| Nisus Writer | |
|---|---|
| Developers | Nisus Software, Inc. |
| Initial release | 1989; 37 years ago (1989) |
| Operating system | Classic MacOS,MacOS |
| Type | Word processor |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | nisus |
Nisus Writer (known as justNisus from 1989 to 1993[1]) is aword processor program forApple Macs, made by California-based Nisus Software, Inc.[2] The program is nowadays available in two varieties:Nisus Writer Express andNisus Writer Pro.
First introduced in 1989, Nisus was the first word processor for Macintosh able to handle multiple type systems within one document, e.g.Arabic,Hebrew,Japanese, etc., thanks toWorldScript. Other distinguishing features of the program were non-contiguous text selection, multiple editable clipboards, one of the earliest implementations of multipleundo, voice recording, and inline annotations. It also offeredgrep search and replace that was accessed through a graphicaldialog box instead ofcommand line options. These features, which were more advanced than those typically found in word processors of the day, were also present in Nisus'QUED/Mtext editor.[3]
An unusual feature of the Nisusfile format was that all font and formatting information was saved in the file'sresource fork, with thedata fork containing onlyplain text. Thus, if the file were to be opened in another program on the Mac, or on aWindows PC, the text would be readable (although style information would be lost). This predatescross-platform file formats as used by word processors likeMicrosoft Word. Contemporary editions of Word had different formats between the Mac and Windows versions and required a translator if their files were to be readable by other programs (or each other) at all. The technique of using the resource fork to store style information was later implemented byApple Inc. for the standard Macintosh styled text format as used inSimpleText.
In 1992,Nisus Compact was released.[1] It was a reduced version of Nisus for Apple's 68KPowerBooks, that fit entirely within RAM to avoid accessing the hard disk and thereby draining the laptop's battery. It was at first a commercial product, but from 1999 it was given away as afreemium with various books and magazines as part of a marketing campaign.[1] "Upgrades" to Nisus Writer were offered at a discount.
In 1994, with the release of version 4.0, the name of the program was changed from Nisus to Nisus Writer, together with a redesigned interface, support for sound, QuickTime, Publish & Subscribe, text-to-speech, autonumbering, color graphics and table and equation tools.[1]
In 2001, Nisus Writer 6.5, the last classic version of Nisus, was released.[1] It ran underMac OS 9.2.2 andPowerPC-basedMac OS X, but only in theClassic environment, and is no longer available for purchase.[4]
Rather than porting Nisus Writer to Mac OS X, Nisus Software released a fundamentally different product in 2003 calledNisus Writer Express,[1][5] which they had bought from its original developer Charles Jolley. Originally known as Okito Composer, it was based onCocoa and complied with Apple's Mac OS X user interface guidelines. They hired Jolley as managing director, in which capacity he oversaw further development of the word processor he had created. Jolley left Nisus in 2005, after which he worked for Apple from 2006 to 2010 and Facebook from 2011 to 2013.[6]
In 2007, Nisus Software releasedNisus Writer Pro,[1][7] a more advanced version of Nisus Writer Express, intended more for business and designed as an alternative to the Mac version of Microsoft Word. It supported more file formats[8] and by 2011 it had features such as comments, mail merge, go to page, track changes, drawing tools and watermarks.[1]
As of December 2023, the latest versions of the two word processors, Nisus Writer Express 4.2 and Nisus Writer Pro 3.2, are both compatible withmacOS Sonoma.[9]