norman@sdics.UUCP (05/05/87)
References:
The last straw has broken my back. I give up on Microsoft Word 3.0.
I am looking for suggestions for replacement. (See end of message)
Personally, WORD is an unbelievably crappy design. I can live with the
bugs because, after all, those can be fixed. But not poor design
decisions. Style sheets that don't allow for variation in fonts.
Style sheets for which I can never figure out where my laboriously
constructed styles will show up (the "default" style sheet seems called
in mysterious ways). None-WYSIWYG columns. None-WYSIWYG formatting.
I could go on, but I won't. The main faults are that the design
philosophy fails to follow the direct manipulation principles of
visibility and acessibilility. No consistent "system image".
Impossible to develop a good mental model of what is going to happen.
Arbitrary and weird command sequences are required. This is my
profession, so why should I use a system that violates the fundamental
rules that I teach and preach? And these are fundamental design
errors, so no bug patches will cure them.
QUESTION: What are the alternatives. I need a professional program,
one that can do footnotes at both the bottom of the page and the end
of the chapter/book. One that makes it easy to use a wide variety of
indentation styles, with realtively frequent changes or going
back-and-forth on any single page. I do NOT need camera-ready copy,
so I don't need a publishing program. I need something I can mail to
my publisher. That can handle books and technical papers (Where a
single chapter might be 150,000 byutes or > 100 pages).
The only two candidates I know of are T/maker's Write Now and Ann
Arbor Softworks Fullwrite Professional. I have seen neither. Do they
really exist? Do they work as advertized (well, obviously not: but
are they any good -- do they follow the Mac guidelines -- Word
violated them). Are there any others?
I need it immediately. My book is due at the publisher in 1 month. So
no vaporware. (It is now all in Microsoft WORD 1.05. I now believe
it would be a serious mistake to switch to 3.0. I might just stick to
1.05.)
Suggestions? Comments? Preferences?
don norman
Donald A. Norman
Institute for Cognitive Science C-015
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California 92093
norman@nprdc.arpa {decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!ics!norman
norman@sdics.ucsd.edu norman%sdics.ucsd.edu@RELAY.CS.NETchuq%plaid@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (05/06/87)
>The last straw has broken my back. I give up on Microsoft Word 3.0. >Personally, WORD is an unbelievably crappy design. I can live with the >bugs because, after all, those can be fixed. But not poor design >decisions. I'm not sure I agree, but this is a religious issue. Word 3.0 has its problems, but I can only say (1) don't underestimate what they might 'fix' in 3.01 until you see it, and (2) if you work with the program instead of fighting it, it works much better. For reference, I get lots of verbiage out of Word 3.0 every month, successfully and without significant cussing. At least, no more cussing than I did to Word 1.05. But there IS a learning curve, and you can't expect to walk into a powerful product and be able to use it like an expert. It'll be interesting to see what Microsoft does with 3.01 -- if it isn't rock solid and have some serious cleaning up, they might as well write off the WP market for the Mac. >QUESTION: What are the alternatives. >The only two candidates I know of are T/maker's Write Now and Ann >Arbor Softworks Fullwrite Professional. I have seen neither. Do they >really exist? Last I heard, Fullwrite was still in beta, and doing pretty well. I've heard good things, but haven't had my hands on it. Writenow has also gotten some good press, but I'm not sure it is shipping yet, either. >I need it immediately. My book is due at the publisher in 1 month. No question here. Stick with 1.05 until you get the book out and THEN find a new WP. The last thing you should do under deadline is change the basic underpinnings of your work -- because if the conversion doesn't work well, you've blown your deadline. Also, you won't have time to do a good evaluation AND get the book out, and do both well. Finish the thing with what you have, and then take your time. Never ask Murphy in for lunch -- don't change things you don't have to when you can't afford the downtime. chuq Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM [I don't read flames] There is no statute of limitations on stucococ o
mrh@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU (Marc Hannah) (05/06/87)
In article <18152@sun.uucp>, chuq%plaid@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: > Last I heard, Fullwrite was still in beta, and doing pretty well. I've > heard good things, but haven't had my hands on it. Writenow has also gotten > some good press, but I'm not sure it is shipping yet, either. > Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM [I don't read flames] WriteNow by T/Maker has been shipping for quite some time, perhaps 6 months or more. Of the WP out there right now it is probably the most solid. Personally I wouldn't switch to any NEW WP with a month deadline for a book! David Gelphman daveg%slacvm.bitnet@forsythe.stanford.edu
ln63szb@sdcc13.ucsd.EDU (Grobbins) (05/07/87)
In article <354@sdics.ucsd.EDU> norman@sdics.UUCP (Donald A. Norman) writes: >QUESTION: What are the alternatives. ... >The only two candidates I know of are T/maker's Write Now and Ann >Arbor Softworks Fullwrite Professional. Ann Arbor Softworks had a rep demo Fullwrite Professional at tonights SDMUG meeting. The program looks very impressive, though the rep seemed surprised that we didn't witness any unintentional fireworks. He indicated that it should go into beta soon, and the anticipated release date is in August. I'm skeptical even of that, considering that he said some parts of the program weren't ready to be demonstrated. FullPaint note: the Ann Arbor Softworks rep mentioned that they finished an SE-compatible update of FullPaint today, including one significant but unspecified bug fix. Grobbins ln63szb@sdcc13.ucsd.edu
roberts@cognos.uucp (Robert Stanley) (05/12/87)
In article <354@sdics.ucsd.EDU> norman@sdics.UUCP (Donald A. Norman) writes: >The last straw has broken my back. I give up on Microsoft Word 3.0. >I am looking for suggestions for replacement. (See end of message) >QUESTION: What are the alternatives. I need a professional program, >....... >........ That can handle books and technical papers (Where a >single chapter might be 150,000 byutes or > 100 pages). I would be tempted to stick with Word 1.05, assuming that you know it well, and can make it do what you need. I have successfully worked with dense text in files up to 280K, with a huge variety of paragraph formats, but taking great care to plan everything in advance, using an outliner. The only program actually available (right now, for cash) that might fit your bill is Laser Author (alias Laser Quill, alias MacAuthor), which was the first word processor to introduce style sheets on the Mac. I am sorry, I don't know who handles it in the US, nor what it costs. It has been reviewed within the last three months in one of the major Mac magazines (MacUser, Macazine, MacWorld). It is certainly worth a look. It is not clear that you can actually touch FullWrite yet, and indications are that you will have to look at the first version with great care. -- Robert Stanley decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!roberts Voice: (613) 738-1440 (on EST) Tuesdays only don't ask-----' Cognos Inc., 3755 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 3N3 CANADA