atb@ncsu.UUCP (07/16/86)
junk
This is a question from a friend of mine (actually 2 questions):
I need a new word processing program. I have been using wordstar
for a couple of years now, on an AT. Needless to say, WS doesn't
treat directories kindly. This new wordprocessor must:
- do proportional spacing
- have the capability of printing and displaying several different fonts
- what you see is what you get format
- be able to print on a dot matrix or daisy wheel printer
- be able to access the directory structure of DOS
- be easy to use (my secretaries should be able to use it easily)
- do all of the other silly things wordstar does.
although i don't need a spelling checker, mailmerge, etc
secondly i was wondering if there are any programs similar
to Page Maker for the Macintosh. I have tried using Write
with Microsoft Windows, but it doesn't always print accurately.
Also the proportioning of the drawings are all wrong.
write prog
any recomendations or opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Kathy
:a.t. brown
atb@ncsu
decvax!mcnc!ncsu!atb (i think)sandersr@ecn-pc.UUCP (07/18/86)
In article <3092@ncsu.UUCP> atb@ncsu.UUCP (andy brown) writes: >This is a question from a friend of mine (actually 2 questions): > I need a new word processing program. > - do proportional spacing > - have the capability of printing and displaying several different fonts > - what you see is what you get format > - be able to print on a dot matrix or daisy wheel printer > - be able to access the directory structure of DOS > - be easy to use (my secretaries should be able to use it easily) > - do all of the other silly things wordstar does. > although i don't need a spelling checker, mailmerge, etc > -- Kathy Try Microsoft's WORD program. It does everything wordstar does, but does understand directories, allows DOS escapes, handles proportional spacing better (I think), and has drivers for almost any printer on the market. I have Wordstar, WS 2000, PFS Write/Spell/Report, and Wordperfect at my disposal. Of all of the programs, I like WORD best, because it will handle even the biggest jobs I need to do, and will also easily handle a quicky job. One of the unique attributes of WORD is that it can use style sheets, ie., descriptions of a paper's layout, that can be changed at anytime without recoding the papers themselves. WORD also has more (and better) display characteristics than wordstar; and it will use EGA, Herc, or mono if you have extended graphics cards of these types installed. It will attempt to display ALL character attributes given whateven hardware you have. A standard CGA output tends to smear a little bit when words are in italics, superscript or subscript. Even though I only use it via keyboard, WORD can be very mouse oriented as well, and has the famous Microsoft's command/window format. My major complaint is that sometimes the program is slow (no slower than wordstar!), and because of the "selection" philosophy, editing is slowed down just a bit. I am used to VI and EMACS; word is a little function-key bound for those actions that I choose not to pull up the command section (I love single key-stroke commands!). It also doesn't import regular text files well unless you are going to output a regular text file. I like importing text files to process them with the spelling checker and to justify the margins. Regular text files have newlines at the end of each line -- WORD uses them as paragraph separators, or as explicit line separators. I had to write a small utility that reads a file, detects where prargraphs start, and output sentences as a continuous stream (no newlines) until the ends of the paragraphs, piped into WORD. Check it out someplace; I think you will like it a lot. - bob -- Continuing Engineering Education Telecommunications Purdue University ...!ihnp4!pur-ee!pc-ecn!sandersr Let's make like a BSD process, and go FORK-OFF !! -- bob (and "make" a few children while we're at it ...)
aptr@ur-tut.UUCP (07/19/86)
In article <3092@ncsu.UUCP> atb@ncsu.UUCP (andy brown) writes: >junk > >This is a question from a friend of mine (actually 2 questions): > > I need a new word processing program. I have been using wordstar > for a couple of years now, on an AT. Needless to say, WS doesn't > treat directories kindly. This new wordprocessor must: >[...] > - have the capability of printing and displaying several different fonts >[...] I would strongly suggest looking into Word Perfect. It supports everything you mentioned except the above (ie. no different fonts displayed). Word Perfect 4.1 shows underline, overstrike, bold, etc. on the screen by making use of either the colors available or by using the built ins in the BW driver. In all cases, except for fonts, the screen shows a very close to what you see is what you get. I say very close because it does not try to display the characters in proportional space, but it still displays the right number of characters on a line. Word Perfect currently support over 200 different printers ranging from Daisy wheel to dot matrix to Laser Printer (even a Xerox 2700 !) with several fonts defined for each printer. You can even edit the definitions if you see fit. I have done this to make the spacing and performance on one of my printers work a little better. On most of the drivers atleast on of the fonts is a proportional space font. This is true even on Dot Matrix Printers. Word Perfect also supports the full IBM character set (all 256) and will print as many as it can on the printer. Some of the fonts will print some of the more common characters that are in the extended character set by combining characters (ie. O + / = phi, O + - = theta). Along with its support of all the characters comes simple line drawing routines (vertical and horizontal) that allow you to make boxes, etc... I used to use WS on a CP/m machine (I know CP/m is dead...) and then on a PC compatable until I bought Word Perfect a few months ago. Since then, I've converted completely. I have even gone as far as to convert many of my WS documents to WP documents with the utility that comes with it. WP improves over WS in that it is user freindly, faster, and does all of the fancy word proccessing features. Unlike WS it allows multiple line headers, and foot notes, and Left-on-even-right-on-odd Justification. Another nice feature is the automated backup which will backup your document for you every once in a while so that you don't have to worry about loosing too much. The only drawback to WP is that it takes multiple disks to run. It comes on five disks and requires 4 disks to run: one for help, one for dictionary, on for thesaurus (sp?), and one program disk. Fortunately you only have to put the dictionary, help and thesaurus in when you need them. WP is not copy protected and therefore easily moves to a hard disk which I recommend (now if some person would buy me one as a tax deduction...). The most important feature about WP does not come on a disk. It is not the excellent documentation or the user friendly program, but it is the customer support. I have made two calls to customer support about questions I had and they were very helpful and friendly. I will also mention helt I got through on their 800 number the first time I tried, and I did later find the answer in the manual. (one of these days I bother to look at a manual first) I should now appoligize for making this sound like an ad for Word Perfect 4.1, but I strongly recommend it because I have spent years (yes, years) trying to get WS with special printer programs to do what Word Perfect already does. -- The Wumpus UUCP: {seismo,allegra,decvax}!rochester!ur-tut!aptr BITNET: aptrccss@uorvm Disclaimer: "Who? When? Me? It was the Booze!" - M. Binkley