Amiga Collections: MegaDisc/MegaDisc 04 (1988)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)[m][WB].zip/MegaDisc 04 (1988)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)[m][WB].adf/Articles/WPOverview

Text File | 2007-12-01 | 14KB | 273 lines

         WORD  PROCESSING  AND  TEXT  EDITING



 ****** Anyone who has got to know any WP or other program well and would
    like to submit a review would be welcomed - we're looking for
    reviews by people who have something to tell everyone else. So
    if you've found some good features of any package, please send
    them in (and get free Megadiscs and other good stuff!)



    The original main use of personal computers was Word Processing, and
 so it remains, in spite of the explosion of program genres of all kinds.
 WP itself has gone through a number  of rapid developments, from the first
 key-combination controls (as Wordstar for the IBM still is) to mouse- and
 menu-driven WPs such as are available for the Amiga. And word processing
 has moved on to Page Processing and Idea Processing - in other words,
 Desktop Publishing. All of these are fairly vague terms and they overlap
 a lot. They overlap so much in fact that you can now set up a seamless
 publishing system on your Amiga, as I'll describe.

     There are a number of WP packages available for the Amiga and the list
 is growing. The best known are Textcraft (provided with the Amiga)and
 Scribble!, but there are also Wordwright, E.T. Writer (which turns the
 Amiga into a full-featured electronic typewriter), Talker (which speaks
 as you type!), VizaWrite, Write  Hand, and a couple of others unavailable
 in Australia. Most of us have used Textcraft, and have formed opinions
 about it - it does the job with some unnecessary frills like flying
 pidgeons; it's simple to use with a built-in tutorial; and it doesn't use
 the multi-tasking abilities of the machine, or have resizeable windows.
 As they say, an "entry-level" WP package. I've seen a pre-release version
 of TextcraftII, and it's much improved, but still has a few glitches.
 Perhaps there will be a TextcraftIII. (Stop Press - there is a finished
 Textcraft Plus available now in your local computer store).


     The one I've used exclusively for some months is Scribble!2, (i.e.,
 it's the second edition) and it's a real word processor, with practically
 everything you'd need, and it uses the capabilities of the machine. So
 the windows are resizeable, up to four windows can be opened at once on
 screen, high resolution mode is possible with a full-screen page to
 allow you to see twice as much of your document and all the usual
 Intuition gadgets are used to good effect. There are Amiga-key commands
 available for most operations if you prefer not to use the mouse. And for
 partial converts from the IBM world, all the Wordstar keyboard commands
 are available - though I think that inevitably, such  people would
 inevitably move towards Amiga-style use in time. Scribble!2 works best
 under WorkBench1.2, which everyone should have been able to get
 by now (about $30 at your dealer for WorkBench, Kickstart and Extras, with
 a manual, and certainly worth getting) - you can enter information in
 requestors without clicking in them; all requestors accept the first
 letter of commands from the keyboard ( so C for Cancel will work); and
 for storing, getting or replacing a file you don't have to wait until
 the requestor is  fully loaded, you can interrupt at any time. There is
 a nice touch, where you can save a file as a   .DOC  extension, and
 select only those files to appear in the requestors, saving time and
 space. The other benefit of using 1.2  software is that you can use
 Interlace from Preferences. In spite of what you may hear, it is possible
 to get a flicker-free screen in hi-res, by  simply selecting the right
 combination of colours, and you get much more space available, whether
 you want to have one full-screen project running, or a combination of
 two or three simultaneous programs. I would recommend using this for
 your normal WorkBench/CLI screen for the same reasons.

     Along with these functions come a few useful extras: there is a
 Dictionary provided with the program to which you can add words - this may
 be necessary, since it's not huge. The best way to use it is to load it
 into RAM, for the  sake of speed, and check the spelling of your documents
 at will. The screen display is not WYSIWYG, but there is a Preview command
 which allows you to see the document as it will appear printed, before
 printing. There are also numerous menu selections for formatting your
 document on screen and for printing. The other good extra is a Mail-Merge
 facility, allowing you to set up form letters with variable names, etc. Not
 everyone will need this, and it takes a little study of the explanation
 (on disk), but a powerful facility it is, extending the range of the
 program.


