I used the classic version of Nisus Writer for many, many years. In fact, for quite a while, the only reason I kept OS9 on my disk was to run Nisus. While the initial release of NW Express left a lot to be desired, the incremental updates made much improvement. I wront the bulk of a 240 page, 140,000 word book on NWX with minimal problems. The 2.0.1 version of NWX takes a huge step towards meeting the refinement of NW Classic and surpasses it in some areas (like the table tool). The paragraph styles were much needed as was the return of the Nisus New File where you can define to your needs all of the parameters of new documents. The feature that I, personally, miss the most from NW Classic is the ability to define multi-character keyboard shortcuts. I'd love to make command-HL the shortcut for the cool, new highlight feature.

NWX is still too sluggish to be workable with my full 240 page document, so I'll keep using a separate file for each chapter of my current book. No biggie. As far as Word compatibility is concerned, I have yet to have a single client experience any trouble opening the RTF files I send to them. When I'm at the stage of a project where tracking changes becomes important, I'm forced to use Word since, like it or not, it is the industry standard. However, for all of my actual writing NWX is my primary tool. Like the best applications, it stays out of my way and allows me to concentrate on my writing.