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)

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)

ASTROBRUCE  previous version crashed on launch with snow leopard. downloaded 2.7. Also crashes on launch. anybody else experiencing this?  
(Version 2.7)

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)

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)

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)

LEO SPILL  Pages '09

The king is dead, all hail the king.

http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/  
(Version 2.6)

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)

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)

PIPER WILSON  I hate to say it, but I like Microsoft Word better. I tried to use this for a paper for college. After 3 hours, I've given up and gone back to word. Maybe it is because I learned how to use Word first, but the set up for Mellel isn't intuitive to me. I couldn't get the headers to format correctly. I might go back and try it later when I have more time to play with it, but I doubt it.

I agree with Stormchild -

[[STORMCHILD "Mellel is the leading word processor for Mac OS X, and has been widely considered the industry standard since its inception."

What a bunch of baloney. Hardly anyone has even heard of it.]]  
(Version 2.5)

STORMCHILD  "Mellel is the leading word processor for Mac OS X, and has been widely considered the industry standard since its inception."

What a bunch of baloney. Hardly anyone has even heard of it.  
(Version 2.5)

LEV  Open Terminal and type in

/usr/bin/mdimport -r /Library/Spotlight/Mellel.mdimporter

followed by return. That did the trick  
(Version 2.2.7.2)

LEV  Update: Mellel seems to play nicely with Spotlight in 10.5.2. Phew.  
(Version 2.2.7.2)

EDANROGO  I downloaded Mellel today to give it a try. Unfortunately the developers of this program decided to include an annoying pop-up window that reminds you constantly that you're trying their software and that you haven't paid for it yet. I don't know about the team behind Mellel, but when I'm writing the last thing I need is a useless window popping-up with a dumb message every few minutes or so. Of course I know I'm evaluating this program, of course I haven't paid for it yet, and of course I'm going to lose some of its features if I don't buy it... That's the whole point of giving the user a FREE TRIAL PERIOD, or isn't? So, after a few VERY UNPLEASANT encounters with this "friendly" reminder I completely lost my concentration, selected was I was writing, copied it and paste it back onto MS Word, quit Mellel and threw it in the trash. So, your trial period was completely useless and an absurd waste of time for you and me. You might as well get rid of it all together, since it doesn't allow the user to test your program. It acts more like a mindless commercial for your product, but if that's what you're looking for, you'd be better off paying some little money to and add agency which might be able to help you out instead of using this CHEAP TRICK. Good luck with Mellel, but this extremely dissatisfied customer is not coming back.  
(Version 2.2.7.1)

LEV  A heads-up.

I've been an enthusiastic -- and satisfied! -- user of this excellent app since v1.

But a caveat for anyone thinking of using it with Leopard. So far, Mellel files are not being read by Spotlight, and don't play with QuickLook or CoverFlow.

No word (surprisingly) from the developers on when we can expect this. QuickLook & CoverFlow is manageable, but Spotlight invisibility is a real problem.

So I suggest if you're thinking of getting Mellel -- and it is, as I have said before, a very fine WP indeed -- either stick with Tiger or wait until the developers come out with the requisite plug-in.  
(Version 2.2.7.1)

EASER  I like this program, but I have a big issue with the constant hassle of having to convert between Mellel propriety format and MS Word format. If I open a Word document in Mellel and modify it, I cannot simply "save" the changes. I now have to export it in Word format as a new document. And then if I re-open that document and modify it again, I have to again export it as yet another Word document. How is this convenient? It simply adds clutter to my file system. I do not see why they cannot simply add a preference feature to allow documents to be saved in their current format. Nisus does this without a hitch.  
(Version 2.2.7.1)

INYAR  I just finished my master's dissertation (in French) using Mellel. Mellel, in combination with Bookends for the bibliography, are the best things that helped me in writing my dissertation.

Among many great features and qualities, I'd like to underline some :

- Perfect stability : never crashed, frequent autosave... and not a single problem with a 140 pages document including PDF, images and tables.

- Power of autotitles for outlining and configuring titles format, including in the Table of Contents...

- Power of "Character styles", "Variations" and "Paragraph styles", and a lot of useful key shortcuts (F1->F8 for characters variations)

- Perfect integration with Bookends (and probably also with Sente and other bibliography softwares)

- Power of Search/Replace function, with regular expression, saving of search/replace templates and creation of search/replace sets. It saved me a couple of days of verification and correction.

I think Mellel is a must-have for writing all kinds of very regular/organized texts, like academic/scientific writing, novel writing, etc.  
(Version 2.2.7)

PXL  Now if you could only implement a grammar check like MS features, no 3rd-party, you guys would have a 100% solid program that millions of Mac users would switch to... dumping MS forever. Just imagine how many new Mellel clients you would have for this one feature everyone wants.   
(Version 2.2.1)

BILLYFUSTER  With version 2.2 Mellel's bibliography and citation features are now top-rate. It integrates beautifully with Bookends 9.2 (also just updated and packing many great new features). Now Mellel lets you toggle back and forth between temporary citations and final-formatted citations. No more generating a 2nd document to format the citations.

2.2 also implements other highly requested features, styled auto-titles and highlighted text (aka 'markers'). They also managed to throw in a massive number of character-level options, such as character fill and dashed outlines.

The Redlers continue to add features but the application stays solid, scalable, and responsive.   
(Version 2.2)

OSOS10  I just paid for the 2.1.2 update, is this update to 2.2 is included or not. In the 2.1.2 update the file types was chanced and my 2.1 version couldn't open the new files. I certainly don't want to make the same mistake again ....  
(Version 2.2)

REALMAC17  Could be a lot better. No text flow around images (no way to wrap text around images). This feature was meant to come in v2 but didn't. The way Mellel handles paragraph/character styles is weird and confusing. No option to customize the toolbar. No option to change the page color. I don't think this compares very well to Nisus or Word at all. 3/5  
(Version 2.1.3)

EASER  I recently got involved in some rather intensive writing projects. My needs are fairly simple; I needed a fairly simple word processor. I own MS Word, but like many users, I find it to run slow and to crash unexpectedly (without retaining the saved information one would expect it to save). I literally tried every single word processing alternative I could find and settled on Mellel.

I would say the Nisus does the best job of importing Word documents and retaining their characteristics. But I've also found it fairly simple to just copy and paste from Word to Mellel. I've also found that when I export from Mellel into Word format and then open the document in Word, I have to modify some of the work I've done. And again, I find that Nisus probably does a better job in its exporting in this regard.

