |
| Mellel User Reviews (125 posts) | Write A Review |
 | Apr 26 2010 |
S.D. Mellel has some very nice features -- most of which one will never use. However, I have found it to be crash prone -- in fact, Mellel has the dubious honor of being the *only* program I have lost data in in the last few years of using the Macintosh. Most recently I've found that I get a spinning beachball at odd and unpredictable times -- this is on a Mac where literally everything else works just fine. One of the frustrations of Mellel is that purchasing the product only entitles you to a finite number of upgrades -- read: bug fixes. I feel that if you purchase a product, the company should support it.
(Version 2.7.3) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
 | Oct 17 2009 |
VANGOCAMBO I've been using this program for over 2 years now. It never let me down until I wrote my thesis, the requirement is to have underline under first header, i always set the under for the autotile and style. however everything i print, the underline become double underline. It is really frustrating. i ended up changing to word to edit manually there. Please take a look at the issue maybe if it already address, please show us how.
(Version 2.7.1) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
 | Nov 25 2009 |
ORI REDLER Could you write to us about this? We'll do our best to find out why this is happening and fix it.
(Version 2.7.1) | |
 | Oct 17 2009 |
RRNOWELL The claim is made that Mellel caters to user requests. This is great if it is true. I am just a user... I do not have an allegiance so to speak which it seems too many do. I want a word processor that can meet my needs. For me, and many other users, the Word format is the the most prevalent whether we like Word or not is irrelevant. We need to be able to open and save as Word documents. I cannot afford the time involved in translating/re-editing. If Mellel is catering to customers... where is a list quantifying what is most requested by their users. I would try Mellel or any program that can reliably open my Word documents and save as Word documents. It seems to many many users must have asked for this and Mellel doesn't seem to have it. Perhaps it is something that is not doable. Anyway, when Mellel or NW or Pages or whatever can show me that it can open and save in the Word format I will give it a college try. Until then I have little choice but to use MSO as it is the defacto std. (I don't like this, but I am stuck with it... I wish a universal std could be made a minimum requirement. I have MSO 2004 for Mac and it is buggy on Snow Leopard so I have to maintain a Leopard volume or buy MSO 2008 (which might force editing of my Word 2004 files anyway)...
(Version 2.7.1) | |
| [ 5 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Nov 3 2009 |
SCOTTSO Pages does a superb job of importing and exporting .DOC files. The only significant trouble I've seen is that sometimes a document that takes up a full page runs a line or two onto the next page, and occasionally an oddball character gets garbled. But by and large Apple's file converters work remarkably well. Nisus imports and exports .DOC fairly well, though the importer for .DOC files is quite slow. Just as important, though, is the fact that Nisus' default document format is .RTF, which is a de facto standard for word processing documents. Any file you make in Nisus Writer can be sent to a Windows used without conversion, and they'll be able to open it in Word without the slightest difficulty.
(Version 2.7.1) | |
| Nov 3 2009 |
RRNOWELL Since my post I have tried Pages, NW, and Mariner Write on some of the Word documents I would have to convert... in every case I would have to do a great deal of "editing" to get the format correct again. I appreciate the comments even though these products don't work for me. Perhaps in the future.
(Version 2.7.1) | |
| Nov 26 2009 |
EASER I'm not even sure you can trust MSO for Mac. I'm a teacher, and I recently had an experience where one of my students e-mailed me her speech outline in ".doc" format. I told her that she had listed only 4 sources. She wrote back and said there were 8 listed. So I looked again. I opened her file in MS Word for Mac and in Nisus Writer Express. Both programs showed 4 sources. I then opened her file with Text Edit, and it showed 8 sources. I had to actually use an Apple program to properly render a Microsoft document.
(Version 2.7.2) | |
| Nov 26 2009 |
RRNOWELL I too am a teacher. I have a number of documents that I have created over the years and whenever I try a new version of MSO or another word processor I invariably have a great deal of editing to do. My original post happened to be on Mellel because I was hoping they could pull off a smooth translation. I don't blame Mellel for the problem or for not having a translation that meets my needs... if anything is to blame I suppose it is the lack of a standard universal format. Still I have been hopeful enough over the years to try from time to time.
(Version 2.7.2) | |
| Nov 26 2009 |
EASER For what it may be worth to you, in my experience, the program that comes closest to properly rendering MS Word documents on a Mac is Neo Office. But if you really, really need reliable MS Office on a Macintosh, then the very best option - which is pricey - is to buy VMWare Fusion (or Parallels; I haven't tried it, so I'm not trying to take sides in that one), MS Office for Windows, and a Windows operating system. You can get educator discounts on the first two, and I'm sure you can find Windows XP rather cheap somewhere. (My wife bought a MB Pro this past summer at Fryes electronics, and we bought a copy of XP for $100 to go with it.)
(Version 2.7.2) | |
| Sep 21 2009 |
ASTROBRUCE previous version crashed on launch with snow leopard. downloaded 2.7. Also crashes on launch. anybody else experiencing this?
