Competitive Comparison

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The tables below contain a comparison of Mellel, MS Word, OpenOffice\Neo Office (OO) and Nisus Writer Express (NWE) (see important note below) which are possibly the more prominent word processors available for Mac OS X. The comparison covers 655 different features in 36 different categories, but does not yet cover all aspects of word processing. You should regard it, therefore, as a work-in-progress.

What is it good for?

Not much, except for getting a general impression. The competitive comparison surveys a broad range of word processing options, to help you make a more informed decision about how each of the products meets your specific word processing needs in the relevant categories. We are not objective, so the comparison is pretty heavily influenced by what we think is important. Also, the rating is meant to make the reading more enjoyable. It shouldn't be taken too seriously.

How we rated the applications

The rating system is simple: 2 points for full implementation of an option, 1 point for partial implementation, 0 points for a feature not implemented. Full implementation is also marked with a light brown background (nearly full implementation comes with a khaki background.
For each category, the points are summed-up and the leader is marked in boldface. A grand summary appears at the end of the comparison.

Important note: We've tried to make the comparison as fair as possible, using the latest versions available to us for checking. We will be phasing out Nisus Writer Express in the near future and replace it, probably, with Apple's Pages. We will try to keep things up-to-date here (but no promises) If you see inaccuracies or incorrections, please write to us.

Launching and basic behaviour	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Launch Time (seconds)	3	12	4-5	4.5-7
Default setup for new document	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Long document opening time	4.5	73	2	12
Scroll to end of document (seconds)	32	157	70-73	32-58
Moving from draft > page view (seconds)	<1	<1	<1	<1
Save under a different name (seconds)	<2	21	<2	5
Summary	11	2	9	7

Resource Hog	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
CPU time (percent) when in background	0	~5	~5	0
Sinking Time	2.5	6-7	No	3
Initial Virtual Memory required	162	320	344	273
Summary	6	0	0	4

Interface and standards	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Cocoa application	Yes	X11	Carbon	Yes
Mac Intel version	Yes	No	No	Yes
Text Display quality	Highest	Mediocre-	Mediocre	Highest
Standard GUI elements and behaviour	Highest	None	Most	Highest
Alternative GUI appearance	Yes	Partial	No	No
Editable palette/toolbar order	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Automatic resizing of palettes/toobars	Yes	No	No	No
Magnetic palettes/toolbars	Yes	No	No	Yes
Editable palettes/toolbars content	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Customisable keyboard shortcuts	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Services support	Yes	No	No	Yes
Summary	19	7	7	18

Opening and saving (general)	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Open options (new file, do nothing, etc)	Yes	No(?)	Partial	Yes
Switch to options (new file, do nothing, etc)	Yes	No	No	Yes
Template support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial
Template browser	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Save as template	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom template info and thumbnail	Yes	No	No	No
Automatic save	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Save with backup copy	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Setting default format for saving files	No	Yes	Yes	No
Default document folder for saving files	No	No	No	Yes
Password protection	No	Yes	Yes	No
Pass. protection for elements in doc	No	Yes	No	No
Default page size and margins (new)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Default view options (new)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Default style/font settings (new)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Summary	22	22	20	17

Open, save, print (import, export)	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Open/save Mellel format	Yes	No	No	No
Open/save OO format	No	Yes	No	No
Open/save Nisus Writer Express format	Partial	Partial	Partial	Yes
Open/Save Nisus Writer (old) format	Partial	No	No	Yes
Open/save MS Word .doc files	Partial	Yes	Yes	Partial
Open RTF files	Import	Yes	Yes	Yes
Save RTF files	Export	Yes	Yes	Yes
Open/Save RTFD files	No	No	No	Yes
Open AppleWorks files	No	No	Yes	No
Open/Save WordPerfect files	No	Yes	No	Yes
Open/Save as plain text	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Open/save non-Roman plain text	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Open standard image formats	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Open/save HTML files	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Open EPS	Yes	Some	Some	Yes
Open PDF files	Image	No	No	Image
Save/Print to PDF	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Print even/odd pages separately	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Collate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reverse print order	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Print properties, notes, etc. separately	No	Yes	Yes	No
Print codes, hidden fields, guides	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Print notes, codes, etc. with document	No	Yes	Yes	No
Print background colour	Yes	Yes	No	No
Print footnotes with special highlight	Yes	No	No	No
Envelope printing option	No	Yes	Yes	No
Label printing option	No	Yes	Yes	No
Merge mail option	No	Yes	Yes	No
Summary	33	41	35	35

