ruslan@uncecs.edu (Robin C. LaPasha) (08/19/90)
A couple of months ago I posted a review of ProWrite 3.01. Well, I just
got a software update from New Horizons today, which addresses some of
the bugs and lacks I'd mentioned. For current owners of ProWrite (3.0
or) 3.01, you have two options:
- a _bug_fix_ to 3.02 if you send back your original disks; or
- an _upgrade_ to 3.1 if you send back another $10 with your disks.
(Yes, you make yourself a backup copy before you send them back. I
insured them in the mail on the way back too, but I'm paranoid...)
Some of the new toys in 3.1 were described in magazines covering the
Chicago AmiExpo, but some of them are quite subtle (and darned useful, I
must say) and not mentioned yet. So, I'll give a rundown on both the
(alleged, I haven't had an opportunity to check yet) fixes in 3.02, and
the new critters that I thought were interesting in 3.1.
Fixes for 3.02. Randy Brooks claims they've fixed the "mysterious
disappearing text" bug, and the other cut-and-paste problems. (Says it
took quite a while to get reproducible bug sequences on some of those.)
The problems I'd mentioned with columns and margins before were... well,
just some of my own newness to the program, and not bugs. (Hint: Well-
behaved easy-to-manage columns for newbies often start with no left
margins, and work with the "binding margin" and that "gap between"
column functions instead.) Non-fixes: They still haven't fixed the "red
dot effect" bug. It doesn't print, it doesn't screw up your files, but
it looks weird above your letters on the screen sometimes. They think
that it has something to do with using three bitplanes for display.
(Last I'd heard, they hadn't found the "print cancel" bug yet; they
haven't been to reproduce it. It hasn't happened to me - knock knock.)
Apparently ProWrite 3.1 fixes some problems with headers and footers in
ProScript; it isn't clear what the problems were or whether 3.02 has the
fixes too.
On to the new things in 3.1:
1. File loading:
Yet More Better-Faster File Requesters. Me, I'm not a file
requester nut, but I do like the new listings. The directories
("drawers") are in the listings, in italics. (Must be one of those new-
look things; AmigaVision does the same thing.) You can get a list of
mounted disks and such, you can click on a filename to save it (over
itself again; it asks you whether you're 'sure'.) And now there's a
"show all files" button right at the bottom of the requester, as well as
in the Options requester.
Loading of Mac and PC text files. This is useful to me just
now; I'm editing some PC files that have all those dratted control-Ms
(i.e. carriage returns) in them. And a prof I'm working with does his
files on the Mac... Note that this won't SAVE files in the other
formats, but it'll load them without those weird symbols on every line.
(For those who want to squirt the files back OUT into those other
formats, I can suggest checking the file strippers on Fish 237, in the
Ctype directory.)
2. Speakies: ProWrite 3.1 can "speak" texts now, so it might be
useful for handicapped folks. Either direct from the ASCII (English)
text, or with phoneme-based "text". Before somebody asks - it doesn't
look like you can embed phonetic "hints" into an otherwise ASCII text,
or have it speak in non-English ASCII text. (While I'm onto this topic -
can somebody PLEASE check to see if there's some new phonemes for 2.0?
I don't know how they'd be spelled, and you'd have to go trying them out
rather than just "listening" for them in a text, but I'm looking for the
French rounded vowels in particular.)
3. Fonts: There's a new "hot font" menu. Stick your favorite
dozen and a half font onto an easy-grab submenu, or call up the
requester for other fonts. (Lotsa other fonts if you want - allegedly
32,000.) Well, I use about four fonts in two point sizes daily, so this
is great. (Each point size of a font is listed separately on the hot
menu.)
4. ARexx: Lotsa new ARexx commands and features, for the only
word processor (not text editor or DTP) with ARexx, including -
DocName - returns the current document name in "result"
a bazillion new print options
Speak and SpeakNow - to start up speaking, with or without a
requester
Find 'mytext' - bypasses the Find requester (since it has an
argument.) SetFind sets the matching options for Find.
