Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!jonathan
From: jonathan@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Jonathan Eunice)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: WYSIWYG Word Processor for Windows 3.0?
Summary: Beware poor compatibility
Message-ID: <122117@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Date: 30 Apr 91 03:19:36 GMT
References: <1991Apr27.155636.5769@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>
	<1991Apr29.150159.12586@wam.umd.edu>
	<1991Apr29.161029.27456@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>
Reply-To: jonathan@cs.pitt.edu (Jonathan Eunice)
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Lines: 33

I've used Ami, Word/Mac, and WfW a fair deal.  I like each.
A few warnings about compatibility, however, are in order:

Ami has very disappointing compatibility with Word, for both the PC and
the Mac.  Lotus claims the ability to import WfW, RTF, and many other
useful formats, yet Ami does *not* import crucial information such as
font settings, paragraph spacing, styles, tables, graphics, or just
about anything else "complicated."  I like Ami, but poor import/export
capability was a defeating failure for me.  It now sits unused on my
shelf.  If you don't have large libraries of stuff from Word etc that
you must use, Ami could be real nice.  And, I'd be more than happy to
sell you my copy at a reasonable price. ;-)

The PC and Mac versions of Word have very good textual compatibility.
Tables, fonts, styles, etc move back and forth very nicely.  If you use
graphics in your documents at all, however, prepare for the worst.
I've searched far and wide for a simple way to move graphics back and
forth, with zero success. The two platforms use very different graphics
formats (eg, PCX vs MacPaint for bitmap graphics, ?? vs PICT for object
graphics) and the 3rd party software packages (Canvas, SuperPaint,
CorelDraw, Micrographx, etc) multiply the number of formats without
providing good cross-platform import/export.  Microsoft regards this as
a "known problem."  Which means, for the meanwhile, an unsolved
problem. It is much easier to either stick with the Mac or with the PC.
It's frustrating when simple things don't work well except with heroic
efforts!

Jonathan Eunice
(who thought it'd be really helpful to have a laptop but failed to realize
that there'd be only 13.57% compatibility with his Mac)
jonathan@cs.pitt.edu