Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!hplabs!hpda!hpcuhb!hpcilzb!hpcea!twakeman
From: twakeman@hpcea.CE.HP.COM (Teriann Wakeman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Word Processing.  Why the silence?
Message-ID: <430058@hpcea.CE.HP.COM>
Date: 9 Nov 88 23:50:31 GMT
References: <1988Nov4.221606.20356@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>
Organization: HP Corporate Engineering - Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 46

I'm not sure its a good idea to compare the range of Mac word processors
against one standard. I think each has advantages for different people doing
different things. For instance:

MacWrite: Its easy to learn & its features are easy to figgure out without
a manual. It is primitive and somewhat restricts what you can do with it.
But for the casual user its ease of use makes it a natural. For most home
work it is more then adequate. For people who mostly write letters, do 
school work, make lists & the such, MacWrite may be the perfect low cost,
easy to learn & use solution. Don't underestimate the strength of Macwrite
coupled with Ready Set Go. Also MacWrite has the advantage of having the 
universal file format.

WriteNow: Same as MacWrite but has more capabilities and is a little harder
to learn. It would appeal to the same users as MacWrite plus people who
feel they need a little more control over the appearance of their documents.

Word Perfect: This is a full featured word processor that would probably
have the most appeal to people who reacently switched over from the DOS
world. Esp if they used Word Perfect in DOS. This may well be the word processor
of choice for these people.

MSWORD: Full featured, semi-Maclike. Reasonably fast as long as you are not
needing to do frequent repagination on long documents. Beta versions tend 
to get sold to the public maskerading as a completed product. Tends to
break whenever Apple releases a new system. Not very intuitive. A real pain to
the occasional user who needs to look things up every time they use it.
On the other hand.. for someone who needs a full function, fast word processor,
uses their word processor all the time, is a touch typest who doesn't like
to take their hands off the keyboard, MS Word is the ticket. It would be a 
pain in the teehiney for an occasional non-power user.          

Fullwrite: This seems to be the power wordprocessor for people who feel they
need a high powered word processor, insists on a Mac like interface and mayby
dosn't use a word processor on a daily basis. Not as fast as MS Word. Likes to
have multi-Meg RAM. 

The nice thing about the main word processors is that  with the exception 
of WriteNow & MacWrite, they target different segments of the user population.
I think ruther then say A is better then B period, one should say that A is
better then B for X use by Y experianced person who uses their word processor
about Z often.                           

I didn't mention MS Write as I see it as just a crippled MS word.

TeriAnn