Ports (plural) - each instance of ProWrite now gets a
different port name (and ProgName returns the name of the program to
"result".) Yay!
Okay, wanna know why that's cool, eh? Well, _I_ like to fire up another
ProWrite process so I can edit some file while the first process is tied
up printing. Before these guys had separate port names, only the FIRST
process could access the ARexx-based macros. Now they can ALL get back
to talk to ARexx.
Macros - besides their accessibility in all ProWrite instances
(as above,) you can now bring up a requester for your own "named" macros
with a Right-Amiga + M. (I _had_ thought it was kinda odd to call up
macros from a menu...)
5. Measurement units: for the rest of the world, you can now see
centimeters instead of inches in "Page Setup" and "Layout" as well as in
the Ruler (which still handles units separately.)
6. Saner speller: If you select text, then call up the spell
"check" or "look up" subitems, it doesn't stop and ask you for the word
(or wait for you to click on a button) any more. The thesaurus just
grabs the word at (or just next to) the insertion point and goes,
whether you selected it or not. (And it can find other words when you
look up "thesaurus," wow! ;^))
7. 2.0 things: New screen options "Productivity" and
"SuperHiRes," faster screen refresh routines and picture resizing (now
via 2.0 system calls,) WorkBench 2.0 doohickeys ApIcon and ApMenu. I
guess it figures out what system's around and what it can do, since I'm
running happily under 1.3.2 on a 1000.
They don't have a firm ship date on ProScript 2.0, an update to "their"
product that turns ProWrite files into PostScript. Basically, it's by
some other guy, they just package the product and they're waiting on him
for the new version. Understandably, they don't exactly relish the idea
of "becoming" PS jocks just so they can re-do the software themselves.
I hope that helps. I'll holler if I find more, either features or bugs.
Robin LaPasha
--
Robin LaPasha |Keeper of the Amiga
ruslan@ecsvax.uncecs.edu |Hypermedia Mailing ListJKT100@psuvm.psu.edu (JKT) (08/19/90)
In article <1990Aug19.020004.10341@uncecs.edu>, ruslan@uncecs.edu (Robin C. LaPasha) says: > >For current owners of ProWrite (3.0 or) 3.01, you have two options: > - a _bug_fix_ to 3.02 if you send back your original disks; or > - an _upgrade_ to 3.1 if you send back another $10 with your disks. > Two things about this bother me: 1) I should have been notified by New Horizons that there was an upgrade available. 2) I've only owned ProWrite for just over a month, and now I get to pay another $10 for the current product? Amnesty for new buyers would have been nice. >Non-fixes: They still haven't fixed the "red dot effect" >bug. It doesn't print, it doesn't screw up your files, but it >looks weird above your letters on the screen sometimes. They think >that it has something to do with using three bitplanes for display. >(Last I'd heard, they hadn't found the "print cancel" bug yet; they >haven't been to reproduce it. It hasn't happened to me - knock knock.) The red-dot effect doesn't bother me except it looks unprofessional when I'm trying to show the program off. The "print cancel" bug has nailed me more times than I care to mention though. I have learned my painful lesson to save before hitting Print, because about one third of the time, I don't get back. :-( If anyone from New Horizons is reading this, I have an A2000HD/1, am using version 3.0.1 of ProWrite, use the EpsonXOld printer driver, and page setup is set to normal with density of 3. Kurt -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- || Kurt Tappe (215) 363-9485 || Amigas, Macs, IBM's, C-64's, NeXTs, || || 184 W. Valley Hill Rd. || Apple ]['s.... I use 'em all. || || Malvern, PA 19355-2214 || (and in that order too! ;-) || || jkt100@psuvm.psu.edu --------------------------------------|| || jkt100@psuvm.bitnet jkt100%psuvm.bitnet@psuvax1 QLink: KurtTappe || -----------------------------------------------------------------------