rstepno@eagle.wesleyan.edu (10/23/89)
I'm looking for a plain-text editor for newspaper reporters to use
on dual-floppy Mac SEs. Any suggestions? We have some seriously
computer-phobic reporters, and a seriously limited budget.
The formatting is done with Quark, but I'd like to create a text
database of previously-published stories (hence the interest in
ASCII files).
Second possibility: If we go with Microsoft Write, is there a utility
program around that will take a folder full of Write documents and
strip them down to ASCII? (Or is Write's file format available so that we can
write our own filter?)
For now, we have some folks using Teach Text (!), some on Write, and a
couple of us experimenting with MEdit. Qued sounds interesting, but I'm
afraid that it will look too techie for a couple of our people.
Bob B-)=
--==THIS is a job for a mild-mannered reporter==--tdrinkar@cosmos.acs.calpoly.edu (Terrell Drinkard) (10/23/89)
In article <2385@eagle.wesleyan.edu> rstepno@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes: >I'm looking for a plain-text editor for newspaper reporters to use >on dual-floppy Mac SEs. Any suggestions? We have some seriously >computer-phobic reporters, and a seriously limited budget. >The formatting is done with Quark, but I'd like to create a text >database of previously-published stories (hence the interest in >ASCII files). >Second possibility: If we go with Microsoft Write, is there a utility >program around that will take a folder full of Write documents and >strip them down to ASCII? (Or is Write's file format available so that we can >write our own filter?) >For now, we have some folks using Teach Text (!), some on Write, and a >couple of us experimenting with MEdit. Qued sounds interesting, but I'm >afraid that it will look too techie for a couple of our people. Bob, have you considered getting an old version of MacWrite and have it save files in text only format? The neat solution would seem to be replacing your paranoid reporters with some who aren't terrified of computers. 8-) But then, I read the papers, so I have some idea of what you are up against... Terry Disclaimer et la Signaturo: Hell no, I'm not responsible for what I say! If everyone were responsible for what they said, we'd have had a balanced budget in 1984.
alh@pyrnova (Alan Holzman) (10/24/89)
In article <2385@eagle.wesleyan.edu> you write: >I'm looking for a plain-text editor for newspaper reporters to use >on dual-floppy Mac SEs. Any suggestions? There is a DA called Vantage (formerly McSink when it was shareware) that is now a well-supported, commercial product. It is very easy to use, powerful (spell-checker, open multiple document windows, add / strip control chars. etc.) and always available as it is a DA. It works only in ascii/text format but can open not only text format files, but MS-Word, Write, WriteNow & MacWrite and then save as text. >We have some computer-phobic reporters, and a seriously limited budget. >The formatting is done with Quark, but I'd like to create a text >database of previously-published stories (hence the interest in >ASCII files). >Second possibility: If we go with Microsoft Write, is there a utility >program around that will take a folder full of Write documents and >strip them down to ASCII? (Or is Write's file format available so that we can >write our own filter?) Compared to Vantage (or any good, DA text-processor like Mockwrite, mini-writer etc.) Write is alot harder to use and definitely NOT very convenient if you desire text format. Vantage can probably even open your Write and TeachText docs. and save them as plain text. >For now, we have some folks using Teach Text (!), some on Write, and a >couple of us experimenting with MEdit. Qued sounds interesting, but I'm >afraid that it will look too techie for a couple of our people. >Bob B-)= > --==THIS is a job for a mild-mannered reporter==-- ... definitely consider a DA text processor for both ease of use for your "computer-phobic" reporters and the small size & power of a DA on a 2 floppy SE. Regards & good luck; - Al Holzman -- Al Holzman | alh@pyrnova.pyramid.com Pyramid Technology Corp. | (415) 965-7200 x-3380. Mt. View, CA. 94043 | FAX (415) 967-4344
