korn@pavepaws.berkeley.edu (Peter "Arrgh" Korn) (06/22/86)
Keywords:
I just got my greedy little fingers on a finished copy of MacAuthor,
and after two nights with it, thought I'd post a review!
*****Review*****
MacAuthor, from Icon Technology Limited, is, as they claim, "More than a word
processor". MacAuthor is a combination word processor, page layout program,
math text processor, book-processor.
First the features of the program:
1) Automatic word count (shown at the bottom left of the current window).
The word count is recalculated after every decent-length pause in keyboard
entry.
2) Page layout much like the first version of Ready-Set-Go (I haven't used
any of the later versions, so I'm not qualified to compare). You make a text
or graphic "frame" which is a unit all to itself, which can be moved about on
the page. This allows columns, text and graphics on the same line, etc.
3) Multiple super- and sub- scripting; also to the point of sub- and
super-scripts having super- and sub-scripts respectively.
4) Strike out text (text with a line through it) to show revision
information.
5) Multiple headers and footers. Also right/left page specific.
6) An about window that gives you almost a page of info about the current
document (the active document window); including things like total time wasted
on this document; number of times edited; #pages, words, lines, and characters;
# words typed this and last session; start date/time of this and last session;
and the time spent this and last session.
7) The program is a TRUE WYSIWYG editor; more so then MacWrite! If you
specify left and right margins (especially the left one), you will see white
space on the left. If you specify a 1/2 inch top margin, that's what you'll
see on the top of every page. You'll also see the headers and footers (of
course).
8) You can to kerning.
9) Multiple documents can be open at once (up to four).
10) You can create your own specialized characters by using an
option-backspace combination (type-over, basically).
11) Multiple document styles available (comes with 5: memo, letter, article,
script, blank). I haven't figure out (yet) how to add my own.
12) Paragraph "scripts", where you define a "type" of paragraph (such as a
quote), which you can then invoke whenever you want. Each type of paragraph
that you define goes into the Paragraph menu, from which you can invoke them.
You can also assign command-key combinations to these paragraph scripts from
within the program (though there are a limited number of command-key combos
available). This paragraph setup defines the left and right margins, the tab
settings (of which there are many sorts), justification, and the font.
Which brings me to the next section, the not so nice "features":
1) You cannot change font from within a paragraph.
2) You cannot to footnotes a la MS-Word (must do them by hand).
3) All paragraphs below the one you are currently editing disappear from the
screen, and only re-appear during the above-mentioned pause, during which the
words are recounted. This one is a biggie! If I am just quickly adding
something to the middle of a document, I don't want to HAVE to wait 3-8 seconds
after I finish typing in that one sentence before I can go back to a portion of
the document farther on. Turning off "automatic repagination" doesn't seem to
change this.
4) I get the impression that one can do with headings what MacAuthor allows
you to do with Paragraphs; ie.: set up "heading scripts". I don't know for sure
b/c I refuse to look it up in the manual (you should *never* need a manual with
a non-database macintosh program), and I can't figure out how to invoke it (if
it does indeed exist).
5) The mac-like interface isn't as mac-like as it could be. For instance, I
should have an I-beam whenever I'm over the text of the document; there is no
"about MacAuthor" option under the Apple menu, only an "about <current document
name here>" entry (nice idea, but have both, and not just the latter); placing
the margins and tabs on the ruler isn't done by draging, but rather by clicking
on the desired thing {left margin, right margin, tab}, and then clicking next
the ruler where you want said item to be--after this though, you can drag the
icon around along the ruler to change the position, or drag it off to remove
it); many of the "dialog" boxes are actually windows w/out scroll bars (c'mon
folks, for dialog use a dialog box); etc. etc.
6) Because of all the many things that it's doing (keeping track of the page
length, number of words, etc. etc.), editing is just a tad slow. Being a fairly
fast typist, I will make a correction, and type away, only to find that
MacAuthor must first re-draw the (heretofore hidden) paragraph(s) below the one
I'm working on before it will aknowledge that I've typed in other information.
This also happens when I've finished a paragraph in the middle of my document,
and go to scroll. Nope, MacAuthor must first re-draw the paragraph(s) below
the one I just completed.
And, of course, the bugs:
I found the program to be pretty bullet-proof--it didn't ever crash on me.
However, there are a number of things that need to be changed to the extent
that I feel they should be called bugs (undocumented features...).
1) MacAuthor doesn't believe that the system disk can be write-protected. It
gave me the wierdest errors...
2) MacAuthor blithely assumes that you'll always want to print; and
therefore doesn't allow itself to be run unless the system disk contains a
"printing resource".
3) MacAuthor is copy protected. Version 5.2 of CopyIIMac (the latest,
as of this review) won't copy it.
Sumary:
The program is pretty well thought out and consistent. Furthermore, it's the
ONLY word-processor on the market (to my knowledge) that allows super-super-sub-
-scripts (and variations on that theme), and the only one that allows style
sheets.