So, why do I choose Mellel? Several reasons. One, I like the Mellel interface. I find it elegant, and I like that when I'm writing for long periods of time. MS Word gives me eyestrain, even though I've customized the toolbars to my bare minimum needs.

Second, I find Mellel to simply feel smoother when I write. It's fast; it does not slow down my machine; and it has a certain stability that's reassuring. I realize these might not be the best criteria for choosing a word processor, but my user experience has been the happiest with this program. (Mellel has loads of other features that I don't understand in any word processor; I'll leave it to others to discuss those.)

The one thing I would like to see is the ability to customize the toolbar in Mellel. I'd like to have a save button, for example. The developers tell me this may be in the works. I'd also like to have the Nisus feature wherein I can choose a default save method. Rather than constantly exporting to a Word format, I'd like to be able to simply choose "Save" and it automatically saves in Word format.   
(Version 2.1.2)

LEONCAHUN  I am sorry to say this, honestly: but when I try to open a .doc-file with M$ Word generated endnotes in it, Mellel cannot handle the endnotes, ie. it just forgets about the numbering while displaying the endnotes (at the end of document) just as unnumbered lines of text.

That's the kind of dealbreaker which forces me to use Word occasionally (in general I am a very happy LaTeX-boy) when working in .doc-workflows.

It would be great if Mellel or something else could _really_ replace Word, but for now Mellel or anything else seems just not to be there. I mean, why bother when in the first document tried the endnotes get screwed?!

I guess M$ just plays its monopolistic cards to keep the .doc-specs tight enough to not really allow for true competition. It's sad and bad. M$ sucks as ever.  
(Version 2.1.2)

LEV  I too make my living by writing, and Mellel is my WP of choice (though there are other tools in my workflow: Yojimbo, Tinderbox, DevonThink and Ulysses).

Luhmann's comment about .doc/.rtf export doesn't chime with my own experience (two full-length books, numerous articles, several scholarly papers) with Mellel. As one would expect, .rtf is much more reliable than .doc, which is a secretive, proprietary format. My stuff involves multiple heading levels, foot- and end-notes, headers & footers (of course), basic (text-only) tables and the odd graphic or image. Admittedly this isn't as complex as some -- I don't use columns, for example -- but all the same it makes the trip from Mellel to Word via RTF smoothly, without problems.

Actually, it's got to the point where I dread finishing stuff because then we have to go into the Beast of Redmond (a.k.a. Wurd) for edits, and in my experience THAT is when things start going wrong. Fortunately my book editor is getting a Mac so we can stay in Mellel until the thing has to go to the printer.

So, once again, my judgment, as Mellel evolves (at astonishing speed and with remarkable stability -- i.e., no crashes/data loss, not once, ever -- for a three-man shop) is that it's the best full-on WP on the market. Integration with Bookends/Sente is superb. The only things I personally miss are change tracking, comments and versioning: all collaboration tools, and all of which will, I have no doubt, come. (For the moment, those lacks are the only reason I give it 4* for features rather than 5*. If you aren't using it for collaborationRedleX delivers what they promise, when they promise it. How many other developers can we say the same about?

Only drawback is something of a learning curve if you want to get its full power and flexibility. But one could say the same about every powerful app.  
(Version 2.1.2)

SHERMAN  I write for a living. I would not use another word processor for my serious writing. End of story.  
(Version 2.1.2)

LUHMANN  Mellel is a great program ... if you don't need to work in a Windows environment. As great as all its built-in features are, it still does a terrible job at converting between its own format and the .doc format, or rtf format when there are any kind of complex layouts. This is unfortunate, because I would really like to use Mellel otherwise. Instead, I have been forced to switch to NeoOffice which is free and handles .doc natively. NeoOffice is now Aqua as well, meaning it supports built-in OS X GUI features. Still, it is no match for Mellel in other areas. Hopefully the switch to an xml format will eventually lead to improvements in this area.  
(Version 2.1.1)

JCT  The Best. Period.  
(Version 2.1.1)

KAUFI  I have been using Mellel since version 1.something and never thought of turning back to another word processor.

I looked forward to the new file format with mixed emotions, but was surprised with how smooth the conversion went. The new format is not only a not-so-proprietary solution, but also takes up to 60 percent less disk space and re-writing old files works with hardly any effort and flawlesssly. One minor glitch here: In some cases the dialogue box ("What would you like to do with the old-type file?") does not disappear after conversion, though this does not affect the file.

Have I mentioned yet that I love the fullscreen view?

All in all: Highly recommended, also this version.  
(Version 2.1)

LEV  It says much about the attitude of the developers that they define Mellel 2.1 as a point release when, under the hood, it's in some ways a major rewrite (files now in XML) and introduces equally significant new features, especially the new find/replace schema, which is almost as powerful as the old Nisus Writer (Classic) and ten times more user-friendly. From the geek point of view, these guys are Codemeisters: from the users' point of view, they are the most reliable and helpful developers I have ever dealt with. Mellel continues to surprise and delight me, while being utterly rock-solid (I have never had a crash, a hang or a data loss since v1) and a pleasure to use. Mellel does what a good WP should do: gets out of the way and leaves you to write, while being able to produce typographically superb output if you need it. Interchange with Word (via RTF or, if you want, .doc formats) is excellent. No excuse to continue with the Beast of Redmond any more!  
(Version 2.1)

FARIBORZ  It's simply amazing how many enhancements have gone into this version. Now the search functions have become more powerful and intuitive and power users will find the new functions a manna from heaven. The new XML-based file format is also very welcome and the program opens and saves faster the documents and manipulates them more efficiently. There's a small fee for users who have been using Mellel beyond the three years, which in my opinion, is very fair. To those who are skeptical about paying this minute fee I suggest one thing: open the first version of Mellel and also the last version and compare them side by side and ask yourself if it's the same product you bought years ago. Add to this the superb customer service and great promises for more superb features in the future and you will easily come up with the right answer. Fariborz AMIRSHAHI - Verona (Italy)  
(Version 2.1)

SMKSENSEI  Best Word Processor for OSX period. It's affordable, usable, top-notch support, and keeps getting better with leaps and bounds. As a writer, I need something reliable and MS Word has never fit that definition on any platform. Mellel is the way to go!

It has a slight learning curve because Redlex is more concerned about being well thought out and doing things the better way than by imitating Word like everybody else. Mellel is well worth the ROI of reading the brief tutorials to get the most out the product.  
(Version 2.1)

ANON BUD  Fabulous Program. I use it exclusively for certain tasks, especially writing preparation for teaching class.

