rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) (08/14/87)
A friend of mine is buying a Mac Plus soon, and he wants me to help him
plot what software he should buy (he knows nothing about computers, I'm the
CS major).
His needs are: 1. a word processor
2. a paint program
The word processor is the most important aspect to him. Programs Plus sells
MacWrite for $99, and there wasn't anything cheaper I could recognize. Does
anyone out there know/have experience with anything other than MacWrite that's
less expensive? He also wants a spelling checker, so any help on which one
is good would be hepful too.
On the paint program, FullPaint lists in the catalog for less than MacPaint.
Is this a good deal? (I know the FullPaint ads say "We succeed MacPaint" but
what is the reality?)
And what games did you first buy as a new Mac owner?
ONE MORE QUESTION! Are there any programs that can let the MAc display the
Greek alphabet?
I know, lots of questions, lots of questions.
Thanks in advance,
Roger Espinosa
--
Roger R. Espinosa
Live from the Rabbit Ranch
ihnp4!ihlpg!rrechuq%plaid@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (08/15/87)
>A friend of mine is buying a Mac Plus soon, and he wants me to help him >plot what software he should buy (he knows nothing about computers, I'm the >CS major). > >His needs are: 1. a word processor > 2. a paint program > > >The word processor is the most important aspect to him. Programs Plus sells >MacWrite for $99, and there wasn't anything cheaper I could recognize. Does he want good, or cheap? If decent/cheap is the basis, then look at WriteNow. Better than macwrite, good reports on the net, but nowhere near the power or flexibility of Word. If he needs a serious, heavy duty word processor, look at Word 3.01. both of these, I believe, have built in spell checkers. If not, I recommend Spellswell. To a good degree, you'll find you get what you pay for. >On the paint program, FullPaint lists in the catalog for less than MacPaint. Fullpaint is a good, solid product. I also find I've never bothered to use it since I bought Superpaint, which is the same price and blows it away in functionality and toys. Buy superpaint. chuq Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ We live and learn, but not the wiser grow -- John Pomfret (1667-1703)
hallett@macbeth.steinmetz (Jeff R Hallett) (08/17/87)
In article <3656@ihlpg.ATT.COM> rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) writes: > >The word processor is the most important aspect to him. Programs Plus sells >MacWrite for $99, and there wasn't anything cheaper I could recognize. Does >anyone out there know/have experience with anything other than MacWrite that's >less expensive? He also wants a spelling checker, so any help on which one >is good would be hepful too. Granted MacWrite is the great-grandad of all Mac word processors, and like it or not, probably has the definitive interface for Mac WP. Howevers, there are a lot of WP's on the market now. For a little bit more, your friend could be WriteNow. This has gotten excellent reviews and is a tad more flexible than MacWrite. I'm not sure if it has a spell checker, but I'd recommend MacLightning if it doesn't. MacLightning has an interactive checker that is very nice, but it doesn't make very good suggestions (doesn't matter to me; I just want to know if the word is misspelled.) > >On the paint program, FullPaint lists in the catalog for less than MacPaint. >Is this a good deal? (I know the FullPaint ads say "We succeed MacPaint" but >what is the reality?) > FullPaint is an excellent paint program. It stands probably a head over MacPaint. FullPaint is a superset of MacPaint; it looks a great deal like MacPaint but adds some functionality. >And what games did you first buy as a new Mac owner? Sargon (you may want to try Chessmaster 2000 instead) , Skyfox, Lode Runner, Transylvanian (you may want to try Shadowgate or Uninvited instead of this). However, there are some even better ones out now. Some of the shareware ones are even better than the commercial ones (Megaroids, MacLanding). >ONE MORE QUESTION! Are there any programs that can let the MAc display the >Greek alphabet? > all of them. Get the Symbol font. >I know, lots of questions, lots of questions. > >Thanks in advance, >Roger Espinosa > >-- > Roger R. Espinosa > Live from the Rabbit Ranch > ihnp4!ihlpg!rre Jeffrey A. Hallett (hallett@ge-crd.arpa hallett@desdemona.uucp) Software Technology Program General Electric Corporate Research and Development ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many" -- Kirk (STIII) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Disclaimer: My opinions do not represent my employer's, but it is his fault for giving me this thing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
esf00@amdahl.amdahl.com (Elliott S. Frank) (08/18/87)
In article <3656@ihlpg.ATT.COM> rre@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Velveteen Rabbit Corps) writes: > >His needs are: 1. a word processor > 2. a paint program > >The word processor is the most important aspect to him. Spend the money and get Microsoft Word 3.01 and SuperPaint. Word is not perfect (:-)) but has everything that he'll need to write papers over his college career (except the ideas). It includes a spelling checker that will catch most mispellings of longer common words. There are also enough users of Word that he can readily find sympathy, answers to his "how do I ..." questions, and books written for a third grade (or MBA) mentality on everthing that humans can do with Word. SuperPaint costs $59 at most discount outlets and is worth the $$. -- Elliott S Frank ...!{hplabs,ames,seismo,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.]
darryl@ism780c.UUCP (08/18/87)
In article <25690@sun.uucp> chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: <>A friend of mine is buying a Mac Plus soon, and he wants me to help him <>plot what software he should buy (he knows nothing about computers, I'm the <>CS major). <> <>His needs are: 1. a word processor <> 2. a paint program <> <> <>The word processor is the most important aspect to him. Programs Plus sells <>MacWrite for $99, and there wasn't anything cheaper I could recognize. < <>On the paint program, FullPaint lists in the catalog for less than MacPaint. < <Fullpaint is a good, solid product. I also find I've never bothered to use <it since I bought Superpaint, which is the same price and blows it away in <functionality and toys. Buy superpaint. Or GraphicWorks 1.1. It is an excellent program and no one has been able to show me a feature in SuperPaint that GraphicWorks doesn't have. This month's MacLoser rates them at about a dead heat, with features to GW and manual to SP. --Darryl Richman, INTERACTIVE Systems Corp. ...!cca!ima\ >-!ism780c!darryl ...!sdcrdcf/ The views expressed above are my opinions only.