Mariner Write 2.0.4a
Company: Mariner Software Inc
Estimated Price: $69.95
(Shrink wrapped box, includes diskettes and
printed documentation)
$49.95 Online Purchase
$29.95 upgrade
http://www.marinersoft.com
When I first reviewed Mariner Write Version 1.3.1 back in the November, 1996 issue, I had many good things to report on the software. Almost two years later, Mariner Software Inc. has updated the program to version 2.0.4a, adding more options and updates to the program. In a Mac world dominated, it seems, with programs such as Microsoft’s Word 98 and ClarisWorks, can this program hope to compete? Depending on your needs, the answer is both yes and no.
The Good
Mariner Write 2.0.4a is a very nice word processing program. If you are simply looking for a program to type letters in, without all the advanced features of a Microsoft Word 98, Mariner Write is for you. The program takes less than 3MB of memory, and less than 4MB of hard drive space. Very small and very fast. Nice features in today’s market of bloat-ware programs that offer everything under the sun, plus the kitchen sink!
Layout
The layout of Mariner Write is very similar to other word processors. In fact, the tool bar at the top of the screen is very much Word 5.1″ish” All the standard commands are found in either the menu bar, or at the top of each document window.
Mariner Write takes advantage of a well put together Apple Guide that will guide even the novice computer user on the right track of creating professional looking documents. Many programs do not take advantage of this feature of the Mac OS, and it’s nice to see a company so embrace core Mac technologies.
Also included with the $69.95 mailed version is a very handy printed manual. Rather than simply provide a few helpful hints on how to use the program, the manual actually explains how to really use all the features of Mariner Write. You can also download the manual from Mariner Software’s website. I only wish more companies would provide such service to its customers!
Key Commands
A really nice feature I found particularly useful of Mariner Write is the ability to choose your own custom key configurations. This is handy if you are use to using another word processing program that used different key commands than the default settings in Mariner Write. You simply use a pop-up menu under preferences, and follow the directions. Reading the steps to do this in the manual and Apple Guide actually takes longer than simply doing it the first time unaided. Mariner Write, however, uses most of the standard key commands set found in most programs, but this is a nice added feature, and worthy of note.
Style, baby!
Like any good word processor, you can use style sheets in Mariner Write 2.0.4. While Mariner Software does not include any style sheets of their own, you can import them via a simple menu. Style sheets will save you a lot of time down the road when you find yourself creating document after document using the same style and format.
Graphic Touch
Mariner Write is a very nice program for creating documents with graphics. While the program can only open GIF, ESP, JPEG and PICT formatted graphics, the program does a marvelous job of handling them within your document. You can either wrap your text around imported or pasted graphics, or leave the graphic in-line with the sentence. Sure, there are only four graphics types Mariner Write can read, but for most home users, these are the graphic formats you will use 95% percent of the time.
Table Settings
Yes, you can use tables in Mariner Write. This is an important feature in any word processor, and Mariner Write does an adequate job of creating tables. Merge cells, split tables, resize cells, and more are all good, needed options. However, if you want to give your cell a different color than the rest of your document, you’re out of luck.
The Bad
Did I spell this Write?
The spell checker in Mariner Write is also adequate, though I did find the program less robust here than in higher-priced word processors. Spell checkers are very important, but I found the dictionary included with Mariner Write somewhat limited, and its interface lacking in some inportant ways. Spell checking is an area in which I feel all word processors should really excel, or at least the ones I plan on using on a daily basis.
In the above picture, you can see I forgot to place a period after the word “sentence”, and I left out a space before the word “Sure”. While both Word 98 and ClarisWorks 5.0 figured out that the replacement should have been “sentence. Sure”, Mariner Write did not. Yes, I can type in the correction myself, but I shouldn’t have to.
You are also able to select different dictionaries, though I could not find even one dictionary from another word program that it could read or use. The ability to create your own personal dictionary is there, but life is way too short. Mariner Write simply needs much more work on their spell checking module to be make it truly useful.
HTML?