MacAuthor is the only WYSIWYG word processor out there (MacWrite is pretty darn
close though), for those that go for that sort of thing. Personally I find
that even a 68K at 7.xx Megahertz just isn't enough for a true WYSIWYG
editor--it just takes too much time to do all the stuff that needs to be done.
However, it is in need of a version 1.1 to correct a few fairly minor things.
A version 2.0 with a spelling checker, theasaraus, and other such frills
(grammer checking, word analysis, etc.) would be most appreciated. I'd also
like to see MacAuthor read MacWrite, MS-Word, and ThinkTank files. Finally,
they need to re-write the code that updates the paragraphs below the current
one (along with an option to NOT have that feature)--as it stands now, it's far
too slow for my tastes.
But, if you need style sheets, sub-sub-super-scripts, the ability to create
your own characters w/out having to use a font-editor, and kerning, then this
is the program to get.
-----
Peter Korn "Fred Astair? Ginger Rogers did
korn@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU everything he did, backwards
{dual,decvax,sdcsvax}!ucbvax!korn and in high heels!"sakw@cvaxa.UUCP (06/24/86)
> review of MacA in <694@ucbcad.BERKELEY.EDU> ..... > 1) You cannot change font from within a paragraph. yes you can - using the "Style Editor" you can attach any font to the "text" menu and (optionally) bind a command key to it. You only need to this once, and save the doc as a "stationery pad" for future use. > However, it is in need of a version 1.1 to correct a few fairly minor things. I have received a copy of version 1.1 of MacAuthor, and some people here have been using it to produce the AISB Quarterly (newsletter of the Soc. for Study of AI and Simulation of Behaviour), so it's got a good workout. I posted some comments about MacA to Mactel, a UK BBS, (edited version given below for brevity), and the author's reply is also given below. A version 1.2 will be available free to existing owners. -------- My comments: First the good news: MacAuthor v1.1 arrived yesterday, and just in time too. .... 1.1 seems much more stable than 1.0 - it hasn't crashed all day! Now for the bad news. There are some flaws that are slowing us down quite badly. We are probably using MacA the wrong way - maybe what we really need is PageMaker, but I feel MacA should be able to handle this. What we are doing is assembling a series of articles that have been submitted to us by e-mail into a newsletter whose layout is very simple: two columns + a footer. Problem 1: how to retain the 2 column layout? [Sak: details omitted] Problem 2: it won't let you put a right-justified tab on the rh margin. So we can't match the footers on the existing layout which has the issue no on the left and the page no on the right. Problem 3: when reading in a text file & you select the "Return is line break" option, and you are reading into a para that has both margins justified, MacA will spread out the last line of each para that you read in. [details omitted] Problem 4: If you read in a text file that has TABs in it, MacA goes bananas. Problem 5: Saving a page layout format is not as simple as it may appear. [Details omitted] Problem 6: It needs to be able to read in a file at the current insertion point. What you now have to do is open the text file you want using any stationery format, select the text, cut it, go back to the doc you were working on and paste it in. Even this would be acceptable if... Problem 7: it didn't run out of memory so quickly. On a 512K Mac, it started running out of memory around 4000 words (wouldn't let me open any more docs without closing the one I was working on). This is about 7 pages, 2 col single spaced text - if I remember rightly, this was the limitation of MacW on a 128K Mac when it first came out. Problem 8: The screen isn't refreshed correctly after a global replace operation. We can live with this, since in v1.0 a global replacement resulted in the program's looping. Problem 9: "Goto Page No" doesn't work Problem 10: Could do with a "Start New column" analogous to "Start New Page" to deal with multi-column layouts. Having said all this, the end product looks really good. Sak --------- Keith's reply (unedited): Message #: 834 Submitted: 05/28/86 15:39 Submitted by: KEITH LANDER Subject: MacAuthor V1.1 - response to Sak Wathanasin (long) Dear Sak, I'm glad that 1.1 is working better than 1.0. I'll try and respond to the "bad" news as best I can and, hopefully, turn it into not such bad news after all. As an aside, might I suggest that you post this sort of info in to MacAuthor files area: that way I won't have to wait for MacTel to scroll through the news file. 1. In fact you are already using MA in a PageMaker fashion because you are loading text in from an existing document. One way you could make life a little easier would be to load just enough text to make sure the first two cols are created, reposition the right hand col, then load the rest of the text. MA will copy the frame positions from the first complete page on subsequent pages: this is fine if you are typing a doco from scratch. 2. You are right about the RJ tab: a workaraound for headers and footers is to move the right margin a bit to the right to allow the tab to be placed in the correct place. Alternatively you could consider using a couple of frames. 3. I think the problem here has to do with the structure of your text file. If y ou choose the "return is line break" option, then MA will ignore all single inst ances of CR and expect to find a double CR to terminate a para. The fact that your doco ends up with the last line of each para fully justified means that no double CR was found and hence end of para wasn't recognized. Where did you get the text file from? 4. We haven't had any instances of this problem, and have quite successfully loaded quite complex spreadsheets from Excel etc without bother. Can you send me a copy of the text file and stationery pad so that I can investigate. 