View and display options	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Page layout view	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Draft view	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Draft and page layout identical	Yes	No	No	No
Online/web view	No	Yes	Yes	No
Full Screen mode	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Full screen mode usable	Yes	Yes	Partial	Partial
Outline view	Yes	No	Yes	No
Fit page/with to page options	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Show/hide toolbar and rulers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Show/hide page/text margins	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Display changes applied immediately	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Display changes option in preferences	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Background colour	Yes	No	No	Yes
Elements display colour	No	No	No	Partial
Split view	No	No	Yes	No
Multiple zoom options	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Setting zoom manually	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Summary	28	20	26	24

Show/Hide options	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Show/hide invisibles (non printing characters)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Show/hide toolbar and ruler	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Show/hide page margins	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Show/Hide table Gridlines	Yes	Partial	Partial	No
Show/hide header/footer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Selective show/hide options	Yes	No	No	No
Invisibles colour control	No	No	No	Yes
Show/hide preferences	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Summary	14	11	11	10

Basic Editing	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Smart drag and drop	Yes	No	Partial	Yes
Smart copy and paste	Yes	No	Partial	Partial
Copy/Paste text only	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Copy/Paste paragraph style	Yes	No	Partial	Partial
Copy/Paste character style	Yes	No	Yes	Partial
Copy/Paste list attributes	Yes	No	No	No
Copy/Paste swap, find, replace	No	No	Partial	Yes
Summary	12	2	7	9

Find and Replace	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Basic find and replace	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Regular expression search	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Find/replace special characters	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Find/replace by style/format	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Find/replace by format only	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Replace Styles (all together)	Yes	Yes	No	No
Find all	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Find/Replace in notes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Find/Replace in headings (auto-title)	Yes	No	No	No
Find/Replace in headers/footers	Yes	No	No	No
Special options search (e.g., widows and orphans)	No	Yes	No	No
Search in selection	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ignore case	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ignore diacritics	Yes	No	No	No
Find whole words	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Citation search	Yes	No	No	No
Variable Search	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Sounds like (similarity) search	No	Yes	Yes	Partial
Save Searches (find actions)	Yes	No	No	Yes
Save expressions	Yes	No	No	No
Recent searches	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Batch searches	Yes	No	No	No
Summary	36	30	25	21

Spelling, thesaurus and grammar	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Spelling panel	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Checking spelling (one by one)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Check spelling as you type	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Check spelling in selection/paragraph	Yes	No	No	No
Check spelling in document	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Check spelling by language	No	Yes	No	Yes
Special 'exclude' from spelling options	No	Yes	Yes	No
Spell check special regions	No	Yes	No	No
Languages supported	36	5	10	35
Grammar check	3rd party	No	Built-in	3rd party
Thesaurus	3rd party	Yes	Yes	Built in
Languages for thesaurus	3rd party	3	1 built in	1 built in
Summary	15	18	15	15

Document Info/Properties	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Standard file info (size, created, etc.)	No	Yes	Yes	No
General information fields (e.g., Author)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Additional special fields	No	Yes	Yes	No
Searching in Keywords	No	Yes	Yes	No
Custom variables per document	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Different types of variables	No	Yes	Yes	No
Setting document variables names	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Setting default variables values	Yes	No	No	No
Setting default variables names	Yes	No	No	No
Inserting variables into document	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Variables automatically update	Yes	Partial	No	No
Summary	14	17	16	0

Language Support	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Unicode support	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Support for Unicode glyph insertion	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Special characters insertion options	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Support for main Roman languages	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Support for East European languages	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
CJK support	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
CJK vertical text support	Partial	Yes	Yes	No
Support for Cyrillic languages	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Support for Greek	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Support for writing from right to left	Yes	Partial	No	Partial
Support for Hebrew	Yes	Partial	No	Partial
Support for Arabic, Persian, Syriac	Yes	Partial	No	Partial
Support for Kashida	Yes	Partial	No	No
South Asian (Indian) language support	No	Partial	No	Yes
CJK full justification	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
OS 9 and earlier fonts for languages	Most	Yes	No	No
Language encodings with export	Yes	No	No	Yes
Language encodings with import	Yes	No	No	Yes
Support for multiple-script styles	Yes	No	No	Partial
Support for different secondary font	Yes	No	No	Partial
Multilingual numbering schemes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Multilingual support for "smart quotes"	Yes	No	No	Yes
Bidirectional styles, notes, tabs, etc.	Yes	No	No	Yes
OpenType support	Yes	No	No	No
AAT support	No	No	No	Yes
Summary	44	27	13	36

