gefrank@sdrc.UUCP (Frank Glandorf) (10/01/90)
Does anyone know if there is an update to version 1.3 of the word processor software called "Pen Pal"? Is it worth getting? I bought this thing on the basis of a dealer demo and after using it for a few weeks I am rather dissatisfied. Some reasons for this include: 1. Has own preferences (why?!) 2. Has own pointer. The drop shadow makes it hard to tell where the select point is. This is why I have a very simple pointer. 3. The margin gadgets are difficult to pick. They are continuously variable with no provision to type in or snap to integer values. 4. Unable to select draft/final at print time. 5. Does not work well with Dmouse. A document window must be selected while picking from the graphics menu. Even though this is menu is continuously visible and global over all documents. 6. It uses large amounts of memory. It seems to take everything available to run. About 1.8 megabytes on my system. The executable is 350k bytes. It seems only one HAM iff picture may be imported due to memory requirements. 7. Unable to import another document or text file into a document. One may create a document from a text file however a long line causes Pen Pal to hang. I was importing from old TextCraft files so I was unable to convert these documents to Pen Pal. 8. Unable to type in the file name of a document to edit. Must pick it from a menu. 9. The adjust graphics gadget is on the document directory menu? It makes sense to me :-) 10. The busy/wait pointer is too gimmicky: flashing lights, a psuedo clock and a gage. 11. There is a bug which blanks the screen and hangs. 12. There is a bug when attempting to view a second document. It causes a requester: software error, retry/cancel. This could be a good software package. It's a WYSIWYG word processor with some list management facilities, line graphics, iff and text file imports and spell checking. Oh, well, cavaet emptor. If you are looking at this package look carefully. -Frank
monty@sagpd1.UUCP (Monty Saine) (10/09/90)
In article <131@sdrc.UUCP> gefrank@sdrc.UUCP (Frank Glandorf) writes: > >Does anyone know if there is an update to version 1.3 of the >word processor software called "Pen Pal"? Is it worth getting? I >bought this thing on the basis of a dealer demo and after using >it for a few weeks I am rather dissatisfied. Some reasons for >this include: > > deleted faults 1-12 and.... 13. Duplicates first label as last label when printing from a database. Monty Saine