doug@wiley.UUCP (Doug Rudoff) (04/06/89)
Has anyone used MacWrite II yet? Any comments?
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Doug RUDOFF TRW Inc, Redondo Beach, CA {cit-vax,uunet}!wiley!doug
H: (213) 318-9218 W: (213) 812-2768 wiley!doug@csvax.caltech.edu
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-goldfarb@hcx9.UCF.EDU (04/12/89)
> Has anyone used MacWrite II yet? Any comments? > Doug RUDOFF TRW Inc, Redondo Beach, CA Same question here, but one additional one. Has anyone out there who has licensed MacWrite 5.0 from Claris received an upgrade form yet? I haven't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ben Goldfarb uucp: {decvax,peora}!ucf-cs!goldfarb University of Central Florida Internet: goldfarb@hcx9.ucf.edu Department of Computer Science BITNET: goldfarb@ucf1vm.BITNET
kwan@charon.ics.uci.edu (Andrew Kwan) (04/15/89)
In article <2600014@hcx9> goldfarb@hcx9.UCF.EDU writes: > >> Has anyone used MacWrite II yet? Any comments? >> Doug RUDOFF TRW Inc, Redondo Beach, CA > >Same question here, but one additional one. Has anyone out there who has >licensed MacWrite 5.0 from Claris received an upgrade form yet? I haven't. I never received an upgrade form. You can request an order form by calling their Customer Service/upgrades office (I don't have the phone number with me), and they will also accept charge cards over the phone. I charged it over the phone. It took about a week and a half to arrive. I haven't got a chance to play around with it, but it looks impressive based upon the documentation. It is also big -- it takes up two 800K disks for the program, dictionary, thesaurus (I'm pretty sure there is one included), hyphenation dictionary, and help files (you can delete some of these if you lack space). Biggest new features seem to be multiple columns, footnotes, style sheets, stationary, better graphics manipulation, multiple documents open simultaneously, and a horizontal scroll bar. Andrew Kwan
macak@lakesys.UUCP (James Macak) (04/15/89)
In article <2600014@hcx9> goldfarb@hcx9.UCF.EDU writes: >> Has anyone used MacWrite II yet? Any comments? >Same question here, but one additional one. Has anyone out there who has >licensed MacWrite 5.0 from Claris received an upgrade form yet? I haven't. I just happened to call the Claris update 800 number today. The woman I spoke with noted that they were just now sending out a mass mailing to registered users of MacWrite 5.0 about the upgrade to MacWrite II. By the way, Claris is now adding on your own state's sales taxes to your orders! No fun... Jim -- Jim Macak <lakesys!macak@csd1.milw.wisc.edu>
serafine@nprdc.arpa (Ron Serafine) (04/18/89)
At a Claris demo. on 04/11, I was introduced to MWII by a guy named Mike, who seemed very knowledgeable. Now, I've been around Mac since the 1st Hundred Days, but this was quite impressive! It has a lot of DTP features - multi-columns, graphics insertion, color, a better spelling checker than 5.0, thesaurus features, new rulers set-up, etc. Look out, MS Word, FullWrite, etc.! Yes, it's huge, but then so is everything else these days. But I admit I'm prejudiced in that I could never adjust to Word's less Mac-like interface or (what appeared to me to be) lack of uniformity. And, I never wrote 50+ pages/ document (still can't type!). Let's just say MW has always filled my needs very well. And I never had problems with it having bugs & blowing up. I'm sending off for separate copies for the Gov't. Mac here at work, & the SE20 I have @ home, just to keep my registrations both current. -Regards, Ron.
rlancast@bgsuvax.UUCP (Ron Lancaster) (04/19/89)
Several requests have appeared for information about MacWrite II. I have been using the program for about three weeks, and am quite satisfied. Prior to MacWrite II, my word processing involved using Word about 20% of the time and MacWrite 5.0 the remaining 80%. (In most cases, I don't need the additional features of Word and I much prefer the friendly MacWrite user interface.) Based on the improvements made in MacWrite, I expect my use of MacWrite to increase to about 95%. There are still some documents which benefit from styles, for which there is no direct counterpart in MW II. I also need, for some documents, the ability to prevent a given paragraph from being split over a page boundary. The most obvious improvement to me is that the new spelling checker is FAST. Spacing between lines of a document can be single-spaced, double-spaced, or any other kind of spacing (1.5-spaced, 5-spaced, etc.). Multiple columns are supported (although I don't need that feature at present), and it is possible to have text adjacent to a figure. I really like the introduction of "stationery," a concept which has been available in other software for some time. I set up a standard memo form which automatically inserts the date at the appropriate line within the memo. The mail merge feature is quite flexible and easy to use. The WordFinder Thesaurus, which comes with MW II, is something I hadn't seen before, but it's quite good. When you ask for synonyms for a word and receive a list, you can then choose any word in the list and ask for synonyms for that specific meaning. The Find/Change feature now has all of the capabilities of the old FaceLift program. You can ask that all 10-point underlined text become 9-point italicized, or that all New York font text be changed to Times font. The "Define Styles" feature lets you define combinations of font, size, and style (underline, plain text, etc.) that can henceforth be referred to by a single name. I regularly need to import and export files in Word and in MacWrite 5.0 to be able to communicate with my colleagues at the university, and I can do that with ease in MW II. So far, this is just a random list of features which I have found useful in MW II, and I'm not sure where to stop. Suffice it to say, having used it several hours per day for more than two weeks, I am quite happy with the product. Most people will probably like the one feature which I have yet to get used to. Each paragraph now has its own ruler, so changing the ruler in a paragraph adjusts only that paragraph. I've gotten used to that in Word (even though I don't like it) but I keep forgotting to use that feature in MW II. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Ron Lancaster csnet: rlancast@andy.bgsu.edu Department of Computer Science BITNET: RLANCAST@BGSUOPIE Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, Ohio 43403-0214
gersh@aplvax.jhuapl.edu (John R. Gersh) (04/24/89)
I, too, generally like the ease of use and general feel of the MWII
interface. (Though the Word-style ruler will take some getting used
to.) I have noted one major problem with MWII, though.
