Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!patth From: patth@dasys1.UUCP (Patt Haring) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: AppleWorks Message-ID: <2280@dasys1.UUCP> Date: 21 Dec 87 00:17:11 GMT Organization: The Big Electric Cat Lines: 122 Keywords: word processing, AppleWorks Copyright (c) by The Catalyst. Used by special permission. Teachers may sometimes wonder whether it is worth the effort to learn new software which appears so complicated that many books have been published attempting to explain it. The answer, according to the editor, is a qualified "yes," as she tackles... THE PROGRAM THAT KNEW TOO MUCH The Simplicity of AppleWorks In 19 Volumes or Less by Sue Swezey There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those for whom no computer application seems too difficult, who quickly grasp programming interrelationships, who enjoy the challenges of problem solving and feel it worthwhile to spend hours surmounting a single obstacle. Then there are the rest of us. Faced with mastering new software, we re-enact the frustrations shared by slow learners everywhere. The embarrassment of being a Computer Inept is intensified when one is surrounded by Computer Adepts -- as, say at the Western Center.... I recently found myself backed into this uncomfortable corner when confronted with the necessity of learning a new word-processing program. Not that I wanted to: I've been quite content with my fourth-grade version of Bank Street Writer, but I was beginning to realize that Bank Street has its limitations. For one thing, it is slow; at times even I could proceed faster than a fourth-grader. Printing commands could not be stored. Getting into the Utilities menu for a greater variety of printing commands sometimes proved impossible. I could write easily enough but was stranded without the ability to justify margins, to underline, or to move more than 15 lines of text at a time. While considering the updated version of Bank Street Writer (which caught my interest thanks to an excellent review by Skip Via in the SpedTech Newsletter), I was at the same time subjected to unmerciful peer pressure -courtesy of our software reviewer, Jim Spelman. A self-trained AppleWorks enthusiast, Jim assured me repeatedly that AppleWorks was easier, better, faster, indeed the standard of the industry, that it would do not only word-processing but also spread sheets and data bases, and that I would (somehow) betray the entire feminist movement if I didn't try it and anyway he would lend me his copy. How could one resist an offer like that? Trying to postpone the inevitable, I complained about my lack of a user's manual; Jim assured me that the screen instructions were self-explanatory. Just to be on the safe side, I invested in a 231-page book entitled The Power of Appleworks, one of some 19 volumes designed to enlighten the beginner. Thus fortified, I approached my first task to write a simple letter and print two copies. The process of writing was deceptively easy; a recent mistake could be erased by pressing the Delete key. The screen did not tell me what to do if I was at the end and the mistake was at the beginning, but Jim did (in the first of many calls); 1-9 would move the cursor anywhere within a document. Moving blocks of text proved relatively simple, after a peek at my book: M did provide on-screen instructions; and I was thrilled at my first success in moving more than 15 lines. While Bank Street would print 80 columns, the screen only showed 40; with AppleWorks, the full 80 columns appeared on the screen, enabling me to see how my finished letter would look. Or so I thought.... Lulled by my apparent success at wordprocessing, I was especially eager to Print. Hadn't Jim said that the single command, P, would immediately print anything on the screen? Well, almost immediately... the screen inquired where I wished to start (beginning, this page, or cursor) and what printer I was using. I selected Apple DMP and indicated one copy. And sat there. NOTHING HAPPENED. Another phone call. Jim asked if my printer had been turned on when I booted the disk. Of course not! I knew that the printer would get confused if it was on when I was editing Bank Street, so I waited until the last minute. Patiently, (as if to a fourth grader), Jim explained that all the AppleWorks commands were given to the printer at the very beginning; I must turn it on at the start. I carefully re-booted and repeated the Print commands. The printer responded with what appeared to be an exact replica of the deleted Watergate expletives. (Exactly what I had been thinking!) Another call. Jim then realized that the disk had been configured for his printer, not mine, and explained how to set it for my Imagewriter. I said I had been selecting Apple DUMP, which was just what I was tempted to do. He explained (still patiently) that DMP meant Dot Matrix Printer... As a sort of peace offering, Jim went on to describe the wonders of the 0 command, which places all printing options at the bottom of the screen. How simple! Instead of answering a series of questions before each printing, as with Bank Street Writer, one begins with a standard set of margins, etc., and merely types in the values to be changed: i.e., "UB" for underline begin, "UE" for underline end, "JU" for justified margin, etc. Better yet, it is possible to save these commands with each document. After two days of unrelenting mental torment I finally finished a letter which should have taken two hours. But I had "learned" AppleWorks (without having to look at the first 72 pages of my book more than once or twice), and after many tries I had a decent print (except that friction feed on my printer doesn't quite work and the last few lines of my letter slanted downward, but that is another story). For his part, Jim expressed considerable self-satisfaction at having proved a point. He should have quit while he was ahead. "Word-processing is the easy part," said he. "Now you can start on spread sheets and data bases!" -- Patt Haring UUCP: ..cmcl2!phri!dasys1!patth Big Electric Cat Compu$erve: 76566,2510 New York, NY, USA MCI Mail: 306-1255; GEnie: PHaring (212) 879-9031 FidoNet Mail: 1:107/701 or 107/222