Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!dalcs!aucs!peter
From: peter@aucs.UUCP (Peter Steele)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Word Processing.  Why the silence?
Message-ID: <1354@aucs.UUCP>
Date: 7 Nov 88 19:29:37 GMT
References: <1988Nov4.221606.20356@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>
Organization: School of Computer Science, Acadia Univ., Nova Scotia
Lines: 51

Okay, I'll break the silence:

MacWrite is still used by some unfortunate souls here who just won't
switch (afraid to learn something new). In my mind, MacWrite is a toy
and is *soooooo* slow on large files.

I recently tried WriteNow 1.1 for about 5 minutes and it seemed quite
responsive on the files I tested. My personal biggest gripe about
version 1.1 is that it doesn't support the cursor keys and it's spell
checker is poor. More generally, I find WriteNow not as "feature-full"
as I'd like, although I understand version 2.0 addresses some of it's
deficiencies. It still doesn't appear to support automatic index generation
which is something I think is quite useful if implemented properly.

FullWrite: Well, it's quite an editor, but for my tastes it is simply too
slow, and I'm using a Mac II. I does like some of the concepts it has
put forward, but I would much prefer a table feature rather than a general
purpose graphics editor. A mini-spreadsheet would be ideal so that columns
of numbers could automatically summed. Many documents that I write are
"financial" in nature and I find this sort of feature useful.

WordPerfect: One of the worst Mac interfaces I've seen, but other than
that it has most of the major features one would expect (including math
columns). It's biggest problem is that it has carried over PC WordPerfect's
concept of hidden codes, which I never really did like and I like it even
less on a Mac. I've seen Wordperfect documents with formatting problems
that if it happened in any other editor I'd think it was a bug in the editor.
In WordPerfect, it's just a jumbled mess of hidden codes. Novice users can
really get themselves into trouble. So, I would only recommend WordPerfect
if PC compatibility is a must (and assuming all your PC buddies use
WordPerfect).

Word: This is my preferred editor primarily because it has the features
I need and because it is very, very speedy on even large documents. My
biggest complaint is manual repagination. It has its advantages in
large documents, but it can be a pain at times. Also, I find Word not
sufficiently WYSIWYG. Both of these complaints seem to be solved in the'
soon to be released version 4.0 (don't hold your breath). I'm really
looking forward to 4.0's much improved table feature. It essentially
has a built-in spreadsheet whose cells automatically resize for the text
you put in them. So, my editor of choice will probably still be my editor
of choice in the foreseeable future.

There, that should get the ball rolling. Please address any comments to
this newsgroup, not to me personally.

-- 
Peter Steele, Microcomputer Applications Analyst
Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada B0P1X0 (902)542-2201x121
UUCP: {uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}!dalcs!aucs!Peter
BITNET: Peter@Acadia  Internet: Peter%Acadia.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU