macduff@cbnewse.att.com (Roger R. Espinosa) (12/04/90)
Wow, I can't believe that three years ago all I could do was stare at a Byte magazine article and wish, and *now* I'm posting inane questions across the world concerning this computer! :-) Seriously, though, after using a Mac for two years (and *everybody* at school had a Mac, or used a Mac), it's truly difficult trying to evaluate software. No labs to go in and testdrive, and I can't hop down to the local library and leaf through back issues of RISC User or Archive. My latest dilemna is with Animation and Word Processing software. From the looks of things, Impression Jr. seems to be on the top of my list. Looks good featurewise, the letter I got from the company about my initial iniquiry floored me with their attention to detail (versus my old Mac inquiries which usually got me another version of the ad...), BUT I've never used it, and it costs enough to make me queasy buying it without any opinions either way (add to that I feel I got burned buying 1st World Plus already...) So, does anyone out there have experience with Impressions Jr.? Any favorite word processors? Whew. NOW one of my pet interests is animation, but the Mac animation packages always came as stand-alone packages, and not the multiple packages that the Archimedes programs do (Ace, Mogul, etc). Any favorites? Thanks for any info. Roger rre@ihlpn.ATT.COM
kers@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Chris Dollin) (12/05/90)
I've not used Impression Junior - it lacks some features I already know I want - but I do use Impression. As long as you're not bitten by the bugs (I'm lucky, my wife isn't!) it's brill. For word processing, you can forget about the fancy DTP features, and it just works like an editor with fancy fonts and styles; you can mess around with frames and such later. I seem to recall that Junior hasn't got editable master pages, which I use when writing manuals. There are a couple of other things too. You might like to start with Junior and upgrade when you hits its limits. Anyone tried Ovation? Anyone *seen* Tempest? -- Regards, Kers. | "You're better off not dreaming of the things to come; Caravan: | Dreams are always ending far too soon."
macduff@cbnewse.att.com (Roger R. Espinosa) (12/06/90)
In article <KERS.90Dec5092328@cdollin.hpl.hp.com>, kers@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Chris Dollin) writes: > [comments about Impression] > my wife isn't!) it's brill. For word processing, you can forget about the > fancy DTP features, and it just works like an editor with fancy fonts and > styles; you can mess around with frames and such later. But, can you just do word processing with the system font? This might sound strange, but 99% of the time I don't really need nice outline fonts, just something to dump and print quickly on the Panasonic (using its fonts). Jr. had a blurb about using the system font (ala 1stWord+). > > I seem to recall that Junior hasn't got editable master pages, which I use > when writing manuals. There are a couple of other things too. You might like > to start with Junior and upgrade when you hits its limits. I'm not that interestined in full-DTP right now; I really would like something akin to MacWrite II, and 1stWord+ isn't it. But it's something to look into before I do anything... > > Anyone tried Ovation? Anyone *seen* Tempest? I did order the Ovation demo disc, and it *looks* okay; took forever to print (although that could be because of the "OVATION DEMO" blurb it prints diagonally across the page) a page of hi-quality font-type, and had no "system font -> print font" mode, so it would *always* be printing this slow. I haven't considered it further, because of this limitation (for me, at any rate), and there was no indication that this would be added in the future. (Thanks for the previous information, btw :-) Roger rre@ihlpn.ATT.COM > -- > > Regards, Kers. | "You're better off not dreaming of the things to come; > Caravan: | Dreams are always ending far too soon."
dhmyrdal@solan.unit.no (Dag H}kon Myrdal) (12/06/90)
I've tried !Ovation, but not enough to give it a fair review....
My first impression of it was that it's slower than Impression, but
seems to do the job OK....
I just wonder how they managed to do the nice trick of having a
half-size hor.scrollbar, and use the space next to it as a place for
icon-short-cuts???? I liked that approach!
--
Dag Haakon Myrdal, student of electronics
--
email: dhmyrdal@solan.unit.no (-SUN internet, Trondheim)
snail: DH Myrdal, Moholt Alle 2-01, N-7035 Trondheim, Norway
phone: +47 7 588244
--
About MS-DOS:
"... an OS originally designed for a microprocessor that modern
kitchen appliances would sneer at...."
- Dave Trowbridge, _Computer Technology Review_, Aug 90