MacWrite II will not print properly on an Imagewriter!
MWII suffers from the same disease as FullWrite. Imagewriter printing
will only produce margins and ruler settings on the paper that match
the ones on the screen in Tall Adjusted mode. On the other hand, Tall
Adjusted extends the widths of the individual letters, distorting the
appearance of fonts.
There is no mention of this situation in the MWII manual. The user is
left to figure out why this gigantic left-hand margin appears on the
paper but not on the screen.
And there was such a handy model of how to do Imagewriter printing
correctly. It's called MacWrite.
- John Gersh
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gersh@aplvax.jhuapl.edu {backbone!}mimsy!aplcen!aplvax!gersh
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Johns Hopkins Rd., Laurel, MD 20707 (301) 953-5503stores@unix.SRI.COM (Matt Mora) (04/26/89)
In article <1778@arctic.nprdc.arpa> serafine@nprdc.arpa (Ron Serafine) writes: >document (still can't type!). > Let's just say MW has always filled my needs very well. And I never >had problems with it having bugs & blowing up. I'm sending off for separate > > Ron. Mac Write II blows up on Me. Don't get me wrong, I love the new MacWrite but it bombs on me. It usally happens when I change a header, footer or footnotes. I have a macII. By the way, I havn't used word since I got MWII. But I'm sending my upgrade form for 4.0 today. I like the macwrite interface much better than words. Just my $0.02 -- ___________________________________________________________ Matthew Mora SRI International stores@SRI.COM ___________________________________________________________
ralph@computing-maths.cardiff.ac.uk (Ralph Martin) (05/03/89)
Can someone (perhaps from Claris ;-)) explain why MWII does not have the same signature as the original macwrite. This means if you rteplace MW with MWII you can no longer doubleclick MW files to edit them. Yes, I know that MWII uses a different file type, but that doesnt mean the signature had to be changed as well. I find this an extremely poor decision as far as user interface design goes. It now means I have to rummage around and start up MWII first before opening any old MW file. I also find having manually every time to say whether I want to save the result in the new format as a converted file pretty tedious. Surely this could have been handled better with a check box option Always Convert to MWII Format? How can I try to persuade people here (read: Secretaries, etc) to move to MWII when it is doesnt let them double click their old files any more? And do you think *I* want to convert them all for them one by one?! I think these poor decisions will be hitting sales. Remember, not all Mac users are sophisticated!
krazy@claris.com (Jeff Erickson) (05/05/89)
From article <707@cf-cm.UUCP>, by ralph@computing-maths.cardiff.ac.uk (Ralph Martin): > Can someone (perhaps from Claris ;-)) explain why MWII does not have > the same signature as the original macwrite. This means if you > rteplace MW with MWII you can no longer doubleclick MW files to edit > them. Yes, I know that MWII uses a different file type, but that > doesnt mean the signature had to be changed as well. I find this an > extremely poor decision as far as user interface design goes. It now > means I have to rummage around and start up MWII first before opening > any old MW file. That's easy. Suppose you want to open your old documents in the application that created them (the usual scenario)? There is a workaround of sorts. If your MacWrite Classic document is selected at the same time as MacWrite II, and you double-click on MWII, the old doc will automatically be opened. This works for WriteNow, text, and MicroSludge documents, too. Unfortunately, it means you have to have MWII in the same folder as your docs. > I also find having manually every time to say whether I want to save > the result in the new format as a converted file pretty tedious. > Surely this could have been handled better with a check box option > Always Convert to MWII Format? Wait. You mean you actually want the program to write to your disk and destroy old files WITHOUT YOU TELLING IT TO? Uh-uh. No way. Not a chance. Some people might want to keep the old files around because they have to be read by people who don't have MWII. Besides, how long can it take to hit fan-S? > How can I try to persuade people here (read: Secretaries, etc) to move > to MWII when it is doesnt let them double click their old files any > more? And do you think *I* want to convert them all for them one by > one?! That's even easier! Delete MacWrite Classic from their hard drives! :-) > I think these poor decisions will be hitting sales. Remember, not all > Mac users are sophisticated! I'm sorry if I sound glib about this. I realize that many people have a hard time changing from one way of doing things (double-click) to another. The only suggestion I can give is to show them MWII's obvious advantages over MacWrite: more than one document open at a time, faster, multiple columns, faster, footnotes, faster, mail merge, faster, auto hyphenation, faster.... Hopefully they'll realize that the inital time investment to convert their files will be paid back as they use the program. -- Jeff Erickson Claris Corporation | Birdie, birdie, in the sky, 408/987-7309 Applelink: Erickson4 | Why'd you do that in my eye? krazy@claris.com ames!claris!krazy | I won't fret, and I won't cry. "I'm a heppy, heppy ket!" | I'm just glad that cows don't fly.