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From: hrlaser@pnet02.cts.com (Harv Laser)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Excellence vs. WordPerfect
Message-ID: <3614@gryphon.CTS.COM>
Date: 26 Apr 88 17:20:32 GMT
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Organization: People-Net [pnet02], Redondo Beach, CA.
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duncanj@umd5.umd.edu (James Duncan) writes:
>Will _Exellence_ require use of interlace mode? Will it have a text only mode?
>I hate ProWrite because it requires use of interlace mode or else you get a
>real flacky non-interlace screen. Is it possible to get on screen graphics
>mixed with text in non-interlaced mode?
>
>I'll probably order WordPerfect using the student/academic discount, although
>I will upgrade to ProWrite 2.0 'cause the upgrade is only 10 bucks. It's not
>useful to me as a word processor, but it will do to make Xmas cards, flyers 
>and such.
>
>			Jim Duncan


It's difficult to say at this point exactly WHAT Excellence is going to
offer in the way of screen modes.  I don't know anyone who's actually
seen the program in action.  I DO know people who sent in their money for
it a LONG time ago and have been getting "real soon now" type answers from
MSS as to the release date.  The latest release date I've seen is "end
of April 88" which is, of course, just a couple days away.

Prowrite2.0 is a vast improvement over the earlier versions.  It's quite
easy to use Prowrite in hi-res Interlace and then dim the white background
down to a gray that will elimiate almost all the flicker. 
I'm not sure what you mean by a "real flakey non interlace screen" in
ProWrite.  That's just a medium-res 640x200 screen, same as your regular
Workbench/CLI in its default config.  I've been using ProWrite2.0 since
late '87 (I was a beta-tester) and in my opinion it's a terrific 
program.  With the new printer drivers/.device/Preference it gives me
absolutely the BEST bitmapped font output (on my Epson JX80) that I've
ever gotten from ANY Amiga software.  I've had over 100 different fonts
in ONE PW2.0 document (I have 2.5 Meg of RAM) - the program is actually
capable of 255 different fonts in one document (!) - without problems.

As usual, the chart printed in the ad for Excellence (in AmigaWorld,
May 1988 pg 9) emphasizes what features the program being advertised
has to the detriment of its competition.  But charts can be deceiving
and usually are.  For instance, I don't see `macros' listed.  WordPerfect
has a terrific macro facility... does Excellence?  I see they show
ProWrite not having mailmerge capability when in fact version 2.0
DOES.  Does Excellence allow HAM-IFF pictures to be imported into 
a document? It doesn't say, but ProWrite2.0 permits direct import of
HAM pictures (although they are translated to 8 colors in 3 different
modes of shading). 

And what about a print queue/spooler?  To the best of my knowledge,
WordPerfect is about the ONLY Amiga program with printer output that
lets you queue up multiple documents and modify their priorities/cancel
them/change their order WHILE they are printing and/or WHILE you are
working on other docs (memory permitting).  It'd be nice to have an
all-purpose piece of Amiga system software that acted like WordPerfect's
"Print" program does - intercept all printer jobs and allow them to
be modified in many different ways.  The PeeCee guys have one called
"PrintQ" that does exactly this. 

Harv Laser, Sysop, The People/Link AmigaZone.  Plink: CBM*HARV
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