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                  Nisus Writer: Schrödinger's Word Processor

   Joe Kissell

   At this moment, Nisus Writer is essentially Schrödinger's word
   processor: it is simultaneously dead and alive, and there's no way to
   know more than that right now. We do know that apps, like cats, don't
   live long without care and feeding. So, the longer it takes to open the
   metaphorical box, the more likely it is that it will contain a dead
   word processor.

   Nisus Writer Pro and its sibling Nisus Writer Express (collectively,
   'Nisus Writer') are Mac word processors from Nisus Software that have
   existed in one form or another since 1989. (Normally I'd include links
   to the product pages here, but for reasons I discuss ahead, that might
   make a bad situation worse.) Nisus Writer has a unique set of features
   that distinguishes it from rivals such as Apple's Pages, Microsoft
   Word, and Mellel, and it's especially well-suited for multilingual
   writing, complex academic and technical documents, and word processing
   tasks that require a high degree of automation.

   I've been involved with Nisus Writer since the early 1990s, when a grad
   school professor suggested I use Nisus (as it was known then) to write
   my master's thesis. I loved it and soon became an authorized Nisus
   trainer. Then, when I moved to San Diego for another round of grad
   school, I worked part-time at the company doing a variety of tasks,
   including indexing a five-volume printed instruction manual, managing
   its network, and providing telephone tech support. Before long, I took
   a full-time position as product manager for Nisus Writer. Along the
   way, I also wrote the 600-page book The Nisus Way (MIS:Press, 1996).
   Even after the company laid me off a couple of years later, I continued
   to rely on Nisus Writer, and to this day, we still use it to write and
   edit all Take Control books.

   We've talked quite a lot about Nisus Writer here at TidBITS over the
   years. Adam and Tonya relied on it to write TidBITS articles from the
   very earliest days, thanks in large part to its macro language of the
   time, and it remained an integral part of the TidBITS publishing
   approach for years. So much so that, when I searched on this site for
   'Nisus Writer,' I found 10,000 results! The last time I wrote about it
   here was way back in 2018, with an article about the release of version
   3.0 (see '[1]Nisus Writer Pro 3.0 Hits New Levels of Word-Processing
   Power,' 29 October 2018). I also discuss it at some length in my
   book[2] Take Control of Automating Your Mac.

   I include this lengthy preamble not just as an introduction for those
   unfamiliar with the product but also to say that we (TidBITS, Take
   Control Books, and Adam and I personally) have a long and deep history
   with Nisus Writer. Because of that history, when someone has a problem
   or concern about Nisus Writer, they often write to Adam or me.

   We have been getting a lot of email recently.

   For more than a year, we've heard scattered complaints: problems with
   Nisus Software's website, particularly the user discussion forum; slow
   or absent responses to support requests; assorted bugs; and other
   issues. But earlier this week, on 22 October 2025, the reports changed
   to: 'Did you know the Nisus website is completely down, and that Nisus
   Writer is no longer in the Mac App Store? Does this mean they're out of
   business?'

   On the one hand: The site is back online as I write this. The app still
   works. I'm writing the first draft of this article in Nisus Writer Pro
   on a Mac running macOS 26 Tahoe, and it's fine. You can still download
   it and buy a license. At least one human being is actively involved in
   the company. It's (mostly) alive!

   On the other hand: All available evidence suggests that the app, and
   the company behind it, are on life support, and the prognosis is
   doubtful. It's (mostly) dead!

   I'm going to tell you what I know. (Well, most of what I know.) I'm
   also going to speculate a bit, because despite my best efforts, I have
   been unable to obtain verifiable information about certain topics,
   though I have a pretty good idea of what's likely the case.

   On 29 April 2025, following a bunch of emails from people I knew who
   were worried about Nisus Software, I posted the following in a Nisus
   discussion forum thread about the state of the app, which I include
   here in its entirety because I don't know how long it will stay online:

     Hi Folks,

     Back in November 2024, Martin [Wierschin, the last remaining Nisus
     Writer developer] was chasing down a bug I reported, and we
     corresponded about it a bit. About a month ago, having not heard
     from him about it since then, I wrote to him again. It took a while
     for him to reply, but he told me he's now working at Apple and
     doesn't know anything about what's going on at the company.

     So I wrote to my dear friend Mark Hurvitz, who worked at Nisus for
     many years and was pretty close to Jerzy. He and I chat regularly,
     and he's normally prompt in replying. So I asked him if he knew
     anything. A few weeks have gone by and he has not replied at all.

