rowley@ORVILLE.NAS.NASA.GOV (Karl Rowley) (06/07/88)
I got a demo of Timeworks Desktop Publisher ST this weekend. Page layout is done with four tools: a tool to create and manipulate text and image boxes, a tool to enter and modify the characters and character styles of text, a tool to do simple object-oriented drawing, and a tool to manipulate the justification and spacing of text. Switching from one tool to another seems to bring in a new overlay from disk. The user interface to the program is slick. There is on-line help. Text can be imported from a number of standard word processor formats, and graphics can be imported in formats including Easy Draw, Degas, .IMG, and Neochrome files. Images can be resized once they are imported, and images are not distorted by resizing them a number of times. Text flows between collumns and pages. Style sheets can easily be created, saved, and loaded. The program uses GDOS and comes with six fonts. A large number of output devices are supported, including Postscript printers, FX-80, 24-pin, Atari laser printer, and some other laser printers. The price at HT Electronics was $110 for this package. At this price, the package sets a new standard for desktop publishing on any computer. Karl Rowley rowley@orville.nas.nasa.gov ames!orville.nas!rowley "These are my own personal views."
jfadams@tc.fluke.COM (Jim Adams) (06/10/88)
One item I found to be its "fatal Flaw" was its printer driver(s). I don't
own an Epson, or any other parallel printer other than an HP LaserJetII. My
ST refuses to talk to the HP through anything other than the RS-232 port.
Timeworks DTP-ST evidently _assumes_ you are using the parallel port for your
printer. Using the Control Panel to reconfigure the printer port as the modem
port didn't help, so I'm assuming that the driver code writes directly to the
port circumventing the OS.
Nice program. Functionally equivalent to Ventura and GEM DTP for the IBMs.
Useless to me, however, unless someone has any ideas...
--
James F. Adams John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. Everett, Washington USA
WORLD:jfadams@tc.fluke.COM
UUCP:{ihnp4!uw-beaver,ucbvax!lbl-csam,allegra,decvax!microsoft}!fluke!jfadams
ARPA:fluke!jfadams@uw-beaver.ARPA GEnie:J.F.ADAMS CIS:74036,2517 cziud07@MVS.ULCC.AC.UK ("David Tilley, +44 1 405 8400, x500", 0) (02/13/89)
I've just read your query in Vol.88, issue 546 of Info-Atari16. Since I'm still catching up on later issues, my reply may have been overtaken by later contributions. Anyway, here goes: I have version 1.12 of Timeworks DTP. It CAN write Postscript files to disc and they come out nicely on both an Apple LaserWriter and on a Linotronic 300. However, it has the following bugs and 'features': * The positioning of left and right pages gets out of synchronisation when a new page is inserted. * Horizontal lines of the same requested line-type have inconsistent thicknesses (even when copied and pasted). * The appearance of the corners of round-cornered boxes is inconsistent with the adjacent straight lines. * It cannot import PC Paintbrush and Publisher's Paintbrush bit image graphics, encapsulated PostScript, or TIFF files. * I have seen no mention in the documentation on how an em-dash may be inserted in text mode. * A PostScript file containing bit-mapped graphics sometimes has a maximum record length in excess of 1,000 characters. * The manual in out of date and there's no README file. Perhaps I'm being fussy. It's an excellent program for just 75 pounds!
mark@lakesys.UUCP (Mark Storin) (02/13/89)
In article <9FDC700A1A9EE880@UK.AC.ULCC.MVS> cziud07@MVS.ULCC.AC.UK ("David Tilley, +44 1 405 8400, x500", 0) writes: > >* I have seen no mention in the documentation on how an em-dash may be inserted > in text mode. > Easy, type two dash's, move the cursor between the dash's and kern (ALT-K) them together. You will need to experiment to get the dash size you want. Sometimes it takes two or three ALT-K's to do the trick, depends on the font size. -- Mark A. Storin Lake Systems, Milw., WI mark@lakesys.lakesys.COM
neil@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Forsyth) (02/16/89)
In article <9FDC700A1A9EE880@UK.AC.ULCC.MVS> cziud07@MVS.ULCC.AC.UK ("David Tilley, +44 1 405 8400, x500", 0) writes: >I have version 1.12 of Timeworks DTP. It CAN write Postscript files to disc Now before everyone rushes out and buys this beauty:- BE WARNED! It will NOT write Postscript files to disk if it is run from a floppy. :-( Why? I dunno. Apparently they think that a floppy is too small to hold these files. If I visit a Postscript bureau am I supposed to drag along my ST and demand that it get a direct connection their laser printer? As usual 'Nice package but if only they had ...' _____________________________________________________________________________ / DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise stated, the above comments are entirely my own \ ! ! ! "I think all right thinking people in this country are sick and tired of ! ! being told that ordinary decent people are fed up in this country with ! ! being sick and tired. I'm certainly not and I'm sick and tired of being ! ! told that I am!" - Monty Python ! ! ! ! Neil Forsyth JANET: neil@uk.ac.hw.cs ! ! Dept. of Computer Science ARPA: neil@cs.hw.ac.uk ! ! Heriot-Watt University UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!neil ! ! Edinburgh ! ! Scotland ! \_____________________________________________________________________________/