For a while I ran Nisus Writer 5 on a 33MHz 68030 PowerBook Duo 270c in System 7.5 (with 32MB RAM). I can't really see why it would not run on an SE/30 similarly equipped, though it would presumably be slow on an SE/30 without a processor upgrade. Even on my Duo, which is a very able little machine, I chose to run it entirely from a RAM disk in order to make it a little faster. This was done using the utility Maxima, the memory compression settings of which gave me more capacity, with the NW application also loaded into memory (one of NW's finer features). Though NW5 is somewhat bloated and took a while to start up, when loaded into RAM it ran really well.
Some random thoughts follow:
- To run NW4 or 5 you would need to be working in System 7.x. I am not sure about v.3, having never used it.
I don't think that NW requires a 640x480 screen. NW5 certainly did not take up the whole of my 270's screen, and anyway, it should be possible to change the default window size (I think in the Ruler via styles, but I forget as I haven't used it in years).
NW6 also came in a 68k version, but it runs slow even on a 40MHz 68040 and seemed buggy. The 68k version was an afterthought, and it shows.
For System 6, there is definitely Nisus Writer Compact, which works in System 6, has the virtue of being free, and it is still freely available on the web. NW Compact was a cut-down version meant for PowerBooks with limited RAM, and was specifically designed to run in RAM only so as to improve battery runtimes. It also ran on at least the later Compacts. It is still surprisingly feature-rich, however, being largely indistinguishable for many purposes from v. 4, I think, and so it might be the obvious version to throw on an SE/30. If you have a 68040 in your SE/30, however, I'd try to find v.5, which is the pick of the Nisus Writer litter in my view.
NW4 was also released in a freeware version, so no doubt it too is "out there" somewhere.
I have never used version 3, but I gather that the feature set was well below what emerged in versions 4 and 5. The file format was different too, if I remember correctly.
If you wanted these files to be readable by Nisus Writer Pro on a current machine, it would likely be best to stick with versions 4 or 5, or with the Compact version.
The Save as RTF feature never worked particularly well in NW for me, so there may be compatibility issues.
NW was, however, still a revelation as a word processor, assuming that what you really wanted to do was to work with words rather than with pages. E.g., it would allow you to select all instances of a word in a document instantaneously and simultaneously rather than serially through a search (why can't they all work like that?). It is full of features like that.
After version 5, however, it became rather long in the tooth, as it was really designed for old Macs with small screens. 640x480 is ideal, as NW does not have a workable magnification feature, despite the little "magnifying glass" in NW6, which was a poor attempt made at the end to compensate for the limitation. I gather that it never really played by Apple's Human Interface rules, which is to say the graphical rules, and the problem was that this became a major liability in the age of 1024x768 screens.
Truth be told, it was never very good at the WYSIWYG thing, but was more focussed on the manipulation of text. As such, it makes an interesting foil to something like MacWrite Pro. They each had their strengths, no doubt, but Nisus Writer really was for writers.
