Mac OS X | Business / Productivity | Word Processing | Bean

Bean - 2.3.1

Uncluttered word processor and rich text editor.

Download v 2.4.2

(File Size: 4.1M)

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All Time:	(4.8)
Version 2.3.1:	(5.0)
Selected Version:	2.3.1
Release Date:	2009-06-19
License:	Freeware
Downloads (version 2.3.1):	2,204
Downloads (all versions):	9,782

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Product Description:

Bean is lean, fast, and uncluttered. If you get depressed at the thought of firing up MS Word or OpenOffice, try Bean.
If you use TextEdit but have to jump through hoops just to get a word count or change the margins, try Bean.
If you desire a simple, beautiful writing environment, try Bean.

Bean is a small, easy-to-use word processor that includes:

a live word count
a Get Info panel for in-depth statistics
a zoom-slider to easily change the view scale
an Inspector panel with lots of sliders
date-stamped backups
autosaving
a page layout mode
an alternate colors option (e.g., white text on blue)
an option to show invisible characters (tabs, returns, spaces)
selection of text by text style, paragraph style, color, etc.
a floating windows option (like Stickies has)
easy to use menus
remembers cursor postion (excluding .txt, .html, .webarchive formats)
all of Cocoa's good stuff (dictionary, word completion, etc.)

What's new in this version:

Fixed UI glitch: Bean Preferences > Style > Line Spacing now assigns line spacing correctly (user reported)

Operating System Requirements:

This product is designed to run on the following operating systems:

Mac OS X 10.5 Intel
Mac OS X 10.5 PPC
Mac OS X 10.4 Intel
Mac OS X 10.4 PPC

Feedback Summary:

Version 2.3.1:
Overall Rating:	(5.0)	Features:	(4.5)	Support:	(5.0)
Ease of Use:	(5.0)	Quality / Stability:	(4.5)	Price:	(5.0)

Key to Types of Feedback:

Reviews Reviews Troubleshooting Usage Tips Developer Notes Commentary Featured Reviews

Look no further - Version: 2.4.2, 11/30/2009 01:13AM PST

rayjay

I've been hunting for something like this ever since I decided almost ten years ago that I wasn't prepared to keep paying Uncle Bill exorbitant sums for EvilEmpire Office. I used Mariner's word processor and spreadsheet for a long time, but the company seems to have lost interest in them: upgrades promised years ago have never materialised. I dabbled with most of the other Mac word processors but they all seemed too fiddly or too expensive for what they offered. I now use NeoOffice for heavy duty stuff - and I'm very pleased with it in most respects - but it is something of a sledgehammer/nut relationship for basic word processing.

Bean is exactly right: the developer, James Hoover, says it's a niche product, but it's a very big niche: I guess that 90 percent of folks would find that it satisfied 90 percent of their word processing needs. It works well, it's fast, it uses standard formats, it looks good - what more could you ask for?

Future sugest. - Version: 2.4.1, 11/18/2009 11:48AM PST

Adriano B.

I like Bean, and I try to use it every time I don't need some "heavy" future, like calculation in tables, math formulas, ecc... But I found one thing that never NeoOffice or other Word Processor does: tiling wordprocessor window. Today I did some work where this future would be a great help, and I was really surprised that none had it (or better, only TextWrangler had it, but it's not a wordprocessor).

Bean - The one I've been looking for - Version: 2.4.0, 9/29/2009 10:36PM PST

oletom

I've found the word processor I've been looking for since about 1985. Puts MS Word in the ground and I doubt I'll ever use Word again. Hard to believe it's FREE.