Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Tunster

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 28, 2009
422
182
Hi PowerPC Users!

I've got quite an important question regarding PowerPC software available for iBooks. i'll be an owner of an iBook G3 Clamshell very soon and will be doing my best to keep in as good condition but give it some use.

Although I'll have some internet/networking via the Airport card, it's use there will be limited from what I read. So I want to do writing (of scripts or pieces for my new podcast). What are good PowerPC writing apps compatible with Panther? Especially anything that is markdown based (I'm a sys-engineer by trade). I'd be happy to use the Apple text-editors, but I might want something a little more sophisticated.
 

chibiterasu

macrumors 6502
Apr 5, 2012
337
24
London, The United Kingdom
Hi PowerPC Users!

I've got quite an important question regarding PowerPC software available for iBooks. i'll be an owner of an iBook G3 Clamshell very soon and will be doing my best to keep in as good condition but give it some use.

Although I'll have some internet/networking via the Airport card, it's use there will be limited from what I read. So I want to do writing (of scripts or pieces for my new podcast). What are good PowerPC writing apps compatible with Panther? Especially anything that is markdown based (I'm a sys-engineer by trade). I'd be happy to use the Apple text-editors, but I might want something a little more sophisticated.

I would say office 2004 which needs a G3 and 10.2.8 which would probably be the most full featured although it may run a little slow on a Clamshell. You could also try AppleWorks 6 which would have more features than textedit and probably run faster than word '04.

Edit: There is also a markdown editor called nvALT and the older version (I think 2.0) supports PowerPC but I don't know anything about it.
 
Last edited:

Hrududu

macrumors 68020
Jul 25, 2008
2,306
657
Central US
Best word processing experience possible on a Clamshell iBook is Mac OS 9.2.2 and MS Office 2001. System 9 and Office 2001 are much better on the 800x600 screen than Office 04 for OS X. Now it's best to dual boot so you can use Office 04 for better compatibility with others around you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bobesch

bobesch

macrumors 68020
Oct 21, 2015
2,142
2,220
Kiel, Germany
Best word processing experience possible on a Clamshell iBook is Mac OS 9.2.2 and MS Office 2001. System 9 and Office 2001 are much better on the 800x600 screen than Office 04 for OS X. Now it's best to dual boot so you can use Office 04 for better compatibility with others around you.
Fully agree!
Office2001 rocks.
See https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/email-client-and-applications-for-mac-os9.1960993/ which is dedicated to the Clamshell, os9 and connecting with OS X etc.
BTW what about your Clamshell's specs?
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,604
28,365
Best word processing experience possible on a Clamshell iBook is Mac OS 9.2.2 and MS Office 2001. System 9 and Office 2001 are much better on the 800x600 screen than Office 04 for OS X. Now it's best to dual boot so you can use Office 04 for better compatibility with others around you.
Fully agree!
Office2001 rocks.
See https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/email-client-and-applications-for-mac-os9.1960993/ which is dedicated to the Clamshell, os9 and connecting with OS X etc.
BTW what about your Clamshell's specs?


:D :D :D

I don't always use Office on PowerPC, but when I do…I use Office 2008.

Stay thirsty my friends! :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: Altemose

MysticCow

macrumors 68000
May 27, 2013
1,564
1,760
This is my HIGHLY BIASED list of PowerPC writing apps, with #1 being the best in my opinion:

1. Microsoft Office 2004. This is the gold standard for Office installations to me and you can get the addon to read docx files.

2. Microsoft Office 2001. For OS 9, this is the gold standard.

3. WordPerfect 3.5e. YES! That WordPerfect will run under OS 9, is the last to ever run on OS 9, and it's a ridiculously strong word processor.

4. (tie) AppleWorks 6. For some reason or another, I wind up coming back to AppleWorks more times than I'd care to really say.

4. (tie) Jer's Novel Writer. The only bad thing about this is that it's Nagware, but being able to create margin notes as I'm writing? Yesh, Jer's is well worth it just for margin notes.

5. ANYTHING ELSE, including Office 2008 and X.
 

Tunster

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 28, 2009
422
182
Fully agree!
Office2001 rocks.
See https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/email-client-and-applications-for-mac-os9.1960993/ which is dedicated to the Clamshell, os9 and connecting with OS X etc.
BTW what about your Clamshell's specs?
I've got a Indigo FW model coming. I think it's got a 366Mhz CPU and 320Mb RAM.

Thanks for the lists guys. Hoping this arrival is in pretty good condition. I'll likely max out the ram at some point and dual boot OS X and OS 9 as I've never used anything before Leopard.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.