| Developer(s) | Nisus Software, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1989 |
| Operating system | Classic MacOS, MacOS |
| Type | Word processor |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | nisus |
Nisus Writer (known as just Nisus from 1989 to 1993 [1] ) is a word processor program for Apple Macs, made by California-based Nisus Software, Inc. [2] The program is nowadays available in two varieties: Nisus Writer Express and Nisus Writer Pro.
First introduced in 1989, Nisus was the first word processor for Macintosh able to handle multiple type systems within one document, e.g. Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, etc., thanks to WorldScript. Other distinguishing features of the program were non-contiguous text selection, multiple editable clipboards, one of the earliest implementations of multiple undo, voice recording, and inline annotations. It also offers grep search and replace accessed through a graphical dialog box instead of command line options. These features, which were more advanced than those typically found in word processors of the day, were also present in Nisus' QUED/M text editor. [3]
An unusual feature of the Nisus file format was that all font and formatting information was saved in the file's resource fork, with the data fork containing only plain text. Thus, if the file were to be opened in another program on the Mac, or on a Windows PC, the text would be readable (although style information would be lost). This predates cross-platform file formats as used by word processors like Microsoft Word. Contemporary editions of Word had different formats between the Mac and Windows versions and required a translator if the file were to be readable at all. The technique of using the resource fork to store style information was later implemented by Apple Inc. for the standard Macintosh styled text format as used in SimpleText.
In 1992, Nisus Compact, was released. [1] It was an extra-lean variant of Nisus for Apple's 68K PowerBooks. It was designed to fit entirely within RAM to avoid accessing the hard disk and thereby draining the laptop's battery. It was at first a commercial product but was from 1999 given away as a freemium with various books and magazines as part of a marketing campaign. [1] "Upgrades" to Nisus Writer were offered at a discount.
In 1994, with the release of version 4.0, the name of the program was changed from Nisus to Nisus Writer, together with a redesigned interface, support for sound, QuickTime, Publish & Subscribe, text-to-speech, autonumbering, color graphics and table and equation tools. [1]
In 2001, Nisus Writer 6.5, the last classic version of Nisus, was released. [1] It ran under Mac OS 9.2.2 and PowerPC-based Mac OS X, but only in the Classic environment, and is no longer available for purchase. [4]
In 2003, Nisus Software released a fundamentally new product, called Nisus Writer Express. [1] [5] Rather than porting Nisus Writer to Mac OS X, it was based on Cocoa and complied with Apple's Mac OS X user interface guidelines. It was originally developed as Okito Composer by Charles Jolley. Nisus bought Okito Composer and hired Jolley as Managing Director, in which capacity he oversaw further development of the word processor he had created. Jolley left Nisus in 2005 and ended up working for Apple from 2006 to 2010 and Facebook from 2011 to 2013. [6]
In 2007, Nisus Software released Nisus Writer Pro, [1] [7] a more advanced version of Nisus Writer Express, intended more for business and designed as an alternative to the Mac version of Microsoft Word. It supported more file formats [8] and by 2011 it had features such as comments, mail merge, go to page, track changes, drawing tools and watermarks. [1]
As of December 2023, the latest versions of the two word processors, Nisus Writer Express 4.2 and Nisus Writer Pro 3.2, are both compatible with macOS Sonoma. [9]
Microsoft Word is a word processor program developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including: IBM PCs running DOS (1983), Apple Macintosh running the Classic Mac OS (1985), AT&T UNIX PC (1985), Atari ST (1988), OS/2 (1989), Microsoft Windows (1989), SCO Unix (1990), macOS (2001), Web browsers (2010), iOS (2014) and Android (2015).
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This is a comparison of word processor programs.
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The first version of Microsoft Word was developed by Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie, former Xerox programmers hired by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1981. Both programmers worked on Xerox Bravo, the first WYSIWYG word processor. The first Word version, Word 1.0, was released in October 1983 for Xenix and MS-DOS; it was followed by four very similar versions that were not very successful. The first Windows version was released in 1989, with a slightly improved interface. When Windows 3.0 was released in 1990, Word became a huge commercial success. Word for Windows 1.0 was followed by Word 2.0 in 1991 and Word 6.0 in 1993. Then it was renamed to Word 95 and Word 97, Word 2000 and Word for Office XP. With the release of Word 2003, the numbering was again year-based. Since then, Windows versions include Word 2007, Word 2010, Word 2013, Word 2016, and most recently, Word for Office 365.
Mac OS is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. The Macintosh operating system is credited with having popularized the graphical user interface concept. It was included with every Macintosh that was sold during the era in which it was developed, and many updates to the system software were done in conjunction with the introduction of new Macintosh systems.