Best word processor for Mac OS

[kirky29]

For just writing, I'd say MS Word, but on a Mac (every Mac I've ever had including this 2011 iMac & my 2011 MBP) it's slow and laggy.

But, I use a lot of graphics and Apple Pages wins for me. Super fast too!

[imanidiot]

Ulysses.
Pages.

[ep1cn00bt00b]

I find it funny that Windows developed a better version of their Office suite for one of their competing companies (Apple).

[Bobby.e]

Microsoft word 2011 for Mac

[talmy]

My favorite word processor ever was WordPerfect (for Windows) version 8, dating back to 1997. It went downhill from there, but it did everything I ever wanted (or still want) from a word processor.

Back to the present. I don't use just one. There is no "best".

1. Pages - used for most documents. Those I don't share except as PDFs, and are short (say 20 pages or less).
2. Microsoft Word -- only for shared documents.
3. Libre/Open/Neo Office -- I tried to like them. Even tried the original Star Office back in my OS/2 days. It would be nice if Neo, the non-free one of the three, truely embraced OS X like it claims, but it's implementation of the latest OS X features autosave, resume, versions is poor to pathetic and it still doesn't integrate well. So why are these on my list? I've got them to handle Open-document format files I receive, plus it does an excellent job importing my hundreds of old WordPerfect documents.
4. Scrivener -- for long documents. Nothing like it. Well actually I had a good writing program called Kamas that was on CP/M in the early 1980's.
5. Epsilon - for "plain text". It's based on EMACS, and is multiplatform (OS X, Windows, Linux, and at one time I also used it in OS/2 and MS/DOS).
6. Adobe Dreamweaver -- I write in HTML. Not just my website, but I've also written a "E-book" in HTML -- wrote it over 10 years ago and still revise it annually. I started out using WordPerfect for this, then switched to a (now defunct) IBM product, Now I use Dreamweaver.

[Hirakata]

LibreOffice. I just need something to write with. I don't do any kind of "advanced" formatting, and it's free.

[talmy]

Actually, if you don't don't do anything "advanced" the TextEdit application, that comes in every Mac, is fast and of course free.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned it.

[bapesta]

Pages for actually using it and creating very decent looking docs but in real life scenarios it would have to be MS Word due to compatibility issues with clients/other companies/etc.

However if i was to send out/share pdf versions of the docs then definitely create them in pages and then print to pdf

[blanka]

It is InDesign, and even that is crippled.
The linear approach of Word processors sucks to begin with. In Design steps out of that, but it is really hard to work with formatting rules. People should be forced to work with styles instead of formatting ribbons to begin with, and to make that happen, working with styles should be fun and ease from the first click.

I think we should have CSS from the Web meet InDesign, and then we are getting somewhere.

[leadfeather89]

... I just use text edit.

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Originally Posted by talmy

Actually, if you don't don't do anything "advanced" the TextEdit application, that comes in every Mac, is fast and of course free.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned it.

This guy knows what's up!

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by blanka

It is InDesign, and even that is crippled.
The linear approach of Word processors sucks to begin with. In Design steps out of that, but it is really hard to work with formatting rules. People should be forced to work with styles instead of formatting ribbons to begin with, and to make that happen, working with styles should be fun and ease from the first click.

I think we should have CSS from the Web meet InDesign, and then we are getting somewhere.

But InDesign is not even a word processor. And it's not meant to be...

[skaertus]

Of all the 147 votes so far, Apple Pages and Microsoft Word got a combined 114. They seem to be far more popular then the other word processors.

[exegete77]

Originally Posted by skaertus

But InDesign is not even a word processor. And it's not meant to be...

You might want to read this regarding InDesign as a word processor. Writing in InDesign

I would probably do most of my mine in ID, but I work with Hebrew and ID and most other word processors don’t handle that properly in an English text.