Styles (General)	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Page styles	Yes	Yes	No	No
Frame style	No	Yes	No	No
Section (column) styles	Yes	Yes	No	No
Paragraph styles	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Character styles	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
List style	Yes	Yes	Limited	Yes
Note styles	Yes	No	No	No
Global styles	Yes	No	No	No
Style sheets (with template, document)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Style sets	Yes	No	No	No
Switching between sheets/sets	Yes	No	No	No
"Dialogue box rating"	Low	High	High	Low
Replace styles through find and replace	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Separate paragraph and character styles	Yes	No	No	No
Edit styles in dialogue box	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Edit styles in document	Yes	Yes	Clumsy	Clumsy
Control style updating with old/new files	Yes	No	No	No
Quick access to style editing	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Save changes to styles on the fly	Yes	Yes	Clumsy	Yes
Edit style names	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Edit style menu (position, separators)	Yes	No	No	No
Assign and edit style shortcuts	Yes	No(?)	Clumsy?	Yes
Override style changes	Yes	No	No	No
Replace paragraph styles	Yes	No	Clumsy	Macro?
Replace character styles	Yes	No	Clumsy	Macro?
Associated styles	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial
List of all styles applied in document	Yes	No	No	No
Styles available for new document	All	Template	Template	Template
Default template for new files	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Setting default styles for new document	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Create style based on another style	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Locking of changes to template/set	Yes	No	No	No
Linking based styles to original	No	No	Yes	No
Summary	60	32	28	33

Character style	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Global character styles	Yes	No	No	No
Document character styles	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Edit name, menu, shortcut of style	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial
Quick-jump to editing style	Yes	No	No	Yes
Edit style from document	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Save changes to style	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Edit style in dialogue box	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Style variations	Yes	No	No	No
Font menu	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Font face	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Font size	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Secondary font	Yes	Yes	No	Partial
Secondary font face	Yes	Yes	No	Partial
Secondary font relative size	Yes	Yes	No	No
Secondary font script	Yes	Yes	No	Partial
Superscript and subscript	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Setting font size in fractions of point	Yes	Yes	Partial	Partial
Baseline shift	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Colour	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Background colour	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Underline and strikethrough	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Double Underline and strikethrough	Yes	Yes	Partial	Partial
Underline and overline	Yes	No	No	No
Outline	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Control of weight of underline, overline, outline	Yes	Partial	No	No
Control of colour of underline, overline, outline	Yes	No	No	No
Effects (shadow, dotted, extend, etc.)	No	Yes	Yes	No
Emboss, engrave and other special effects	No	Yes	Yes	No
Rotating text	No	Yes	Yes	No
Highlight	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kerning	OT fonts	Yes	Yes	Yes
Spacing (tracking)	No	Yes	Yes	No
Small caps, all caps, title caps	Yes	Yes	Yes	Text pal.
Force (fake) bold and italic	No	No	Yes	Yes
Ordinals, fractions, num./denom.	OT fonts	No	No	AAT fonts
Changing figure styles	OT fonts	No	No	AAT fonts
Ligatures on/off	Yes	No	No	Yes
Kashida on/off	Yes	No	No	No
Summary	63	54	44	43

Paragraph style	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Global paragraph styles	Yes	Yes	No	No
Document paragraph styles	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Edit name, menu, shortcut of style	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial
Quick-jump to editing style	Yes	No	No	Yes
Edit style from document	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Save changes to style	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Edit style in dialogue box	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Edit by example in dialogue box	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Option to associate par. and char. styles	Yes	No	No	No
Based on style option	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Right, left, centre, full justification	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Last line force justify, centre, etc.	No	Yes	Yes	No
Spacing above/below paragraph	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Units available for space above/below	All	All	All	1 (pt)
Line spacing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free (unlimited) adjustment of line spacing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Line spacing in lines and points	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Paragraph direction	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Start, end and indent margins	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Live editing of margins	Yes	No	No	No
First line and hanging indent	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Widow/Orphan control	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Control over Widow/Orphan setting	Yes	Yes	No	No
Keep all lines together	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Keep with next	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Control over keep with setting	Yes	Yes	No	No
Hyphenation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Page break before	No	Yes	Yes	No
Next paragraph style	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Align to grid	No	Yes	No	No
Space above at top of page	Yes	Never	No	No
Border	No	Yes	Yes	No
Summary	54	56	45	35