There is something of a learning curve to this app, but I really like the way it performs and manages text.  
(Version 2.0.6)

ONLOOKER  The review below cannot be serious! Mellel offers wonderful support for a number of different languages. But perhaps the reviewer forgot to select the languages wanted in the language preferences for their mac.   
(Version 2.0.6)

JLENNON314  Everyone keeps commenting on how useful Mellel is for academic writing. But let's remember that there are other uses for word processors than academia. There are those of us who write novels, articles, etc. I personally use it to write novels and short stories. And let me just say that Mellel goes miles beyond the competition when it comes to writing outside of the business and academic worlds.

Pages may be better when it comes to brochures, presentations, and other business-related writings. But when it comes to simple, fast work, Mellel is the best. It takes very little time to boot up, and the interface is simple enough that I don't have to worry about where anything is. This is very important if you want to be able to get as many words down in a day as possible (a big necessity for carreer and professional writers).

There are many features that I do not use, but fortunately, they do not stare at me as I am working on my documents. This is nice, and if I used them, they are right there, ready to help me.

There are some problems with the auto-hyphening stuff, apparently, but it works just fine for me. In fact, it helps me get what I feel is a more accurate page number when it all comes down to it.

Overall, I think Mellel is one of the best word processors out there, and I don't just mean for Mac.  
(Version 2.0.4)

SHERMAN  Simply the best. Mellel is the only word processor I use for serious academic writing. Paired with Bookends, it's indispensable, powerful, reliable.  
(Version 2.0.3)

DOTMACX  Mellel is now my best friend when writing papers. It may not have all the features of Word, but it does have all the features ever needed in light academic writing. (I use LaTeX for heaving writing.) It's very easy to use. It's text rendering is gorgeous compared to Word and let's not even talk about AppleWorks. Mellel has never crashed for me—EVER! And at only $35 for the academic license (I paid $29, since I was a registered user before the upgrade) you can't go wrong!  
(Version 2.0.2)

IFMMASTER  It is a very nice software, but there is a real problem with Russian hyphenation. All hyphenations are wrong.  
(Version 2.0.1)

JOHN C SYMONS  I downloaded Mellel v2 last week and have thus been using it for about 5 days. I selected it as an alternative to Appleworks 6 and have overall found it satisfactory. The approach to styles looks superb; total control. I would like to see an improvement in the insertion of graphics to permit text wrap around. I'd also appreciate more keyboard shortcuts (I may have yet to find them). I had some difficulty in finding and replacing invisibles, and wouls like to see the rule bar on start up devoid of tabs.

So far I feel confident this will be my replacement for Appleworks. I commend you for an excellent product.  
(Version 2.0.1)

ANONYMOUS  I love this thing and use it for all my real word processing work.

The new features make it even stronger.

I agree that the gui is space wasting and needs reviewing - but really, this is a pretty minor quibble.

features i'd like to see:

view facing pages

paste special (esp unformatted text)

looking forward to xml as native format  
(Version 2.0.1)

REINHARD WEIXLER / GRAZ / AUSTRIA  MELLEL is just the BEST around. These people from REDLERS should be awarded the trophy for" BEST app for BEST price". Herzlichen Dank!!  
(Version 2.0.1)

ANONYMOUS  This reviewer gives Mellel two stars for value and three stars for stability. Both ratings are absurd. Mellel costs $49 and is the most stable word processor on the Mac.  
(Version 2.0)

ANONYMOUS  Some good new features but same clueless interface that makes the program ugly and frustrating.

Given the number of complaints about the interface, I'm really surprised that they didn't redesign it.

I'll pass...  
(Version 2.0)

TONI  Great update! Many points on my wishlist have been fulfilled.

The one that is still on it is the abilitiy to search for and replace formats in imported ducuments (e.g. search for 7 pt. superscript fonts and replace them with another font size). Thats one of the few reasons I still have to use MSWord sometimes.

Still Mellel is IT for anyone who wants to write without hassles.  
(Version 2.0)

IZOE  Why won't this version open on my 500mhz Pismo?? I have 10.2.8.... Grrrrrrr.......  
(Version 2.0)

TED  As a recent adopter of Mellel, what can I say but it is fantastic!

I do alot of technical/corse development writing and have never had a problem with Mellel. It does what it is suppose to. It hasn't crashed, I haven't lost any work, and I can easily export/save as to a .doc file, send it to work so I can route the instructions/manuals around for approval.

Any changes I make at work I can import it to Mellel, though like any other word processing software there is some tweeks

that have to be made.

I haven't had to use Word at all in many weeks now.

Mellel was definately money well spent.  
(Version 2.0)

ANONYMOUS  Mellel rocks.

But PLEASE let me turn off that ugly - ugly - ugly - amateur startup splash screen!!! It hurts my eyes!  
(Version 2.0)

SHERMAN WILCOX  This application *is* incredible. I write for a living. Mellel is perfection. With so many new features in v.2 where do you start? I'll just say this: I never open Word any more. I just drop Word documents onto Mellel.

Really, the depth and polish of this application is beyond anything we've seen in the word processor arena. Mellel just works, allowing me to concentrate on writing and not struggling with a word processor.

I can't imagine what the Redlers team have in store for the next version!  
(Version 2.0)

A MARTIN  The launch time of Mellel 2.0 on my more than 4 years old G4 blew me away.

The app seems incredible!

Check out.  
(Version 2.0)

JON  The dumbest thing you can do is use a proprietary format to save your files in, especially when there is no promise that a company like RedleX will be around in 20 or 50 years. Or that they will even support their own older iterations of the format, something that even MS does poorly. Given it's small market there is a very small chance that the .mell format will ever be supported by other programs. So don't count on help from a third party. Using the MS Word .doc format is risky enough, why take the total crap shoot that Mellel offers.

Given this, why is it so hard to save a file in Mellel as anything but .mell? Sure you can save as rtf or plain text, but it's a pain in the butt. Look at just about any other application-- you'll find that "save as" allows you to choose the format. With Melle you have to export-- and lucky you, there isn't a shortcut combo to do that.

If you are looking for a company that tries desperately to tie you down in their format, this is your product. If you'd like to be able to open your file in twenty years, and to save your files quickly and easily, try something else.  
(Version 2.0)

JEFF NAILEN  See their feature comparison chart on their website to see how Mellel compares favorably with Word and a couple other common word processors on OS X.