(Version 2.7) | |
| [ 2 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Sep 21 2009 |
ORI REDLER The problems you report are solved with Mellel 2.6.2 and Mellel 2.7. The problems continue to occur when you have Mellel installed beforehand (with the "bad" version) and still have the old Mellel preference and the Mellel folder in your Application support. This is what you need to do: A. Write down your registration details (from Mellel, choose Mellel (menu) > Registration code). Quit Mellel.Ê B. Go to ~/Library/Preferences/ and remove the fileÊcom.redlex.mellel.plist C. Go to ~/Library/Application support/ and remove the Mellel folder there.Ê The problems should cease and will not occur with new files or files that you did not save with the "bad" version.Ê | |
| Sep 23 2009 |
ASTROBRUCE thanks - although you can't get the reg number from Mellel if Mellel crashes on launch... However I had the reg number elsewhere, and the rest worked fine and I'm now up and running. thanks!
(Version 2.7) | |
| Mar 15 2009 |
SKAERTUS Mellel is the best word processor in any platform. Very fast, very stable, very low on system resources. It has lots of well-designed features, especially the ones suited for academic writing. Its cross-references feature is miles ahead of Microsoft Word (Apple Pages not even supports it...). Styles are great too. I've found its interface to be quite intuitive, and the tutorial is simple to check for information when you need it. It is not similar to Microsoft Word, and that is why users may complain a little. However, I didn't find any difficulty in exploring all of its features. Mellel is compatible with .DOC and .RTF files, but not fully compatible, especially because Mellel implements its features in a way completely different from Word and other standard word processors. However, you may import and export from .RTF and .DOC and, while the layout may get screwed up, the text structure is maintained. I've found Mellel to be the fastest and most streamlined of all MacOS word processors. Nisus Writer Pro is great too, but Mellel is even better. It's more and more becoming a killer app on the MacOS.
(Version 2.6.1) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Feb 14 2009 |
MACEDWARD A good product made even better. This word processor has been my primary writing tool for the last couple of years and will probably continue to be so as far as I can tell. I have tried them all (nearly) and so far Mellel have not let my down.
(Version 2.6.1) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Jan 23 2009 |
LEV In my reply to the previous poster I forgot to mention a couple of things which tilt the balance of power further towards Mellel over Pages '09. First, a small but significant omission in Pages: you can't define the Outline Level of a paragraph style. Word has been able to do this for as long as I can remember and it's surprisingly useful. In Pages you have to (a) select every occurrence of the style you want to change, then re-assign it all to the pre-ordained Outline Level style. It's probably not that interesting for anyone doing a short document but for handling long docs, even relatively unstructured ones, it's nice to be able to kill the *visual* link between appearance and outline level while retaining the *structural* link. Mellel's approach is quite different. The outline structure is in a different window (or "drawer", rather) and you can set it up so that the outline headings are actually invisible in the text itself. So headings enable you to keep an eye on your structure -- and move it all around at will -- while keeping the actual copy clean. The other, and big, thing about Mellel which nothing else offers is the idea of Style Sets. I have one for on-screen work and one for printed work, for example. With literally one mouse-click you can change *everything* about a document's appearance while leaving the structure untouched. It's immensely powerful and very useful. I believe the thing that confuses people about Mellel is that it adopts the sound engineering principle of front-end loading. That means you make your decisions about formatting etc. in advance, then save all those decisions -- paragraph and character styles, footnotes, auto-titling and everything -- as a style set which can be applied to any document, even retrospectively, with a minimum of effort. For actual writing -- as opposed to collaborating with others -- Mellel remains unmatched. If the developers implement change tracking and commenting in a way compatible with Word (the awful golem lurching about the entire world of WP) then there'll be no reason ever to use anything else. But it's hard, because Mellel (a) takes such a different approach to structure -- it's more like LaTeX in that respect, though without the geekiness -- and (b) does so many things that can't be transferred to Word files because Word just can't do them.
(Version 2.6) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Jan 20 2009 |
The king is dead, all hail the king. http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/
(Version 2.6) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Jan 20 2009 |
LEV Posting guideline #1: "Be detailed and specific"... Pages '09 is good, no question about it. But it and Mellel are in no way the same beast contending for the same environmental niche. - Cross-referencing (and the best implementation of cross-referencing I have yet seen). - Structural and far more controllable outlining - Multiple footnote and endnote streams - Tight integration with Sente and Bookends - Immensely powerful, structural use of styles - High-octane control over headers and footers, including "mentions" - the ability to display in the header/footer the current section/subsection etc. of a document - Powerful document variables - Powerful find-and-replace, including find/replace by highlight colour - Extensive typographical control AFIK, Pages offers none of those things. Pages offers: - Reasonably simple export/mail/publish as Word or PDF - Sophisticated layout capabilities - Simple management of (visual, not structural) styles - Preconfigured templates AFIK, Mellel offers none of those things. Amalgamate the features and we end up with The Behemoth, a.k.a. Word Redux. Both Pages and Mellel do what they do much better than Word. But if I had to be simplistic, Mellel is for the academic or technical or other writer of structured manuscripts, while Pages is for the general or business user who wants to turn out visually elegant but structurally straightforward documents. Both rule. But they rule different kingdoms. And then of course there's Nisus: somewhere between the two. Oh, the tyranny of choice...
