Snow Leopard Tips

Mac OS X 10.6 brings a great deal of refinement, stability, and goodwill since the price is so low. However, we have discovered a couple of interesting issues that should be discussed.

The native file format in both Nisus Writer Express and Pro is RTF (rich text format). This format is shared by many other applications, including TextEdit and Apple Mail. It has been this way since the inception of OS X. We chose this format because it is supported by just about any word processor out there. Prior to Snow Leopard, files that were created in Nisus Writer Express or Pro would always reopen in the originating application.

However, Apple has changed this behavior in 10.6. All RTF files, regardless of where they were created, will open in a single application. By default the Finder is configured to use TextEdit. Obviously, this is not good for our users and us. It will be confusing and upsetting, and frankly we aren’t very happy about it. However, this behavior can be changed in a few easy steps.

1. In the Finder, single click a Nisus Writer RTF file.
2. Choose the menu File > Get Info.
3. Under “Open with” choose Nisus Writer.
4. Click the “Change All” button.
5. All RTF files will now be opened by Nisus Writer.

The other issue is more straightforward. Rosetta, the technology that was introduced with the introduction of Intel Macs to translate PowerPC applications on the fly, does not come installed by default. This is a potential issue because the file translators we use to open .doc documents, for example, are coded for PowerPC. When you try to open a document that needs the file translator you may see an alert that will ask you to install Rosetta. If you click the “Install” button, Rosetta will then install and Nisus Writer (Express or Pro) will work as before.

Or, to avoid that alert, when you are installing Snow Leopard for the first time click on the “Customize” button and choose Rosetta.