What is the best word processing software for a Mac Computer?

Writing is the secondary activity on your Mac. Reading is first, of course. To read, someone first must write. A word processor is usually used, to, well, process (write) words.

We tend not to change word processors too often. What’s your favorite word processor?

Is it Microsoft Word? It could be. Besides Apple’s venerable AppleWorks, MS Word is the Mac program users love to hate—but they keep buying in record numbers.

And for good reason. MS Word has more features than its Windows counterpart and is, in typical Mac fashion, easier to use.

AppleWorks has been around since forever. First as ClarisWorks, an all-in-one application that combines word processing, spreadsheet, database, graphics, and more into well, frankly a very powerful, easy-to-use Mac application of the highest order (despite the fact that it’s relatively unchanged for years.

Why mess with something that works?

There are other word processors that proponents will tell you are all you need. Nisus Write and MarinerWrite come to mind. Both are fast, simple, have a number of very useful features, and won’t cost an arm and a leg.

There are also specialty word processors such as Final Draft and Final Draft AV. They’re word processors for the creative community; playwrites, screenwriters, etc.

There’s also open source (nearly free) such as the ThinkFree Office project. Like AppleWorks and MS Office, ThinkFree is a tank of a program, not for the faint of heart or those with a low learning curve threshhold.

So, what’s your favorite word processor of all time on the Mac? Word? Write? AppleWorks?

Could it be WordPerfect? If so, you’re still stuck in Mac OS Classicland. There’s a Windows version but nothing that’ll do you good in Mac OS X.

How about AbiWord? MarinerWriter? Mellel (still looking for time to try this one; many love it).

To vote for your favorite Mac word processor of all time, all you have to do is Click Here.

To see the results on how the voting is going, just Click Here.

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• Article by Alexis Kayhill • Published on Tuesday, June 3, 2008

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In my opinion, Pages, Apple’s counterpart to Microsoft Word and part of the iWorks suite, is a better fit for the Mac operating system. While it does allow for basic typing similar to Word, it has an easier interface for inputting images and more control over the layout of the overall page. Its design templates also offer a more modern look unlike Word which templates are basically the same since its creation. Since Apples are geared more for creativity, Pages takes full advantage allowing for simply typing to more elaborate layouts with an easier interface and more attractive templates to work from. With that said for simple typing Word works sufficiently on the Mac operating system. But if you want to do more than type a paper or a letter, Pages is definitely the better choice.

I think the best Word processor on Mac or Windows right now is Microsoft Word. You're right that Office on the Mac has a different interface from Office for Windows, but the features Word has and files that it makes are the same on both platforms, except that Office for Mac won't have the VBA programming language until later this year.

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.mspx

iWork is a nice set of software, but is not as feature-rich as Microsoft Office. iWork doesn't come with fonts, as many templates, compatibility with Microsoft Office, etc. True, iWork can open and save in Microsoft format, but a lot gets changed along the way. If you stay within iWork, you're fine.

The same holds true for just about any other Office suite. Remember that Microsoft Office is a Mac product that was ported to windows. Many of the Office knock-offs are Windows products ported to the Mac. None will have good file compatibility.

If you're look for free, use the free on-line light version of Microsoft Word at:

http://www.skydrive.com/

A crappy, free Windows office knock-off called OpenOffice is one you can download. Comes with free, vocal advocates claiming it's "as good" as Microsoft Office, which is a lie. Sun Microsystems tried unsuccessfully to sell against Microsoft Office, but it really bombed in the market place. I think it's better than the free Microsoft on-line version, but compared to Microsoft's full product, it sucks in many ways:

http://www.openofficeorg/

A not-free unless you want the old version of OpenOffice that has been "aquified" to make it look less bad is called NeoOffice. You can get that here:

http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/download.php

IBM makes an Office knock-off called Lotus Symphony. I haven't had a chance to give this one a good workout so I can't give you an opinion about it:

http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/...

ZoHo is another Office knock-off I haven't had a chance to really give a good workout:

http://www.zoho.com/

Bean is a free Macintosh word processor, but it's light-weight compared to Microsoft Word:

http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html

Google Docs is not even as good as the free Microsoft Office suite at SkyDrive. Google doesn't even display graphs and charts. Not worth bothering with, IMHO.

Mariner Write® is a powerful, yet streamlined word processor solution for everyone from professional writers, to educators, students, and the average user. Boasting an elegant interface, as well as hundreds of intuitive features such as the ability to read Microsoft Word documents and produce customizable headers, footers, endnotes, and footnotes, Mariner Write has everything you need to turn out great-looking documents.

Whether creating a simple letter or writing the next great novel, Mariner Write has the functionality to be your writing tool.

No kitchen sink syndrome here!

Are you working on that next great novel or authoring a must-read technical document? There is a good chance your word processor of choice, the tool that is supposed to be helping you, is hindering your efficiency by being either too feature-anemic or feature-bloated.

Try the perfect middle...Mariner Write.

I would seriously consider Scrivener from Literature and Latte.

Once you break yourself from the confines of linear writing, you'll never want to go back to a traditional word processor ever again.

It's billed mainly as a tool for budding and professional novelists, but it can be used for any kind of writing from essays to journals to movie scripts to plays to white papers–just about anything.

Forget writing at the beginning and working your way chronologically. You can break up a document into discrete sections that you can tweak the way you want. Start at the beginning, the middle, the end, alternate passages. Break it up, mix it up, build it back. It's how writing should be done.

It has a cork board with re-arrangeable index cards, a built-in outliner, a full screen writing mode, storage for images, movies and text archives that you can use for reference. Lots of features.

Really, really cool. After you've used it, you'll never want to use anything else if you're serious about writing.