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 ]

Enhancements:
· The most current version of Bean should now always work with CopyPaste Pro. Note: the CopyPaste Pro command Open Selection in Editor will start the most current version of Bean present; Open Editor however starts whatever version of Bean is contained within the CopyPaste Pro bundle. Thanks to Peter Hoerster for the code.
· Added up-to-date French localization (thanks to Daniel Elmiger) and a new Italian localization (thanks to Stafano Carlini)

Notes:
· Users have reported that Bean runs well on Snow Leopard, except for Preferences > Advanced > Interface > Suggest filename at first save. I believe there is a new API for that in Snow Leopard, so that will be fixed whenever I can do the first Snow Leopard build. My Powerbook G4 (not Snow Leopard compatible) somehow knew its days were coming to an end; it died. Happily, I now have an Intel-based Apple and will be installing Snow Leopard soon.