Pagehand

I really like the looks of Pagehand, but the fact that it hasn't been updated for 8 months concerns me.

To Caesar what is Caesar's! This is a totally different writing software. It has something to do with neatness and with formalism. Folks who care about good looks of a page on the screen and immediate access to FORMatting elements should consider this app. In that respect it is exquisite. I have and am currently using almost all the writing applications in the Mac app market: Scrivener, Ulysses, Word 97, Pages 09, Writeroom, Bean, nowadays OmmWriter, along with a few journalling and notetaking software. But Pagehand is superior to them in its wonderful manipulation of formal elements. This is something that may not be seen at first glance (I too missed its forte at first try; I too was misled by some negative reviews here like PDF thing etc. -but then I saw that I was allowed to save/export a document as docx.) Its niceties come off in time, especially for those of us who have come to forget to savour the first lazy moments before a blank page. Another strong point is its use of tabs a la Ulysses. You can open and edit multiple documents within the same window. So it also acts like a temporary database with integrated side by side and under view options. I find this aspect especially useful. The only thing I miss is full screen editing. Pagehand, in short, is about pleasurable writing. I heartily recommend it.

I cannot quite rate it yet as I have not used it extensively.. but so far I like the idea..the interface is clean (I just wish the toolbar could be placed on the right (most humans are right-handed and yet we are still stuck with most software using a left toolbar (Apple should think about this...) making us move our mouse/stylus all the way across the screen every single time.. sure we write left to right but so what !!!!! that is a completely separate issue) ?!? Apart from that I just do not understand why Pagehand cannot open other pdf files.. like say.. Skim or Preview can... even if indeed it could not edit them... at least to annotate and so on.. I always like when I can replace a few pieces of software with a single one... If it did that I guess I'd give it 5 stars.. maybe even 6 lol... Price is not that bad if it becomes one's main Word Processing tool...

How does saved document size compare with the same document saved in TextEdit as RTF, in Word 2008 as doc/docx, or in Pages'09?

It is not yet complete, it is a work in process, but it is a very nice tool. I would like especially to praise the elegant, pleasant, non intrusive interface. Moreover, the entire tool is clearly meant for people who write and enjoy writing. The use of PDF as a format for saving is unexpected, but allows to share documents with other people easily, due to PDF universality. Of course, there is a related limitation: one needs to own Pagehand for working on a document created with Pagehand. However, for documents that are not too complex, it is easy to export into some other formats, preferably RTF. Since it is still at the initial stage, a number of improvements are needed, but they are all in the work, it is just a matter of patience for users. For instance, footnotes need to be added. I am confident it will improve: the developer is responsive, and the forum, while small at this point, is already starting to be active. A promising tool - I used it already for writing a few small texts, and I was very pleased: writing was pleasant, fluid. And insofar I can witness from my own experience, it was completely stable.