Sorry, no. You cannot save your work in Mariner Write is HTML format. Today’s computer world is closely allied with the web, and web page creation is now being performed by everyone from ten year old children to eighty year old retirees. Anyone looking to do any work on the Web must be able to use a sophisticated word processor that is able to save work in HTML format. However, if you’re looking to buy a program to type up your web page text into, Mariner Write is not for you.
Knock-Knock
Other people will send you files. It’s one of the reasons the Internet was created: to share information. ClarisWorks and Word are by far the most commonly used programs Mac people use. With any word processor you plan on purchasing, you must take into consideration its ability to work with foreign files. You want to be able to read what all your friends and co-workers are sending you, right?
The Test
I put Mariner Write to the test, using two files I had handy on my hard drive. The first was a file created in Microsoft Word 98 (part of the Microsoft Office 98 suite). The file consisted of 21 pages of nothing but text–no tables, no graphics, and the only formatting was paragraph indentations. Mariner Write opened the file, but turned it into 180 pages of gibberish. Totally unreadable. However, I gave Mariner Write the benefit of the doubt here, as Word 98 is a brand new program, and I really did not expect it to translate the document very well, though I was expecting some of the text to come through readable.
For my next test, I opened a ClarisWorks 4.0.4 document. This file was originally 12 pages long, consisting of colored and formatted text. ClarisWorks 4.0.4 has been on the market for quite some time, and has only recently been replaced with a version 5. So I was expecting Mariner Write to do a better job than it did with the Word 98 file. When I opened the ClarisWorks 12 page file, Mariner Write now displayed 1,002 pages of useless text. Not one word was readable in the file. To make sure neither of these documents was somehow damaged, I opened the files in their respected programs and found no problems.
Finally, just for kicks, I used the freeware BBEdit Lite (version 4.0.1) from Bare Bones Software to open the same two files. BBEdit lite is not really a word processor, but rather a text editor. I use it all the time to open saved email files, as well as web pages saved as text.
When I opened the Word 98 file, BBEdit Lite did show much gibberish. However, not all the text was there in readable form. Simply selecting and deleting the gibberish text produced a very usable file. The same was less true with the formatted ClarisWorks 4.0v4 text file, and with a little work, I was able to retrieve all but about 5% of the original text.
Mariner Write did, however, open up every SimpleText file I threw at it. It also had no problem opening any file which was “saved as text,” including those created in both Word 98 and ClarisWorks.
Conclusions
While it may not really be fair to pit Mariner Write against either Word 98 or ClarisWorks, these are options you need to look at when deciding on a word processor. If you are not looking to spend a lot of money, have very little memory and hard disk space, Mariner Write may be right up your alley. While I found the program very elegant for what it can do, I’m a little disappointed with its ability (or lack thereof) to open other files. The lack of HTML support will also discourage many potential buyers.
If you are a serious writer, I would recommend you look towards purchasing Microsoft Office 98 or the less expensive, but highly-rated, Nisus Writer. (See the June 1996 issue of My Mac for a review of Nisus Writer 5.0.4.) If your Mac came with ClarisWorks version 4.0 or higher, there is no sense in getting Mariner Write Mariner Write 2.0.4a. True, ClarisWorks also has a difficult time opening a Word 98 file, and in fact version 4.0v4 crashed my computer when I tried, but it has all the important features (and a few more) that Mariner Write has except for the smaller memory and hard drive space requirements.
Overall, Mariner Write is a competent and efficient tool, but with a limited feature set compared to the “complete” products that have evolved from its competition. However, not everyone requires some of the very specialized features of the larger applications. Perhaps it’s target audience might best be seen as PowerBook users with smaller hard drives or limited RAM, or casual word processor users who don’t anticipate a need for HTML conversion. For these people especially, Mariner Write should serve very well.
Note: If you’re looking for something to open a file sent to you from a friend, and nothing else will do it, go download the free BBEdit Lite from BareBones Software. http://www.barebones.com.
MacMice Rating: 3
Tim Robertson
publisher@mymac.com
Websites mentioned:
http://www.marinersoft.com
http://www.barebones.com
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.