Nisus for iPad
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roryreynolds
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 2012-05-23 00:34:47
Nisus for iPad
I love Nisus Write Pro, I have using it in its various incarnations since it first became available in the UK. I think it is the best app. around. Is there any possibility of a version being developed for iPad, which maintains the same high standards? Are there other users who would like to see this and encourage Nisus to develop an iPad app?
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Anne Cuneo
- Posts: 164
- Joined: 2004-09-23 02:15:46
- Location: Switzerland
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Re: Nisus for iPad
Yes, there are, here is one. The Nisus people already told us on this forum ( http://nisus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4433 ) that it would mean rewriting the whole application, and they are a very small outfit.
For me, the absence of a word processor with high standards like Nisus on the iPad is a real stumbling block. It makes my iPad mostly useless. One of the worst things is its not supporting RTF documents. Pages is OK, but I don't use Pages on the mac, and they don't make transitions easy…
When I am desperate, I write text in the yellow notes, you find it again on the computer automatically if your sync is on.
But mostly, I don't use the iPad for writing.
The other difficulty for me is that the keyboard has been conceived for English, and when you write in French it slows you down awfully, you have to look for each accent, and the ' (a very frequent sign in French) is on the numbers keyboard, and you have to switch there too.
For me, the absence of a word processor with high standards like Nisus on the iPad is a real stumbling block. It makes my iPad mostly useless. One of the worst things is its not supporting RTF documents. Pages is OK, but I don't use Pages on the mac, and they don't make transitions easy…
When I am desperate, I write text in the yellow notes, you find it again on the computer automatically if your sync is on.
But mostly, I don't use the iPad for writing.
The other difficulty for me is that the keyboard has been conceived for English, and when you write in French it slows you down awfully, you have to look for each accent, and the ' (a very frequent sign in French) is on the numbers keyboard, and you have to switch there too.
Anne
Re: Nisus for iPad
Chère Anne, (I'm tempted to continue in french, but for the benefit of everyone here, I'll keep my reply in english), I totally get what you're saying. As a french speaking person, using the iPad for writing can be painful and slow. I did find a few tricks with the touch screen keyboard to help along though.
1. Trust the autocorrect feature. Even in french. More often than not, I'd say about 90% of the time, you don't even have to worry about the french accents (accent aigu, accent grave, accent circonflexe, tréma, etc.)
2. You can have fast access to the accentuated vowels by taping and flicking your finger up in one swift motion on the vowel for which you want to change the accent. If your keyboard is correctly configured in french, you'll have the short list of accentuated characters to choose from.
3. This last trick also works for the « ç » by tap and flick-up on the « C ».
4. This trick also gives you fast access to the apostrophe directly from the main keyboard by tap and flick-up on the comma/bang key.
Those tricks makes it possible for me to write pretty quickly on the iPad and makes the experience much less frustrating. Explore the capabilities of the touch screen keyboard, it may change your view of the iPad as a writing machine.
And while I would love to get an iPad optimized version of Nisus Writer Pro, in the mean time, I use Textastic and iA Writer as my main tool for writing. I go plain text and then I can easily copy and paste or open the text in NWP for formatting and editing. It's working pretty well for me.
Hope it helps. J'espère que ces quelques trucs te faciliteront la tâche.
Au plaisir.
1. Trust the autocorrect feature. Even in french. More often than not, I'd say about 90% of the time, you don't even have to worry about the french accents (accent aigu, accent grave, accent circonflexe, tréma, etc.)
2. You can have fast access to the accentuated vowels by taping and flicking your finger up in one swift motion on the vowel for which you want to change the accent. If your keyboard is correctly configured in french, you'll have the short list of accentuated characters to choose from.
3. This last trick also works for the « ç » by tap and flick-up on the « C ».
4. This trick also gives you fast access to the apostrophe directly from the main keyboard by tap and flick-up on the comma/bang key.
Those tricks makes it possible for me to write pretty quickly on the iPad and makes the experience much less frustrating. Explore the capabilities of the touch screen keyboard, it may change your view of the iPad as a writing machine.
And while I would love to get an iPad optimized version of Nisus Writer Pro, in the mean time, I use Textastic and iA Writer as my main tool for writing. I go plain text and then I can easily copy and paste or open the text in NWP for formatting and editing. It's working pretty well for me.
Hope it helps. J'espère que ces quelques trucs te faciliteront la tâche.
Au plaisir.
Re: Nisus for iPad
Scrivener are working on an iOS version, it's apparently due out sometime lateish this year. I don't know if it'll support RTF export and import like the Mac version but assuming it does then it may prove the best way to exchange RTF documents between OS X and iOS.
Currently there are quite a few usable writing apps for iOS, as long as you don't get hung up on RTF compatibility - plain text, HTML and Markdown (Nisus Writer needs Markdown support urgently btw) are all well supported on both the Mac and iOS and it's not too hard to import documents into Nisus for final formatting after initially drafting them on the iPad (though iCloud and Dropbox support in Nisus Writer would sure make things easier).
If the rumours are true and MS release an iOS version of Office later this year then I think it's game over for Nisus unfortunately. With versions of Pages, Scrivener and MS Office on both OS X and iOS Nisus Writer would be at a fatal disadvantage in the market. So much so in fact that I can't believe Nisus aren't secretly working on an iOS version as we speak, I sure hope so anyway.
Currently there are quite a few usable writing apps for iOS, as long as you don't get hung up on RTF compatibility - plain text, HTML and Markdown (Nisus Writer needs Markdown support urgently btw) are all well supported on both the Mac and iOS and it's not too hard to import documents into Nisus for final formatting after initially drafting them on the iPad (though iCloud and Dropbox support in Nisus Writer would sure make things easier).
If the rumours are true and MS release an iOS version of Office later this year then I think it's game over for Nisus unfortunately. With versions of Pages, Scrivener and MS Office on both OS X and iOS Nisus Writer would be at a fatal disadvantage in the market. So much so in fact that I can't believe Nisus aren't secretly working on an iOS version as we speak, I sure hope so anyway.
Re: Nisus for iPad
DSHAN writes, "If the rumours are true and MS release an iOS version of Office later this year then I think it's game over for Nisus unfortunately. With versions of Pages, Scrivener and MS Office on both OS X and iOS Nisus Writer would be at a fatal disadvantage in the market. So much so in fact that I can't believe Nisus aren't secretly working on an iOS version as we speak, I sure hope so anyway." But the advantage of RTF files is that they can be edited by many programs. Nisus has so many features unavailable elsewhere that I think (hope) its future on the Mac platform is assured. Note that Page files are not really compatible between the Mac and iPad, which will not accept footnotes. As far as Word goes, I think the less said the better. Scrivener is a great program that I own and use all the time, but it works for me as a complement to Nisus, not as a substitute.
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Mark Nigro
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 2012-05-26 02:44:51
Re: Nisus for iPad
For Nisus to have an iOS version would be icing on the cake, but I don't think it's game over for them if MS releases an iPad version of Office and Nisus does not have an iPad app. Even with Pages for iOS (which I often use) I still can (and prefer to) use Nisus for OSX. Files created in Pages can be converted to Nisus with its perl macro. Let's not forget the conversion options that still exist between various desktop apps and the iPad. Even if another developer releases an RTF app for iPad, it only means that Nisus will be that much more versatile and portable in that its files can be read/edited on the iOS and visa-versa.