     In short, I think Scribble!2 is a powerful, easy-to-use Word
 Processor, and has set something of a standard for the Amiga, with the
 result that other programs, such as PageSetter (see below), have been
 devised to accept output specifically from it. Another plus is that
 Brown-Wagh Publishing, who market it, also have available a spreadsheet
 called Analyse! and a database called Organise!, both of which use the
 same "look and feel" as Scribble!2, with easy transfer of data among the
 three.


 TEXTCRAFT

     Version 1 of Textcraft had quite good online help in the form of
  semi-animated tutorials, though the flapping pidgeons became a little
  irritating. These took you through most of the capabilities of the
  program, and the virtue of it was that you were very soon doing real
  word processing, a fact much appreciated by newcomers to computing. For
  simple WP requirements, Textcraft was quite sufficient, and I'm sure
  that there are many packages still being used.

     There are, however, a few drawbacks to the program, which will become
  serious limitations to anyone who wants serious word processing which
  uses the power of the Amiga. The first of these is access to external
  disk drives: this is almost impossible the way the requesters are set
  up, and requires you to load and save from the system disk. There are
  ways around this, but getting around it implies you know a good deal
  about the machine, which further implies that you've moved on to other
  word processors. Secondly, the multi-tasking abilities of the machine
  are not really used: only one Textcraft window can be opened, and there
  are no "depth arrangement" or "resizing" gadgets provided, so that you're
  essentially stuck with the window you've got (it is possible to use the
  RightAmiga-N and -M key combinations to switch to Workbench and back,
  however; and it is best to have opened some other program such as the
  Clock first, to allow access to the rest of the system). There are other
  limitations on the extent of the formatting of the text possible compared
  to other packages, and of course there are no exotic features like
  vertical block manipulation (as distinct from the usual horizontal block
  operations). None of the keys is programmed or programmable as macros
  (to allow a series of keystrokes or operations to be performed with a
  single keystroke), and in general, what you see is all you get.

     In short, considering the program comes free, it's good value. It's
  what you'd call an "entry level" word processor, and quite sufficient
  for simple needs - in fact, programs such as Wordperfect have so many
  features and capabilities, you start wondering if anyone has ever
  regularly used half of them. I have seen a "beta" version of "Textcraft
  Plus" which did have some bugs while solving others, and
  it is just about to be released in its final version (see next issue
  for a review).  In the meantime, however, I'd suggest looking at some
  of the alternatives.

     Distributor: Commodore Business Machines.








  WORD PERFECT FOR THE AMIGA

     For some years, WordPerfect has been a standard in the IBM world
  and is a very powerful text manipulator. Now WordPerfect Corp. has
  adapted the program for the Amiga, and by the look of the package,
  started to do so some time ago.

     The package comes on 4 disks, none of which is copy-protected: the
  WP program on a bootable disk; the spelling checker and thesaurus; the
  Print disk with a stack of printer drivers; and the Learning disk with
  copies of all the tutorial files referred to in the manual. The manual
  itself would account for a couple of felled redwoods, stretching to about
  600 pages in a ring binder and very attractively put together.

     Oddly enough, you can only have one copy of WP running at a time,
  unlike other Word Processors and Text Editors for the Amiga. However,
  if you have a lot of RAM, you can have up to 32 documents open at any
  time (only 2 on the IBM). It is a
  large program, and would be best installed on a Hard Disk, especially
  if you tend to use spelling checkers often. There is also a RAM-consuming
  feature which allows you to do "Timed Backups", ie, you can tell the
  program to save a copy of the document every x minutes. Likewise,
  backup files of documents in their pre-edited state are kept.

     The online HELP facilities are truly extensive, more so than any
  other program I've seen: press the Help key, followed by a function or
  cursor key and you'll get a screenful of information about it. Or Help
  followed by the first letter of the operation you want to perform will
  give you a screenful of explanations about all tasks starting with that
  letter. Not bad, considering how many functions are possible.

