Thinking about upgrading to Word 5.0? Thinking about switching to a different word processor? Think about Nisus. Nisus is arguably the most powerful word processor to appear on the Macintosh, and it has features that no other program can even approach. Despite this incredible power, Nisus has some potentially serious flaws for creating complex formal documents. This review uncovers the power and the problems to help you decide which program to use. Part one of three.
by Matt Neuburg -- [email protected]
(with comments by Adam C. Engst -- [email protected])
NOTE: My original review was too long, so Adam decided to cut some of the detailed technical discussion
One senses Nisus's originality from the moment of starting to type. The blinking insertion point vanishes and does not reappear; lines of text after it do not move out of the way as you type, but are temporarily ignored
The text window can be scrolled vertically or horizontally. Icons at lower left and upper right of the window allow you to: split it horizontally or vertically (or both at once, giving four panes and four sets of scroll bars); show or hide a horizontal and/or a vertical ruler (a unique and occasionally invaluable feature); toggle between text and graphics mode; or show or hide a row of page, line, character, and memory information
Menus, too, show the originality of Nisus's philosophy. A number of menus are hierarchical. You can make the Macros menu and the Windows menu pop down directly from the title bar of a window with a click while holding down the option or command key, so you don't have to go to the trouble of finding your way in from the menubar