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Review: Mariner Write v3 and Mariner Calc v5.2 PackReviewed By: Kirk Hiner Review Date: September 29, 2002
I may have mentioned this before, but one of my former girlfriends works for Microsoft. No, that's not why we slit up, and no, she didn't take the job to spite me. I'm not sure why she took the job, to tell you the truth, save for the money and the chance to watch the Seahawks play each week (how about that Sean Alexander...an NFL record five touchdowns in one half) but it doesn't so much matter. I mean, I'm not reviewing Megan, here...although that might be fun. Is there somewhere a guy can go to post reviews of his former girlfriends? Anyway, Mariner. Before Megan made the move to Seattle, she came to visit me in Hoboken. I can't remember why we were talking about word processors, but we were, and I began touting the virtues of Mariner Write. Megan had never heard of it--she was a PC user, after all--and openly wondered why anyone would even bother to create a program that would compete against one of Microsoft's strangle holds. Her attitude saddened me, and I wept. Well, not really, but I think that was the first time I really understood the ridiculous attitude people had towards Microsoft. I found it ridiculous because I'd used Word. I had both Word and Write installed on my computer, and Write was just better. It's now five years on, and not much as changed; Microsoft still has their strangle hold, although it's apparently slipping. They're blaming Apple for low sales of Office X, but it doesn't take much to realize the low sales stem mainly from ridiculously high prices and stiffer competition. Yep. Stiffer competition. Despite the demise of WordPerfect, there are many viable options for both home and office users of Apple products. Appleworks is decent, and free to those who buy Apple computers. ThinkFree Office is inexpensive and highly compatible. And Mariner...well, with Mariner Write and Mariner Calc, you simply pay for and get only what you need. I won't, however, spend this review comparing Mariner products to their competition (much). It wouldn't be fair, after all, as--aside from Nisus Writer--I quit using Mariner's competition a couple years ago. Write and Calc are simply that good.
This isn't to say it doesn't have some nice layout features. Setting up and editing tables in Write is amazingly simple...perhaps the best of any word processor I've ever used, and certainly better than in previous versions of Write. Other great improvements include both non-contiguous and discontiguous text selection, the ability to save your documents as PDF, and an automatic spell-checker that highlights mistakes on the fly. Of course, this can also be turned off if, like me, you prefer to worry about such things after you're done writing. None of these features are ground-breaking, but they're all nice to have in a word processor in this price range. There are, however, still a couple areas that need work. One of the first features for which I look in a word processor is the ability to increase the percentage at which the text is displayed. Word and Appleworks both do this well, Nisus Writer doesn't do it all. Mariner Write offers the option, but it doesn't do it well. At anything other than 100%, characters tend to fall out of alignment to the point that it's sometimes hard to distinguish words. I'd also like to see a more powerful search and replace feature, but perhaps I've just been spoiled by Nisus Writer as Mariner Write's is certainly as good as Appleworks and Word's.
Now, Mariner Write pretty much gave me what I expected. It's stable, and there are enough new features beyond OS X compatibility to justify the upgrade. It's Mariner Calc, however, that really impressed me. There was a time in my life--a dark, lonely, scary time--when I would often spend an entire workday using Microsoft Excel. After a couple years of this, I'd become pretty efficient with the program. With that job and those PCs behind me, I rarely find myself using spreadsheets anymore. When I do find myself in need of one, I turn reluctantly to Appleworks. It's sad, really, very sad, because doing so makes me miss Excel. I find the Appleworks spreadsheet program to be both clumsy and devoid of many of some fairly common features. Mariner Calc, as with Mariner Write, seems to have found that balance between ease of use and power. It's not weighed down with obscure capabilities that get in the way of those that are really needed. On the other hand, it doesn't sacrifice usability in an effort to make it overly simple. Of course, the main feature needed in any competitor of Excel's is the ability to read and write to Excel. This was a little buggy in v5, but Mariner quickly addressed the issues with v5.2. Opening large Excel spreadsheets was no problem (Calc can handle 32,000 rows by 32,000 columns), and those with tables and charts provided minimum fuss.  Calc can write to Excel as well. Just as Mariner Write allows for saves to both RTF and a Word customized RTF, so does Mariner Calc allow for saves to both SYLK and an Excel customized SYLK. Calc can also save to CSV and to text with or without formulas and screen format intact. Speaking of formulas, Mariner Calc ships with two manuals: one for general use, and one for functions. The function guide is a tremendous resource, and is well worth a quick read-through...it'll show you valuable capabilities that may have otherwise gone unused. Both Calc and Write also take advantage of Apple's help system, but it's pretty much as useless as it always is. My searches never pulled up what I wanted, and often only gave solutions in other programs. Tell me, should I blame Apple for this or every developer who tries to make use of it? What Mariner really needs at this point is an online support database or user forum. They could take a cue from Nisus on this, as Nisus has built an excellent support group of rabid users who are quick to solve problems and offer tips. To go up against Microsoft, companies need that kind of loyalty. To get that kind of loyalty, they need to create a community. Now, here's the thing about both of these programs. They've each got room to grow, and Write especially needs to clean up a couple of features before it's ready for prime time. Mainly, it needs to improve compatibility with Microsoft Word...it strikes me as odd that Calc does a better job of handling Microsoft files than does Write. That being said, you can't go wrong with this bundle. It's a fraction of the cost of Microsoft Office X (of course, you're not getting answers to PowerPoint and Entourage, but who cares?), it's much more powerful and user friendly than Appleworks, it doesn't tax your system resources, and it can do just about everything you need. Hard core Word and Excel users probably won't find just cause to switch, but Mariner Write and Calc offer enough to keep most users satisfied...even genuinely pleased. Give these programs a year or so, let them get past their OS X growing pangs, and we'll have an office...well, if not an office suite, at least an office cubbie...that won't have Microsoft employees wondering why anyone would dare challenge them, but instead wondering what they will have to do to rise up to the challenge.
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Mariner Write looks and feels like most people think a word processor should. Word users especially will be pleased at how easy it is to make the transition to Write, and WordPerfect users searching for an OS X compatible replacement need look no further. The OS X interface is clean, although maybe oversized, and the familiar tools are, for the most part, easy to get to. Better yet, the feature set is not overdone. I know it sounds odd, but Write's strength comes in part from what it can't do. I'm sure there are people out there who enjoy pretending their word processor is Quark XPress, but I'm not one of them. I use word processors to write, and Mariner Write is built to facilitate this. Reports, letters, memos, etc., Write is perfect for the task.
More troublesome, however, is the Word import capability. I'd say that less than 50% of the time was Write able to open a Word document with a decent degree of accuracy. Even Word documents that were strictly text oriented often brought in funky characters and formatting. Saving to Word, on the other hand, was very well done. You're basically saving to RTF, but it's a customized RTF with which Word seems to get along...and that doesn't usually happen.