And no, they didn't just list features Mellel has, surprisingly for a vendor they listed many, many features others have that Mellel does not have, at least yet, and it still scores higher than Word.

More importantly, beyond the quantitative counting of features, the quality of Mellel is top-notch. I've been using Mellel for well over a year and it hasn't crashed one time. Not once. Compare Mac users' rating of Mellel with that of Word—no comparison, Mellel's user rating is twice that of Words and at a fraction of the cost.

We all know how it feels to lose text in Word when it crashes—it feels like losing part of your brain. Mellel is such a solid Cocoa app that it frees your mind to think about writing rather than worrying about the tool. While Word is a pain in the ass, Mellel is a pure pleasure to use.

Since Mellel also imports and exports Word docs for interchange with those still held hostage by Word, Mellel is the most obvious no-brainer choice in Mac software today.  
(Version 1.9.1)

ANONYMOUS  I was initially charmed by this program, but as a recent late-adopter to OS X (Tiger) I have a slew of Word 2001 documents to import. Mellel couldn't import anything even slightly more complex than a simply formatted page, e.g. all the files I've created as Word stationery, or an 8.5 X 14 landscape with columns document. All these came into Mellel via Import as useless. By contrast the (admittedly slower) NeoOfficeJ handled the same documents just fine.

Conclusion: this application is fast, intuitive and solid, but if one has Word documents of any complexity to import, alas they don't show up even close to the original. I wish the developers the best and will likely revisit this product when version 2.0 comes out.  
(Version 1.9.1)

JON  the whole problem with word is the .doc file format. mellel tries to add to the headaches of filetypes by creating its own (.mell) and forcing it on the user. you can't save as anything but the .mell filetype. if you want rtf or txt you have to "export," which is about the dumbest thing i've ever heard, and of course there is no shortcut to export. of course that also means that autosave wont use anything by .mell, so there is no way to avoid the proprietary monster. but wait there is more... look at their comparison chart-- you can't open .mell files in anything but mellel. what a deal! that means that if mellel ever vanishes people might discover that all their old files are unreadable, yahoo!  
(Version 1.9.1)

ANONYMOUS  If you like Mellel, you'll love Arabworx Office. Coming soon: QueerType  
(Version 1.9.1)

THOM  Are you looking for a fast, easy to use, word processor that won't let you down? Mellel is a superb little program that has everything I need to write long technical articles and grants. It never crashes, and is so intuitive that you won't use the manual much.

Throw away your Word, don't complain that adobe dropped Frame, just get Mellel.

The best part is the styles. Fantastic for formatting long documents.  
(Version 1.9.1)

UMAROMC  Uhhh huh... btw, it's spelled "sophisticated"...  
(Version 1.9.1)

BORIS  NeoOffice is best for simple text.

Mellel is the tops for writers and sophisticaed text usage. BUY this one you will not regret it.

Congratulations!!!  
(Version 1.9.1)

FRK  Although I agree that Smultron is a very nice and free text editor (TextWrangler is also free and also very nice), Mellel is a completely different program and they do not compete with each other. Mellel competes with MSWord and NisusWriter Express. It is a fully developed word processing program especially designed for writing long documents (books, reports, etc.) and is very well integrated with Bookends, a nice reference manager. The developers of Mellel update the program more often than any other program I know. The price is low and you get 3 years of free updates.  
(Version 1.9)

SPWARF  Hmmm.... You know, if you're looking for a texte editor for creative writing (novels, etc) that has a panel view, Smultron is free.  
(Version 1.9)

ANONYMOUS  Hi,

Regarding the crash reported below: this usually happens when using an illegal registration code. Such codes are blocked regularly in Mellel and so probably will not work with a new version.   
(Version 1.9)

CONFUSED   Is anyone else having problems with the program completely stalling on launch? The splash screen loads, the window opens, but I get the spinning beachball and after a minute or two an OS crash report. 1.8 launched within seconds. Ideas?  
(Version 1.9)

GRADUS  Wow.

Let's pause for a moment and admire this miracle. In 2003, this program was just an ugly, lame text editor - and now it's the most powerful word processor on the shareware market. It's hard to believe, but the only program that's still superior to Mellel is MS Word itself. I have never seen such rapid progress made in so little time, by a company of just two or three people. That's amazing, and an achievement to be very proud of.

The 1.9 update adds even more power (mainly to the handling of styles) and a very welcome option to replace the brushed-metal scrap with an Aqua interface. There are only two issues that need to be addressed in one of the next updates: first, creating and managing styles has become overly complex and cumbersome; and second, users are still trapped in Mellel's own proprietary format. RTF import and export is somewhat acceptable, but Mellel is still useless when it comes to importing or producing Word files. Compatibility, however, will be crucial to Mellel's success in the world of academical and technical writing. Mellel has set new standards in this market niche. Unfortunately, being compatible with existent standards isn't any less important.  
(Version 1.9)

DAMIáN  Amazing update, Redlers.

This is by far the best word processor for Mac OS X. Nisus is way behind in terms of features,polish and stability; Word is bloated and still lacks some of the features that Mellel sports; Mariner write has always seemed me to be backwards in terms of usage.

Ok. Mellel still lacks columns (but seeing the pace at which it is updated they'll soon be here). But this last update totally rocks: the new styles editors are great; you can finally ditch brushed metal if that is what you want; and the new ToC functions are great.

Keep the good coding! :)  
(Version 1.9)

SMKSENSEI  I'll again reiterate my enthusiasm and love for this product! Awesome, guys!

Serious WP for serious writers, yet my kids can use it for simple stuff.

Using the advanced tools might have a small learning curve to get used to not doing things the "MS way" but in the end, you'll be amazed at how much better and well thought-out Mellel has become. The developer support is second to none.

  
(Version 1.9)

SANJIN  IMHO, Mellel has THE best-looking UI among many word processors currently on the market.

I don't mind having brushed metal to look at.

And the price seems fair.

Now, a new assignment for Redler Bros:

a spreadsheet application

That would bring my searches for quality Word/Excel replacement on Mac to the end.

