Questions from a novice

[rnkazm]

Hi all,

I have just downloaded the demo version of the NWP and I am using it to see if I like it. I have a couple of questions and I really hope you can provide me with some type of an answer.

1. Is the latest NWP compatible with EndNote (a famous and important bibliographic software)?

2. Why do I have so much difficulty locating review articles on NWP? The reviews are either too old (one, two, or more years old) or are not written at all. I really would like to read more on how NWP is compared with Mellel and Apple Pages. Any thoughts on where I can find reviews on this would be most appreciated. I was very disappointed to see that there is no review of NWP on macworld.com. Why is that?

3. I have also downloaded a demo version of Bookends which everyone says works with NWP (and other Mac-friendly word processors) but I have problems getting it to work -- well at least on NWP. Any recommendations?

4. Finally, I am a professional writer and I am currently working on my dissertation. This would be a very long writing project. I would like to know whether I am choosing the right product. Any thoughts as to whether NWP is better and more professional than other Mac word processors (e.g., Mellel, Pages in particular) would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Ron

[mrennie]

Hi Ron, and welcome to Nisus!

1. Is the latest NWP compatible with EndNote (a famous and important bibliographic software)?

Not directly. If EndNote supports RTF scanning, then you can simply have it scan the RTF file created by Nisus Writer Pro.

2. Why do I have so much difficulty locating review articles on NWP? The reviews are either too old (one, two, or more years old) or are not written at all. I really would like to read more on how NWP is compared with Mellel and Apple Pages. Any thoughts on where I can find reviews on this would be most appreciated. I was very disappointed to see that there is no review of NWP on macworld.com. Why is that?

I don't know. It isn't Nisus Software's fault, as they cannot force magazines or websites to do reviews of their software. If you want to have this comparative review, why not contact Macworld and suggest it to them? I am sure many people (myself included) would be very interested in the result.

3. I have also downloaded a demo version of Bookends which everyone says works with NWP (and other Mac-friendly word processors) but I have problems getting it to work -- well at least on NWP. Any recommendations?

Check the Bookends folder inside your Applications folder for a tutorial and the Bookends user manual. Both will tell you what you need to do.

4. Finally, I am a professional writer and I am currently working on my dissertation. This would be a very long writing project. I would like to know whether I am choosing the right product. Any thoughts as to whether NWP is better and more professional than other Mac word processors (e.g., Mellel, Pages in particular) would be appreciated.

I am using Nisus Writer Pro to write my dissertation. I have Mellel (which I got as part of a bundle on MacUpdate), but I don't use it, so I can't speak from experience. It is said to be a very robust and reliable product, albeit with a very steep learning curve because of its idiosyncratic approach to word processing. As for Pages: personally, I would not recommend it for such a task, but it largely depends on your needs and computing habits. Pages lacks some advanced word processing features that you may need for the completion of the project. Check the forum for a discussion of Pages vs Nisus Writer Pro.

Hope this helps!

[zwick_genetics]

With respect to writing a dissertation, I think the only significant limitation of NWP (and not the old version of Nisus on OS that I used to write my dissertation!) remains how the program handles images. Particularly in scientific writing where figures/figure legends matter, that absence of either:

a. a text box functionality where one could include a figure, a figure legend, and then flow the text around the figure

b. An easy way to make text flow around a table (a two cell table could hold an image and a figure legend).

Either a or b would be fine - and would allow one to update easily as you write or modify the text.

While I would love to use NWP for all my work (and have my lab use it; I get MSW for free from a University site license) the absence of this one feature is a show stopper for me. So my advice would be to make sure that you have a strategy in mind for this issue.

[loulesko]

Hey rnkazm

Version 1.4 of NWP has tight integration with Bookends. As far as reviews; reviewers seem to be focusing on writing software like Scrivener because its the new trendy application category. So unless the word processing companies come out with a major release they tend to get ignored. Pages is dreadful for writing in - pages is great for laying out text. Nisus Writer Pro is great for long projects, it's very stable, very intuitive and highly customizable which as you know can make a big difference when you're writing.

-Lou

[dspedersen]

Hey rnkazm

Version 1.4 of NWP has tight integration with Bookends. As far as reviews; reviewers seem to be focusing on writing software like Scrivener because its the new trendy application category. So unless the word processing companies come out with a major release they tend to get ignored. Pages is dreadful for writing in - pages is great for laying out text. Nisus Writer Pro is great for long projects, it's very stable, very intuitive and highly customizable which as you know can make a big difference when you're writing.

-Lou

I agree, Pages is not a lot of fun to write in; especially the lack of cross references makes it pretty much useless, unless you're willing to put a helluva lot of work into getting that part right manually.

I've used Bookends for years, and the new integration of NWP 1.4 with BE is so sleek and well-functioning that I bought NWP last week after having tried it for just five minutes. And so far, after having used it constantly, it just works. No crashes, NWP <=> BE communication is perfect and all in all, I just feel more comfortable in NWP than I've done in any other writing program.