I have fallen off the wagon a bit these last 10 days or so with regard to running. Nothing to be proud of, I know. Today I realized something frustrating (but true):
I love not going for a run.
It feels good to not have to wake up super-early to exercise, or figure out how I’m going to schedule a jog in a day with multiple other demands.
But then I went for a run today, and remembered:
I love going for a run.
Ah, these blasted competing values. I get caught in the crossfire every time!
But I do love running, even though I also love not running, and that feeling–as long as I can keep remembering it–will get me out there again in the next day or two.
No offense to Microsoft Word and Apple’s Pages, but neither one had really hit the spot for a go-to Mac word processor for me. Even after years of using Word, drawing a table or making columns seems harder than necessary. And the new Pages is clunky and seems like it wants to hide my saved documents from me.
I started using Scrivener this summer, but, as Scrivener is the first to acknowledge, that program is not designed for tweaking the layout and final draft of a document. A number of Scrivener users I interact with recommend Nisus Writer Pro.
I’ve been using it regularly for about a month, and see no need to use another word processing program from now on. Nisus Writer Pro is to my word processing what the Kansas City Royals are to baseball right now: fresh, fun, powerful, and totally adept at getting the job done.
It’s a sophisticated program, with a lot of customization options I’ve barely begun to use. But the first time I used it I was able to almost immediately–without even reading the Help!–get my document to do the handful of things I wanted it to do.
So far, like the KC Royals, Nisus Writer Pro has a 1.000 winning percentage with me. Here are 6 things about NWP I really like, one for each of the Royals’ playoff wins as of the time of this post’s being published:
1. The layout is clean and easy to navigate right away
Check it out (click to enlarge):
At the very top of the screenshot you’ll see the Word Count in the footer (i.e., of every page). This is easy to set up–the Insert menu gives you the option to insert Automatic Numbers there, one of which is the word count, which I like to have in front of me as I whittle down my weekly sermons to something that will keep all of us awake.
2. Native file format is RTF
This means your NWP documents are fairly universal. You can open aforementioned Word (.docx) documents easily. Pages (.pages) is another story, but I think I’m over it.
One bummer (not Nisus’s fault): finding a good app for iPad that plays nicely with .rtf files is difficult, so I’m still looking for a consistent way to get from iOS to my Dropbox-saved NWP documents. (Textilus has been recommended; I’m working on getting that up and running now.)
3. The customizable palette groups get the job done
Setting up margins, headers, footers, even multiple-columned documents is easy to do via the palettes (the bar on the right of the document above). AND… you can create your own palette, customized with the tasks and functions from the Palette Library that you most use. Here’s one I created:
You can also hide the palette so you’ve just got the document in front of you. Via palettes you control styles, font/formatting, tables, drawing, etc.
4. Bibliography made easy
One of the drop-down menus has an “Activate Bookends” command. There’s some nifty integration between that program and Nisus Writer Pro.
Strong, Fast
5. Support is strong
NWP’s User Guide clocks in at 500 pages. Yes, I read it all for this review–no, not really. But it’s an invaluable reference. Download it here. The staff I’ve interacted with is really great. And there are active user forums.
6. Nisus Writer Pro is fast
This late 2008 MacBook o’ mine is the little (computer) engine that could. But it’s slowing down. Word and Pages (sorry, Microsoft and Apple! I didn’t intend to use your products as foils) both run sluggishly sometimes on this machine, but Nisus Writer Pro never has. It starts right up, closes right down, and never is glitchy in between.
You can see a lot more of the features of Nisus Writer Pro here, where you can also download a free 15-day trial, while you await Game 3 of Royals vs. Orioles.
The folks at Nisus kindly supplied me with a license of NWP for the purposes of review.
Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio. It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried. It’s where I bled. It holds a special place in my heart. People there have seen me grow up. I sometimes feel like I’m their son. Their passion can be overwhelming. But it drives me. I want to give them hope when I can. I want to inspire them when I can. My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now.
Whether you care much for him or not, it’s a beautifully written article, touching on themes of home, family, forgiveness, and making change in your community. Read the whole thing here.
Head over to Near Emmaus this week for some theological thinking about the National Football League. Day one’s reflections are here. Brian LePort writes:
Some people may brush off these questions. “It’s just a game.” “Enjoy it, don’t over-think it!” But games matter to people (we fill stadiums with thousands to watch these events) and if the unexamined life isn’t worth living that includes our pastimes!
I’ve submitted a contribution called “Of Linebackers and Liturgy” that will appear later this week. I’ll include a link to that later here at Words on the Word, and I’m sure that everything at Near Emmaus will be worth reading and engaging this week.
Maybe I’ve just been watching the Olympics at the wrong time, but I try to watch almost every evening… yet I’ve seen not a second of basketball. Am I missing something?
Usain Bolt set an Olympic record in the men’s 100 meter final the other day. (9.63 seconds!)
But did you know that 100 years ago, a sprinter would merely have had to crack 11 seconds to win the 100 meters?
The New York Times has a great graphic/video that shows all 100 meter medalists since 1896 on the same track. As a friend of mine on Facebook said, “I’d be willing to bet this is one of the coolest things you’ll see today.” He’s right. Check it out.
Words on the Word 