Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!aplcen!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!mcdchg!ddsw1!tronsbox!dsoft!dfrancis
From: dfrancis@dsoft.UUCP (Dennis Heffernan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Word-processing recommendations
Keywords: word processors
Message-ID: <422@dsoft.UUCP>
Date: 1 Jan 90 01:11:48 GMT
References: <1989Dec30.165414.3269@odi.com>
Lines: 32

In article <1989Dec30.165414.3269@odi.com> jack@odi.com (Jack Orenstein)
writes:
>I would like to use my Amiga for the writing. My needs are as follows:
>
>- Capabilities comparable to Microsoft word: wysiwyg, variety of
>  fonts, user-defined styles, page preview, ... 
>- Keep up with my typing speed.
>- Ability to incorporate pictures (line drawings and graphs).
>- Prepare output for a variety of laser printers, (and postscript
>  would be nice but not essential.)
>
	Pen Pal is faster than excellence!, and does much better with graphic 
output.  It also has simple drawing tools, which I've found to be a big help.
It does a MUCH better job with importing pictures; from what I've heard about
excellence!, that one cuts down the number of colors in the final printout to
eight or so.  Pen Pal will let you include HAM's, though it will *display* 
them in eight colors.

	B U T ....

	Pen Pal does not have heavy-duty word processing features.  No 
footnotes; no multiple columns; none of the really good stuff.  It does have
the usual- cut&paste, spell checker, multiple docs, et cetera.  It also does
not have PostScript output, which excellence! has.

	I've never used Word, either on the Amiga or the Mac, but I strongly
suspect that excellence! will come closer to it than Pen Pal.  The author of
Pen Pal has been pretty aggressive in updating it, and maybe someday it will
have all those features...but not today.

	--dfh	....uunet!tronsbox!dsoft!dfrancis
		"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition
		 from mediocre minds."  -Albert Einstein