Words

After the Internet, I think the most popular use of the computer is word processing --writing a letter, an article, your life history, a scholarly publication or maybe even a book. Pages is my hands-down favorite. It is both a word processor and a page layout program. Although it doesn’t have quite as many features as MS Word, I find it far easier to use and it is marvelous at handling graphics. It opens AppleWorks documents and opens and saves in many formats, including MS Word. It uses a very similar toolbar and palettes as the other two iWorks program --, Numbers (spreadsheet) and Keynote (presentation).

Mariner Write ($50) is a lighter weight word processor, but it is fast and has an amazing set of capabilities. I got mine free with the MacHeist nanoBundle offer. There's also Bean, free, that is quite a capable program with text styling.

Page layout programs are similar to word processors, but the text is in floating blocks that can be interspersed with graphics, such as in a flyer or brochure. Pages is the only page layout program I use.

Text editors are also similar to word processors, but generally without fancy formatting. The emphasis is on quickly manipulating text. Some are specially designed for creating HTML or programming code. I wrote about text processors in our September 2006 newsletter. I’ve used Tex-Edit ($15) for years and written extensively about it. BBEdit ($120) from Bare Bones Software has a much different set of text capabilities and emphasizes HTML editing and is a favorite of webmasters. It's expensive but occasionally you can get a deal on it. TextWrangler, from Bare Bones, is free and has much of BBEdit’s capabilities except for HTML.

Snippet managers store bits of text and graphics, although some can handle huge documents. They are lightweight databases.

Outliners are simple word processors that organize text in a hierarchical form.

The division between all these is fuzzy. Word processors can do some text manipulation and outlining and text processors can serve as simple word processors.

Pick whatever meets your needs. Some people use MS Word for everything, It's very complete, but bloated and I find it hard to use. Things to consider:

• How much formatting do you need?
• Graphics handling
• Do you need page layout capabilities
• Speed of opening the application, entering text and saving.
• File size
• Ability to manipulate text
• Do you need to create HTML?

Here’s a list of programs I have and in my order of preference. The bold-faced programs are those I use frequently. Remember, this is my personal choice and I am prejudiced.