To that end, we’re not including online word processors, Markdown-based writing tools, plain text editors, desktop publishing apps, or iOS-only apps. And for those who move in the open-source world, there’s Open Office and its variants.Īpps for Another Survey - Although we’re happy to add more word processors to the survey, we did have to limit ourselves in a variety of ways to keep the list to a manageable size. But these full-featured programs can be overkill - sometimes a small, focused app like Bean, Growly Write, or Nisus Writer Express is more appropriate. Take Control started with Word, switched to Pages, and is now using Nisus Writer Pro because it offers a robust set of writing and document layout tools, solid collaboration features, and most importantly, a full programming language that makes possible things that no other word processor could ever do. Numerous lesser-known word processors offer different approaches. Of course, as powerful as Word and Pages are, they’re far from the entire story. Still works fine and is widely owned (if not readily available), we separated the versions in the survey. Only now, four years later, have the semi-unified Pages apps nearly caught up with the capabilities of Pages 4.3. It eliminated most compatibility issues but at the cost of losing many Mac features. To resolve this, Apple retooled Pages, starting with Pages 5.0 on the Mac. You could create a document in one version and move it to another, but something often broke in the process. As Apple moved toward an iCloud-based strategy that emphasized workflows that could seamlessly switch between macOS and iOS, the Mac and iOS versions of Pages clashed. In recent years, Word’s fiercest competitor on the Mac is Apple’s Pages, which has had a tumultuous history. Simply, for millions of people using Macs and Windows, Microsoft Word is the only app they consider when they want to put words on paper. doc format is in many ways a de facto standard when it comes to exchanging editable text documents, even when there’s no need for anything beyond plain text. Martin, author of “A Game of Thrones.”Īlthough there were plenty of worthy word processors on the Mac early on, including MacWrite, WriteNow, FullWrite Professional, Nisus Writer, and WordPerfect, Microsoft Word eventually came to dominate the market, in part due to running on both the Mac and in Windows. Although WordStar has been defunct for years, some professional writers still rely on it, most notably George R.R. That said, what does count as a word processor? Plain text editors have been around forever, but when WordStar came out in 1978, it popularized the concept of a word processor: an app that not only let you edit text but take control of how it would appear on the printed page. In this TidBITS reader survey, our goal is not to crown any particular app but to collect your opinions about those word processors you’ve used. Word processing apps are as old as the personal computer, but what counts as a “word processor” turns out to be almost as contentious as determining the “best” word processor. Vote for Your Favorite Mac Word Processor #1641: LastPass breached, Live Text aids recipe input, fix for failed MobileDeviceUpdater installs. #1642: How to identify phishing attacks, new iPhone and iPad passcode requirements.#1643: New Mac mini and MacBook Pro models, new second-gen HomePod, security-focused OS updates, industry layoffs.#1644: Explaining Mastodon and the Fediverse, HomePod Software 16.3 and tvOS 16.3, GoTo breach.
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