Header, Footer, Page and Page Style	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Global page styles	Yes	No	No	No
Document page styles	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit name, menu, shortcut of style	Yes	Yes	No	No
Quick-jump to editing style	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit style from document	Yes	Yes	No	No
Save changes to style	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit style in dialogue box	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit by example in dialogue box	Yes	No	No	No
Edit header/footer in document	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Option to associate par. and char. styles	Yes	No	No	No
Page margins part of style	No	Yes	No	No
Page background in style	No	Yes	Yes	No
Page margins and size in style	No	Yes	No	No
Different page sizes in one document	No	Yes	Yes	No
Setting inside/outside margins	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Page background (printing)	Yes	Yes	No	No
Background image (watermark)	No	Yes	Yes	No
Page borders	No	Yes	Yes	No
Header/footer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Even and odd header/footer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Even, odd and same pages in document	Yes	Yes	No	No
Setting header/footer height	Yes	Yes	Partial	Partial
Different first page header/footer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Different header/footer on all pages	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Insert Rule in header/footer	No	Yes	No	No
Insert table in header/footer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Insert image in header/footer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Page number insertion in header/footer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Page number scheme control	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Page number changes in document	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Inserting additional variables (like date)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Inserting changing reference (mention)	Yes	No	No	No
Summary	50	56	32	25

Tabs and ruler	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Horizontal ruler	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vertical ruler	No	Yes	Yes	No
Tabs available	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Placing by drag and drop	Yes	No	No	No
Dragging inside the ruler	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Change type of tab	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tab lead	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Any character accepted as lead	No (list)	Yes	No (list)	Yes
Population with tabs	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Clear all tabs	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Automatic placement of tabs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Editing position of tabs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Right (end) tab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Left (start) tab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Decimal tab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Centre tab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Combo tab	Yes	No	No	No
Align tab	Yes	No	No	No
Decimal align on setup	Yes	Yes	No	No
Measurement units available for ruler	3	5	5	5
Changing measurement units on the fly (live)	Yes	No	No	No
Easy changing of tab position (numeric)	Yes	Dialogue	Dialogue	Dialogue
Live editing of tabs and margins	Yes	No	No	No
Display of tab position on the fly	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Easy selection of tabs (selection indicated)	Yes	No	No	Yes
Magnetised stop-points for tabs	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Indication when tab unusable (dragged beyond limit)	Yes	No	No	No
Summary	44	39	36	33

Columns and sections	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Columns support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Global column/section styles	Yes	No	No	No
Document column/section styles	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit name, menu, shortcut of style	Yes	Yes	No	No
Quick-jump to editing style	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit style from document	Yes	Yes	No	No
Save changes to style	Yes	Yes	No	No
Edit style in dialogue box	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Edit by example in dialogue box	No	Yes	Yes	No
Maximal number of columns	Unlimited	Unlimited	12/18	10
Gutter and width	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Setting width and gutter per column	No	Yes	No	Yes
Setting line between columns	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Different width setting for gutter line	Yes	Yes	No	No
Different line type for gutter line	Yes	No	No	No
Adjust gutter line height (rel. to column)	Yes	Yes	No	No
Setting line per column	No	No	No	No
Setting columns per page	No	No	No	Partial
Setting columns per section	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Setting columns from this point on	Partial	No	Yes	Partial
Adjusting column width from page	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Changing column setup in page	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Text frame in columns/text	No	Yes	Yes	No
Controlling columns flow direction	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Full vertical justification	No	Yes	No	No
Column balancing	Yes	Grid	Partial	No
Summary	37	42	20	18

