Readers Respond: Nominations for the Best Mac Word Processor

The Best Mac Word Processor category is open to any application that provides word processing capabilities. This can include stand-alone applications or word processors that are part of a bundled suite of tools. Please don't nominate code editors in this category unless they can also be used for general-purpose word processing.

Mellel

I use it for technical writing, but would work well for any kind of word processing use.

—Guest Susan

Mariner Write

hundres of features, easy to use, lets me write without thinking about the user interface.

—Guest Mr Mariner

MS Word

Sad, but true. I find MS Word to be the best Word Processor...wish it wasn't so

—macskier

Pages

After coming from both Word and years of Appleworks and Clarisworks I find Pages much easier to use thenWord

—Guest Karen

Pages

Simple; easy desk top publishing; flexible; well integrated with iWork suite; inexpensive and NOT bloated/complicated

—pjdai

Bean + Nisus Writer Express

In word processors, I judge the quality by how Mac-like they are, more than any list of features. Most WPs do the same thing, so the UI is the main thing for me. Bean is an alternative to the OS X built-in TextEdit. It does 90% of everything I want a WP to do, and it looks and feels good doing it. I have yet to encounter a Word document it couldn't open. Although it is a free app, the author, James Hoover is astonishingly responsive in responding to any concerns you may have, or suggestions for additions to this little Java gem. For larger, more complex documents, I have found Nisus Writer Express - the cheaper version of Nisus Writer Pro - will take are of everything I throw at it; columns, tables, specification-type formatting, etc., and has many of the text formatting features like kerning, found in higher-end WPS. More powerful than Pages, but without the bloat of MS Word, it’s unbeatable at $45.

—Guest OldRogue

Best Word Processor

Ommwriter. Really great for just writing with very few controls to fool with. Takes over your entire screen with a harmonious background and user selected music for the background. Perfect for 'just writing' without learning how to use the app first.

—Guest steverowles

Microsoft Word

Hate to say it, but I really like Word. It's a good choice for business use and includes some DTP features as well as word processing features. Not a good choice for serious DTP, but fine for routine business docs.

—Guest Ed Dansen

Mariner Write

Microsoft Word has pretty much cornered the word processing market, but I prefer Mariner Write. It's clean, fast, and easy to use. It offers most, if not all, of the tools you need in a word processor and isn't loaded down with a lot of features you'll rarely or never use.

—Guest Kate B.

Pages

I use it all the time. It's easy to use and has exactly what I need in a word processor.

—webdesign