🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1990Jul16.064351.1623@csuchico.edu>, lorner@csuchico (Lance Orner) writes:
>And this, by chance, happens to be my exact predicament.  I am looking for a 
>word processor to do a lot of writing with (school papers and such) and would
>also like one that wouldn't be to bad with writing code in one language or
>another.

I'm not sure if Nisus would be great for coding.  Something like
Preditor or even QUED/M (the text-editor parent of Nisus) might be
better.

>I have usually used Word for most of my jobs, and I have really come to like
>the overall completeness of the program.  It does nearly everything well, and 
>would seem like a hard program to top.  (Using ver. 4.0)

True enough, though I could never stand the program's brain-damaged
user interface.  I still cringe when people ask me how to get fonts in
the fonts menu...

>With Nisus, I have heard about the wonderfull powers of the macros,
>among other great things.  I know that Nisus does lack the outliner
>(which I never use) and style sheets (which I don't use to their full
>advantage anyways), and so some of the features that Nisus seems to
>lack doesn't matter to me anyways.

The new version of Nisus (due out later this summer) will have true
style sheets plus loads more features.  In the current version you can
very easily search for specific style attributes and change them
(change all Helvetica Bold to 12 point Optima Italic), or search for
words inside asterisks and change them to italics, or whatever.

>But what of the rest of the differences between Word and Nisus?  What might be
>different about the two?  What could give me reason to switch over?  In short,
>which one is better?

Ease of use and consistency of interface.  Builtin "grep", but one
where you don't have to know the syntax of grep (nor do you need to
know special magic characters like "^p" as you do in Word).  Simple
indexing and table of contents generation.  Macros, of course, that
let you do lots of things fairly simply.

Also, the file format is text, with formatting stored in the resource
fork.  This means that you can open Nisus files directly with a DA
like miniWRITER and browse through them.  Or upload them directly
without first having to "save as" text.

Nisus also supports searching through multiple open or closed files;
handy if you don't have a DA like GOfer or On Location.

>I'm asking quite a bit, but I've never been able to sit down with Nisus and
>experiment, although from what I've heard of so far, it seems really good.
>Has anybody used it?  Or used the new Nisus 3.0?

3.0 isn't out yet; 2.1 is the current version.  Really, you can do
almost everything in either program (some exceptions, like outlining
and tables, and Word doesn't have macros); what I like most about it
is that you never have to refer to the manual -- everything you think
you should be able to do you can.  Everything feels quick and
intuitive -- you're never in arbitrary modes.  Last, if you own a Plus
or SE, you'll like working in Nisus because it scrolls like a bat out
of hell -- no more waiting for slow screen updates.

Anyway, I certainly like it.  You should find a store or a friend
who'll let you try it.  To find out what's in the upcoming v3.0, give
Paragon Concepts a call at (619) 481-1477.

Standard disclaimers apply: I just like the program, I don't get paid
for this.

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