Graphics and image	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Inserting images by drag and drop	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Inserting images by copy and paste	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Placing images (menu command)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Work with equation editor	Partial	Built-in	Built-in	Partial
Work with graphics applications	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial
LinkBack support	No	No	No	Yes
Flowing text around images	No	Yes	Yes	No
Advanced text wrap	No	Yes	No	No
Resizing images in document	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Placing images inline	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Placing images in floating box	No	Yes	Yes	No
Adding caption to image	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Image cropping	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Control of image colour	No	Yes	Yes	No
Control of positioning and ratio	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Set image size with exact values	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Images in header/footer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Image in notes	Partial	Partial	Partial	No
Adjust image to column line spacing	Yes	Grid	No	No
Effects, borders and shadow	Partial	Yes	Yes	No
Summary	27	33	33	18

Tables	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Creating tables	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Visual table creation (widget)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Adding and deleting rows and columns	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Add rows and columns in place	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Table direction option	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Border selector	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial
Flexible border selection	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial
Separate selection of content and cells	Yes	Yes	No	Partial
Insertion of rows/columns "in place"	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Equalising rows and columns	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Direct manipulation of table borders	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Direct manipulation of table cells	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vertical alignment of text	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial
Fit to content, fit to page	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fill and pattern in cells	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Border width and pattern	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Auto formatting of tables	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Text to table and table to text	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Splitting and merging cells	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cell padding	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Separate cell padding from all bordrs	No	Yes	No	No
Diagonal lines	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Repeating header	No	Yes	Yes	No
Show/Hide Gridlines (completely)	Yes	Partial	Yes	No
Table sorting	No	Yes	Yes	No
Sum and spreadsheet functions	No	Yes	Yes	No
Table limited to page margins	Yes	Partial	Partial	Yes
Limit table to page	No	Yes	Partial	Partial
Images can be inserted in table	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Image size adjusted to cell size	Yes	Partial	Partial	No
Pasting content from other applications	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Size set in measurement unit	No	Yes	Yes	No
Breaks before/after a table	No	Yes	No	No
Table within a table	No	Yes	Yes	No
Text wrapping around table	No	Yes	Yes	No
Preferred width for table cells	No	No	Yes	No
Keep with next	No	Yes	No	No
Table shadow	No	Yes	Yes	No
Summary	43	68	59	45

Notes (footnotes, endnotes)	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Note styles	Yes	No	No	No
Unlimited number of note streams	Yes	No	No	No
Multiple concurrent notes	Yes	No	No	No
Editable menu, shortcuts, etc. for notes	Yes	Partial	Partial	Yes
Height limit for notes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Highlighting notes in text and on screen	Yes	No	No	No
Placement options for notes	4	3	4	3
Restart numbering option	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Start at option	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Text before/after note	No	Yes	No	No
May separate from reference option	Yes	No	No	No
Complete separator control	Yes	Yes	Partial	No
Reference symbol numbering options	13	23	6	14
Separate numbering for reference, note	Yes	Yes	No	No
Format options for reference symbol	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Character style for reference symbol	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Note symbol numbering options	13	23	6	14
Arbitrary character as note symbol	No	Yes	Yes	No
Separate format options for note symbol	Yes	Partial	Partial	No
Character style for note symbol	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial
Style for note text	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Preserving overrides (like italic) in notes	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial
Continuation note for notes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Editing notes in the document window	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Entering note from a table	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Entering a table or graphics in notes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
View and edit all notes at once	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial
Quick jumping from note to text	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Changing footnotes to endnotes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Several notes per line	No	No	No	Yes
Summary	49	42	28	28

Bibliography	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Special Bibliography support	Yes	Yes	No	No
Built-in Bibliography support	No	Yes	No	No
Built-in tools for bibliography	No	Yes	No	No
Support for EndNote	Partial	No	Yes	Partial
Support for Bookends	Yes	No	Yes	Partial
Support for Sente	Yes	No	Yes	Partial
Search in Bib. Database	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Auto-entry of citations	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial
Scan and unscan	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Varify citations	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Unpack (sync) citations	Yes	Partial	Yes	No
Flexible positioning of bibliography	Yes	No	Partial	No
Citations in document	Yes	No	No	No
Updating bibliography	Yes	No	Yes	No
Summary	23	15	19	4

Hyphenation	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Supports hyphenation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hyphenation zone	Yes	No	Yes	No
Limit to consecutive hyphenation	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Multiple hyphenation dictionaries in doc.	Yes	No	No	No
Change hyphenation settings	Yes	Yes	Partial	No
Hyphenate selection	No	Yes	Yes	No
Multilingual hyphenation dictionaries	Yes	No	No	No
Control over last word in par. hypheantion	Yes	No	No	No
User hyphenation dictionary	Yes	Yes	No	No
Create additional dictionaries	Yes	No	No	No
Soft hyphen	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Summary	20	12	11	2

