Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!wuarchive!udel!burdvax!gvlv2!kleonard
From: kleonard@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM (Ken Leonard)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Word Processor
Message-ID: <354@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM>
Date: 6 Oct 89 18:07:57 GMT
References: <1989Oct6.014703.5572@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> <3293@mace.cc.purdue.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Unisys Defense Systems, NISD, Great Valley Laboratory
Lines: 58

In article <3293@mace.cc.purdue.edu> ajk@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Jeff Boerio) writes:
* I like Word because of it's ease of use, and its incredible formatting
..............................^^^^^^^^^^^
Word:  "harder to learn" to become familiar with anything beyond the simplest
functions, but fewer keystrokes and strong consistency
WP:  "harder to use" (more bitchin keystrokes and less consistency), except
_maybe_ for the simplest functions
==
* capabilities, as well as its ability to incorporate GRAPHICS right into
..........................................^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
WP 5.0 does this, too, now, mostly
==
* your Word document.  
* 
* Word shows all your formatting right on the screen, and includes an option
......................^^^^^^^^^^
Word: in _either_ graphics mode or a _nearly_intelligible_ multi-color mode
WP: _no_graphics_ for formatting display, and poor multi-color mode,
especially lacking the ability to colorize things important to _you_ the
way _you_ want to pay attention to them
==
* that lets you preview your text before printing.  The only problem with
WP 5.0 does this too
==
* this option is that you cannot zoom in or edit text in this mode, only see
Word: which is really not much of a flaw since you have good graphics-mode
editable normal display if you want it
WP: doesn't let you edit in preview mode anyhow
==
* it ..... maybe in a future edition :-)  If I remember correctly,
* WordPerfect has the ability to zoom in on a preview of a document.
==
I have BOTH MSWord 5.0 and WP 5.0 on a 386-PClone with EGA display.
I use both, but primarily MSWord, and convert between the two fairly
often--doing lots of comm-system design documentation with pictures and
tables and included spreadsheets.
==
Frankly, anything I can do with WP (except sliding/sizing pictures sort of
on the fly), I can do faster and easier with MSWord.
==
MSWord is also a _lot_ more serious and _usable_ and (even) _friendly_
about two major areas: 
--1) how you get at files/directories/etc, and what you can do with them
without quitting the program;
--2) getting your printer, simple-minded or full-blown PostScript type,
to get what _you_ want to see _onto_the_paper_.
==
Finally, if you are likely _ever_ to want to do macro-processing within
your wordprocessor, _do_ get MSWord.  WP's macro language is a bad joke IMHO,
while MSWord's is both easy enough to be worth writing and powerful enough to
be worth using.
==
In a nutshell, I usually say that "WP is the Complete Word Processor for folk
who don't know what they want to do; MSWord is the Complete
Word Processing Tool for folk who do know what they want to do."
---------------
regardz,
Ken Leonard