Recently, we noted the impending release of Nisus Writer Pro. As the days turn into months and subsequently years, Microsoft Office users looking for an Intel native solution are surely getting impatient. I know I am. I still use Excel and Powerpoint from time to time, but the application I use most by far is Word. Word processing is what most people need out of an office suite.
Nisus Writer Pro is another option for those looking to dump Microsoft. You can download and try it out for 15 days without purchase. The Pro version includes features not in the Express version like table of contents, indexing, bookmarks, cross references and much more. The Pro version costs $79 while the Express is $49.
There are in fact several good alternates to Word; this is one of the best. But the truth is: if you cannot seamlessly read and write .doc files you cannot communicate with the 'outside' world, period. It's the same with autocad and .dwg format, too.