Geoff,
Mellel has a very loyal following, especially those concerned with typography, and a few big differences from NW. Mellel takes a markedly different approach to styles management, one I believe that most NW types could find a bit restrictive. It seems to have ongoing export and import compatibility challenges. On a completely different scale, Mellel never supported non-contiguous selection (I do not know whether that changed in the latest release), and the UI, IMHO, is just not Macworthy.
Simi
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Simeon Chavel
Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible
The University of Chicago Divinity School
1025 E. 58th St.
Chicago, IL 60637
tel.: +1.773.702.6387
fax: +1.773.702.6048
http://divinity.uchicago.edu/faculty/chavel.shtml
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On Feb 13, 2011, at 7:46 PM, Geoffrey Heard wrote:

> Hello all
> 
> I'm wondering what's happening with NWP's immediate competitors? Has anyone been following any of them? I don't mean Word -- it's the 500 kg gorilla -- I mean the other smaller WPs.
> 
> I know one that could have been a competitor -- Papyrus. It's just came to a dead stop in
> English at v.12.5 in about 2005 (I think) with some obvious improvements needed, while it has moved up to v.17 in German. I've been following it because I was interested in its database function ("was" beibng the operative term here).
> 
> But what of Mellel, mariner Writer, etc? Are they upgrading? Are they bashing down people's doors?
> 
> And what on earth do people think is actually happening at Nisus? My take on the software market (in fact, just about any market these days) is that you need to keep pushing your product(s) forward with face lifts, incremental upgrades, etc.
> 
> it's all very well to have a bunch of supportive customers, but they're not much use to you if they aren't buying anything because you're not giving them anything to buy!  :D
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Geoffrey Heard
> Business writer, editor, publisher
> The Worsley Press
> Buy "Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes?" -- the world's ONLY scientifically based guide to type and layout, and receive a free 140 page guide to advertising for small business: "How to make great ads for (small) business: 99 real world advertising ideas to kickstart *your* business today". Amazon or http://www.worsleypress.com