5. We always intended that text in a document would be saved as part of a stationery pad : this is useful if you want preprinted stationery such as headed note paper, memo paper etc. There is no difference between Save all and Save as stationery at the time of saving: the point of stationery is that it automatically makes a clone of the stationery document whan you invoke New. Admittedly you do have to go around the houses a bit if you just want to save the styles without the text. I accept that point and shall do something about it in a future upgrade. 6. You can merge text files. If you read a text file into a stationery pad the text is read in at the insertion point that was in force at the time the stationery pad was last saved. 7. I think you must have had a problem (maybe your old stationery pad had damage created by the save bug in 1.0). The other day I loaded a 65 page document into a 325K switcher partition, saved it as text, read it back in as a text file and reformatted it. The document contained 22000 words! 8. You'll have to clarify the problem here. I am unaware of any refresh problem after a global replace. 9. Goto page does work. I just tried it on the above mentioned document. In fact, Dr. Ken Browning ofGlasgow University prepares lecture slides using MA, and does Goto page to step through them during the lecture. Have you realised that Goto page uses the same numbering scheme as the Print command, and not that set up by the Make Title Page command? 10. OK. We might be able to do that in the next version. I hope that this helps. As you say, the end result is worth it I think. If you use the scrapbook for saving text from MA, MAcWrite, PageMaker or whatever, beware of a bug in the scrapbook manager. You may have noticed some obscure four letter codes at the bottom right of each scrapbook page. For MAcWrite text this will be MWRT,TEXT and for MA it will be MATX,TEXT. These are the resource types defining the entry (one is the formatting info, the other is the ASCII text). If you delete such a page the scrapbook only throws away the text resource. You can then get into a situation where the remaining formatting resource beomes attached to the wrong text resource with bizarre results. Appleare aware of the problem and are supposed to be correcting it. Chers Keith ------------- I sent some further comments complaining (among other things) about the slow speed of redisplay, and included comments from Mike Sharples, the editor of the AISB Q. This is part of the reply (sorry for the editing, but this is getting very long). -------------------------- From: KEITH LANDER Subject: Re your gripes [Sak: preamble deleted]... I agree that MA is not ideal for the job at the moment either, because (a) it is slow at handling simple highlight commands and (b) it clears the screen below the insertion point whenever you insert/delete text (although you can minimize the effect of this by working from the end of the text forwards). As Mike Sharples points out, MA is better at dealing with text typed directly (which is what it was designed for). That said, you will be pleased (I hope) to learn that I am speeding the thing up in precisely the two areas just mentionedn Tie`improvements will be incorporated into v1.2 due to be released as a (free) upgrade at the end of June. .... -- Sak Wathanasin, U of Sussex, Cognitive Studies, Falmer, Sussex BN1 9QN, UK uucp: ...mcvax!ukc!cvaxa!sakw arpa: sakw%cvaxa.sussex.ac.uk@ucl.cs.ac.uk janet: sakw@uk.ac.sussex.cvaxa
augustss@chalmers.UUCP (Lennart Augustsson) (06/26/86)
Some more points and comments on MacAuthor: In article <694@ucbcad.BERKELEY.EDU> korn@pavepaws.UUCP (Peter "Arrgh" Korn) writes: > 1) You cannot change font from within a paragraph. You can change font by defining your own "highlight" style (under the Text menu), and you can give this command a command character so you don't have to pull down a menu to change the font as you have to in MacWrite. > 3) All paragraphs below the one you are currently editing disappear from the >screen, and only re-appear during the above-mentioned pause, during which the >words are recounted. This one is a biggie! Agreed!! This is really annoying. > 4) I get the impression that one can do with headings what MacAuthor allows >you to do with Paragraphs; ie.: set up "heading scripts". I don't know for sure >b/c I refuse to look it up in the manual (you should *never* need a manual with >a non-database macintosh program), and I can't figure out how to invoke it (if >it does indeed exist). You can. > 5) The mac-like interface isn't as mac-like as it could be. For instance, I >should have an I-beam whenever I'm over the text of the document; there is no >"about MacAuthor" option under the Apple menu, ... There is an About MacAuthor when there are no windows, but it doesn't give much information. > > 6) Because of all the many things that it's doing (keeping track of the page >length, number of words, etc. etc.), editing is just a tad slow. Sometimes, e.g. when moving the cursor, MacAuthor is unbelievably slow. > >And, of course, the bugs: > > 3) MacAuthor is copy protected. Version 5.2 of CopyIIMac (the latest, >as of this review) won't copy it. But not unbreakable. Further bugs.. The watch cursor is sometimes lost and replaced by some random pattern (probably due to some handle dereferencing). Summary: Of the wordprocessors/layout systems I have tested on the Mac (MacWrite, Word, PageMaker, and MacPublisher) I like MacAuthor the best. The low speed is its biggest drawback. -- Any resemblance of the opinions above to real opinions, living or dead, is purely coincidential. Lennart Augustsson UUCP: {seismo,philabs,decvax}!mcvax!enea!chalmers!augustss ARPA,CSnet: augustss@chalmers.csnet