rstepno@eagle.wesleyan.edu (10/25/89)
In article <1989Oct23.081251.21268@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>, tdrinkar@cosmos.acs.calpoly.edu (Terrell Drinkard) writes: > In article <2385@eagle.wesleyan.edu> rstepno@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes: >>I'm looking for a plain-text editor for newspaper reporters to use >>on dual-floppy Mac SEs... > Bob, have you considered getting an old version of MacWrite and > have it save files in text only format? We've considered MacWrite and MS Write, but as far as I know there's no way to set them up to always save files as ASCII text for a computer-searchable archive of published articles. (The alternative here seems to be a file conversion program to translate any files accidentally saved in WRITE or whatever format to ASCII. Any of those around?) Two things I should have mentioned the last time: 1) We'd like to be able to have at least a couple of files open at a time (notes, outline, article, memo, letter to Mom...) 2) Our dual-floppy SEs are PhoneNETted together. The network software, printer drivers, InterMail and DISKTOP eat up a lot of system disspace. Thanks for all the responses to my last posting. They'll really help us make a decision! Bob B-)= ---===This is a job for Software!===---
tdrinkar@cosmos.acs.calpoly.edu (Terrell Drinkard) (10/26/89)
In article <2713@eagle.wesleyan.edu> rstepno@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes: >In article <1989Oct23.081251.21268@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>, tdrinkar@cosmos.acs.calpoly.edu (Terrell Drinkard) writes: >> In article <2385@eagle.wesleyan.edu> rstepno@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes: >>>I'm looking for a plain-text editor for newspaper reporters to use >>>on dual-floppy Mac SEs... >> Bob, have you considered getting an old version of MacWrite and >> have it save files in text only format? > >We've considered MacWrite and MS Write, but as far as I know there's no way to >set them up to always save files as ASCII text for a computer-searchable >archive of published articles. (The alternative here seems to be a >file conversion program to translate any files accidentally saved in WRITE >or whatever format to ASCII. Any of those around?) > Yes, there are indeed MacWrite to text translators around. I FTP'ed one (from sumex I think) and it works fine. It's even a DA! What more could you ask for? >Two things I should have mentioned the last time: >1) We'd like to be able to have at least a couple of files open > at a time (notes, outline, article, memo, letter to Mom...) >2) Our dual-floppy SEs are PhoneNETted together. The network software, > printer drivers, InterMail and DISKTOP eat up a lot of system > disspace. > If you need a couple of files open simultaneously, then the old MacWrite is out. If I remember correctly (and it has been a couple of years) it would only support one document open at a time. Granted that I'm a little biased in this area, but Word has done well for me. Multiple documents and text format saving and opens MacWrite documents with no effort. Not the 4.0, but the 3.02 version. Word does have oodles of options, but you can set it for short menu's and not get most of them. And you don't need them for plain old writing anyway. Good luck! Terry Disclaimer et la Signaturo: Hell no, I'm not responsible for what I say! If everyone were responsible for what they said, we'd have had a balanced budget in 1984.