Auto titles	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Creation of title setups	Yes	No	No	Partial
Number of title setup supported	Unlimited	16	8	Unlimited
Number of structure title levels	10	10	10	10
Number of elements available	7	0	3	1
Title in auto-title	Yes	No	No	No
Line break in auto-title	Yes	No	No	No
Auto-title format editing	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial
Multiple styles in title	Yes	Partial	Partial	No
Applying styles to auto-title format	Yes	Partial	Partial	No
Start at (number) option	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Increment option	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Number of caption/tag supported	99	3+	3+	0
Number of elements available	7	3	3	0
Title in caption/tag	Yes	No	No	No
Auto positioning with inserted item	No	Partial	Partial	No
Line break in caption/tag	Yes	No	No	No
Auto-title format editing	Yes	No	No	No
Inclusion of auto-title in format	Yes	Partial	Partial	No
Applying styles to auto-title format	Yes	Partial	Partial	No
Start at (number) option for caption/tag	Yes	No	No	No
Increment option	Yes	No	No	No
Level preview	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Numbering schemes for caption/tag	No	Yes	Yes	No
Summary	42	19	17	12

Numbered and bulleted lists	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
List styles	Yes	No	No	Yes
Numbered lists	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bulleted lists	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Number of available levels	9	9	9	9
Styles for numbered and bulleted lists	Unlimited	32+	14	Unlimited
Customisation of styles	Yes	Partial	Partial	Yes
Selection of bullet characters and style	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bullet/number and text indention control	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free selection of elements for list	No	Yes	Yes	No
Numbering scheme options	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Palette/toolbar for easy insertion	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Switch between list types	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Switch between styles of lists	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Automatic indention and outdention of list	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Automatic continuation of list	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Continue throughout document	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Applying changes of list types	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Coping list styles/attributes	Yes	No	No	No
Live editing of list attributes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
List reset option	Yes	No	No	Yes
Mixing bullets and numbers in list	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Per-level list editing	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Relative indent (between levels)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Control over bullet/number positioning	No	Yes	No	No
Applying changes to all lists	Yes	No	No	Yes
Summary	44	40	30	44

Table of contents	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
ToC by auto-numbers in document	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Number of ToC setups supported	Unlimited	7	7	0
Editing of table of contents format	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Number of elements available in ToC	7	4	3	0
Applying different styles to ToC parts	Yes	Yes	Partial	No
Using Auto-titles in ToC format	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Create from index	No	Yes	Yes	No
Inserting variables in ToC	Yes	No	No	No
Line break in ToC	Yes	No	No	No
Update of ToC from existing	No	Yes	Yes	No
Table of figures/tags	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Generating Table of figures with ToC	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ToF by auto-titles in document	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Number of ToF setups supported	Unlimited	1	7	0
Editing of ToF format	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Number of elements available in ToF	7	2	3	0
Applying different styles to ToF parts	Yes	Yes	Partial	No
Using Auto-titles in ToF format	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Inserting variables in ToF	Yes	No	No	No
Line break in ToF	Yes	No	No	No
ToC editable in document	No	Yes	Partial	No
Viewing entry format for Toc, ToF	Yes	Yes	No	No
ToC and ToF per document or chapter	No	Yes	No	No
Columns in ToC	No	Yes	No	No
Background in ToC	No	Yes	No	No
Table of Authorities (ToA)	No	No	Yes	No
Styles with ToA	No	No	Yes	No
Summary	38	36	31	0

Mentions (running headings)	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Inserting Mentions in header and footer	Yes	No	No	No
Mentions by auto-numbers in document	Yes	No	No	No
Number of Mention setups supported	Unlimited	0	0	0
Editing of Mentions format	Yes	No	No	No
Number of elements available in Mention	7	0	0	0
Applying different styles to Mention parts	Yes	No	No	No
Using Auto-numbers in Mention format	Yes	No	No	No
Inserting variables in Mentions	Yes	No	No	No
Line break in Mention	Yes	No	No	No
Mentions in tables in header/footer	Yes	No	No	No
Summary	20	0	0	0