     I then wrote directly to Jerzy [Lewak, the founder and CEO of Nisus
     Software], both by email and on LinkedIn. Again, it's been a couple
     of weeks with no reply whatsoever. His LinkedIn page makes it appear
     as though he's working on something else entirely.

     I chatted about this with Adam Engst, and he checked in with Dave
     Larson, who hasn't worked at Nisus for I think five or six years. He
     didn't know anything either.

     Ordinarily I'd say that the absence of information proves nothing,
     but, I mean, come on.

     Nisus Writer Pro is 100% mission-critical for my business (Take
     Control Books). I use it every single day, and although I've spent
     many many hours researching potential alternatives, there simply
     isn't anything else that does what I need to do. I would be
     devastated to lose this app. But it certainly appears as though no
     one is working at Nisus Software anymore, and if I had to make an
     educated guess, I'd say Jerzy has given up on it. I would VERY much
     like to be proven wrong about that.

     I know Nisus Software is still taking people's money. Someone wrote
     to me just today saying they'd purchased the app but then had
     trouble downloading it, though that eventually resolved itself. But
     I don't think any human beings are paying the slightest attention.

     Over the years, I've occasionally daydreamed about buying rights to
     the app myself, though at this point, I couldn't make a business
     case for injecting the kind of money into Nisus Writer that it would
     need to remain viable and maybe even regain a foothold. My personal
     feeling is that the honorable thing would be for Nisus Software, if
     there's anything left of it, to open-source Nisus Writer Pro and
     post a candid 'Thanks, it was nice, but it's time to move on'
     message. I think we'd all respect that, and I'm sure someone would
     be interested in stepping in as a volunteer maintainer so the
     software can live on even if the company does not. I'd certainly be
     willing to help! But if no one even answers an email message, I
     expect we're all just going to wait until some macOS update kills it
     for good, and that will be that. What an inglorious end that would
     be.

     Joe

   Shortly thereafter, Adam was able to get in touch with Jerzy's son,
   StanisÅaw (StaÅ) Lewak, by email. We set up a three-way Zoom call with
   him on 9 May 2025 and talked for about an hour. StaÅ shared some
   information with us that he asked us not to publicize, and I will abide
   by that agreement. However, I can say that he expressed every hope and
   intention of keeping Nisus Writer alive, and he mentioned that he had
   hopes of finding a buyer for Nisus Writer that would be able to
   modernize the app and continue development.

   As the call ended, he said he'd come up with a public statement to post
   on their site and run it by the two of us first, but that it might take
   him until the following Monday.

   Ten days passed, and no statement appeared. We checked in with StaÅ,
   who said he was trying to figure out how to get access to the site to
   make changes. But months went by without any news, so I wrote back in
   early August. StaÅ again said he was still working on it, but that he
   couldn't do anything unilaterally and had to coordinate with his
   mother. Then, after Internet luminary Seth Godin praised Nisus Writer
   Pro in a post that was probably seen by hundreds of thousands of people
   in early October, Adam wrote to StaÅ one more time but received no
   response.

   As we approached the six-month anniversary of that initial Zoom call,
   people started emailing us to say that the nisus.com site was down and
   that the app had disappeared from the App Store, with the implication
   being that Nisus Software had abruptly shut down. Adam wrote back to
   StaÅ once more to ask for an update, and I chimed in with my own
   questions. We were both clear about the fact that it was time to write
   an article about what we know.

   After a couple of days, StaÅ told me that the site had been the victim
   of a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack, as a result of which
   their hosting provider was forced to take it offline pending
   architectural changes to the site that would mitigate such attacks in
   the future. The site came back up on 24 October 2025, but StaÅ said
   attacks were continuing and could force the hosting provider to take it
   offline again. (That's why I'm not linking to the site in this article;
   the more traffic they get before the underlying problem is resolved,
   the more likely it is that the site will go down again.)

   That solved the mystery of why the site was offline, but it didn't
   address the bigger issues. Adam and I posed several pointed questions,
   including these:
     * Do you have plans to continue development on Nisus Writer Express
       and Nisus Writer Pro?
     * Are you investigating the sale of the apps to another company?
     * Barring either of those, would you consider making the code open
       source?
     * Do you have a plan to address the site architecture?
     * Who is actually running the company?
     * What can Nisus customers reasonably expect in the coming months and
       years in terms of support and updates?

