The Nisus Files: Now Arriving On Track X, The Express

By Kirk Hiner

May 8, 2003

Has it been over a year already? Man a lot can happen in a year. You can get a new house, you can publish a novel (and promote it shamelessly), and you can even finally beat Hunter: The Reckoning on the GameCube. Although these are all fairly large life accomplishments, they can distract you from other tasks, such as updating The Nisus Files.

To be fair to myself, it was a conscious decision to put The Nisus Files on hold when Nisus revealed they were hard at work on an OS X version of Nisus Writer, and that it would be quite different from the version we've all come to know and love and hate. Knowing I'd be making the upgrade, as would countless other Nisus users, I figured I'd hold off on more columns instead of commenting on a program that would soon be outdated.

This was somewhat faulty logic, as Nisus Writer Express does not "outdate" Nisus Writer 6.5. Obviously, with about fifteen years of development behind it, Nisus Writer 6.5 has more to offer the serious writer. The program still works fine when booting up in Mac OS 8.6 through 9.2.2, and I've been using it with without incident in Classic mode in Mac OS X. However, I've been using Nisus Writer Express for about two weeks now, and I've thus far found little reason to go back to Nisus Writer 6.5.

Those reasons will vary from user to user, of course, but I will point out that they all stem from the fact that the gang at Nisus decided to go full cocoa with this one instead of simply carbonizing the previous Nisus Writer. That means all new code and all new features, but some have been lost along the way. Gone is the integrated outliner, footnotes and endnotes, line numbering, right to left input, and more. Already, I miss some of the long document features and the powerful file management tools, but many of these features are planned for future updates. Want something back? Let Nisus know. They'll listen. They're funny like that.

I'll point out now, in case you want to try out Nisus Writer Express without giving up Nisus Writer 6.5, that file formats are interchangeable. Express can open up 6.5 files, of course, so there are no fears about not being able to access your old files. However, the default file format for Express is RTF. 6.5 can open Express files, but it'll handle the files in the same way it handles RTF files saved from any other word processor. In other words, conversion won't always be 100% accurate.

The benefit of saving in RTF is that Express files are interchangeable with just any other word processor. That's all well and good, but how about working with documents not saved in RTF...specifically–the bane of writers everywhere–Microsoft Word. Surprisingly, Express handles .doc files extremely well. I had a strong run where every Word file I opened in Express was read quickly and accurately, provided there wasn't an abundance of tables, graphics, and the type of layouts that should be reserved for Quark XPress. Nisus Writer Express would show me elements that Appleworks would not, and I rarely got the messed up characters I often see in Mariner Write. Oddly, the files with which Express did have problems opened without incident in Mariner. I have yet to discover the pattern for what works and what doesn't work with these two programs. Oh, and get this; you can save in native Word format, too. Nisus doesn't allow you to save in a native Nisus format, but you can save your file as a Word document. Go figure.

Okay, so opening and saving files in different formats has been improved, but what about using the program itself? Well, you'll only need to launch Nisus Writer Express once to see how times have changed. The interface is based on Okito Composer, so, gone are the multiple toolbars that used to hover about the screen, replaced with a less powerful but more user friendly tool drawer. This drawer, which can be opened and closed at the press of a button (much like the mailbox in Mail) houses writing, formatting and section tools which can be accessed using a drop down menu. There's an option to create a new set of tools, but I wasn't able to figure out how to get items in there. Could be that it's disabled for now, but it's more likely I'm just missing something.

And hey, bonus! Since I started using Nisus way back when Bill and Hillary Clinton still pretended to love one another, I've been crying out for the ability to magnify the page. Just as Nisus promised me, it's here now. Users can magnify the page by as much as 800%, and doing so is a simple matter of dragging a slider or typing in the exact magnification. What's more, magnifying the page doesn't cause the type to behave in odd ways (kerning issues) as it does in some other word processors.

Your tools such as cut, copy, paste, undos and the like are controlled via a toolbar across the top. This toolbar can be customized in the same manner as the OS X Finder can be, but I'm not sure why. The default set-up contains all but three or four of the possible options, so I don't see why they just didn't put everything up there to begin with. My guess is that it's for those using smaller screen resolutions, or, more likely, that features will continue to be added here, making customization more important.

There's plenty more to discuss, and in future articles I'll take a closer look at the autosave library, the clipboard feature, macro support, and more. To close up this article, I'd like to provide a warning. Remember, this is a beta. As such, certain aspects of the program don't yet work as they should. These problems can be minor; adjusting the indent alignment doesn't adjust cursor placement until the first letter is typed. Or, these problems can be major; the program hangs after using it for a while, not allowing you to save or make further edits. There's a Send Feedback feature in the Help menu that allows you to detail problems you've encountered and to make feature requests, but, ironically, this wouldn't work on my system.

My early thoughts here are that Nisus Writer Express shows great promise, but that there's plenty of room to grow...as I'm sure it will. Currently, it's more of a contender against other word processors such as Mariner Write and Appleworks as opposed to being a complete replacement for Nisus Writer 6.5. That replacement will come. For now, here's your chance to get used to the new set-up, and to make sure your voice is heard regarding what features of Nisus Writer 6.5 get brought over to OS X, and how soon. All Nisus Writer users should give this a try, but don't plan on being Classic free for a while yet.

Yep, what a difference a year makes.

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