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About to give up on NWE

Posted: 2006-09-09 10:23:33
by sgmiller
I just finished a two week evaluation of there Mac word processors having had enough of Word. Of the three, I liked NWE the best but there has been one major deal killer which is that NWE repeatedly crashes and that is one thing that a word processor must NEVER do and for obvious reasons. At first, I thought it was a conflict with Quicksilver because with the QS clipboard memory module active, cutting and pasting resulted in frequent crashes.

However, even after inactivatiing that module, I still get frequent crashes. To be fair, it might have something to do with the document I am currently working on. It started off as a Word doc and been imported back and forth from NWE and Mellel and it causes Mellel to crash when I try to export it as a word doc.

However, the same document does not seem to cause Mellel to crash under normal use so I have decided to stick with Mellel unless somebody can convince me otherwise. I have read other complaints about NWE as far as stability, so I guess I am asking if under normal conditions, has anybody else had a problem with crashes?

Posted: 2006-09-09 13:00:01
by joehardy
I would suspect, as you do, the document.
One of the things I like most about Nisus is not having to wonder when it's going to crash or lock up do some bizarre thing right in the middle of important - or even unimportant work.
The one major crash I did have - about two months ago - was with a document that had been through multiple WP programs. It crashed AppleWorks, Word and NWE. I finally got it open, as I remember, in either text edit or as a text-only document in Word.
So I would suspect the document has some quirks somewhere. Perhaps copying the text into a blank document might help.

Posted: 2006-09-09 13:15:47
by cchapin
I've been pleased with Nisus Writer Express's stability since it reached version 2.5, so I suspect that there's something odd in that document.

The people at Nisus generally seem interested in documents that cause crashes, so you might want to use the feedback mechanism (in the Help menu) to send them a copy.

--Craig

Posted: 2006-09-09 15:14:13
by midwinter
I recommend that you send the document to Nisus through the "send feedback" menu. It is, most likely, the document. I've run into issues with this in the past, and it has always been a doc that, like yours, has been around the block a few times.

But sending the doc to Nisus will let them see just what's jacked up about the doc and, hopefully, update NWE so that such crashes won't happen anymore.

Posted: 2006-09-09 15:20:38
by sgmiller
Thanks for all the feedback which is more support for my theory about the problems with this document. Alas, but it is confidential work so I am not able to send it to the devs, but I will test NWE with a freshly created doc and go from there.

Posted: 2006-09-09 15:22:33
by sgmiller
I should add, however, that this same document does not cause Mellel to crash to it does appear that NEW is more sensitive to whatever the problem is. As I said, I prefer the NWE interface and toolbar but I suspect that Mellel is just more stable. It feels that way anyway.

Posted: 2006-09-09 21:12:17
by midwinter
sgmiller wrote:I should add, however, that this same document does not cause Mellel to crash to it does appear that NEW is more sensitive to whatever the problem is. As I said, I prefer the NWE interface and toolbar but I suspect that Mellel is just more stable. It feels that way anyway.
There's no telling unless the Nisus engineers get their hands on it. No word processor is immune from this kind of thing. I have docs that crash word every time. I have docs that crash Mellel. I have had docs that crashed NWE.

But I wouldn't toss Nisus just because of your experience with this one doc.

Posted: 2006-09-09 23:57:59
by sgmiller
In the end, my choice won't be based on this one experience as I hear from others here that they have had similar experiences with problem documents. Actually, both NWE and Mellel have their strong points. At the moment, I am leaning a bit towards Mellel because although it was a bit confusing at first, I feel like I have somewhat more control over the formatting. I also find their "pallet" system more to my liking. On the other hand, the NWE toolbar is more useful and their are some menu commans which are not as buried as with Mellel (insert footnote for example). On the other, other hand, Melel loads in half the time and takes about half the RAM for a given document.

Tough choice actually but nice to have the choice. Both are much more appealing than Word of course.

Posted: 2006-09-10 00:07:56
by midwinter
sgmiller wrote:At the moment, I am leaning a bit towards Mellel because although it was a bit confusing at first, I feel like I have somewhat more control over the formatting.
I'm interested to hear what, specifically, makes you feel this way. I ask because Mellel baffles me. All those buttons and palettes and widgets and that horrid iTunes interface....I just feel lost when I try to use it.
I also find their "pallet" system more to my liking. On the other hand, the NWE toolbar is more useful and their are some menu commans which are not as buried as with Mellel (insert footnote for example).
Have you tried dragging the palettes out of the drawer in NWE? They float.
On the other, other hand, Melel loads in half the time and takes about half the RAM for a given document.
And feels a lot more like you're writing in iTunes! ;) I kid, I kid. Memory footprint and load times are of course important. I imagine load times and memory usage will get better.

Posted: 2006-09-10 08:08:26
by Patrick J
sgmiller wrote:On the other, other hand, Melel loads in half the time.
Have you tried turning off "Font Menu shows previews" in the Appearance tab of the Preferences?

As an aside, you might find the Find/Replace in Nisus Writer Express something to explore. If the GREP symbols of PowerFind Pro don't appeal then have a look at creating Find/Replace with PowerFind mode.

It could be that this will open up all kinds of possibilities for things you can do to your text very quickly with Nisus Writer Express.

Posted: 2006-09-10 10:38:38
by TimL
midwinter wrote: And feels a lot more like you're writing in iTunes! ;) I kid, I kid.
Actually, that's true, although it's much better if you turn off the brushed metal. The thing I really like about Mellel is the outline pane, but that's another topic I guess.

Posted: 2006-09-10 10:48:25
by midwinter
TimL wrote:
midwinter wrote: And feels a lot more like you're writing in iTunes! ;) I kid, I kid.
Actually, that's true, although it's much better if you turn off the brushed metal. The thing I really like about Mellel is the outline pane, but that's another topic I guess.
Yes. That topic has been discussed at some length here. Many of us use OmniOutliner for that kind of thing, and my hope is that linkback will allow us to move seamlessly between the two apps for outlining/writing.

Posted: 2006-09-10 10:51:19
by midwinter
To which I should add:

The major feature requests I've noticed for 3.0 have been outlining, TOC generation, image handling, more sophisticated table options (e.g. cell padding and spacing) and Bookends integration.

Posted: 2006-09-10 11:00:51
by TimL
midwinter wrote:To which I should add:

The major feature requests I've noticed for 3.0 have been outlining, TOC generation, image handling, more sophisticated table options (e.g. cell padding and spacing) and Bookends integration.
Those would be great additions. By the way, your avatar is kind of freaking me out.

Posted: 2006-09-10 11:06:58
by midwinter
TimL wrote:
midwinter wrote:To which I should add:

The major feature requests I've noticed for 3.0 have been outlining, TOC generation, image handling, more sophisticated table options (e.g. cell padding and spacing) and Bookends integration.
Those would be great additions. By the way, your avatar is kind of freaking me out.
And that's why I keep it around! ;)

It is bizarre, isn't it?