NOTE: this software is for Classic Mac OS (eg: OS 9) and cannot be used on Mac OS X.
Nisus Writer Classic is no longer for sale. This page is only for archival purposes.
Beginning in the early '90s Nisus Software made available "Language Extensions" which (with the permission of Apple Computers) we had learned how to remove from Apple Computers' localized versions of its operating systems. These added non-Roman capabilities (Hebrew, Arabic/Persian, Cyrillic, and East European) to the current versions of the Macintosh Operating System. In January of 1996 Apple Computers released new products that offered (most of - not East European) these capabilities.
When Apple released these Language Kits they told us (Nisus Software) we could no longer supply the extensions we had (after all that was Apple software). Though it took a number of years for Apple to create them all, eventually, the Language Kits available included: Arabic/Persian, Chinese, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Indic Korean, and Japanese. A "Central" or "East" European Language Kit never appeared.
7.5.1 was the version of the System in existence when Apple released its Language Kits. The extensions we supplied till then worked with everything up to and including that system.
Apple continued to develop the System and when 7.5.2 came out it presumed the existence of its Language Kits. The extensions people had from Nisus Software that predated this update of the System began to show erratic behavior.
When Apple released version 7.5.3 the earlier extensions no longer worked reliably. If people wanted to use this version of the system and non-Roman texts with their Nisus Writer (at this time our version was 4.1) they needed to use the appropriate Apple Language Kit(s).
If you continue to use older versions of the Mac OS (that is older than 7.5.2), Nisus Writer does not care what language extensions you have in your system. The old extensions work (as well as they can be expected to work.)
You need to understand that Apple developed the Language Kits not just to have a product they could sell but to improve on "uncompleted" software that was available. For example, the Hebrew Language Kit fonts display Hebrew vowel points better than the previous versions of the fonts available.
At some time during 1999 Apple Computers released Mac OS 8.6. This version of the System included with it (by doing an optional (additional) installation) the ability to read and write Hebrew as well as Arabic/Persian text in addition to read only capabilities for East Asian languages.
When Apple Computer released Mac OS 9 they ceased production and distribution of all the Language Kits. These kits (or, at least subsets of them) are all available as optional, additional installations of the System.
If you had earlier versions of the "Language Extensions" or Language Kits you should find a way to save the fonts that came with them. These fonts are generally no longer available. If you open a file that was created using fonts from an older set that you no longer have in your System, your document will look strange. Once you have the old fonts in the new System you should do a global Find/Replace to change the old fonts to the new fonts.
You can learn how to install your Language Kits.