gibson@trwrba.UUCP (Gregory S. Gibson) (03/04/86)
I recently bought the word processor called "Paperback Writer 64" by Digital Solutions Inc. from Protecto Enterprize. I am very pleased. This program initial reminded me of the IBM PC Wordstar. It has an installation file, several help screens, and easy to remember commands. It can be booted up in 40 or 80 column mode. The installation file allows the user to define his printer ASCII codes for Text Enhancement including: underline, bold, superscript, subscript, italics pitch, line spacing, and a RS232 cable. This product advertises on screen text enhancement meaning: Underline appears as underline on the screen Italics appear as Italics on the screen Superscript characters are colored yellow (color can be changed) Subscript characters are colored green (color can be changed) Boldface characters are colored white. Text formating can be done done on a line by line bases including: margins, relative margins, justification, centering, pitch, header, footer, lines per inched, ascii printer codes, etc. This program will align numbers and add positive and negative numbers. The screen display is the same as the printed paper display while in 80 column mode. In 40 column mode, the text is displayed on two screens. The screens scroll to the right or to the left. The left screen displays columns 1 to 40, the right screen columns 41 to 80. This is much better than displaying 80 columns on 2 lines. I also like the commands: KEY FUNCTION _________________ ___________________ cursor right/left move cursor right/left control cursor right/left move to beginning/end of line insert/delete insert/delete 1 character control insert/delete insert/delete 1 line control r set range control c/m/d copy/move/delete range control u/b underline/bold face control +/- superscript/subscript etc. There are more commands that I did not list. I am very pleased with the Paperback Writer 64. {decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!trwrb!trwrba!gibson
wanttaja@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ronald J Wanttaja) (03/11/86)
> > I am very pleased with the Paperback Writer 64. > I agreed with every one of your comments about the program, but you left out one critical flaw: The blasted thing only holds 3 pages in memory! In the eighty-column mode, at least... in 40 column mode, it holds 6-7 pages. The big selling point for PW64, for me, is the eighty column mode coupled with the good user interface. Yet, THREE BLOODY PAGES is all you can work with at a time. Yes, the program can automatically link when you print, and yes, the block functions (move, copy, etc) work between files. But, for me, the hassle isn't worth it. I have an Army buddy who uses it extensively to write operations orders, and he swears by it. I bought PW64 for my wife, who was impressed by the user-friendliness (she's not into computing, but wants a word processor). When I'm writing something, I often refer back to earlier sections of the document. Once the text gets too long, I've either got to print out the earlier stuff, or save the section I'm working on and dump it in order to look back. Pfah! In the 40 column mode, PW64 is similar to SpeedScript: wordwrap, etc, but with easier interface than SpeedScript. But don't forget to change the right margin from 39 before printing, or it'll print out in 40 columns! You can work in the 40 column mode with the right margin set to 80, but I, personally, don't like word processors that scroll left to right. I mean, who wants to have to use the cursor controls to look at something on the same line? I'm sticking with SpeedScript. I've done 25+ page documents on it, with no out-of-memory problem. The only flaw that bothers me is the amount the program slows down when you try to work on the beginning of a long document, but this is alleviated by using the 255-space instant insert of SpeedScript 3.0, or the cntrl-E function. One additional note to C-128 owners: Run, do not walk, to your local dealer and buy Paperback Writer 128! PW128 gives 64 K to work with in 80 column mode, as opposed to 7K for PW64. Ron Wanttaja (ssc-vax!wanttaja) P.S. The issue of Compute! that contained SpeedScript 3.0 also had a SpeedScript file converter. This allows SpeedScript files to be read by Paperback Writer. Use the "SpeedScript to Commodore ASCII" option, load the altered program into PW, then do an ASC conversion (Cntrl-A). Works pretty good, except for stuff like centering.