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Genre: Word Processor

Format: Shareware

Developer: Redlex

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.2

Review Computer: 1 GHz PowerPC G4 with 768MB RAM, ATI Radeon 9000 with 128 MB RAM, Mac OS X v10.3.5

Price: $29 (includes three years of free updates)

Availability: Out now

Version Reviewed: 1.7.5

There are many word processors available, yet too many of them forget that what makes a word processor different than a text editor is the ability to change the formatting of text quickly and easily. Mellel gives you this control, and with support of languages that other programs can't match.

Being able to control formatting quickly by using styles is a feature that has been around for quite some time, yet Mellel takes a different approach by dividing them into three areas: page, paragraph, and character. Page styles let you control headers, footers, and numbering formatting for the entire page. Paragraph styles lets you control how paragraphs look, including formats such as justification, margins, indents, tabs, space above and below the paragraph, and much more. You can also select which character style the paragraph will use, or you can pick none so you can change that separately. Character styles let you change how each letter looks by changing the font, size, style for both the main and secondary font styles, direction, line, and position.

You can also create styles based on the format of the text. Once you have a style set up, all you have to do is select the text you want to change and pick the style from the menu or use a keyboard shortcut that you can define.

Most of the formatting controls are accessed through the palettes, which I'm not a big fan of. While they are well organized and easy to use, I always like the option of using the menus if I want the screen space for other windows. For example, you have to insert a table through the Insert menu, but to modify the table, you have to use the Table palette. I would like to see the commands mirrored in both the menus and the palettes for more flexibility.

There's a bug in that if you decide you don't want to see the List palate and it's attached to other palettes, they will all disappear. You have to remove the palette you want to hide before choosing not to see it.

If you have to use chapters, sections, tables, charts, pictures, and figures in a document, you'll often have to number them (whether to have an easy way to refer to them and/or because you'll be making a table of contents). Mellel uses auto-numbering to control the formatting both in the document and in the table of contents as well as what information you want the auto-numbering to contain. This will take a bit of time to set up initially, but, once you have, you can save the settings, so it will take a only few moments to use. The benefit of this system is the flexibility you have in deciding exactly how everything appears. You can have an auto-numbering scheme with a table of contents just for charts, or one that makes an outline, or anything you need that has numbering.

I did run into a problem when I wanted to have a cover sheet and have the numbering in the table of contents skip that page. I managed to get the right page number in the footers, but couldn't figure out how to correct the table of contents so that it wouldn't count that first page. Another problem is that if you make any changes to your document, such as adding another chart or chapter, then you'll have to delete the table of contents and make a new one.

The biggest advantage Mellel has is its support for languages and unicode, especially those that write from right to left (such as Hebrew, Persian, and Arabic). From reading the features, I doubt there is any other OS X word processor which makes it so easy to write in any language you wish.

Unfortunately, Mellel doesn't support columns, indices, line numbering (aside from lists), scripting, track changes, outlines (aside from using auto-numbering, which isn't automatic) and wrapping text around graphics. While the support for footnotes and citations are strong, it's not so easy to use other formats for bibliographies such as those that use endnotes.

Despite the features Mellel doesn't have, I use it for most of my word processing needs and think it's very powerful and easy to use. Being able to have precise and easy control over how a document looks is worth the $29 and then some. Mellel is being constantly updated, and the upcoming 1.8 version will have support for outlines as well as a new font technology which means more languages will be supported.

If you need a powerful word processor and don't want to pay an arm and a leg, than I recommend Mellel as the word processor you should buy.