pjd@cwruecmp.UUCP (dr. funk) (02/02/86)
Product: Regent Word 1 Developer: Regent Software, 7131 Owensmouth, Suite 45, Canoga Park, CA 91303 Machine: 520ST Price: $49.95 (already discounted to $35) Regent Word 1 is a word processing program which is similar to STwriter or the 8-bit AtariWriter. It retains much of the flavor and features of these older programs (e.g., new line at column 80 when typing, control characters to set parameters, etc.) Word 1 uses the ST as an 80 column terminal -- don't expect fancy windows. It has a preview mode to view a file without printing, but does NOT change font, use bold face, etc. (Phooey!) Current printers supported are Epson and Juki. (There don't appear to be the separate printer drivers as in AtariWriter.) There are some good features available. All the function keys are used and are bound to some of the more frequently used operations. The help key will bring up the help menu pages (five in all.) Unfortunately, Regent expects users to flip through the help pages in place of good substantial paper documentation. (I am definitely NOT pleased with this situation. If you go to a menu display for help, it will of course disappear when returning to the text display! Printed documentation doesn't have this problem.) There is a word count command which should make students and piecework writers. Special effects are easier to invoke such as bold face, underlining, elongated text, font type, font pitch (Juki), etc. A limited communication feature is included to send and receive files. (Transfers are pure ASCII without any protocol such as XMODEM.) All in all, Regent Word 1 isn't bad, but is short on flash. About 200K bytes are available at startup (I throw all those ^%$%#@#$ accessories out by the way) so it can handle some pretty big documents. AtariWriter (STWriter) users will feel comfortable with this product, but beware! The key commands are NOT the same. Overall, Regent Word 1 is servicable and should tide us over until "the real thing" comes along for the ST. Also, a companion spelling checker is available for $49.95 (discounted to $35), but I did not pick it up for testing. -- paul drongowski decvax!cwruecmp!pjd case western reserve university pjd%Case@CSNet-relay