Hello,
I am curious which word processors Omni fans prefer to use. As a long-time user of OmniOutliner and OmniFocus, I often wish Omni would write a word processor. But for those of you in office or legal settings, where you need to construct documents for print or publication, what do you prefer to use?
Thanks!
For most offices, Microsoft Word is king.
In my small business, my employees and I are quite content with Apple Page. Simple enough to use without all the extra features that 90% of the users will never use. It does simple layouts as well as acts as a traditional word processor. I use it to do some of my advertisements.
For heavy duty cases, we’ll use Microsoft Word. But that is so rare.
It would be extremely difficult for Omnigroup to compete with Apple’s Pages when Pages is typically installed on every new computer sold nowadays.
I did see a link to a software program called Swift Publisher 4 on the Mac App Store that seems more suited for publishing ljobs. That’s worth a look. At $14.99, it looks like something that can be a step up from Apple Pages if you wanted to do print publications.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/swift-publisher-4/id1014507510?mt=12
Multimarkdown & xetex. Accept no substitutes.
I use Microsoft Word both at work and home.
At work, Word docs are shared frequently amongst staff and external parties and therefore it is considered a standard document format.
At home, I use Word for my university studies because it is the university’s required format for assignments, and the References features in Word are very helpful for citing works and creating a bibliography.
The latest Word 2016 release is excellent.
I love Pages and use it whenever I can. However, I work with organisations that use MS Office, so I find myself using Word a lot. Pages will do Word export pretty well, but when you’re sending version back and forth, there’s no substitute for staying in Word.
i often proofread student essays, dissertations, and Apple’s Pages’ change tracking and comments markup is very useful. it outputs to word .doc and .docx fairly reliably (although there arexceptions - tables and boxes - which sometimes get messed up).
pages is light and sleek next to the behemoth that is word. for writing - as opposed to styling, layout, tidying up etc. i sometimes use WriteRoom but usually Ulysses which is a beautiful ‘minimalist’ writing environment but which also has useful organisational tools. but to be honest, some of my most successful writing has been completed where it started -in OmniOutliner.
I agree that 1Password support would be great
My experience is that, what folks use to create content varies from person to person and from task to task. Anything from TextEdit to LaTeX comes in to play.
I have only one concern from what I am reading. It is with how folks are reporting that they share files. I am surprised to hear that doc and docx files are being used as “standards” for almost wholesale-level distribution of created content. I never send out such file formats unless someone explicitly asks for them. Even then, I always also send a PDF file.
The issue is the immutability of the content. I cannot even begin to imagine the ramifications of someone making a change while reviewing a Word document and subsequently propagating the changed content as though it is the raw source from the original person. Whether this kind of mistake is small or big and whether it is made inadvertently or maliciously make no difference. Alternatives exist to avoid it almost entirely – distribute only PDF files as certifiable content.
You framed you question about a word processor in reference to office or legal settings. My answer is this … “Use whatever application works best for you where you are. Always insist however to distribute only PDF files as the ‘hard copy’ of any content you create, especially when that content is to be certifiable later down the line”.
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JJW
It depends on the environment and the purpose of sharing. Where I work doc files are shared because we’re collaborating. There’s not point sending a PDF in this case.
And with regards to PDFs, unless the user is proficient in security features, it’s reasonably easy to either decompile a PDF into Word or some other format, or to edit the PDF itself. Again, it depends on the environment in which you work as to how much security you may need to apply.
I see the point for cases where multiple folks are editing the document and everyone is in agreement on this as the approach that will be used.
In both cases, the changes made are clearly tracked.
My concern again is for the situation where someone modifies a document (inadvertently or maliciously) and passes off the changes (inadvertently or maliciously) as still belonging to the original author. This is far easier to do with a Word file than with a PDF file. Granted, as needed, we can check behind, for example by looking at the date+time modified stamps. In essence though, submitting a Word file as a document of record says to me that you accept that it can be changed even without your permission, the changed file can be re-distributed or evaluated as though it is still your document, and you may have to bear the full consequences to rectify any damages that might follow (inadvertently or maliciously) from your record being modified and passed off as yours.