Keep coding with heart  
(Version 1.8.2)

SMKSENSEI  Unbelievable software! It is WELL worth the slight learning curve on its more advanced features. A very professional product with the professional writer in mind. Superior service and support plus an incredible community of users. It would be worth twice its amount. If you've never used it, and write professionally, give it 30 days or less and you'll never go back to Word!  
(Version 1.8.2)

ANONYMOUS  Mathematical equations that are created by using LaTeX can be imported by using freshmeat.net/projects/tex2im/. For some uselful LaTeX tools see TeXShop and the LaTeX Equation Editor by evolve.lse.ac.uk/software/EquationEditor/. Additional productivity tools: Mellelbackup; BookKeeper; RefSaver; and Concorder Pro (all Cocoa apps that should work with Mellel).  
(Version 1.8.1)

OSOS10  It looks as if the exact sciences and technical community are not very important for the developers of Mellel. This software becomes very heavy (maybe to heavy - the MSword style) with a lot of stuff for "writers of long reports" but with no ability to align even the simplest equation. I guess that OpenOffice is the appropriate choice for the short technical paper community. The three years update period is about to end, and guess who is NOT going to purchase the next update.  
(Version 1.8.1)

BANDITDOWNUNDER  Word just wouldnt cut it with Endnote and Mathtype addins in a 100,000 word thesis... way too much 'tagged' text for it to cope with and way too many crashes and corrupted docs. With Mellel and Bookends and Mathtype (Images only) not one crash, and way better text handling... and with 1.8.1 the best just got even better. Looking forward to the whats-next update!  
(Version 1.8.1)

MDB  Mellel is my favorite word processor for Mac OS X. Its use of styles is ingenious, and its footnote streams put all other footnote/endnote functions to shame.

Mellel has one of the most reliable Rich Text import /export functions on the platform, so exchanging files with non-Mellel users is simple.

Mellel's developers (the Redler brothers) are obviously devoted, and they take user input seriously. Just take a look at the forums at .

And its outrageously cheap. Download it today.  
(Version 1.8.1)

ELRK  Very, very cool. Great features and a pleasing interface. 99% sure I'm going to register before my 30 days are up. So far I like everything about Mellel.  
(Version 1.8)

ANONYMOUS  This iTunes graphic interface…is…well not the real appropriate interface for a word processor in my opinion but why not?  
(Version 1.8)

PETER DANCKWERTS  A very good word processor just got even better.

Now that it has full OpenType support, it is the perfect text preparation program for publishers using InDesign. It handles footnotes and (with Bookends) bibliographies effortlessly. And, of course, it can handle foreign languages so well.

It is also fast and extremely cheap. I have Microsoft Word but, for most purposes, Mellel is a much better program.  
(Version 1.8)

DADA1958  First of all: this is a wonderful piece of software, no doubt about that. It matches perfectly in the row of Mac OS X shareware I'm cherishing, Mellel, OmniWeb and Unison. Cocoa applications with great potential but still needing work to do by their developers. I got my licenses to support them, add my share.

But I have a few remarks regarding Mellel: the spelling issue still hasn't been solved. Hyphenation should be available by now. Apple’s TextEdit has the both of them.

I can live with the brushed metal look until the next release..  
(Version 1.8)

WILDER ROBLES  One of the best wordprocessor for Mac OX. It is just fast, elegant and a pleasure to use. Its citation feature is excellent for scholars. With a few exceptions, I really fell in love with this piece of software,

Wilder  
(Version 1.8)

LUHMANN  There is no doubt about it, this is an excellent program. However, if you need Word's collaborative features (comments, track changes, etc.) Mellel still doesn't support these. I'm sure they are working on it, but until they support this I'm stuck with Word...  
(Version 1.8)

ANONYMOUS  Another outstanding update. This developer promises powerful and useful features with each new revision, and delivers every time. Bye bye Word for my serious writing, hello Mellel.  
(Version 1.8)

CARLOS SANTANA FREIRE  I'm joining Mellel users. I think its very a very good word processor. I recommend it strongly.  
(Version 1.7.5)

JFM  I switched to the Mac less than two months ago, and I was fortunate to discover Mellel very early in the process. While I need still to use Word for a number of projects (especially in order to be able to share footnoted documents with people not using Mellel), I consider Mellel not only as a remarkable tool, but also as one making it very pleasant to write. I don't know how to explain that, but typing a letter with Mellel is just more pleasant and easier in some way than with any other word processing system.

In my view, Mellel - which is constantly improved - has a great future and should be seriously considered by any Mac user spending a lot of time writing. I can see the day when I might mostly use Mellel.

I do still hope for some improvements, as well as some operations made simpler, but I am convinced that this will come with the next upgrades. At this point, I would already strongly recommend using Mellel as a companion word processor, beside Word or any other more commonly used. And its price is very fair, compared to other products.  
(Version 1.7.5)

ARI ESPINOZA  I think this program is extremely good and like others have mentioned, is getting better with each release. I'm glad that it doesn't pretend to be a page layout program but focuses on the writing and editing of text.

I am surprised that it hasn't gotten more traction with the ability to write in Hebrew and Arabic, which was one of Nisus Writer's biggest point-scoring features.  
(Version 1.7.5)

ANONYMOUS  Bang for Buck, and Mellel has a lot of bang, this is the best word processor out there. Frankly, there is no other multi-lingual program that does as much that I have found for this price. In fact there is no other. Nisus? Sorry Arabic not supported, and they keep telling me their waiting for Mac OS improvements. I don't know what they are waiting for cause Mellel doesn't need those "improvement".

Mellel is super user friendly and does a lot. I type a great deal of Enligh-Arabic documents, and both languages can be done in the same document, paragraph, and line flawlessly. Of course, my wife uses InDesign CS-ME for marketing, which does English and Arabic scripting, but that costs $1,285, and getting it to type English and Arabic on the same line is way more of a hasle than Mellel.

The layout and features are so straitforward and intuitive, and the appearance is clear and smooth. The palletes are great, again super clear and easy to know what the icons represent. I'm sure my Apple Cinema display helps some, but I also use Mellel on my 6 year old PowerBook.

File formats: With the release of 1.7.5, you can now save, rather Export, you file as a Word document or a RTF. That makes all you type readable to the rest of the world.

I'll bet that Mellel does about 90% of what 80% of people use a word processor for. It does most everything I want to do. There are a few things for improvement:

1) links: you can type an internet address and then highlight the address and press apple+6, and the address becomes an internet link. However, it would be nice, and is needed, for Mellel to be able to put links within a document, linking to another part of the document.

2) Not program feature related: the help pdf and the Mellel Help within Mac Help do not stay up to date with the recent release, 1.7.5.

3) It would be nice to have file formats under the Save As function rather than the Export feature. There is probably a technical answer for this

Those are the only suggestions I have.

