Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles $Revision: 1.7.0.10 $; site uiucdcsb Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uiucdcsb!jabusch From: jabusch@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU Newsgroups: net.micro.pc Subject: Re: WordPerfect vs MS-Word Message-ID: <5100120@uiucdcsb> Date: Sat, 15-Feb-86 12:44:00 EST Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.5100120 Posted: Sat Feb 15 12:44:00 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 17-Feb-86 04:58:43 EST References: <506@imsvax.UUCP> Lines: 122 Nf-ID: #R:imsvax.UUCP:506:uiucdcsb:5100120:000:5493 Nf-From: uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU!jabusch Feb 15 11:44:00 1986 I guess I'll speak up here. I use WordPerfect 4.1 and used 4.0 before, and I can say with certainty that WordPerfect can: have two windows on the screen at once (4.0 required switching between screens, 4.1 can change window sizes to display both simultaneously) edit in both windows at any time show the same document in both windows support all features of WordPerfect in each window, including and not limited to footnotes use a supplemental dictionary. (I must confess that I have never had a reason to use multiple dictionaries, one per document, but I do have my own dictionary which is a supplemental to the wp dictionary. wp does not allow easy modification of its main dictionary, you must put things into the supplemental) the only things not built in that you mentioned are mouse support and on-screen character attributes. wp allows modification of screen color attributes for bold, underline, and bold-underline, and I have found that to be sufficient. color changes are simple, two keystrokes to get to the color-changing screen, and there is a portion of the display that shows the colors you currently have selected. I have never seen Word using colors on the EGA, but assume it can do so. Perhaps this might be hard when using hi-res graphics for char. attributes, but it wouldn't surprise me. I have a Mouse Systems Mouse, and have written my own menu system for WordPerfect (part of the mouse support is a little menu compiler). This gives me mouse support equivalent to Word, with a couple of advantages: I can call up a menu with any button of the mouse, different buttons meaning different basic menus, and I can call the menu without having to move to an area of the screen designed to be used for a particular menu, re: Microsoft Write or Paint. Other neat features that Word probably has but may not: 1. Automatic outlining feature, great for generating quick outlines and then returning later to fill in with text. 2. Paragraph numbering can be generated with simple keystrokes, and inserted paragraph numbers will cause a re-numbering of the entire document including outlines. 3. Footnotes can be protected to allow 'keeping'. 4. Endnotes are supported. 5. Table of Contents, Lists, and Indexes can be generated automatically, using text marked in the document. 6. Numbering, lettering, and formating of footnotes, endnotes, table of contents, lists, and indexes can all be customized, with too much variety to go into here. 7. Binding width control, wp leaves extra margin measured in inches on one side for even pages, the opposite side for odd pages, to allow for production of books. 8. Block Protect to protect areas of text. 9. DOS shell, to escape to DOS to run another program, enter the 'exit' command and you're back in WordPerfect. 10. Directory screen, allows text to be pulled in from files, saved to files, quick searches for words or phrases through all files in a directory, change directory by pointing or typing the name, file deletion, create directory, delete directory, etc. 11. Password protection / encryption of files, asks for password for file when trying to reload it again. 12. Adjustable hyphenation zone. 13. Line drawing features, can use graphics characters of any printer with use of the 'printer' program to modify printer definition tables if there is no table for a particular printer, or modification of an existing printer table for justification. 14. Merge from files or keyboard, merge files can call macros, macros can call merge files, allowing for menuing systems for customization to a very extensive degree. Macros can be set to be called when entering by using environment variables. 15. Modification of current print queue, supports own background queue which can be stopped to allow change of printers, etc. Jobs can be shuffled, re-ordered, cancelled, etc. 16. Over 190 printer definitions come with it. 17. Time and date can be inserted as codes or as text, and format is very flexible. Wordcount, widow/orphan protection, flexible underline control, redline, strikeout, name search, built-in math, on-screen column definition and display, alignment control for decimals, and mapping of ctrl and alt keys to macros or to graphics or foreign character sets, ... 18. And then there's the 80,000 word thesaurus... 19. And then there's the network version, which I use, and which allows each user to take advantage of his own printer or network printer, and to customize his own screen colors and workstation configuration, without affecting other network users, and allows all users access to their central dictionary, plus their own individual supplemental dictionary or to a central dictionary, .... Needless to say, I'm relatively pleased with WordPerfect. The support has been good, the users are happy, and the network functions well with all sorts of different pc's on it, but then that's a network's function... I am not associated with SSI or any other software vendor, and all the usual opinion disclaimers go here>>> John W. Jabusch U.S. Mail: or: Department of Computer Science USA-CERL-FS University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Box 4005 Room 230 Digital Computer Laboratory Champaign, IL 1304 West Springfield Avenue 61820 Urbana, IL 61801 CSNET: jabusch%uiuc@csnet-relay.ARPA UUCP: {ihnp4,convex,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!jabusch USENET: ...!{pur-ee,ihnp4}!uiucdcs!jabusch ARPA: jabusch@uiuc.arpa