rock%warp@Sun.COM (Bill Petro) (10/26/89)
alh@pyrnova (Alan Holzman) writes: >In article <2385@eagle.wesleyan.edu> you write: >>For now, we have some folks using Teach Text (!), some on Write, and a >>couple of us experimenting with MEdit. Qued sounds interesting, but I'm >>afraid that it will look too techie for a couple of our people. >>Bob B-)= >> --==THIS is a job for a mild-mannered reporter==-- > ... definitely consider a DA text processor for both ease of use for > your "computer-phobic" reporters and the small size & power of a DA > on a 2 floppy SE. I use Vantage as well, almost exclusively. It is wonderful to jump in and out of it while in another application, like Red Ryder (was that a plug :-) It is a great editor, and as long as the user recognized that it is not a word or document processor, they will be well served. The macro capabilities are nice, but underpowered. I used to use QUED/M, the predicessor to Nisus (a reall word processor). The macro capabilities in QUED/M(acros) are superior to Vantage, as the program has a "watch me" capability. You can split screens easily, etc. I rather prefer Vantage's wrap-line feature, which places hard carriage returns at the end (so necesssary when uploading files to a UNIX system). And the price of Vantage is right! Bill Petro {decwrl,hplabs,ucbvax}!sun!Eng!rock "UNIX for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 19:12
jon@HP-UX.ucsd.edu (Jon Matousek) (10/26/89)
> In article <126813@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> > by rock%warp@Sun.COM (Bill Petro) > >I use Vantage as well, almost exclusively. It is wonderful to jump in >and out of it while in another application, like Red Ryder (was that a >plug :-) It is a great editor, and as long as the user recognized that >it is not a word or document processor, they will be well served. The >macro capabilities are nice, but underpowered. I used to use QUED/M, >the predecessor to Nisus (a reall word processor). The macro >capabilities in QUED/M(acros) are superior to Vantage, as the program >has a "watch me" capability. You can split screens easily, etc. I >rather prefer Vantage's wrap-line feature, which places hard carriage >returns at the end (so necessary when uploading files to a UNIX >system). And the price of Vantage is right! > By selecting "Set Line Width..." QUED/M will wrap the lines at any character position you desire. If you need to upload the file to a system that requires delimited lines you can do that as well with the Change dialog and GREP--a sophisticated pattern matcher. The grep expression to search on is the following : :^|:e (match with beginning of line OR end of document) and the replacement meta-character is the following: \r (the meta-character for carriage return, ascii 13) Then click on the replace all button and your file is ready to upload. I would also like to mention that the data fork in QUED/M (as well as Nisus) is purely text, no translation program is needed to make it text. A few other QUED/M (Nisus) features that are useful: -The searching capability allows you to search un-opened files. -UNLIMITED UNDOS! -10 editable clipboards. -Auto save, backup and backup to second source. In addition QUED/M allows: -Memory management, displays available memory on menu-bar and allows you to purge purgeable segments from the heap. There are obviously many more features... If you have any questions give Paragon's Tech support a call at 619-481-1477. -jOn ==================================================================== The preceding posting, with all of its truths or otherwise, is do entirely to my mischievous undertakings and has nothing whatsoever to do with Paragon Concepts, Inc. ====================================================================
joseph@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Seymour Joseph) (10/26/89)
You might want to look into text editors like QUED or QUED/M instead of word processors like MacWrite. The old Edit application from the apple 68000 development system also could open multiple windows and saved output as textfiles. How about desk accessory editors like MockWrite from CE software? Seymour
ralph@cbnewsj.ATT.COM (Ralph Brandi) (10/26/89)
In article <88714@pyramid.pyramid.com> alh@pyrnova.pyramid.com (Alan Holzman) writes: >In article <2385@eagle.wesleyan.edu> you write: >>I'm looking for a plain-text editor for newspaper reporters to use >>on dual-floppy Mac SEs. Any suggestions? > > There is a DA called Vantage (formerly McSink when it was shareware) > that is now a well-supported, commercial product. It is very easy > to use, powerful (spell-checker, open multiple document windows, add / I like McSink a lot, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to computer-phobes. For simple basic text editing for people who don't like computers, miniWRITER has a lot to recommend it. McSink and Vantage are more for people who need power (and it has plenty....) My mom is something of a computer-phobe herself; she doesn't have too much trouble using MacWrite. You might have trouble finding the original version, though. > ... definitely consider a DA text processor for both ease of use for > your "computer-phobic" reporters and the small size & power of a DA > on a 2 floppy SE. For small size, yes. I don't think power is what these reporters want (especially if they're using TeachText now....;-) -- Ralph Brandi ralph@lzfme.att.com att!lzfme!ralph Work flows toward the competent until they are submerged.
