Write: Lightweight Word-Processing Done Right



Getting Started

Getting Started

Getting Started

The interface of Write, at first, looks a whole lot like that of Pages, and that’s because they’re pretty much identical. In the center of the app you have the main area where your pages are located, and above them you have two toolbars, a smaller one with settings related to the font and text formatting; and another where you can find the usual features like printing, opening files or revealing the inspector.

Unlike Pages though, Write is a lot more understandable at first sight, and there aren’t many buttons lying around, just a few key ones. That’s where the beauty of Write lies: it’s simple, yet quite functional. It’s also very affordable. Write goes for a mere $5.99 on the App Store.




While Write may look like a very simplistic word processor, it actually has plenty of features, they’re just hidden behind certain menus. For example, the “Info” button on the toolbar will bring up a page where you can easily modify certain aspects of your document: change the margins, view document information, modify the header and footers, and have access to a few statistics like the frequency of certain words through the document.

The usual stuff that you would expect from an app like this is also included, like spell check, find and replace, and of course, all of the text formatting options that you might need, from fonts and hyperlinks to indentation, lists and tables. A handy toolbar on the bottom gives you quick access to a few of these features, and also displays the words, characters and pages of the document.

Write has the ability to save files in a number of formats, including .doc and .pdf, but also as Rich Text Files and Open Office documents, although strangely not as a Pages document. You can also easily print or create a PDF of your document by using one of the dedicated buttons on the menu toolbar. Reading documents of certain files, is a different story, though.



Those bullet points where supposed to have text after them

Because of all the formats available for word processing documents, the compatibility that these kind of apps have with the files from other file types is pretty important. A word processor is not going to be very useful for you if they always break the original formatting of .doc documents or if they can’t open .pages files.

With Pages I wasn’t ever too happy with how it handled files with .doc or .docx extensions (which are arguably the most used file types still), most of the time when they had images or some sort of formatting other than plain text, I would get compatibility errors as soon as I opened the files. In the end the documents would open with only a few differences, and they would still look pretty much identical to the original one.

Unfortunately, Write isn’t much different, in fact it’s kind of worse in this area. It can save files in pretty much any popular format available and do so just fine, but at the time of opening files with complex formatting it doesn’t always go so well. I tried opening a bunch of .doc files, and while for the most part they were fine and readable, most of the formatting in them was broken and very far off from the original document. This is one area where Pages shines a lot over this app.

Worth It?


The Competition

Maybe it’s just me and my old-ish slow computer, but I have to think long and hard before opening a .pages or .doc file, because I know that opening Word or Pages is going to take a long time and it’s probably going to have an effect on my computer’s performance. Especially Microsoft’s Office apps, which are very complex and have tons and tons of features that 90% of the time I do not need nor use, and that only end up making the app heavy and slower to load.

For being quite a lightweight app, Write doesn’t leave behind features like full screen Lion support or any other primordial features of a word processor. It is missing some stuff, but for the most part it has everything that you might find essential, and you really can’t go wrong with the price.


Overall, Write is a very well-done, affordable and simplistic alternative to the popular word processors. If you are only going to be using your processor to occasionally create simple text-based documents, but still want some basic formatting features, then this might be a wise purchase for you instead of going the full way and paying $20 bucks for Pages or even the ridiculous $120 dollars for Office for Mac.

For creating documents, Write is an amazing alternative. It’s really stellar if you are only going to be using basic tools for formatting your documents, but as far as replacing Pages or Word and their capability to open documents from other file types, then it falls a bit short. What do you think?


Write is a lightweight word processor that mixes the simplicity of minimal text editor, with the power of more complete apps like Pages or Word.

  • http://sallar.me Sallar Kaboli

    Does it support RTL languages like Persian (Farsi)? Pages and Bean don’t fully support unicode. Its too bad.

  • http://4vr.me l1nu5r

    How much is it different from Bean 3? And Bean 3 is free

  • tvp

    can i test it before buying? is there somewhere a demo version?

  • http://monozoo.com Atanas

    I got it and it is buggy. The save dialog isn’t working, freezes! And when I try to export pdf freezes too! This application needs some serious patching.

  • Sigilist

    Most of the true core that I see in this program can be done in TextEdit, native to at least OSX 10. However, the app does present such core features in a clean and friendly way for the average user. But even at the price it is overpriced, though many common Mac users wouldn’t know that if they don’t step out of the AppStor box (in which Apple decides what is offered).

    Comparing “Write” to such things as Pages and MS Word isn’t really a comparison… as indicated by your review. That’s a comparison within app category but outside app class/complexity. Anyone can see that without a review. What’s more important is how Write matches up with apps in its own class… and by the price. And if we are to look across class (or level of complexity) there’s a lot of steps along the way (in complexity AND price) between such as Writer, Pages, and MS Word. Bean has already been mentioned, though there are others out there… even free open alternatives to Open Office, Neo Office, etc., etc., that are also cross-platform (if that is useful to some).

    Give “Write” a real review by comparing it to apps in its class (not just category) to see if it’s really worth the price… or just the only thing people would find in its class if locked in to using the AppStore. Neo Office is actually a sound (and free) alternative, for it offers more than Write and is simpler than MS Word (in visual layout as well).

    Class AND category is the only truly informative comparison.

    • Ghostly

      As always, Sigilist, a rock of common sense. I have tried it and prefer Bean and TextEdit. The biggies mentioned should perhaps include my own favourite, Nisus Writer Pro. I still use Scrivener every day and it does everything I can throw at it. I write for a living so ease of use and quickly getting at my sources, references and stuff I need to include such as links and pdfs and images and videos and …. and … and … are all handled very easily by Scrivener. So, while I like Write it is not really in the class of tools I need as a writer. I felt is was important to mention Scrivener and Nisus Writer Pro in case someone wants to include them in their decision making. On the whole though the crit above is both useful and accurate and other than comparing it to Pages and the others my experience is that it is spot on.