Finally, regarding customer service, tops! Ori Redler answers all my emails by the next day if not sooner, and even on weekends. Recently he helped me work out a problem with local fonts for a modified Arabic script. The problem will be resolved with the release of 1.8, which will handle OpenType fonts!

Thank you RedleX!

  
(Version 1.7.5)

YOSSARIAN1848  Mellel has now come of age, with proper support for Word documents, as well as lists and bullets. I've been using it for a lot longer, though, for once simple reason: it is an elegant, clean interface for the task of writing. Anyone struggling with MS Word or Appleworks for composing should try Mellel once: logical controls and a sense of proportion and design make it a proper Mac program.   
(Version 1.7.5)

JBOYZH  Mellel 1.7.5 works like charm here...

I prefer to write my letters in Mellel, and use the other Word only when really needed (still both in use).

I like to keep things as simple as possible, and that's why Mellel became my favorite Word Processor. And it gets better and better.

Looking at the price, Mellel is worth double or triple, while my feelings with Word are that I've paid too much in all the years of dependency.   
(Version 1.7.5)

ANONYMOUS  The main thing that I just don't get about Mellel is why the developers have gone to such great lengths to cripple the Cocoa text system.

Most of the key bindings don't work; the program doesn't work, either well or at all, with input methods or input manager plugins; and it interferes with the spell checker. It is most frustrating how hard this program works against Cocoa, rather than with it.

Plus, in addition to footnotes and end notes, it doesn't support page headers in MS Word documents, which is a show-stopper for me. Basically every MS Word document I receive has page headers (with page numbers).

I really, really want a good Cocoa word processor. But, part of the reason I want it to be Cocoa is so it can work with the rest of the system, and this program just doesn't want to.  
(Version 1.7.5)

MICHAEL B.  I'll leave others to comment on Mellel 1.7.5's feature set, except to say that it's (a) exemplary and (b) a delight to use. Migrating from The Beast (a.k.a. Word) is like a weight off the shoulders.

The main thing I want to say here is that RedleX, the developers, are that very rare thing: software engineers you can take at their word. I've been pushing Mellel to some fairly extreme limits recently: a 120,000 word book of 500+ sections, with footnotes, endnotes, bibliography, multiple styles etc.

All of which would go straight down the pan if I were not able to get it into RTF for submission to my publishers.

At the beginning of the year, I asked Ori Redler whether I could count on first-rate RTF export by the time my deadline arrived. He gave me some dates; 21 March, in particular, for the features I needed, though some would be in beta. On 21 March, the beta build arrived. I exported. Perfect.

In a world full of bull, constant-time-to-completion, broken promises, vapourware and all the rest or it, the Redler brothers are a beacon of hope. For that reason alone, I'd support their software (though once you've tried it, you'll probably think a better reason is that it is superb).

As for the "missing" features -- if they say improved tables, beefed-up interfacing with Bookends, outlining, versioning, sectioning and all the other more-or-less luxuries are coming: well, they're coming. You can believe them 100%.

Rating? One star dropped because of column support & outlining; but I bet I'll be adding that star within 6 months at most. The point is that, what it *does* do (which is just about everything a professional or academic writer could ever require), it does at not 5-star, but 6-star level.

I've no connection with RedleX other than as a seriously happy user. But I will say this: it's appropriate that 1.7.5 has been released at Passover, because, for this user at least, it marks the release from years of slavery to The Beast of Redmond.   
(Version 1.7.5)

A MARTIN  Yes, the pogram is amazing in many ways and Word import/export seem to work fine. But. It doesn't seem to support columns. Why?

I tried to import a Word-document with two columns. Fonts and styling was correct, but the second column was gone.  
(Version 1.7.5)

DANG THIS STUFF IS GOOD  Abso-flipin-ulety the best, most efficient, most MAC-made word processor and beyond in the MAC community today! Laden with virtual features that would take a semi-truck to haul if it were touchable. A development team that UNDERSTANDS what the MACer needs and wants. The best value for the money. Period.  
(Version 1.7.5)

A MARTIN  I thought that pressing "esc" meant "cancel" in a dialog, but for some reson many Mac programs doesn't always behave like this.

Mellel is one of them.

Except for this rather small "bug" its a very fine program! :-)  
(Version 1.7.0.1)

ANONYMOUS  Gradus,

As an academic writer and researcher I totally agree with everything you say. It's incredibly frustrating to have found such a great program but not be able to use it because of the lack of compatibility. I've been assured by the the company, though, that it's a priority and that the next version will be fully RTF compatible and thus word compatible. I hope they do a good job - there's no reason to think they wouldn't given their incredible history in improving this application.   
(Version 1.7.0.1)

MELLEL, THE REPLACEMENT MACWORD  I understand perfectly well what others are stating about the RTF issue and I agree. However, Mellel is so elegant, so versed in economy of what it performs and so well thought out in its execution that it is quickly becoming--make that HAS become my word processor of choice. Mellel is what Apple should have made MacWord into...ions ago.

I simply love this app.  
(Version 1.7.0.1)

ORI REDLER  Hello whytoi, Gradus and Anonymous,

We are currently (i.e., right now) working on a version of Mellel that will fully support RTF export and import and hope to release it in the very near future.

We're very much aware to the justified concern on your part from "investing" in yet another dead-end propriety format. To alleviate this concern, we also plan to provide in the near future the option to save Mellel's files in XML format, which is a non-propriety, open and modern format.

Using XML will assure you:

A. Access to the text in the document (the document will essentially contain the plain text of the document with tags).

B. Open and easy way to any third party product to open and save those files.   
(Version 1.7)

ANONYMOUS  gradus and whytoi are absolutely right. You know what you are doing if you decide to use something ather than Word - but you are not out of the world. Without rtf-export keeping footnotes there is no way ...  
(Version 1.7)

WHYTOI  Gradus comment is on track. My single refusal to move across to Mellel is also on its restricted save options. After all these years of personal computing, I refuse to get bitten again by another proprietary file format, especially on file/programs from smaller developers that may or may not have a bright future. Unless Mellel can provide reliable and full function RTF or DOC or other major save formats, I won't touch it with a 10' stick.  
(Version 1.6.9)

GRADUS  Just a comment because I already reviewed the software (see below). This program gives me serious headaches. I download every new release and think to myself: damnit, this thing is so great, I would love to use it, I would buy it in an instant even if they doubled the price, and yes, I'd even abandon Word for it (which means a lot, since unlike most of my fellow reviewers here I really like Word) -- but I can't. In its current stage of development, Mellel is useless to me. It's tailored for my needs as an academical writer, but it's still utterly useless. If I started writing an article in Mellel, I know I'd be heading full-speed for a dead end and a brick wall, because this program still lacks any functional export filter. I can manage footnotes, headers, tables and bibliographies in the most sophisticated way, but when the document is finished, I'm stuck. I can't do anything with it. All I can do is print it or export it to a text/RTF file that nukes all footnotes and formats. In neither form it will be accepted by editors. Why should editors and publishers take the time to rebuild my document? And why did I take the time to build it in the first place? As long as Mellel doesn't have _at least_ an RTF filter that deserves its name, all labor's lost. Until this program becomes fully compatible with the real world, I can only watch its progress from the other side of the fence.

