asmith@questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Adam Smith) (09/27/90)
Ventura 3.0 for Windows -- The Story So Far... I just received my upgrade to the "Gold" edition Windows 3.0 version of Ventura Publisher, and I'm in no hurry to delete the old version still on my disk. A few points to mention, for those of you considering a purchase, or awaiting shipment. 1. There is a "small problem" with screen fonts. Apart from the generic Times and Helvetica, it is likely that your screen fonts won't work. I have a swodding great pile of PostScript screen fonts and .pfm files under Windows, but because they are the "old" version of Adobe's screen fonts, they won't work with Ventura 3. I put "old" in quotation marks because the word implies that there are "new" versions available. In truth, they are not yet on the market. Adobe anticipates releasing them in the near future, but in the meantime Ventura 4WIN users will have to put up with Times and Helv substitutions if they want to use VENT3. 2. According to the information that came with the package, users are entitled to 60 days "free" telephone support. This is, in my opinion, a relatively liberal use of the term "free". You pay the phone co for every second that you are on the line, you just don't have to pay a surcharge to Xerox. Of course when you call, you have to put up with the traditional 10 minutes of listening to their radio. Personally, I've listened to more radio stations (that play the blandest damn music in creation) in more cities in North America than I EVER cared to. 3. The version of Bitstream Fontware that ships with Ventura is for WIN 2.x. I have been told that it works fine with WIN3, but it still dumps the .fon files in the wrong place, takes up about 2 MEGS + of space, etc. I avoid BitStream like the proverbial plague, but my first call to techsupp informed me that I could get my full compliment of screen fonts to show if, and only if, I installed BitStream. I was skeptical (perhaps incredulous would be a better term) but I tried it anyways. It didn't work. My second call to Ventura techsupp revealed the true state of affairs (as described in "1" above). 4. VENT3 is a memory PIG still. I had it iconized and tried to start PageMaker on a 386SX with 4MEGS of RAM and all that virtual RAM stuff. For the first time I got an out of memory message. VENT3 takes a LONG time to load as well. This may be a result of a relatively large width table, or it may be Xerox screwing up again. 5. There is still no "edit undo" feature. In fact, VENT3 for WIN3 is more or less a direct port to the Windows environment. Nothing has been added, nothing taken away--although a few items have been shifted around. The Bottom Line... -------------------------------------------------------------- Techsupp doesn't seem to really have a grip on the new product, and seeing as how the calls cost ME money, I'm not prepared to be their guinea pig. My plan is to wait a while until techsupp has learned a few of the stock answers to the more common problems. I'm definitely not trusting anything valuable to VENT3 for the moment. VENT2.0 runs beautifully under WIN3, with all of the expanded memory it wants, etc. I'll be happy when I don't have to keep two sets of screen fonts around, but until the dust settles, VENT3 is something to play around with in my studio, not a heavy-use tool. Specific questions/recommendations/suggestion/etc are welcome when mailed to "asmith@questor.wimsey.bc.ca" seizure later ======================================================================== Adam Smith Genius - Graphic Artist - Bad Mood Guy The Chameleon Papers Vancouver, BC CANADA Disclaimer: I am my own boss and the guy I work for is an asshole! ========================================================================