To make a specific case (here in counter to your note about submitting Word files at your university) , I will never accept a Word document from my students as their final report. I insist on PDF files. Even though I hold myself to a standard of integrity, the chances that I might muck up something inadvertently while I am grading their document of final record are too high. PDF editing tools are sophisticated enough now that I have no reason to use Word files “because they are easier to grade” (or whatever other reason might be given to request a Word file).
“Trust everybody, but cut the cards (yourself)” comes to mind here.
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JJW
[quote=“DrJJWMac, post:10, topic:18738”]
My concern again is for the situation where someone modifies a document (inadvertently or maliciously) and passes off the changes (inadvertently or maliciously) as still belonging to the original author.[/quote]
That’s understandable, and I would always send a PDF if it’s a source document. Sharing editable documents (Word and Excel) in my work environment is common.
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The academic staff teaching the course I am doing specifically ask for submission of assignments as Word docs. I don’t know why.
Then I suggest this article on how to protect a Word document from being changed as a resource. You may know about it already. I would insist to submit my Word document in a protected state, at least to the level that any further changes are explicitly tracked.
The protesting voice in me might have suggested for you to rally against the requirement for a Word document and to send PDF files in protest. But that would certainly be presumptuous of me.
Thanks for the enlightening discussion.
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JJW
I love using Microsoft word, but also use docs.google.com sometimes. It is quite simple and easy to process when compared to ms word :) However, we can see more features in ms word though.
All Microsoft words my favorite
I use Microsoft Word for a long time and I can’t think about shifting from that to any new one, may be that’s the reason why I have not tried to use any other option available. I’m a resume writing service professional and currently working for an online firm. The entire work nature for me is well connected to typing and saving and hence if I tried something new and failed, my entire projects will have an impact of the same as well.
Regards,
Mabel Smith
Resume Writer at http://resumeplus.us
Microsoft word for the win!!
Depends. For collaboration on texts in my work environment I usually have to use Word, which is actually getting better and better with every iteration.
For my own writing projects, for concepts and drafts I LOVE to use Ulysses. It works seamlessly on every platform, offers power and simplicity (images inside a markdown document) and is basically always there for the task. Nothing better around for content creation, if you ask me.
Nisus Writer Pro. Nisus started perhaps before OmniGroup, and of the old classic Mac word processors, they appear to have been the only one besides Word that survives as a Mac app (Maybe Mariner write?)
Nisus is fantastic for my legal work. Uses RTF and PDF. Has GREP searching capabilities. Does things that even Word cannot do (specifically, it manages tables of authorities better than Word does). Handles links in PDF’s better than word, though not perfect. As far as Mac word processors go, there’s Word, Nisus and Mellel in the “heavy hitter” category, then everyone else. Each of those three does all the basics, and each does some things better than the other (Mellel, for instance, does multi-language and right to left text better than anyone).
In fact, Omni and Nisus Group have a small connection: LinkBack technology was invented by Nisus, and Omni scooped it up. Not sure who maintains it now, but LinkBack is really System 7’s Publish and Subscribe, brought to the modern age. It’s no wonder that Nisus, a very long standing Mac company, would want to bring that feature back to the future.
I’ve just discovered Manuscripts. I’d put it just above Ulysses as a minimalistic UI for content input. Compared to Scrivener as a document writing app for the liberal arts side of the world, Manuscripts seems to be positioning itself as a tool for sciences and engineering side of the world.
I like that it handles I/O for Markdown and LaTeX.
I’d also position it over and above OmniOutliner for writing manuscripts, if not for completing a manuscript from an outline. Manuscripts approaches the topic of document writing holistically, whereas OO essentially forces you to create outlines that eventually will want to become manuscripts. By analogy, OO is a multifaceted screwdriver that you try to use to shave off the rough edges of a document, whereas Manuscripts gives you a basic screwdriver and a good planer and some different levels of sandpaper. For all of this, Manuscripts has has far less clutter in its UI than OO.
Manuscripts is NOT a word processor, in case that matters.
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JJW
Currently not “getting” the working part of manuscripts enough for it to be useful- somehow you are supposed to write in it as well, aren’t you? For now editing a document in Manuscripts is an alpha experience with all the glory of not being able to do what you want to do (delete a paragraph) and the app crashing every second time I start another test. No sir, this will take a while to take the throne of currently any other word processor.
