Mellel
Encyclopedia
Mellel is a word processor
for Mac OS X
, developed since 2002 and marketed as especially suited for technical and academic writers. It is made by RedleX, a small software company from Israel
. New features are added to the program every few months, many of which come from user suggestions. Its closest competitor is Nisus Writer Pro.
The most remarkable feature present in Mellel is its multilanguage support. Languages with non-Latin alphabets, including Arabic
, Hebrew
, Korean
and Persian
are handled well due to its support for Unicode
and OpenType
fonts. Its user interface
relies heavily on palettes.
Mellel also presents a feature set suitable for working with long and complex documents, in order to match the needs of scholars and technical writers. Mellel has a unique way of handling styles, with a Replace Styles feature which is able to reformat a large amount of text scattered throughout a document (a feature also present in OpenOffice.org Writer
and in Nisus Writer for Mac OS Classic). Mellel has a distinctive way of handling footnotes, endnotes and comments, which are treated as different "streams" of a single text, a feature which can help keep different translations of the same text in sync. Cross-references are also dealt with in a singular way by Mellel, which implemented this feature in version 2.5.
Due to its unique approach to implementing many of its features, Mellel lacks full compatibility with standard word processors, and this fact is often pointed out as one of its main shortcomings. Mellel does not support DOCX and ODT
and it supports DOC
only partially. It has, however, good support for RTF
files and is able to export to PDF
.
Mellel provides tight integration with Bookends
and Sente
, bibliographical tools for managing citations.
Another unique feature of Mellel is that starting with version 2.8 the company, Redlers, has announced that once one has purchased a licence, one is entitled to free updates for life.
Word processor
A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
for Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, developed since 2002 and marketed as especially suited for technical and academic writers. It is made by RedleX, a small software company from Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. New features are added to the program every few months, many of which come from user suggestions. Its closest competitor is Nisus Writer Pro.
The most remarkable feature present in Mellel is its multilanguage support. Languages with non-Latin alphabets, including Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
and Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
are handled well due to its support for Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
and OpenType
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior...
fonts. Its user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
relies heavily on palettes.
Mellel also presents a feature set suitable for working with long and complex documents, in order to match the needs of scholars and technical writers. Mellel has a unique way of handling styles, with a Replace Styles feature which is able to reformat a large amount of text scattered throughout a document (a feature also present in OpenOffice.org Writer
OpenOffice.org Writer
OpenOffice.org Writer is the word processor component of the OpenOffice.org software package. Writer is a word processor similar to Microsoft Word and Corel's WordPerfect, with some of their features....
and in Nisus Writer for Mac OS Classic). Mellel has a distinctive way of handling footnotes, endnotes and comments, which are treated as different "streams" of a single text, a feature which can help keep different translations of the same text in sync. Cross-references are also dealt with in a singular way by Mellel, which implemented this feature in version 2.5.
Due to its unique approach to implementing many of its features, Mellel lacks full compatibility with standard word processors, and this fact is often pointed out as one of its main shortcomings. Mellel does not support DOCX and ODT
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
and it supports DOC
DOC (computing)
In computing, DOC or doc is a filename extension for word processing documents; most commonly for Microsoft Word. Historically, the extension was used for documentation in plain-text format, particularly of programs or computer hardware, on a wide range of operating systems...
only partially. It has, however, good support for RTF
Rich Text Format
The Rich Text Format is a proprietary document file format with published specification developed by Microsoft Corporation since 1987 for Microsoft products and for cross-platform document interchange....
files and is able to export to PDF
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
.
Mellel provides tight integration with Bookends
Bookends (software)
Bookends is a commercial reference management software package for Mac OS X that is used to manage bibliographies and references when writing essays and articles. Its target market is students, academics and professionals. It works with several word processors, including Microsoft Word, Apple...
and Sente
Sente (software)
Sente is an academic reference manager for Mac OS X. Sente can search and retrieve references from sources like PubMed, Thomson/ISI's Web of Knowledge and any site supporting the Z39.50 or SRU search protocols. Sente also is used to collect and manage related material, such as PDF files. Sente...
, bibliographical tools for managing citations.
Another unique feature of Mellel is that starting with version 2.8 the company, Redlers, has announced that once one has purchased a licence, one is entitled to free updates for life.
External links
- Company homepage
- About Mellel
- MathMagicMathMagicMathMagic is a mathematical WYSIWYG equation editor, available for Windows and Mac OS X since its first debut in 1998. MathMagic is known for its DTP quality equations and widely used by Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress users...
equation editor for Mellel, supporting automatic baseline alignment