info-mac@utcsrgv.UUCP (info-mac) (05/17/84)
Date: 15 May 84 15:11:35-EDT (Tue) From: Mark Hume: U. of Toronto <uw-beaver!mnh%toronto.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa>; To: info-mac@sumex-aim.arpa Cc: mnh%toronto.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa Subject: General comments on MacDraw, Microsoft Word etc. I have just used the Beta (or Alpha or whatever) test versions of MacDraw and Microsoft Word and have a few (biased) comments on them. MacDraw- Looks as good as Lisa Draw. Reduce and Reduce to Fit are great commands. Draw doesn't (yet?) accept MacPaint pictures from the clipboard. Why is there no undo command? There seems to be something called show scrap which appears to be the Clipboard, it should be called show clipboard. Microsoft Word- I really don't like the properties command as the way to change a font. This is a many step process as compared to the simple method in MacWrite. It seems they should keep font, size, and style commands under a main heading in the menu line. (Changing fonts with the properties command is a real pain!). It seems that this program needs the fat Macs (512K) because it runs out to disk just to pop down menus. It's also very slowwwww scrolling. An aside on MacWrite- I noticed that MacWrite allows you to resize the window you are working in but does not allow you to close it using the close box. Hmm, is Apple planning to have multiple Write windows. I also noticed that the Header and Footer windows are still open under the Write window when you are in show header (or footer). It seems that hide header (or footer) has two effects. It hides the header window, and it also hides (removes) the headers in the document. Aren't these really two seperate operations? An aside on MacPaint- I really wish MacPaint would scroll the window when you hit the edge. It fools you into thinking it is remembering text when you type past the edge (but no, it's not remembering it). This would also allow you to make squares and circles etc. larger than the window which would be nice. A general comment on file names: Why are there Mac filenames in the release and pre-release software that have a dot (period,extension) in them. Example: test.bas for a basic program. Clearly it is a basic program, the Icon tells us this (or if you are in the age of directory listings the type of the file is clearly displayed). Just call the file test! In fact, if you really want two words in the name, just use two words and have a blank, rather than a period separating them. --------------------