Appendix 1
The Nisus Way

By Applelinks Contributing Editor Charles W. Moore

Joe Kissell's The Nisus Way is the first and only book written about Nisus Writer, and has attracted almost a cult following of Nisus fans, but unfortunately, it is long out of print. Due to Nisus' niche market penetration, the book did not sell well enough to keep it in print or convince the publisher to produce an updated edition. However, it is a wonderful resource for Nisus Writer users, even though it specifically covers only up to Nisus Writer version 4.1 (which is still a free download at: http://www.nisus.com/free/LoginNisusWriter.asp). Users of the new Nisus Writer 6 introduced this week will still find it plenty relevant.

I have a pristine copy of the print edition, but for those not so blessed, Mr. Kissell has published the book's entire text on a Website for free perusing and download. As he puts it:

"After many months of discussions with the publisher and further months of preparation, I’m pleased to present, complete and unexpurgated, the original version of The Nisus Way in HTML form. In August, 1999, I received a letter from IDG Books stating that the book is now officially considered out of print and that publication rights have been reassigned to me. I got busy HTMLizing the text, and it’s now available for your reading pleasure. This book covers Nisus Writer through version 4.1, so some of the material is rather dated, but even users of newer versions should find much useful information."

Kissell has added an .sea (self-extracting archive) version of the downloadable file, which he thinks will be decompressible on machines too old to use Stuffit Expander 5.x.

The HTML version of The Nisus Way requires a generation 4 or higher browser; looks best in Internet Explorer.

ð Frames & JavaScript version (pretty, but slow to load)

ð No-Frames, No-JavaScript version (table of contents in one window, text in another—but quick to load)

You can also view and download the contents of The Nisus Way CD-ROM that shipped with the book.

Kissell says:

"Nisus Writer is a high-end Macintosh word processor—and a very cool geek tool, with no peer on Windows or even UNIX (Emacs users eat your heart out). Written for geek and nongeek alike, The Nisus Way makes sense of all the powerful tools this program has to offer, while filling the reader in on the history and philosophy of the program and providing practical, real-world advice on using Nisus Writer for things like e-mail, HTML, long documents, and multimedia presentations."

The book/CD package offers in-depth information, detailed instructions, and authoritative tips on this powerful word processing package. Written for novices and experienced users alike, The Nisus Way begins with the fundamentals of text editing, layout, document formatting, and file management, and moves on to advanced Nisus Writer topics like customization, marking and indexing, setting up macros and scripts, applied document processing, and Internet interactivity.

For more information, visit:
http://alt.cc/tnw/

Charles W. Moore

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