Outlining	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Outline panel/View	Yes	No	Yes	No
Outline view with document	Yes	No	Partial	No
Selective display of outline levels	Yes	No	Yes	No
Moving items with content	Yes	No	Yes	No
Collapsible levels	Yes	No	Yes	No
Navigation in document via outline	Yes	No	No	No
Inserting and deleting items via outline	Yes	No	Partial	No
Different format for outline than text	Yes	No	No	No
Captions integrated in outline	Yes	No	No	No
Demote and promote in outline	Yes	No	Yes	No
Change outline items level	Yes	No	Yes	No
OPML import	Yes	No	No	No
OPML export	Yes	No	No	No
Summary	26	0	14	0

Cross Reference	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Reference feature	No	Yes	Yes	No
Types of references available	0	8	7	0
Options specific to reference type	No	Yes	Yes	No
Insert "Above" and "Below"	No	Yes	Yes	No
Page before or after	No	Yes	No	No
Insert as hyperlink	No	Yes	Yes	No
Navigate and insert	No	Yes	Yes	No
Summary	0	14	12	0

Index	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Automatic generation for index	No	Yes	Yes	No
Search and mark for index	No	Yes	Yes	No
Marking of Entries	No	Yes	Yes	No
Main and sub-entry	No	Yes	Yes	No
Control of style of entry	No	Partial	Partial	No
Options for type of entry	No	Yes	Yes	No
Automatic marking from file	No	Yes	Yes	No
Apply to similar text	No	Yes	No	No
Indented or run-in option	No	No	Yes	No
Index Styles	No	Unlimited	7	No
Editing of index styles	No	Yes	Yes	No
Page number alignment control	No	Yes	Yes	No
Columns option in index	No	Yes	Yes	No
Updating an index	No	Yes	Yes	No
Phonetic reading for entry	No	Yes	No	No
Apply to similar text	No	Yes	No	No
Language option	No	Yes	No	No
Heading for accented letters	No	No	Yes	No
Table of Authorities based index	No	Yes	Yes	No
Summary	0	34	31	0

Line numbering	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Line numbering option	No	Yes	Yes	No
Quick access to numbering options	No	Yes	No	No
Numbering per page, section, continuous	No	Partial	Yes	No
Set style for numbers	No	Yes	Yes	No
Count by (increment)	No	Yes	Yes	No
Vertical bar separator	No	Yes	No	No
Seperator text	No	Yes	No	No
Seperator intervals	No	Yes	No	No
Distance from text	No	Yes	Yes	No
Position of numbering	No	Right/Left	Left	No
Printing/non printing numbers	No	No	No	No
Tick marks between numbers	No	No	No	No
Emphasis of set line numbers	No	No	No	No
Skipping empty lines	No	No	No	No
No numbering in a selection of text	No	No	Yes	No
Numbering for selection	No	No	Yes	No
Numbering in text frames	No	Yes	No	No
Numbering formats options	No	Yes	No	No
Selecting a line by clicking its number	No	No	Yes	No
Summary	0	23	17	0

Scripting support	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
AppleScript support	No	No	Yes	Yes
VBA Macro support	No	No	Yes	No
Perl Macro support	No	No	No	Yes
HTML tags support	No	Yes	Yes	No
Field codes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Recording Regular Expression find	Yes	No	No	Yes
Summary	2	4	8	6

Tracking changes (version control)	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Highlight/show changes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Recording changes	No	Yes	No	No
Protecting changes	No	Yes	No	No
Finding changes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Accepting and rejecting changes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Add comment to changes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Merge documents	No	Yes	Yes	No
Tracking colour and style	No	Yes	Yes	No
Comparing documents	No	Yes	Yes	No
Summary	0	18	14	0

Word count	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Counting characters	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Counting words	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Counting lines	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Counting paragraphs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Counting in selection	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Live update of word count	Yes	No	Partial	Yes
Displaying both total and selected	Yes	Yes	Partial	No
Correct, separate count for hyphen, slash, etc.	Yes	Yes	No	No
Counting non-Roman characters	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Non-Roman counted separately	No	No	No	No
Word count in tables	Yes	Partial	Partial	Yes
Word count in notes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes
Word count in bibliography, auto numbers	Yes	No	No	No
Word count palette	Yes	No	No	Yes
Summary	26	17	14	20