Mellel's features and interface are outstanding, and it's great to watch the rapid progress it makes. Obviously, the developers have the talent to accomplish in weeks what the people at Nisus aren't able to accomplish in years. But now that Mellel has got everything a powerful word processor needs, building a filter that translates all the fancy features into files that everyone can deal with should have the highest priority on RedleX' agenda. Surely it isn't a trivial task to make an export filter that seemlessly transfers Mellel files to platform-independent RTF (and ideally, platform-dictated Word) with all formatting intact -- but the consequences aren't trivial either. As long as Mellel doesn't get high-quality export filters, it will only be one among many nice cheap programs for the occasional home user. If it gets these filters, it will become a professional word processor ready to take the huge market of academical and multilingual writers by assault. Easy as that. All the potential for a huge success story is there, only the punchline is missing.   
(Version 1.6.8)

ANONYMOUS  I used Nisus on OS 8.6 for four years, and loved it. Then I upgraded to Mac OS X. Mellel is in my opinion the ONLY word processor you should be using in X. It runs like a dream, the interface is gorgeous, its handling of styles is intuitive, powerful and uncluttered, its footnotes & bilbiographies work like a dream... this is a pleasure to work on.

The best $25 I ever spent on a program. Ever. Completely replaces Word, for a fraction of the cost, a fraction of the hassle, and none of the ugly aesthetics.  
(Version 1.6.8)

ANONYMOUS  Mellel is a great buy! It is a great looking program with many features and a bargain price. It also supports Hebrew and allows for more than one set of footnotes. Each version gets better and better!  
(Version 1.6.7)

ANONYMOUS  good work!!  
(Version 1.6.5.1)

JESPER S  Mellel is truly innovative - a word processing software that doesn´t try to be yet another Word-clone.

Instead it focuses on the actual purpose - to help the user to be creative by providing a word processor that´s easy to use without the loss of functionality.

Thanks - I really appreciate your hard work!  
(Version 1.6.5.1)

SIMEN  Mellel is great. I think the icon sucks though. It almost made me not try it, I don't regret doing it.  
(Version 1.6.5.1)

MIKEWELSH  Some time ago, I made a remark in this forum that I thought Mellel “is a flyweight” in relation to Mariner Write. I have to retract that unfortunate statement. With 1.6.5, I have seen the light and it is luminous indeed. I am now so fond of Mellel that I purchased it. I hope all is forgiven.  
(Version 1.6.5)

ROB M  I have been a user for almost a year now. I use this as my word processor of choice. It still needs a few things, but is very promising. I would like to see MS Word intergration and track changes. Really track changes would be great and this could be a MS Word killer. Who would need MS Word then? I used it before the palettes and find them a little annoying, but I am getting used to them now. I would like more features such as wrap around text for photos. I would like to see more functions for use as a HTML editor, too. Again, if they add MS Word and Track Changes then almost anyone can use use it.   
(Version 1.6.5)

ANONYMOUS  Thanks for all your hard work in developing this great word processor!  
(Version 1.6.0.1)

ANONYMOUS  An excellent new word processor, tons of potential, and already it does things others don't do. Use it for a day and you'll gladly pay the reasonable shareware fee. Watch this application -- it's going places! This puppy is going to be a killer app.  
(Version 1.6.0.1)

DRADRIENYOUELL  I emailed Ori Redler after my review and here is his prompt answer:

"Concerning auto-date entry, columns and stationary. Auto-date is planned for a near-future release (probably 1.7, and with some nice options to format the date to your needs). Columns are planned (along with flowing text around images) for Mellel 1.8. Stationery (i.e., templates and creation of similar re-usability options thereof, will come somewhere in between. Best regards, Ori"  
(Version 1.6.0.1)

DRADRIENYOUELL  Mellel got my juices flowing, the Mac fan's Ohhh-Ahhh - a cocoa tonic to jaded AppleWorks and when Nisus did not deliver. All the shortcuts are there but Mellel does things in a remarkable way; font selection is on a tear-off pane: in brushed steel of course. The various tools panes snap to or unzip by dragging off a tool pane. I have not found auto-dating or columns and stationery is not yet blocked from overwriting. I'll mention these to Ori Redler, clever redlex@redlers.com.  
(Version 1.6.0.1)

SHAITAN  With all the excellent basic text editors out there it's nice to see an app that focuses on writing functions (like paragraph and character styles) that are essential to a real word processor, yet is intuitive and attractive. The new Nisus was a pretty, but without any power, and Word is a bloated (though capable) pig. Mellel reminds me of WriteNow in it's final incarnation -- lean but very mean. In combination with the creative ideas app, Z-Write my keyboard will be struggling to keep up with the typing.  
(Version 1.6.0.1)

FARIBORZ AMIRSHAHI - VERONA (ITALY)  If you need a reliable Arabic-Persian word processor then Mellel is the answer. It fully supports right-to-left writing and unlike similar programs even the ruler changes direction when appropriate. Very reliable and surely good value for money.  
(Version 1.6)

DAN_IN_JAPAN  I originally bought Mellel to support Cocoa devlopment and a team comitted to innovation. It was cheaper than 2 to a movie. It has become my WP of choice, having all I need. My wife loves the way it handles Japanese R>L. AW and MSW gather dust. When Panther ships I intend to be 100% Cocao. By then Mellel will have seen updates to add even more. The developers listen to their users. Give me text flow around graphics and I'd pay again (just kidding).  
(Version 1.6)

