Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!boingo.med.jhu.edu!haven.umd.edu!wam.umd.edu!harold
From: harold@wam.umd.edu (James B. Harold)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: WYSIWYG Word Processor for Windows 3.0?
Message-ID: <1991Apr29.150159.12586@wam.umd.edu>
Date: 29 Apr 91 15:01:59 GMT
References: <3116@s5.Morgan.COM> <1991Apr27.155636.5769@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>
Sender: usenet@wam.umd.edu (USENET Posting)
Organization: University of Maryland at College Park
Lines: 61
Nntp-Posting-Host: epsl

In article <1991Apr27.155636.5769@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca> mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel) writes:
>In article <3116@s5.Morgan.COM> joec@Morgan.COM (Joe Collins) writes:
>>In article <1991Apr26.004923.8553@int13.hf.intel.com> tim@int13.hf.intel.com
>>(Timothy E. Forsyth) writes:
>>>lruppert@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Prometheus) writes:
>>>>Does anyone know of a good WYSIWYG Word Processor for Windows?
>>>
>>>Geee!!! It sounds like what you want is ....  wait for it ...
>>>  WORD FOR WINDOWS (by none other that Microsoft)
>>
>>I use AmiPro (from LOTUS) and like it a lot. It is FULLY windows compatible
>>and can import a wide variety of documents created by other word processors.
>>It is WYSIWYG and has so many features I couldn't begin to list them.
>
>     As far as I can tell, Ami Professional is largely oriented to graphics
>design and desktop publishing.  (It includes drawing tools and other
>things one normally doesn't associate with a word processor.)  From what
>I hear, its interface is highly intuitive.

   I've been using Ami for several months now and quite like it.     
I haven't used W4W, but I have heard that Ami has more desktop
publishing features.  On the other hand, I have yet to need a word
processing function that Ami doesn't have.  I had little trouble
learning it, but it helps to be familiar with the concept of 
paragraph styles, style sheets, etc.  There are features in 
Ventura which Ami is lacking, but then last time I saw Ventura
it didn't even pretend to be a word processor...pure d.p.

>     On the other hand, Word for Windows is an extremely programmable
>text production environment.  You can do things in WfW like create
>documents that prompt you for input.  (If this doesn't sound too useful
>to you, think about the routine task of writing letters.  There is a lot
>to a letter that's always the same, and then there are minor variations
>that need be introduced like the salutation.)  The tradeoff on all this power
>is that WfW has a moderately steep learning curve.  Luckily, the manual
>is quite good.  Unfortunately, it's incomplete.  (It doesn't cover the
>macrolanguage, WordBASIC.)  WfW is an excellent choice if you have heavy
>duty text processing needs but your graphical needs are restricted to
>importing graphics from other programs.

    Ami has a pretty advanced macro language, but I've never heard a
comparison with W4W's.  A separate manual for it is available for 
free when you register the program (plus everything is available
on-line). You can link to pre-defined data entry windows and 
buttons, or presumably make your own with SDK (not sure about that).
The most sophisticated thing I've done was alter the menus to add
a "User" menu so my girlfriend and I don't fight about defaults :-).

Some minor complaints:  the document I'm currently working on is ~80
pages with imbedded graphics, and Ami/Windows freaks out periodically.
This seems to correspond to when I run out of RAM (I have 4MB).  The
disk starts swapping, then things go wrong.

There's no equation editor.  **But** the Ami tech support people
tell me that they are releasing a new version this summer which 
will have one. Plus other "impressive" changes. On a guess, the
next version will contain some of W4W's features, and W4W's next
version will include Ami's features..and so on..

   James Harold
   harold@lpf.umd.edu