ahby@uiunix.UI.ORG (Shane McCarron) (10/30/89)
In article <126813@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> rock%warp@Sun.COM (Bill Petro) writes: >I use Vantage as well, almost exclusively. It is wonderful to jump in >and out of it while in another application, like Red Ryder (was that a >plug :-) It is a great editor, and as long as the user recognized that >it is not a word or document processor, they will be well served. The >macro capabilities are nice, but underpowered. My only problem with Vantage is that it becomes abysmally slow with large documents. If you have a several thousand line text document, you are in for some surprises when you try to scroll, select text, move by pages. Any of the normal things that you would do in a text editor. Don't get me wrong - I use Vantage every day, and think it is great. Just don't expect it to solve all of your problems - it's not entirely perfect. -- Shane P. McCarron ATT: +1 201 263-8400 x232 Project Manager UUCP: mccarron@uiunix.ui.org
yost@esquire.UUCP (David A. Yost) (10/31/89)
>In article <2385@eagle.wesleyan.edu> the author wrote: >>I'm looking for a plain-text editor for newspaper reporters to use >>on dual-floppy Mac SEs. Any suggestions? Is there a plain text editor for the mac that can manipulate rectangular areas of text? I'd love to be able to hold down option or cmd or something while dragging the cursor and have it select a rectangular area instead of a stream of text. Kinda like an editor I know on UNIX. Of course, this is only useful when the font is constant-width. --dave yost
jon@HP-UX.ucsd.edu (Jon Matousek) (10/31/89)
> In article <1533@esquire.UUCP> > by yost@esquire.UUCP (David A. Yost) > >Is there a plain text editor for the mac that can manipulate >rectangular areas of text? I'd love to be able to hold down >option or cmd or something while dragging the cursor and have >it select a rectangular area instead of a stream of text... > Nisus is not a plain text editor, but it does allow you to do rectangular selections on text when the option modifier is held down. -jOn ====================================================================== The preceding posting, with all of its truths or otherwise, is do entirely to my mischievous undertakings and has nothing whatsoever to do with Paragon Concepts, Inc. ======================================================================
flowers@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Margot Flowers) (10/31/89)
In article <1533@esquire.UUCP> yost@esquire.UUCP (David A. Yost) writes: >Is there a plain text editor for the mac that can manipulate >rectangular areas of text? I'd love to be able to hold down >option or cmd or something while dragging the cursor and have >it select a rectangular area instead of a stream of text. ... >Of course, this is only useful when the font is constant-width. While not a "plain text editor", Microsoft Word will do this, both versions 3 and 4. Hold down the option key while selecting. It will work with any kind of font, not just fixed width (though of course the meaningfulness of your selection will vary depending on the layout of your document). One handy usage of column selection is to add up a column of figures -- select a column and then give the calculate command (document menu). This was documented with version 3, don't know about 4.
puklich@sparky.UUCP (Blayne Puklich) (11/07/89)
In article <28843@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> flowers@lanai.UUCP (Margot Flowers) writes: >In article <1541@esquire.UUCP> yost@esquire.UUCP (David A. Yost) writes: >>If you cut a rectangular region, I'd like the text to the >>right to move left to close the gap. And I'd like a way >>of inserting that rectangular block of text elsewhere, >>causing existing text to move to the right as necessary to make room. >> >>Do these other editors do this, or is there a way Word can be made to do this? > Preditor (EvaTac Software) performs just the rectangular cutting and pasting you are describing. I have been using Preditor since it first came out, and it's been my favorite text/programming editor so far. I highly recommend it if you need an editor such as this. Plus, it's fairly inexpensive (I believe it's still around $65), and also has a built in macro language that is pretty powerful. ||+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|| || Blayne Puklich nopuklic@Plains.NoDak.EDU "I think I'm going || || NDSU Student ACM nopuklic@ndsuvax.BITNET bald..." || || Vice-Chairperson NU087763@NDSUVM1.BITNET -- Rush, from Caress || || North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND of Steel, 1975 || || (701) 237-4408 || || "Corvettes are the best thing man has ever invented." || ||-------------------------------------------------------------------------||
