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From: owen@raven.phys.washington.edu (Russell Owen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Nisus questions.
Message-ID: <7945@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 21 Sep 90 19:35:42 GMT
References: <13922@hydra.gatech.EDU>
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In article <13922@hydra.gatech.EDU> ae219fl@prism.gatech.EDU (Fu-Lin 
Tsung) writes:
>     1. can Nisus select  text one column at a time?
Yes. Hold down one of the modifier keys (option? command?) while dragging 
the cursor.

>     2. for simple formulas like dy/dx = y , is it possible to have dy 
>        underlined, over dx, and have '= y' be center between the dx and 
dy row?...
I don't know
>        ...better yet, does Nisus have any simple formula entries?
No. However, it does have graphics tools, so you can do some manipulation 
of formulas created in Expressionist and such.

>     3. can Nisus change the sup and sub script postitions? i.e. if I
I don't know.

>     4. can I costumize (sp) the menu?
You can assign key sequences to any menu item, and you can add macros, but I
don't think you can rearrange menu items.

Here is a partial list of differences between Nisus 3 and Word 4.
My apologies if I have left out your favorite feature. I have not
seen Nisus 3 yet, so I may have missed something important there.

Some Nisus features missing in Word:
- macros
- multiple undos
- search/replace text of a given style and/or font
- search/replace with "regular expressions"
- character-based styles (as well as paragraph-based styles, new in v. 3)
- flexible text/graphics interaction (text flows around graphics, etc.)
- graphics tools
- saves documents as text, with formatting in the resource fork. This 
means if a file gets corrupted, you can probably recover most or all of 
it. If a Word file gets corrupted, odds are it's a total loss.
- all commands are available at all times, in a fairly sensible 
arrangement of menus (I like the interface much better than Word's, but 
that is of course only my opinion!)
- I have found Paragon's products to be much more reliable than anything 
I've used from Microsoft.

Some Word features missing in Nisus:
- hierarchical paragraph styles (but no character styles)
- flexible tables
- files don't have to fit in RAM
- equations
- menus can be rearranged

Disclaimer: I have tried to be accurate, but please verify any information
before making a decision based on it. If you spot an error, please let
me know and/or post (as if I have to ask!).

Russell Owen
owen@raven.phys.washington.edu
Astronomy Dept. FM-20
University of Washington
Seattle, WA  98195