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1997-06-21
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7KB
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∙ ∙
∙ The PAGESTREAM 2.2 UPGRADE from SOFT LOGIC ∙
∙ ∙
∙ Reviewed by Dave Cowling ∙
∙ ∙
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In STEN #11, I reviewed Pagestream V2.1, and recommended it as a
step up to more serious DTP. If you followed my advice then and bought
v2.1, then you should by now have received the free upgrade to
version 2.2.
Before going onto the upgarde review, I'd like to apologise to Soft
Logic. I commented before about my preference for non-printable guide
lines, and their absence from Pagestream. Hands up all those who
spotted my deliberate mistake! They were always there, and could be
accessed in the normal way by clicking within the horizontal ruler
for vertical guide lines, and in the vertical ruler for horizontal
line. Removing them is simply a matter of clicking within the
corresponding ruler again, next to the line to be removed. Sorry about
that.
The upgrade arrived with impeccable timing. I had just started a
series of practical assignments for my City & Guilds Diploma in DTP at
college, and as the practicals are based on Aldus Pagemaker, and
Pagestream fits in very well with it. (And working with an ST, instead of
the college '386s, was a great relief.)
The upgrade apparantly includes, "Thousands of changes to improve
program stability and interface uniformity". Those are the words of the
authors and I for one will not bore you with "Thousands" of changes,
when I can bore you just as easily with a few.
Installation is simply a case of replacing the program and resource
files, together with a few other drivers, and then re-setting the
program parameters to your liking (these were previously contained in the
.RSC file which you have just replaced).
Loading is much the same as before, the only noticable difference
is the toolbox at the side. This has been completely re-designed, and
some tools have been combined, making room for other more important
tools. These are a magnifier and a view tool. The combined tools which
previously used different tools for horizontal/vertical/45 Deg and X/Y
lines now use the SHIFT key to differentiate: ie press SHIFT and the
line will be a true horizontal/vertical/45 Deg, otherwise the line
will be as drawn. This format of using SHIFT is also true when
drawing circles/ellipses and squares/rectangles - it also works with
the column tool to give a true square if you so desire.
A new tool in the toolbox is the magnifier, which acts as you
might expect. Click on the Icon and the pointer becomes a magnifying
glass, move to the section you want to alter and click and the
image magnification doubles. Press the SHIFT key and a + in the Icon
becomes a - and the image halves in size. In practice I have found
this function to be a very useful and versatile addition. I suspect that
many will use this option, rather than dropping down the menu to
complete the same task.
A massive bonus with Version 2.2 is the much faster screen
drawing. What was lethargic before is now very much quicker. Silly
little quirks like re-drawing twice when some alterations were made,
have been written out, giving the program a faster, slicker
appearance. To enhance speed even more, a draft button can be selected
that will select all text as faster-drawing bitmaps and, if this can't
be done with the selected text, a Helvetica font will be substituted
on screen only. This will not affect output to printer, it is just an
aid to much quicker progress when working with more complicated fonts
which do take a lot of processor memory.
Pagestream v2.2 is certainly much easier to use for putting text
onto the screen, than the earlier version. Justification previously only
worked in parts, but now all justification formats work, and indeed
work well, almost eliminating the need for a separate word processor.
I did say almost though, as for serious work a dedicated WP is far
simpler.
A series of short-cuts have been added to the program so that
when selecting a new document for instance, holding the SHIFT by-passes
the Options menu and selects the previously selected parameters. This
also happens when selecting columns, printing or duplicating, speeding
up the operation and making document production easier and quicker.
An option I had to utilise for the City & Guilds practical was
to produce an A6 document on an A4 sheet but showing Crop Marks, these
are the marking lines that show the guillotine operator where to cut. I
was interested to see which DTP packages were able to offer this, and
the only one I found was Pagestream. There are also registration
marks, which are used for colour printing and on Postscript Printers.
V2.2 not only adds Crop and Registration marks (you can see them in the
bottom corner of your Sunday paper supplement) but also a Slur Gauge
and Colour Strip.
There are a lot of miscellaneous improvements in version 2.2, but I
won't go into great detail about them, and hope that this brief listing
will illuminate without being tedious:
> Now stable on 1Mb machines
> More efficient screen redraws
> Fonts/Points dialogue box opens more quickly
> Text display speed does not now slow with more fonts
> Text runaround functions correctly
> Tile printing now works correctly
> Changing the point size of rotated objects retains rotational
parameters
> Super/Subscript text can now be underlined
I found the earlier version of Pagestream to be a pleasure to work
with, and the the new version (although holding many more features)
does not add any extra comlications. Learning the new features is not
difficult. I cannot fault Pagestream V2.2 and would definitely
recommend it to anyone who bought v2.1. The upgrade itself is free, and
well worth the ten minutes or so needed to install it. If you are
looking for a professional DTP program, then look no further, Pagestream
2.2 is the answer.
~~~~~eof~~~~~