(Version 2.6) | |
| Nov 7 2008 |
XENOS "Mellel is the leading word processor for Mac OS X" - but cannot even open an .rtfd document ?! an "industry standard, unaware of an important Mac file format !!!???
(Version 2.5) | |
| [ 5 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Dec 17 2008 |
PONTER First a comment about rtfd. This is actually a wrapper, with the file components inside. Right-Click (or Control-click) on the rtfd file and select "show package contents" from the menu. From this subsequent list of files, select the rtf (no "d") that you want. Note, too, that with Mellel, you have to chose File > Import > RTF to perform an import. You should not just "Open" an rtf file. Mellel is a classic case of "no pain, no gain." It's an excellent word processor, but it has its own way of working. You have to take the time -- usually a day or two of serious effort -- to learn its paradigm. In most respects, I find it easy to use. It's virtually bulletproof, never crashes, and is extremely flexible. But it's different from Word. So is just about every other program, for that matter. Everything is a trade-off. You may prefer/need some features in Word that are not in Mellel, and are willing to put up with instability, sluggishness, etc. Other folks find the small footprint, extreme stability, and superb long-document flexibility of Mellel to be more important than the extra features in Word. You pay your money (a lot less for Mellel!) and you take your choice. Because of it's flexibility with footnotes and cross-referencing, plus its great control over styles, buit-in outliner, etc. it is especially popular with academics. The only major downside to Mellel is if you work with colleagues in some sort of group effort based on Word documents. Mellel has its own file format (an XML-based file format, whose structure is openly published, and being XML the contents can always be extracted by any text editor) which doesn't easily go back and forth with people using Word. It can be done, but it's a PITA. And if they are using Word's change markup system, you're completely out of luck. (Sometimes people using different version of Word documents can't exchange files, either!) If Mellel has no such downsides for you and you're willing to learn it, you will be rewarded. In the end, though, there's no right or wrong. You use the program that you like best/works for you. Full disclosure: I usually reach for Mellel, but I also use NeoOffice, Word, and NWP, just to keep a hand in. I always end up going back to Mellel. I also use Scrivener, also a wonderful tool, but that's not really a work processor as most people know it. | |
| Jan 19 2009 |
ODYSSEUS Ponter's points are well-taken, but the fact remains that Mellel's incompatibility with the de facto standard word processing document format is a huge disadvantage. The developers at Nisus had the smarts to make rtf their document standard. Yes, it's a problem being beholden to Microsoft, but virtually everyone uses that document format, so unless you do your word processing on a desert island, you're probably not going to be able to rely solely on Mellel.
(Version 2.6) | |
| Jan 19 2009 |
GUILE I was thinking exactly the same thing... But devs are frequently talking about their products saying they're the first/leading/best/essential and so one, that's some business talk.
(Version 2.6) | |
| Jan 20 2009 |
SAMADORE If Ponter's points are well taken, then it is NOT a "fact... that Mellel's incompatibility with the de facto standard word processing document format is a huge disadvantage." To reiterate Ponter's 1st point: Mellel is NOT incompatible with .rtfd.
(Version 2.6) | |
| Jan 20 2009 |
ODYSSEUS Depends on what you mean by "compatible." Yes, Mellel can read the format, but how good is the conversion?
(Version 2.6) | |
| Oct 30 2008 |
BRUMM My opinion on word processor for OS X: The last days I've tested many word processors and I found Mellel to be the best so far, Mellel is not bloated like all the "Office" suites (Neo, OO, MS, are all to slow, ... for me Neo Office is the best of these beasts.) and Mellel is better than: - Nisus (Nearest competitor but Nisus doesn't support soft hyphen!, I cannot work without soft hyphen.), - Mariner Write (really bad font display/spacing for many years now, only english, carbon - so it needs to be rewritten for future OSX releases, will they do that? I'm unsure.) - Pages (Again no soft hyphen!, occasionally crashes and after a while gets very slow, ... but I exspect the next versions will be much better) - Papyrus (very ugly, carbon, no real testdrive possible - crippled trial version, but some interesting features - I keep an eye on it) - AbiWord (Many bugs and no updates the last 2 years, I think they don't support the Mac anymore) - Bean (really fanstatic freeware, based on Apples buggy text-engine. No soft hyphen! So only usable for some very short texts, best freeware I've seen for many many years - of course I keep an eye on it) For now I will use Mellel. The only things that I don't like are related to the interface design, for example the round beveled look of the ruler and tools section is very outdated now, a boring all-grey mix of alien spaceship ("aqua"-style) or early iTunes versions ("metal"-style). But besides that Mellel has the best combination of features for me, so my money goes to them.
(Version 2.5) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Jun 23 2009 |
RUBAIYAT Try iText Express [free] or iText Pro [US$15]. They are so seriously good! How did they not make your list?
(Version 2.6.1) | |
|
| View all 125 posts >> |
|
