For a number of years, the same number of years that I have been involved with the Amiga it so happens, I have been enmeshed in a career as a technical writer. All of my writing, no matter what computer platform I may be writing about, is done on my Amiga 2000. I went through all of the word-processing software available for the Amiga over the years, from Excellence and Scribble to ProWrite to others you've never even heard of. It was a maddening chase, one that coincided with the writing of my doctoral thesis. Ah yes, my thesis. I remember it well. I was using a Commodore 64 at the time, in addition to my new Amiga 1000. All I had for a printer was a 9-pin dot matrix, and since there were no decent word-processors out for the Amiga at that early date (or at least I didn't know about them), I did the first draft of the thesis on the C-64 and output it to the 9-pin. I can hear the excited comments of the professors on my review panel to this day as I handed them 600 pages of research and conjecture, all held within the jaggy alpha-numeric confines of a dot-matrix world. They threatened to take severe action unless I agreed to do the whole thing again in a more readable and kinder-to-the-committee format. They were not impressed by the technology, and suggested strongly that my next draft be typed on a typewriter so they wouldn't be forced to suffer through potential blindness as a result of my technological toys.
I thought I had it nailed when I purchased a copy of WordPerfect for the Amiga (remember that version?). After all, here was one of the most prestigious companies around addressing my wondrous platform. I got the software home, unwrapped it, and began a month long journey into terror, reinforced by bad documentation and loads of the most arcane convoluted command sequences I have ever run across then or since. That WordPerfect bundle now sit with the spiders somewhere in my basement. I came to realize then that feature laden word processing software often comes at the price of inputting long strings of logically meaningless commands, taking more away from the creative moment than is invited. What I was looking for was software that would allow me to write as the ideas came without too much preparatory hassle. I also came to know that I wanted the extras to be embedded in logical easy-to-remember order, so that when I wanted to call on a needed feature, I could do so without taking my mind off of the writing task at hand. I also wanted something affordable, and a package that came from a developer who hopefully would be around for a while, so that support services could be expected when needed. That seemed to be a lot to ask, and I wasn't sure if I was hoping for too much. Then I discovered Final Copy.
Final Copy was SoftWood's first level word processor. It entered the fray when there were quite a few contenders. The difference it offered, from the very start, was that it seemed to be very full featured at a good price (I think it was around $100.00 at the time), and its interface looked clean and well structured (even in its ads). So, looking with heavy heart at the thick wad of word processing disks I had accumulated over the years, I decided to take the plunge again,.. an older Sancho Paza in search of a dreamed windmill.
Paydirt! About the time it arrived, I was knee deep in writing a contracted book about Amiga multimedia topics (I'll bet there are still at least twenty copies still in existence). I scrubbed my hard drive free from other contaminating word processor influences, installed it, and have been a SoftWood fan ever since. SoftWood's move to FinalWriter, though I think FinalCopy is still marketed, took advantage of the then new Amiga 4000's and the their AGA 256 color capacities. FW (FinalWriter) also added graphics capabilities, moving it more towards desktop publishing environs. Over the years I have been especially pleased with SoftWood's service as well as their products, SoftWood has also stuck by the Amiga through thin times and thinner, and the rebirth of the system under the aegis of ESCOM is due in large part to similar brave attitudes all around. So before we get enmeshed in looking at the new features of FinalWriter 4, the latest SoftWood release of their flagship product, let's all stand and give a loud thankful cheer of recognition to a company that represents a value added Amiga asset. Thanks SoftWood! Now, to the details of FW4.
What's New?
In version 4, SoftWood has accomplished a major number of alterations both to the interface and the underlying structure of the program. The least attractive aspect of this is that vintage users (like myself) have learn how to perform old tricks with new tools. There is, thankfully, a minimum of re-learning required for experienced users, but it will take a couple of days to get used to the new and altered possibilities. As for new users, there paradoxically might be less of a learning curve. This is because the manual is so clearly laid out that initial learning and use is made intuitive quickly. This is more than a theory. It's something I tested out with a friend who just received the software, and commented upon how surprisingly easy it was to be up and running with FW4.
