Mellel 4

A colouring book. A quick look. Kick the tyres.

Get It Try It

Mellel is a high-end word processor in the same league as Word and Pages.



This is a quick look at the packaging for version 4. Links to reviews and other data follow.



The DMG is 89 MB.



A .DS_Store.



And a PkgInfo.



The main binary is 15 MB.



A few - but not all - of the files in Resources have XA gunk.



The Resources directory has 1358 items for 17 MB. Perhaps an assets file? And it might help in supporting dark mode.



The entire bundle is 5582 items...



For 180 MB.



To scan: /Library, /private, and home root.



To skip: diagnostics, systemstats, uuidtext, /var/folders, ~/Library/Developer. The last item won't find any changes but it would waste time.



Starting the target. Checking that the target to be opened is in fact opened by the target to be opened (avoiding the Oompa Loompa exploit).



First screen.



Now to either open a doc or create one.



A Mellel document. No sign of dark mode.



'So this is Mellel?'



The rightmost floater.



The about box - 'a real word processor'.



Preferences - first of seven pages.



Style sets.



The documentation - 384 pages [sic].



Contacting support.



Mellel's privacy policy. (How is a word processor collecting data?)



Standard document controller prompt.



Scanning for changes.



Initial result: 359 items.



Mellel put 94 items in Application Support, generated/copied out from the bundle itself. (This is necessary?)



For 6.8 MB. This is information the app already has.



Application Support being deleted.



Changes pruned of Containers.

So Why?

So why do a review of Mellel? Because it was there. Someone downloaded the DMG, so we reckoned we'd take a look.

The reviews are fairly positive, so it might be worth checking out.

The app is 'clean', save for the gunk exported to Application Support. And it might benefit by use of XC assets - this might in turn benefit adaptation of dark mode.

The CNET editors reviewed Mellel on 18 March 2015.

The biggest claim to fame for Mellel for Mac is the degree to which you're allowed to use and keep track of references, citations, bookmarks, footnotes, author comments, etc. There is also support for character, paragraph, section, and page styles, including academic and professional ones that come preloaded with the app.

Mellel for Mac is best suited for students, academics, researchers, and other professionals that find themselves writing long papers containing a dozen text styles and hundreds of citations and references. Although the app comes with a price tag, we feel that it is justified, especially if you fall in the aforementioned category.

There may be reasons to purchase from Mellel rather than through Apple's store. See here.