Bean is a nice, fast, and uncluttered word processor. If you get depressed at the thought of firing up MS Word or OpenOffice, try Bean.

If you use Text Edit but have to jump through hoops just to get a word count or change the margins, try Bean.

Try Bean if you're pining away for Write Now-esque simplicity or just want a low-pressure writing environment.

Bean natively reads and writes these file formats:
· .rtf format (rich text)
· .rtfd format (rich text with graphics)
· .bean format (identical to .rtfd)
· .txt format (Unicode and legacy)
· .html format (as source code)
· .webarchive format (Apple's web archive format)

Bean transparently imports and exports these formats:
· .doc format (MS Word '97, minus images, margins, and page size)
· .xml format (MS Word 2003 XML, minus images)

Bean can export all of the above formats to this format:
· .html (web page format, minus images)

Here are some key features of "Bean":

· 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 Release: [ read full changelog ]

Bug fixes:
· The Inspector now updates more consistently (20120129-1).
· Fixed a text field input validation bug that in rare cases could cause a crash (20120130-1).
· Switching a document from full screen to a non-grouped window would not restore the document presentation settings. Fixed (20120130-3).
· Fixed a regression in 3.0.5 where File > Prevent Editing setting was not maintained when switching documents between windows (20120130-2).
· A status bar shown only to support Documents > Buttons now re-hides for other document navigation views (20120131-1).
· Reimplemented cycle windows (command-~) since it wasn’t working correctly for some unknown reason (20120130-4).
· Fixed the bug where a newly created text table had black borders, then added cells had gray borders (20120201-1).

Changes:
· You can now select a plain text document under Preferences > New > New Document Template > Custom > Choose Template (20120131-3).
· Updated Slovak translation, courtesy Rudolf Gavlas.
· Added Chinese (Simplified...