Old macs running System 6 are mostly used as word processing machines. Thanks to the crisp screens of the compact macintoshes and the very fast boot time of system 6, they are better suited for this than most modern computers. The system 6 compatible word processors I tried out were ClarisWorks 1.0 and 2.1; MacWrite II and Pro; MS Word 4.0 and 5.1, Nisus Compact; WordPerfect 3.0 and WriteNow 2.2 and 4.0. I hope to add some more programs to the test results later...

Essential features for a word processor:
1. Look, feel, stability and features: I want a pretty basic word processor with an ideal and inspiring look and feel. It must also be very stable. I don't pay as much attention to features, initially.
2. Remembering cursor location: I want a word processor that is able to remember cursor locations.
3. Backward printing: I own a StyleWriter, and I want a word processor that can print backwards on that printer. HP printer software gives you this option, but Apple printer software doesn't, so I need a word processor that provides this option.
4. Speed: I want a word processor that is very, very fast, because I like my computers to be snappy.

1. Look, feel, stability and features
This is very personal... If I wanted to go for lots of features and userfriendliness I would opt for MS Word 5.1. It is a pretty stable wordprocessor. MS Word 4.0 is even more stable, (rock solid, actually), and has most of the essential features of word 5.1, but is a bit harder to operate.Most other programs are somewhat less stable. I remember MacWrite Pro constantly crashing on me when I still used my Powerbook 1400... MacWrite IIis a little better, but since it's older, it's not as feature-packed as MacWrite Pro. Nisus has the disadvantage of not being very compatible, (no maclink support), and not being very stable, either. ClarisWorks has a rather limited word processor, but it works alright and has an acceptable feel.WordPerfect 3.0 feels alright too, has a lot of features, but is not very stable. (The earlier version, WordPerfect 2.0 is a real pain-in-the-ass
program. I have always hated it. I didn't include in the test. I remember it as being very unstable.)Of all the tested word processors, WriteNow, especially 2.0, has the best look and feel. It is also rock-solid stable. WriteNow 2.2 has very little in the way of features though, less than the programs previously mentioned... WriteNow 4.0 is very feature-rich, comparable to MS Word or WordPerfect.

2. Remembering cursor location
I find this one of the most handy features of a word processor: the ability to remember at what point you stopped the last time you worked on a document. It saves me a lot of time looking for a sentence somewhere in the middle of a 50 page document. Word processors that are able to do this: ClarisWorks 1.0 and 2.0; MacWrite II and Pro; Nisus Compact and WriteNow 2.2 and 4.0. MS Word remembers your cursor location too, but you must know the right key combination.

3. Printing backwards
I need this because otherwise I have to do something very boring: putting the printed pages in the right order... Word Processor that are able to print backwards are: MacWrite II and Pro; WriteNow 2.2 and 4.0. MS Word 5.1 has a somewhat hidden backward printing feature.

4. Speed
The most important thing about word processors is speed. I really hate to wait for them. Below are the results of the speed test I performed. The machine I used to run the tests was an LC running System 6.08 with a pretty fast internal hard disk (260 MB), 10 MB RAM and a grayscale 12 inch monitor.

Program

Startup speed

Spell check speed

Word count speed*

Conversion speed

ClarisWorks 1.0	7 sec.	not so fast	x	27 sec. (ms word document)
ClarisWorks 2.1	9 sec.	not so fast	x	30 sec. (ms word document
MacWrite II	7 sec.	not so fast	28 sec.	x
MacWrite Pro	14 sec.	pretty fast	26+155=181 sec.	55 sec. (ms word document)
MS Word 4.0	5 sec.	pretty fast	22 sec.	17 sec. (rtf document)
MS Word 5.1	18 sec.	pretty fast	36 sec.	45 sec. (MWII document)
Nisus Compact 3.4.7	21 sec.	pretty fast	15 sec.	x
WordPerfect 3.0	16 sec.	not so fast	17 sec.	> 5 min.
WriteNow 2.2	4 sec.	very fast	6 sec.	x
WriteNow 4.0	6 sec.	very fast	6 sec.	77 sec.

*The document I used for this test had 12.368 words.

Features I Look For
Tables One of the most used features in word processors is 'tables'. The following word processors can make tables: MacWrite Pro; MS Word 4.0 and 5.1; WordPerfect 3.0 and WriteNow 4.0. The others can't make them. MS Word 5.1 is the best for this job.

Spell checking WriteNow 2.2 has a very unique feature; you can select all text and press 'learn' in the spell checker window. It will learn all the words. I "taught" the program a small Dutch dictionary this way. No other word processor is capable of doing something like this.

Conclusion
WriteNow 4.0 is the best word processor if one looks for both features and speed. It also has quite a nice look and feel (though not as nice as it's older version 2.2) .