Mariner Write

Rating:
Summary: Full featured replacement for MS Word - at much less $$$
Review: If you're not wedded to MS products then this is definitely worth your time to examine (they also have a trial period demo at their website... What I like: small (no 100 MB install), fast, flexible, "save as" includes a PDF option, nice dictionaries already included. They also have a utility called "Drop Doc" which will automatically convert any MS Word file (.doc) to an RTF file that is then opened flawlessly by Write. So, now you can convert all those old documents without any difficulties.

What can be improved: changing the view size (from say, 100% to 150% can result in some slight blurriness of characters, depending on your font choice). That's it.

And there is a MS Excel alternative (Mariner Calc) too.

Word and Excel can do a lot of fancy things, but I only need and use probably 10% of their capabilities -- and for me Mariner Write (and Calc) do more than what I need, for a lot less $$.

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST ALTERNATIVE TO APPLEWORKS OR MS WORD!`
Review: The very first thing you notice when you load a Mariner Software product (Mariner Write or Mariner Calc) is how fast it loads. Unlike Appleworks, there is no waiting around. These products are fast!

A word processor is a word processor, or so you might think! Mariner Write has an excellent toolbar and is loaded with options. The display is clean and crisp; there are no unnecessary menus or icons displaying when you load Write. You can extensively change your display with the PREFERENCES menu. Colors, fonts, spelling, and keys can all be changed to suite your needs.

Your default blank document has style, alignment, font, font size, and effects drop down menus. These are fast and convenient! The ruler is can easily be modified. Each menu is loaded with extras and a really nice thing is that when you click on the FONT menu you get a true font WYSIWYG display of all your fonts.

In Mariner Write, the FILE menu gives you lots of extras. Summary info, count, and merge are readily available. It has a very nice Print Envelope option. Under the FORMAT menu, the Bullets and Borders and Fill options are complete and crammed full of options.

A major fault of Appleworks, in my opinion, is the number of steps required to insert a graphic in a word processing document, especially a graphic with wrap-around text. I forget every time how to do it and the help system is not very helpful. In Mariner Write - BOOM! - it is a straight forward and simple process!

All in all, for the price, this is a "must have" replacement for Appleworks and it is a great, inexpensive alternative to Microsoft Word. I used to compose my novels on Appleworks but with one look at Mariner Write, I was instantly hooked and I can confidently say that you will be too! Buy it!

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST ALTERNATIVE TO APPLEWORKS OR MS WORD!`
Review: The very first thing you notice when you load a Mariner Software product (Mariner Write or Mariner Calc) is how fast it loads. Unlike Appleworks, there is no waiting around. These products are fast!

A word processor is a word processor, or so you might think! Mariner Write has an excellent toolbar and is loaded with options. The display is clean and crisp; there are no unnecessary menus or icons displaying when you load Write. You can extensively change your display with the PREFERENCES menu. Colors, fonts, spelling, and keys can all be changed to suite your needs.

Your default blank document has style, alignment, font, font size, and effects drop down menus. These are fast and convenient! The ruler is can easily be modified. Each menu is loaded with extras and a really nice thing is that when you click on the FONT menu you get a true font WYSIWYG display of all your fonts.

In Mariner Write, the FILE menu gives you lots of extras. Summary info, count, and merge are readily available. It has a very nice Print Envelope option. Under the FORMAT menu, the Bullets and Borders and Fill options are complete and crammed full of options.

A major fault of Appleworks, in my opinion, is the number of steps required to insert a graphic in a word processing document, especially a graphic with wrap-around text. I forget every time how to do it and the help system is not very helpful. In Mariner Write - BOOM! - it is a straight forward and simple process!

All in all, for the price, this is a "must have" replacement for Appleworks and it is a great, inexpensive alternative to Microsoft Word. I used to compose my novels on Appleworks but with one look at Mariner Write, I was instantly hooked and I can confidently say that you will be too! Buy it!