Best word processor for Mac OS

jozeppy26 said:

Want to write a beautifully designed resume? CV?
Want to write a dissertation? Research article? School paper? integrate endnote?
Want to place citations/footnotes and generate a Works Cited or Bibliography page automatically using the correct formatting for MLA, Chicago, APA?
Want to place live editable Excel worksheets?
Want to edit photos placed in the document? remove the background?
Want to comment on a document? insert track changes?

I mean is this seriously even a discussion? Microsoft Word is not only superior for absolutely every use imaginable, but no other software (aka Pages) comes even remotely close to the feature set. It's not like these features in Word are superfluous and unnecessary, but quite the contrary. If your argument is price, and you have little desire to be a professional in any sense of the word, then by all means use Pages only or OpenOffice. But if you desire to ever apply for a job now or in the future (one somewhere other than McDonalds that requires a resume or CV), you really have got to use Word and you don't really have a choice. Sheesh these arguments never make any sense.

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“Microsoft Word is not only superior for absolutely every use imaginable”

Well, not really. Have you tried to use Hebrew in an English Word document? Doesn’t work. If you use Hebrew with English and other languages, Word is not superior. Mellel is top quality for this kind of writing and Nisus Writer Pro does well.

exegete77 said:

“Microsoft Word is not only superior for absolutely every use imaginable”

Well, not really. Have you tried to use Hebrew in an English Word document? Doesn’t work. If you use Hebrew with English and other languages, Word is not superior. Mellel is top quality for this kind of writing and Nisus Writer Pro does well.

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I get your point, but you're not looking at the whole picture. If I had to write a magazine article and rank the top 5 Word processing programs, I would take into account all available features, ease of use, performance, compatibility, etc. Without a doubt, Microsoft Word would be placed #1. It does the most generally better than all other options.

jozeppy26 said:

I get your point, but you're not looking at the whole picture.

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I'm not sure who's the one "not looking at the whole picture."

I use Word (2011) every day and have no complaints, so this isn't anti-Word in any way.

What I think you're missing, jozeppy26, is the part of the whole picture that's expressed by "get the right tool for the job."

We've recently had a thread here on Scrivener and its use for a thesis (comparing it to LaTex and Word, for example).

If I want to write a short note or essay -- say 3-5 pages -- I never think about using anything but Word. It's perfect for that job.

But if I'm working on something with many sections (large or small) and I know I'll be wanting to move them around and do various re-orderings to get to the organization I need, I never think about using Word. It's poorly-suited to that task. Scrivener is ideally suited to that task.

I don't fear cutting and pasting (I cut my teeth on the DEC editor EDT, command-line only) but why use that technique (or Insert File, for that matter) when there are far better options for that task. Note the last three words: "for that task."

Scrivener is well-suited to that task, especially because when the task is done, Scrivener can write out a Word document for sending around. At that point, the rest of the work can be done in Word.

Bottom line, for me, is that I choose the tool best-suited to what I'm doing. Sometimes it's Word. Sometimes it's Scrivener. Sometimes it's inDesign, and once I laid out a book, for publication, in Open Office. Sometimes I use Bean.

jozeppy26 said:

I get your point, but you're not looking at the whole picture. If I had to write a magazine article and rank the top 5 Word processing programs, I would take into account all available features, ease of use, performance, compatibility, etc. Without a doubt, Microsoft Word would be placed #1. It does the most generally better than all other options.

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monokakata answered very well. I have used Word on Mac since 1990, and on Windows since 1992. I have had to teach people how to use Word (and especially Excel) on both platforms, including time working at a Fortune 100 company. So I have a little experience behind me.

I don’t think you do get my point.

1. I serve as an editor for our church body magazine. I have several choices, but Scrivener beats them all. I have tried them all (and I have been writing on a computer for 23 years and by long hand for 50+ years). I receive files in all different kinds of formats. Yes, I try to educate writers, but... With Scrivener, I drag and drop them into Scrivener, and then can begin editing as they are all the same at that point. Try that with Word.

2. I also serve as President and Professor of our seminary. If I write anything with Hebrew, Greek, Latin, etc. which is often, Mellel is the only choice. Forget Word on that topic. For grading papers, I use whatever word processor the student uses (MS Word, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, Nisus Writer Pro, Mellel, InDesign). I bought MS Word two months ago (never had a need to go beyond MS Office 2004) because I had some issues working with OpenOffice on specific texts. But I had gotten by without Word for five years. So I use whatever helps me achieve the best results.

3. And I serve as pastor of a congregation. For bulletins and Bible studies I use Pages, InDesign, or Mellel, depending on what is needed.

So, to say that I am not looking at the whole picture shows a lack of understanding what I do and how I do it.

MS Word is very capable, but it doesn’t fit into my mix for what I need. I appreciate what Word can do. But personally I think that Word 2007/2010 and 2008/2011 were steps backward and counter productive to efficient word processing. But that is only my experience. I won’t use that to state what anyone else should or can use.

