0o0o0o0o¢ ATARIWRITER PLUS review By A. Pignato¢ Member of THE OL' HACKERS AUG, NY¢ One of the prime reasons for my¢ purchasing an ATARI 800XL Computer¢ System was a desire to have a Word¢ Processor available in the house for¢ me and for family use.¢ The first Word Processor I owned¢ was the Atariwriter Cartrige. The¢ documentation was a little difficult¢ to read and get through, but the¢ actual use of the program proved to¢ be amazingly easy. In fact, the¢ program was so easy to use that I was¢ able to show my daughters the basics¢ of how to use it in less than 15¢ minutes.¢ I also own or have been able to¢ use several other Word Processing¢ programs like 1ST XLENT, TextPro,¢ Paper Clip, Home Pak, Letter Perfect¢ and some IBM Word Processors at work. ¢ Out of all of these, the 1ST XLENT¢ has remained my personal favorite,¢ with TextPRO and ATARIWRITER PLUS¢ both right up there.¢ This article however is about¢ ATARIWRITER and ATARIWRITER PLUS, not¢ any of the others I mentioned above,¢ and I hope it will expain some of the¢ features of these programs.¢ When Atariwriter Plus hit the¢ market [800XL/130XE version both¢ available] I was absolutely thrilled. ¢ The heart of the new Plus version was¢ still the same old comfortable¢ Atariwriter program I was used to and¢ happy with, only they had added on¢ several improvements that make the¢ Plus version an even more useful and¢ easy to use Word Processors. I was¢ pleased to note that the improvements¢ were in areas that I also felt would¢ greatly improve its versatility,¢ usefulness and ease of use.¢ The first big plus for me was¢ the fact that the program had printer¢ drivers for the most commonly owned¢ printers built into the program as¢ well as a custom printer driver¢ generator that allows you to design¢ your own to meet your special needs. ¢ I have a friend who has a Panasonic¢ 1091 printer and the FX-80 printer¢ driver seems to work well with it. ¢ My friends printer does have features¢ that are not incorporated into the¢ existing printer driver, such as¢ Italic print, so he also made a¢ custom printer driver set up the way¢ he wanted.¢ The Global Format screen is also¢ a big improvement. All the basic¢ format settings are written out which¢ makes it much easier to use and to¢ understand. This is really a big¢ improvement over the original¢ Atariwriter abreviated settings at¢ the top of each file. To make your¢ old Atariwriter files compatible with¢ the new Atariwriter Plus, all you¢ have to do is load them into the Plus¢ version and delete the format line at¢ the top of each file. The file is¢ now subject to the global format¢ settings.¢ The Proofreader that Atari has¢ added to the Plus version is the¢ feature that I like the most. This¢ is probably because most people are¢ such terrible spellers and this¢ particular feature will provide them¢ with the most help and actually save¢ them the most time. I have already¢ used the proofreader on several¢ items, including a report by my¢ daughter. The proofreader proved to¢ be very easy to use and is almost¢ self explanatory. It can be booted¢ in and used after a quick review on¢ the short section in the manual. Its¢ ease of use should eliminate the¢ possibility of ever sending out copy¢ again with obvious, simple and¢ embarrassing spelling or typing¢ errors.¢ The Mail Merge is another¢ feature that is easy to use and¢ understand. It is a simple data base¢ that can be merged to an Atariwriter¢ Plus file in a selective manner by¢ field of information on command. ¢ This feature allows your data base to¢ contain several different kinds of¢ information that can be selectively¢ tapped and used as needed. Each¢ record in your data base is limited¢ to 255 files, and although each file¢ has a standard default format, you¢ also have the ability to design your¢ own custom layout.¢ The Atariwriter Plus is a great¢ word processor, wthout a doubt. I¢ must confess however, that I moved¢ over to 1ST XLENT some years ago and¢ still use it for letters and more¢ importantly for editing and putting¢ together the OL' HACKERS AUG bi-¢ monthly newsletter, but that will be¢ the grist of another article in the¢ future. Though my personal preference¢ is 1ST XLENT Word Processor, if you¢ can't buy 1ST XLENT, then by all¢ means buy and use ATARIWRITER PLUS.¢ It will make your computer a very¢ valuable household (and business)¢ tool.¢ * E N D *