Grammar correction is one of the hottest items in word processing these days, no matter what the platform. Some of us need it, some of us like it, and some of us (I must confess) disdain it even though it may be needed and useful. Wherever your opinion falls, FW4 has it, and it has it in spades. There are over forty choices that can interrupt your writing if you use "sexist expressions, gender specific expressions, archaic words, formatting errors, and lots more. As for me, my writing is full of archaic expressions, and I am quite able to stay away from sexist statements on my own. I am trying to be open to the fact that others, especially students, may need all the help they can get to succeed in the paper chase. Luckily, FW4 allows you to toggle any or all of these on or off, so older recalcitrant dudes like me may have only "Spelling", "Capitalization", and "Double Words" toggled on. On the aesthetic side of it all, many authors consider some of their idiosyncrasies as one with their style, something schools fail to realize in the quest for the perfect paper. There is another similar feature that you may find instructive if not useful, but one which I wish I could remove. In the "Statistics" module, the item that tells you how many words you've used thus far and other quantitative information, there are now listings of what grade levels the software thinks you're writing for, as determined by something called the Flesch, Coleman, and Bormuth scoring systems. I don't object to this addition (especially when an editor, but not the editor of Amazing,.. tells me to use simpler words so the audience that's at a tenth grade reading level can understand). What I do object to is that this requester, which I use often to check word count and which in the past came up in seconds, now takes about a minute to appear. This is not acceptable, and should be corrected as soon as possible. I would suggest a toggle that allows the user to choose whether or not all of the extra data is needed. Just in case you think the time delay is based on the slowness of my system, let me tell you that I'm running FW4 on an A2000 with an '040 board and forty megs of RAM. By the way, my writing usually lists out as "fairly difficult" and "college level". Is that bad?
An added attribute that I really enjoy in FW4 is the way that preferences are now addressed and set. In FW3, and also in most other competing software, there is one main preferences panel (not counting the separate ones for importing graphics). Now, there are preferences in many of the pull down menus: Project, View, Graphics, Tools, and User. Each of these is arranged so that specific areas can be set one at a time. Let's take the example of the Tools Preferences, since it contains the "Grammar" field mentioned above. Preferences folders are segmented into interactive folders which bring items to the foreground when the folder's name is clicked on. In the Tools Preferences are three folders, Speller, Hyphenation, and Grammar. Each allows you to customize these attributes The new to create the word processing world you feel most comfortable with. When I think of the Amiga, I think of personal customization, a different attitude than that evidenced by other platform communities that think more of homogeneity and sameness as the way to go. As evidenced by the new Preferences folders in FW4, this same obsession with personalization is enhanced. FW4 is part of the Amiga mentality in this regard.
I'm also a fan of the new bottom window border (which you may remove if you don't care for it). There are arrows to bring you instantly to the cursors position and to the top of a document. There's also a neat time/ date area just in case you forget how long you've been sitting there. This feature is really a part of the new interface customizing attitude evidenced by the software globally. Not only does FW4 allow you to decide what you want the software to do, but also how it looks when it does it. You can toggle and/or move just about every item on the interface, moving lists of buttons to the side or top of the screen, or toggling them off for a simpler approach. No more pull down menus for bold and italic settings either. They're addressable with visual buttons on-screen.
Most of the FW3 features have been left in tact, except for one of my favorites that I am lobbying to get put back in. I loved assigning fonts to the function keys, but in FW4 that's become a more convoluted process. Oh well, maybe in FW5. And that's the real story behind this article. When I say "FW5" I'm not speaking facetiously. I am about a certain as ice in Vermont in January that there will indeed be a FW5, because SoftWood has not only stood by the Amiga, it has continued to provide writer of every persuasion with what I consider the best, most intuitive word processor around today,.. bar none.
FinalWriter 4.0
$30.00 upgrade from FW3, $99.00 for new users
SoftWood, Inc.
PO Box 50178
Phoenix, AZ 85076
(602) 431-0949
(602) 431-8361 FAX
Captions to Figures-
Figure 1. Here is what you can expect in Final Writer 4's Preferences settings. Each Preferences module has a number of resident folders dedicated to your customization of the software.
Figure 2. If you're really into buttons and gadgets, you can make your FW4 interface look like the deck of the Enterprise.
Figure 3. The new arrangement of the Graphics Preferences settings is much faster than accessing them separately in FW3.
Figure 4. Dozens of icons can be integrated into the FW4 interface to make your work visibly interactive.