[RUGERMAN]

Originally Posted by skaertus

Yes, it is true. However, one word processor may fit the needs of more people than others. If sharing documents is needed, Microsoft Word may be the best choice, for instance.

True enough, I don't write much any more but when I did and printed them I like the old MacWrite, I never did have any demanding requirements. Now however, Word is my favorite because that's what I have and it works well for what I occasionally have to do.

[talmy]

I just tried Grandview (available on the Mac App store for free) and find it surprisingly very productive. Unlike the name suggests, the "view" you get is usually just the word you are typing!

Try it -- you may like it!

(I used Grandview to create this post.)

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by talmy

I just tried Grandview (available on the Mac App store for free) and find it surprisingly very productive. Unlike the name suggests, the "view" you get is usually just the word you are typing!

Try it -- you may like it!

(I used Grandview to create this post.)

Well, not exactly what I'm looking for here. I'm getting tired of these "distraction-free", "focus-on-writing" word processors. They have no features at all and this is a "feature" announced as an advantage over the full-featured word processors. What if I want to use cross-references and styles and indexing?

[talmy]

It's good for getting words on "paper". If you really want to format as you go, then it isn't for you. However since it does write directly to the clipboard, you can paste your way through building a document in another word processor. It is insanely light weight, being small and instantaneously responsive.

[riklar]

Most answers come from users writing from left to right.
Most word processors mention here, especially, Pages and Word know to write only in one direction, L2R.
Only Mellel and Nisus pro, and LibreOffice/Open/Neo, know to write on both directions and are able to write in tenth of languages.

[mrsir2009]

Originally Posted by ixodes

For work I don't need to share across platforms, I like Pages. Been using it since Apple first released it and it's one of my favorites.

For other times when I'm working across OS X, Windows & Linux I like OpenOffice.

Pages can export into Word documents anyway though, for cross platform use?

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by riklar

Most answers come from users writing from left to right.
Most word processors mention here, especially, Pages and Word know to write only in one direction, L2R.
Only Mellel and Nisus pro, and LibreOffice/Open/Neo, know to write on both directions and are able to write in tenth of languages.

Well, I think Microsoft Word for Windows supports writing from right to left. However, Word does not appear to support this feature in the 2011 Mac version (that seems to be one more way in which Word for Windows is definitely superior to the Mac version). You will really have to rely on other programs such as Mellel or Nisus in order to have this feature.

[talmy]

Originally Posted by mrsir2009

Pages can export into Word documents anyway though, for cross platform use?

But it doesn't do it well. It all depends on how accurate you want it to be.

[shenfrey]

Vote has to go to Microsoft word. I would love to use Pages but since i'm at college and alot of my work requires cross referencing for max results, I need to stick with Word.

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by shenfrey

Vote has to go to Microsoft word. I would love to use Pages but since i'm at college and alot of my work requires cross referencing for max results, I need to stick with Word.

It is a shame that Pages does not yet support cross-references. Every full-featured word processor out there seems to have this feature, except for Pages...

[Eric Best]

I voted for Nisus Writer Pro, because I can do more on it than I can on Pages and because it will open WordPerfect documents. Personally, I would love to see WordPerfect on Mac. Maybe, its about what we're used to: with WordPerfect I feel I have most control over my document.
Recently, I downloaded Ulysses and Scrivener to give them a go, but I haven't got my head around their productive usefulness yet - not enough time!
Eric.

[talmy]

Originally Posted by Eric Best

I voted for Nisus Writer Pro, because I can do more on it than I can on Pages and because it will open WordPerfect documents. Personally, I would love to see WordPerfect on Mac. Maybe, its about what we're used to: with WordPerfect I feel I have most control over my document.

I've still got WordPerfect 8 on my Windows virtual machine. I always liked the control codes and "reveal codes" but I've gotten quite used to using styles and don't really care to go back now. LibreOffice or NeoOffice will also open WP docs. For some reason the latest OpenOffice doesn't have the converter anymore