     The way these functions are accessed is necessarily schizoid - you
  can either go via the IBM-style key-combinations, or you can use the
  mouse-menu interface. With greater familiarity, you'll undoubtedly end
  up combining both methods, as each has its advantages. The nice thing
  is that with the Amiga you have that choice. There are so many control
  key combinations in this program that you'd have to be a full-time
  word processor to ever get to use them. Most people need a limited
  array of commands, and the more intuitive the better - less to remember.
  As a result, however, the program is deep, and a fully professional tool
  for the serious word-cruncher. To help the ailing memory, there are
  summaries and templates provided.

     Price for the package at this writing is $595, though I'm sure that
  will be discounted with time. At that price, it's a serious investment,
  and considering that there is a number of much cheaper alternatives,
  I wonder about the volume of sales that will occur. But for business
  applications which require very professional and intensive word
  processing, you won't get anything better than WordPerfect.

  Distribution: Sourceware
        Tel: [phone].
  RRP Price   : $595








 WORD PROCESSING/TEXT EDITING


 ZIRKONICS PROFESSIONAL TEXT ENGINE


     This is a heavyweight, high quality text editor, with a wealth of
  unobtrusive features, sufficient to make it a very passable word
  processor as well. The history of text editors versus word processors
  comes down to ASCII versus embedded codes. ASCII documents are most
  useful for transferring to other machines in various ways, since they
  will appear on another computer in a generally similar format. Most
  word processors tend to incorporate "embedded commands" in the text,
  which is fine when talking to your printer or integrated programs, but
  not much good when moving text to other machines, over the phone lines
  via modem, for example. Text editors are preferred by power users
  and programmers for this reason and because of the many specific
  features possible which allow for all kinds of manipulation.

     Zirkonics PTE is a powerhouse of features - it stops just short of
  making the coffee. It is a program which has stepped up a level beyond
  the usual text editor genre by making it possible to customise your
  environment completely. As an example, one of the "environments" or
  "definitions" is a full emulation of the entire IBM Wordstar Word
  Processor - ie, the definition (which can be modified as you like)
  programs the keyboard to behave just as if you're running Wordstar!
  This has been provided on disk by Zirkonics among about 8 different
  environments, including straight vanilla text editor, "manual" mode
  (ie, ideal for writing manuals) and so forth. Just as a butler is a
  "gentleman's gentleman" so PTE is a "tool's tool".

     The upshot of all this is that you are provided with a tool which
  can be any number of tools, and you can define the environment you
  want, by a series of DEF commands in a file, to do things exactly as
  you'd like. Any key can be defined as you wish for any definition, and
  you can have as many of these definitions as you like. I think most
  users would find themselves very well catered for in the definitions
  provided by Zirkonics on the disk, but it is totally open-ended. It
  has, for example, the ability to operate on vertical blocks, rather
  than just the usual horizontal blocks, meaning that you can cut, copy
  and paste any section of your display - every other text editor or
  word processor I've come across always does full horizontal "marking".
  Very useful for those who get into heavy text editing.

     The interface/appearance is clear and simple, with a window for
  text input and a command line below, for the many commands possible.
  A further line provides messages and help. There is extensive online
  help in the form of a 10-page summary which is nicely designed, and
  there is a number of files to explain specific aspects of the program,
  and to complement the manual. The program is not copy-protected, and
  comes on a single disk.

     One drawback I found with this program is its inability to open to
  a full Hi-Res screen (640 X 400) - however, there are many people who
  don't use the hi-res mode, and this will not be a problem for most.

     There's a lot more that could be said about this program, which is
  really a user-friendly meta-program. For anyone who does a lot of
  text editing, whether for programming purposes or Desktop Publishing or
  whatever, this package is definitely going to do it if it can be done.


     Price: about $170 - Enquiries to I. Vanderfield [phone], who
     is importing this and other hard-to-get software.

                               By Tim Strachan

            END OF WORDPROCESSING OVERVIEW