MS Word: awesome grammar and spell checker, also can play nice to PCs
Apple Page: very mac and good with pages for iOS

end of story... you decide now.

skaertus said:

I am currently using a Windows laptop to run Microsoft Office. How is Bootcamp or Parallels running Windows 8/Office 2013? I am thinking of buying a 13-inch retina MacBook Pro, but I would like to run MS Office under Windows...

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I installed Windows 8 on Bootcamp, but I'm waiting for better drivers from Apple. For example, the brightness keys (F1 and F2) don't work. I had disabled Adaptive Brightness, but it didn't fix my problem.
Battery life is two hours worse (than OSX) and the trackpad is not as smooth.
Also, I have to get used to the shortcut keys. I want to type ctrl+c, but I always press the fn key instead.

I haven't tried Parallels 8 with Windows 8, but I used Parallels 6 with Windows 7. It's not as fast as on Bootcamp, it's "too integrated" on OSX, and Parallels 8 has ads (see: Parallels Forums). The battery life is as bad as on Bootcamp. But you don't have to worry about drivers and can use the same shortcut keys.

So, I still don't know which one is better to work with Office 2013.

Here it goes another vote to LaTeX (which is not in the list). In my opinion it's great if you want a high quality output. It takes less than four days to learn how to do the most part. And once you are in, you never leave it. I don't agree with those who say that they only use LaTeX if the document is longer, I don't see any reason not to use it even for one page documents. Of course, it's in longer documents where it becomes true useful, but the quality of the output is quite high so I use it for every document.

I think that this processor should be in the list.

Free

I use the free ones, why pay $$300

oldhifi said:

I use the free ones, why pay $$300

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If you require high quality, and the only app which produces output with that high quality costs $300 (and you think it's worth it, considering ease of use, for example), then you should pay it. If not, then you can live with free ones.

yoblanco said:

If you require high quality, and the only app which produces output with that high quality costs $300 (and you think it's worth it, considering ease of use, for example), then you should pay it. If not, then you can live with free ones.

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my Openoffice prints just fine..

@oldhifi That's up to you. I wasn't saying that expensive programs output better documents (in fact, as I said before, I use LaTeX, which is free), just saying that some people need (or think they need) to pay so they get what they want, because it's not offered for free (again, not my case).

skaertus said:

Well, sure. You can have your work done with Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org Writer or LaTeX or whatever.

But other factors may play a part on it. OpenOffice.org Writer is not a bad piece of software; in fact, it turned out to be a good word processor. But Microsoft Word is better, faster, more convenient, more ergonomic and has more features than OpenOffice.org Writer. The superiority of Word over the open source alternative is obvious and simply undeniable. If you think it is worth the price Microsoft charges, then it is fine. If you think OpenOffice.org Writer suits your needs and you do not want to pay a premium, it is fine either.

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Exactly. Well said.

jozeppy26 said:

Want to write a beautifully designed resume? CV?
Want to write a dissertation? Research article? School paper? integrate endnote?
Want to place citations/footnotes and generate a Works Cited or Bibliography page automatically using the correct formatting for MLA, Chicago, APA?
Want to place live editable Excel worksheets?
Want to edit photos placed in the document? remove the background?
Want to comment on a document? insert track changes?

I mean is this seriously even a discussion? Microsoft Word is not only superior for absolutely every use imaginable, but no other software (aka Pages) comes even remotely close to the feature set. It's not like these features in Word are superfluous and unnecessary, but quite the contrary. If your argument is price, and you have little desire to be a professional in any sense of the word, then by all means use Pages only or OpenOffice. But if you desire to ever apply for a job now or in the future (one somewhere other than McDonalds that requires a resume or CV), you really have got to use Word and you don't really have a choice. Sheesh these arguments never make any sense.

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No, Scrivener is a MUCH better choice for actually writing your dissertation, IMO. Yes, at the end you'll need to convert the document to a different format, but the quality of the writing process in Scrivener versus Word just can't be compared.

Pages, it does everything you will need it to do.

skaertus said:

What impresses me, though, is that people really like this program. Why? Can't they simply write text on Pages or Word or LibreOffice or Mellel or Bean or whatever? Just write, and that's it. Every word processor does that, you don't have to go into formatting issues. Why people love this thing and hate Word? Are people so foolish and childish that they get distracted by the features of software, and need something that lacks everything? Do they really need an extremely simple piece of software or do they have some sort of lack of attention disorder? I just don't get it.

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It's just a matter of eliminating distractions in the UI if you don't what or have any interest in "word processing" features. Obviously, for your thread topic, iA Writer is not a contender.

For a very distraction-free writing program, take a look at Grandview (it's free and in the app store). Really, do take a few minutes and look at this!

Actually, the best word processor for a pure writer was always XyWrite. I use Word because my clients use it and a common file format is important, but I find Word too convoluted, complex, and cumbersome. And whoever invented its facility for group editing ought to have his/her skin flayed.

skaertus said:

What about the new Pages? Does anybody like it?

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Apparently not.

Pages, aesthetics is important for me. I'm learning the more I conform to Apple's way of doing things the better my overall user experience is.