tom@visix.UUCP (Tom Carstensen) (11/28/89)
> >>If you cut a rectangular region, I'd like the text to the > >>Do these other editors do this, or is there a way Word can be made to do this? > > Preditor (EvaTac Software) performs just the rectangular cutting and pasting The new phone # for Evatac Software is 503/297-6175 Tom Carstensen
joej@oakhill.UUCP (Joe Jelemensky) (11/28/89)
In article <1541@esquire.UUCP> yost@esquire.UUCP (David A. Yost) writes: >If you cut a rectangular region, I'd like the text to the >right to move left to close the gap. And I'd like a way >of inserting that rectangular block of text elsewhere, >causing existing text to move to the right as necessary to make room. > >Do these other editors do this, or is there a way Word can be made to do this? Microsoft Word allows you to do this, if each of the lines you are cutting accross are terminated by a carriage return. Hold down the option key, place the cursor, press the mouse button and hold, drag the rectangular area. The cut/copy/paste. Works with 3.0.2 for sure - don't know about 4.0 .__________________________________________________________________________. | ***** | |Joe Jelemensky * * | |Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS) * ********* | |Microprocessor Products Group (MPG) ****** * | |Microcontroller Division (MCU) * OAKHILL * | |Motorola, Inc. * * * .+ * | |USNAIL: 6501 William Cannon Drive West, Austin, TX 78735 ** * * | |NET: ...!cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!sol!joej IBM: RTA270 * * | |AT&T: (512) 891-2243 WACCVM ** | |__________________________________________________________________________|
long@rainbo.enet.dec.com (Richard C. Long) (11/29/89)
In article <2668@sol.oakhill.UUCP>, joej@oakhill.UUCP (Joe Jelemensky) writes... >In article <1541@esquire.UUCP> yost@esquire.UUCP (David A. Yost) writes: >>If you cut a rectangular region, I'd like the text to the >>right to move left to close the gap. And I'd like a way >>of inserting that rectangular block of text elsewhere, >>causing existing text to move to the right as necessary to make room. >Microsoft Word allows you to do this, if each of the lines you are cutting >accross are terminated by a carriage return. Hold down the option key, place >the cursor, press the mouse button and hold, drag the rectangular area. The >cut/copy/paste. Works with 3.0.2 for sure - don't know about 4.0 Yes, this works with Word 4.0. It's a great feature. I use it to re-format tables that were created using the "space-between-columns" method, like so: Text for column Text for column Text for column one two three I just use the rectangular cut to slice out each column, remove extra carriage returns, then create a table from paragraphs. Voila! Good stuff. Rich ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /'') /'' / | mcntsh::long -- or RAINBO -- | A day for firm /''\ /__ /__ | long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com | decisions!!!!! ----------------| ...!decwrl!mcntsh.enet.dec.com!long | Or is it?? Richard C. Long | long%mcntsh.dec@decwrl.enet.dec.com |========================
esf00@uts.amdahl.com (Elliott S. Frank) (11/30/89)
In article <2668@sol.oakhill.UUCP> joej@sol.UUCP (Joe Jelemensky) writes: >In article <1541@esquire.UUCP> yost@esquire.UUCP (David A. Yost) writes: >>If you cut a rectangular region, I'd like the text to the >>right to move left to close the gap. > >Microsoft Word allows you to do this, if each of the lines you are cutting >accross are terminated by a carriage return. Hold down the option key, place >the cursor, press the mouse button and hold, drag the rectangular area. The >cut/copy/paste. Works with 3.0.2 for sure - don't know about 4.0 It works with 4.0. That's how I repair my fractured syntax when I write. :-) --- -- Elliott Frank ...!{hplabs,ames,sun}!amdahl!esf00 (408) 746-6384 or ....!{bnrmtv,drivax,hoptoad}!amdahl!esf00 [the above opinions are strictly mine, if anyone's.] [the above signature may or may not be repeated, depending upon some inscrutable property of the mailer-of-the-week.]