On 2/8/00 James P. Stevenson wrote: >What are the shortcomings? > Shortcomings is perhaps the wrong word - problem might be better. The major one, which for me overrides any others, is that I use a G3 PBook and can run Nisus off a RAM disk, along with Inspiration (with a minimum set of templates) and Bookends, whilst still having enough RAM left over to run all three simultaneously if I need to. Having tried it, I cannot get a minimum Word install that will go on my existing RAM disk (34 MB approx) so I would need to buy more memory (= expensive). I have my doubts that this would work, since I guess (but cannot say for certain) that Word would be making endless system calls to the HD thus negating the exercise. Nisus runs completely in RAM; the others don't make heavy demands on the drive, so I can get a morning and part of an afternoon out of one battery. Hence for me at least, Word has an overriding shortcoming compared to Nisus. Other problems have been ennumerated by others on the list, that irritating Bob, (OK so you can get rid of it, but I never managed to get it to stop away) and the complex nature of Word. I'm not dumb, but MS don't make it easy. It took me an hour or so to learn the basics of Nisus, sufficient to get a fully formatted, footnoted 10,000 word essay out. Against this has to be set Word's outliner (for me a major plus and really essential) and the table editor, better than the Nisus one, but I don't have that many problems. Some of the formatting features are useful, more control over line spacing and leading, but I agree with others that if you are really into that it's probably better to use a layout program. Whilst the addition of an outliner would be a big - read very big - thing for me, the one thing that does concern me is that the demands for extra features (just like Word...) could lead to excessive bloat and remove one of the things that for me make Nisus attractive - its ability to work off a RAM disk. All software is a trade off between differing requirements. If Nisus became excessively bloated with Word-like features, far from making it more attractive, many people would simply accept the inevitable and turn to Word, if only to avoid the hassles of translation which happen for most of us from time to time. I agree with Judyth. Most of us want a single program that does it all, with consummate ease of use and negligible cost. Its unlikely to happen. Regards, Chris
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