Smart (curly) quotes	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Automatic Smart (Curly) Quotes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Find and replace straight and curly quotes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Easy override of smart quotes	Yes	No	No	No
Primary quotation marks support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Secondary quotation marks support	Yes	Yes	No	No
Number of languages supported	30+	1 (at a time)	1	1
Customising quotation marks	Yes	Yes	No	No
Bidirectional quote support	Yes	No	No	No
Summary	15	12	7	7

Date and Time	Mellel	OO	MS Word	NWE
Insert date/time	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Select date format	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Select time format	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Updating/static field	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Document creation date	Yes	Yes	No	No
Multilingual time format	Yes	Yes	No	No
Automatically updating date/time	Partial	Yes	Partial	No
Changing formats reflected in document	Partial	Yes	Partial	No
Summary	14	16	10	0

General Summary

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Comments:

more prominent: Our choice here is open for suggestions, of course.
Latest versions: Mellel 2.0, Microsoft Office 2004 (but some features only tested with MS Office X, OpenOffice 2.0.3 (we're gradually combining this with the older tests of 1.1.2), NWE 2.7 (but not everything is updated from 2.5).
Launch Time (in seconds): Measured on a G4 Dual 1GHz machine with 768MB of free memory.
Default setup for new document: a set of preferences options for a new document, including default styles, page margins, display options, and so on.
Long document opening time: Test performed with a native format document, 130,000 words long, with simple styling in the document.
Scrolling time: For Nisus: 58 sec. in layout view, 32 sec in draft view. For MS Word 70 in Layout, 72 in Draft mode.
Resource Hog: Measuring the amount of processor time and memory the application requires when running in the background. An application that consumes a lot of processor time and memory tends to "hog" the system and adversely affect the performance of other applications. All the applications here were tested with a 54 pages long document containing various styles opened in the background.
~1.5-3: NWE usually drops down to zero only with small files. With larger files it drops more slowly (but improved significantly in version 2.1.1 compared with version 1.1.2.
Sinking time: Time it took the application to reduce CPU usage to minimal amount.
Sinking time > No: MS Word down not sink significantly, especially after heavy editing. That is, it continues to occupy about one fifth of CPU time as long as it is running.
Standard GUI elements and behaviour: We like the Cocoa look and feel and standard elements over a mix of OS X and OS 9ish mix, as is the case with most carbon applications. You may think otherwise, of course.
Editable palettes content > Yes: Doesn't work as promised.
Customisable keyboard shortcuts > Mellel > Partial: Only a selection of keyboard shortcuts for various styles is available.
Open/save Nisus Writer Express format: NWE uses RTF as native format. The format is read by all the other applications, barring some private RTF tags integrated into NWE files.
Smart drag and drop > Partial: All four application offer a drag and drop functionality, but with the exception of Mellel this option is not context sensitive: When you double click a word or when you select it with the mouse and drag it the result is the same, but should really be different in terms of redundant spaces handling.
Smart copy and paste: means that the behaviour with paste changes based on the way the text was selected for copying. If the text was selected by double-clicking it, it should be pasted wrapped with space at the beginning and at the end. If not, it should be pasted as-is.
Support for writing from right to left > NWE: Partial because of lack of support for old fonts, special fonts, accurate positioning of trope marks and vowel pointing, and so on.
Dialogue box ratings: Number of dialogue boxes required to perform a task, such as designing a style, changing a style, and so on. The more dialogue boxes are needed to perform a task, the less efficient the application in performing it and the higher the rating.
Separate paragraph and character style: Whether this is a point in favour or not is of course a matter of opinion.
Setting font size in fractions of point > Partial: NWE and MS Word only allow setting the font size in half a point units. Mellel allows setting the size of a font to the third decimal point (e.g. 12.628).
Multiple Concurrent notes: Being able to enter two or more streams of notes as footnotes, endnotes, bottom of page notes, etc.
Number of caption/tag supported > MS Word: 3 caption options are supplied, but others can be added.
Switch between styles of lists > MS Word: You can switch between style only through the cumbersome Bullets and Numbering dialogue box.
Complete separator control: including width and length, alignment, colour and space above and below.
Outlining: NWE has an "outline" bulleting style, but does not support outlining.
Auto titles: Only Mellel offers this options, but as the other word processors offer some of its functionality as part of their bulleted and numbered lists function, we also counted those functions here, just to be as fair as possible.

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