   His response: 'I am unable to say anything publicly.' I don't mean to
   imply that he's stonewalling; my impression is that he's facing a
   difficult set of constraints.

   But, absent a public statement, it's tricky to pin down what's going on
   at the company. Public records indicate Jerzy Lewak as the CEO and his
   wife, Jolanta Lewak, as the COO of Nisus Software, which has been true
   since before I worked there. Although I ran into StaÅ occasionally when
   I worked at Nisus in the mid-1990s, it was never clear to me what
   official position, if any, he has in the company; he works more than
   full-time in other businesses, and it sounds as though he's only
   pitching in now as a favor to his family. (I could, of course, be
   mistaken about that.)

   Martin Wierschin, Dave Larson, and Mark Hurvitz (each of whom was the
   public face of Nisus Software at one point) are no longer at the
   company. Jolanta is in her late 80s, and Jerzy is older than Jolanta.
   As best I can determine, Jerzy is not actively involved with the
   business anymore, and Jolanta's involvement appears to be minimal. I
   sense that there may be differences of opinion within the family about
   what should happen to the product, but I am not privy to any details.

   What do we actually know? The latest update to the app was on 12
   November 2024. To the best of my knowledge, no developers have touched
   the code since then. StaÅ Lewak was able to get the site back online,
   so clearly he has some degree of access and authority. And'¦ that's
   pretty much it.

   Beyond that, I can offer only opinions and educated guesses. For what
   it's worth, here's what I think:
     * Without ongoing development to fix bugs and keep up with changes in
       macOS, Nisus Writer's days are numbered. It could continue working
       for another ten years, or some change on Apple's side could break
       it tomorrow.
     * I consider it unlikely that another company would be willing to
       invest the substantial sum that would be required to keep Nisus
       Writer viable into the future.
     * Happy customers are the key to any business's survival. But Nisus
       Software hasn't engaged much with its customers in years and isn't
       engaging at all now. The goodwill that the company has accrued over
       the years'existing users love the app'won't last forever without
       support and updates.
     * I fear that Nisus Writer has pretty much saturated its market:
       after 36 years, the people who want the app already have it. Plus,
       the world has changed, and most people are content with whatever
       word processor they already have (namely, Word, Pages, or even
       Google Docs). Nisus Software could theoretically boost revenues
       with a big paid upgrade, or attract new customers with flashy new
       features or support for additional platforms. Continuing to sell
       the app as is won't lead to meaningful income. Unfortunately,
       without enough income to pay developers, new versions can't appear.
       That sounds to me like a recipe for a death spiral.

   Maybe the Lewaks have a terrific plan that they're unable to share yet.
   Maybe some prospective buyer sees a big, untapped commercial market
   that would persuade them to put a lot of cash into the app. If so,
   that's great! I would be extremely happy if my pessimistic projections
   did not come to pass. One way or another, I hope the company makes some
   statement'any statement'about their intentions.

   I've said it before and I'll say it again: in my opinion, the kindest
   thing Nisus Software could do for its loyal customers is to open-source
   its code so that volunteers could step in and maintain the app. Lots of
   other small software companies have done exactly that when they
   realized they no longer had a viable business. I worry, though, that
   the company won't do that as long as it believes it can derive further
   income from Nisus Writer, no matter the effect on users.

   I have repeatedly offered to help in any way I can. I can create
   websites, update forum software, manage an open-source repository, or
   whatever else would help the cause. I'd do it for free (within reason)
   because I love and depend on the app. I'm sure Adam and a lot of
   TidBITS readers who are also Nisus Writer fans from way back would also
   pitch in. But Nisus Software doesn't seem to be looking to its
   customers for clues about how to proceed.

   I remember once asking Victor Romano, one of the early Nisus Writer
   developers, whether he could make a certain change to the
   find-and-replace feature, and he said, 'Oh, no. That's a black box. We
   don't want to touch that!' I think he was joking a little, because
   later developers did in fact tinker with that feature successfully. But
   'black box' is an apt description of Nisus Software. What's in the box?
   It seems to be an app in a state of quantum superposition. Maybe the
   wave function will collapse and reveal a word processor with a bright
   future, or maybe we'll find that it has been dead for months already.

   Joe Kissell is the publisher of [3]Take Control Books, author of The
   Nisus Way, and one of Nisus Writer's greatest fans.

References

   1. https://tidbits.com/2018/10/29/nisus-writer-pro-3-0-hits-new-levels-of-word-processing-power/
   2. https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/automating/
   3. https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/

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