MRANDRE  Definitely better. The improvement to the pallette system is great, although the individual pallettes are still too large. However, if you extend pallettes that cause the collection to be too long, older ones collapse, keeping everything on screen. Nice. Now if only there was true RTF integration, like in Mariner write, we'd have a real contender on hand. Time to whip up an encouraging email...  
(Version 1.6)

GREG SMITH  Interesting comparison: Nisus Express and Mellel come out with an update on the same day. For Nisus Express there almost no change, still unusable because it is so feature poor. Mellel on the other hand adds one outstanding feature after another. Except for a few specialized tasks for which Word is still necessary, Mellel is the premier word processing tool for OS X. It’s stability and ease of use make it a pleasure to use. The nested tabs in themselves make this like no other word processor.  
(Version 1.6)

THEMAN  MrRivers, I think you should trash your mac, It's taking too much footprint and you don't deserve it.  
(Version 1.6)

MRRIVERS  Opened it, saw that the UI of the main window still wastes way too much space, closed it and sent it to the trash.  
(Version 1.6)

MJMSMITH  Slick and getting slicker. This dockable palettes are really well done.  
(Version 1.6)

YOUCANRUNNAKED  AntiWord Service works well, making this even more useful. Every Mac user should support this developer. They have an excellent product and a deep commitment to making it the best.  
(Version 1.6)

ORI FROM REDLEX  From the Developer: Anonymous -- can you detail about the bugs in table creation and Chinese entry?  
(Version 1.5.5)

ANONYMOUS  GUI wastes lots of space with brushed metal and useless page outlines, gaps between pages, etc. Table creation is very buggy. So is support for Chinese. I am glad to see competition for Word, but this is still a long way off. No support for EndNote or Bookends either...  
(Version 1.5.5)

DANSROKA  I have needed to typeset some Hebrew text, and was looking for a solution. Unfortunately, no major software package (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop) handles unicode fonts, so I had to use TextEdit. It did ok, but wasn't an elegant solution. Then I found Mellel. It may be a simple word processor, but it is elegant. The integration of different character sets is simple and ingenious. One of the annoyances of mixing English and Hebrew, for example, is that the character sets are often different sizes. Mellel allows you to relate two typefaces, one for English and one for Hebrew, and specify the size relationship between them. In my case, the Hebrew font needs to be size 130% to match the size of the English text. Mellel handles this with ease.   
(Version 1.5.1)

ANONYMOUS  I go back and forth using Mariner and Mellel. Right now I'm drifting towards Mellel. It renders text beautifully and is a full Cocoa written program. The development is coming along at a fast pace; if you get on the mailing list for Mellel you will see that the authors have all sorts of great things in their plans. And they LISTEN to user input. Someday this will be able to replace MS Word. However, it does take a bit of getting used to with the style navigation. But once you learn it, you realize that maybe the old way was not so good after all....  
(Version 1.5.1)

KOZAK IMRE OLIVER  As a Standalone program, Mellel 1.5.1 is excellent, as it is written completely in Cocoa and fully support Unicode. A great advantage because of this is the possibility to use OS X service spell checkers.

I have found the style features a bit hard to understand for a complete beginner. Later on, it is not a problem.

I would need more button bar control, and more features on the button bar. Most of the features are only accessible via Menues or Palettes.

I would use Mellel if it would be able to output and read MS Word format. It is the standard file format for text documents. It is also quite silly that .rtf cannot be set to be the default file format, all you can do File/Export all the time (very cumbersome).

I have rather stuck to OpenOffice.org 1.0.1, also Unicode compatible, and reads/writes MS .doc format in an excellent way.

Unless you need the right-to-left support from Mellel, I think it is more reasonable to use a program that outputs files without loosing formatting.  
(Version 1.5.1)

GRADUS  Very promising, very elegant, and very useful even for people who don't need Mellel's excellent support for right-to-left languages. The footnotes management alone is worth the very modest price the developers ask for, and the table tools they implemented into this new version are more user-friendly than anything I've seen. Finally, Mellel is the first and only application where the use of brushed-metal appearance actually makes sense. Generally, I think Apple is on a wrong track with their tasteless and senseless brushed-metal obsession - but in this special case I somehow like it. It reminds me of a typewriter, and indeed Mellel feels just as solid and reliable as an old Remington.

There are, however, a few serious shortcomings that make me hold back my money till they get them fixed. The most serious problem is the lack of import and export functions. Once you're in Mellel, there is no way in and no way out. It can import and export RTF (and, of course, plain text), but it won't retain footnotes, pictures, headers, and tables. Essentially, RTF export isn't any better than exporting your paper to plain text. For a program that is aimed at academical writers, this is unacceptable. So be warned: If you use footnotes or headers, you're stuck with Mellel's proprietary format. You can print your paper (or print to PDF), but you can't forward it to other people for further editing.

Typographic controls also leave much to desire (they don't go beyond bold, italics, and underline - there are no options for kerning/tracking or manually adjusting superscripts), and there are no picture scaling tools and no "show invisibles" option - the latter being one of the most basic needs for any writer. There are also some annoying bugs (undo command fails very often; interface has some display glitches).

Mellel has come a very long way in very short time, and I'm sure it will soon become a serious word processor in the range of Mariner Write and Nisus Writer. But now that the basics are done, the developers should contentrate all their efforts on adding useful import and export filters. Word processing is all about exchangeability. If all you can do with your papers is printing them out, you're back in the typewriter era. In this regard, Mellel's typewriter mimicry goes beyond its interface.  
(Version 1.5)

PHIL  I really like the appearance and attention to detail. The style approach takes some getting used to, but ultimately makes good sense. I use it almost exclusively now, after using Appleworks, Mariner Write, and MS Word.  
(Version 1.5)

TONY WIGHT  I'll try again :

The Hebrew keyboards for Mellel can now be downloaded from http://www.redlers.com/download.html  
(Version 1.4)

TONY WIGHT  The Hebrew keyboards for Mellel can now be downloaded from   
(Version 1.4)

DGC  Amazing.Works well with Hebrew, still more to do with RTF importing.   
(Version 1.4)

HILARY PUTNAM  Subject: How do I get the Hebrew keyboard layout?

When I went to "writing in Hebrew" (under Mellel Help), I found "you

should use Mellel with the special Hebrew keyboard layout created for

versions 10.1 and later of Mac OS X". The next line reads, "The Keyboard

layouts for Hebrew may be downloaded from RedleX site at

http://redlers.com". But when I went to this site, I did not find any

place from which I could download Hebrew keyboard layouts. What do I do?

Hilary Putnam  
(Version 1.3.2)