No Fragments Archive 10: Diskmags/nf_archive_10.iso/MAGS/STEN/STEN15.MSA/NEWS.TXT/T_WRITE2.ASC

Text File | 2010-04-21 | 20KB | 367 lines

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                   ∙                                 ∙
                   ∙          Two views of           ∙
                   ∙                                 ∙
                   ∙   T H A T' S   W R I T E   2    ∙
                   ∙                                 ∙
                   ∙    Reviewed by Dave Cowling     ∙
                   ∙                                 ∙
                   ∙   Overviewed by  John Weller    ∙
                   ∙                                 ∙
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Now  that  many prophets of doom  and  gloom are gleefully  reporting  the
decline  of the Atari,   it  is  refreshing  to  hear  Neal  O'Nions,  the
Managing  Director  of  Compo  Software  recording  record  sales   and  a
booming  industry,  not just in software but also in Compo's  other  Atari
side,  that of system  upgrades.   Clearly,   ST  users are convinced  the
machine  they  own is capable of great things and if Atari is too  lax  to
supply  the goods,  there are companies  in  the  wings who will  be  only
too  willing  to assist the continuation of the machine  Commodore  owners
love to knock.

Anyway  I digress,   That's  Write  2  is  the  top  of  the   range  Word
Processor  from Compo,  the economy  model,   Write  On was reviewed  many
issues  back,  with  I  must  add,   complimentary  comments  but  clearly
placing  the  program in  the  mid  ground  between  Word  Processing  and
Desktop Publishing.  That's Write 2  retains  the relativity to DTP but is
a few steps nearer  to  the  dedicated  Word Processors in terms of  speed
and ease of use.

Based  in Germany,  Compo claim to  be the largest publisher  of  software
for  the  ST  in  their  home  country  and  over   the   years,  customer
relationships  have developed with the 'Compo Helpline',  here in  the  UK
manned by Neal O'Nions,  help is readily available for registered users at
times convenient to most and not just 'office hours'.


                            First Impressions
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That's  Write  is claimed to support  most common printers and  of  course
most  Epson  compatibles are catered for as  well as the HP  Deskjets  and
the  Atari SLM804.  There is one very notable exception,  the newer  Epson
with  Esc  P2  vector  fonts  are  not  yet  supported  and   the  nearest
installation  falls back to the LQ360,  too far from the  capabilities  of
the printer,  however the installation gives  15 usable fonts, at least 10
being  available   on   standard  installation.   A   useful  addition  to
That's  Write  is 'C Font' converting  the many commercial and  PD  vector
fonts  available  for  Calamus  into  bit  image  format  for  use  within
That's  Write  as well as other  GEM programs including  'Timeworks'  from
GST.

For  me,  spelling  is  an  important  feature  of  a  Word  Processor,  a
110,000  word  English Dictionary  is  supplied  and words  not  supported
can  be added to  either  the  main  or  a  supplementary   file.  Alas  a
Thesaurus is not included which is a great pity, not vital but nice.

Multi  Column,  newspaper style  printing  is  easily achieved,  once  the
technique  has  been ascertained although  explanation  in the  manual  is
not  too  clear and the default  measuring  system  of  Picas ( 1  Pica  =
.1")  can be a little confusing,  however  the results look good  and  the
inbuilt  page  preview gives the overall impression of the  finished  work
without  having  to resort to  a  full  printout  until  all the  text  is
complete.

Mail  Merge  is relatively painless  and  can  utilise any  database  that
can  save  comma delimited ASCII text and uses field numbers  rather  than
names  in  the format #1#  .This  will  introduce  the text from  field  1
into  your  mail merge document  and  is  easier than having  to  remember
obscure names that were created when the database was set up.

To  illustrate text,  .IMG files  can  be  imported and  re-scaled  either
with  the  mouse or keyboard but this was restricted to occupying  a  full
line  width,  I was not able to achieve flow-round text so  unless  multi-
column  printing  was the current setting  then the image  does  sometimes
look a little out of place.


                            Later Impressions
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I  cannot  give an in-depth  user  view  of  That's  Write from  the  very
short  period of use,  however  John  Weller  has been using  the  program
for  a few  months  now  and  at  the  time  of  writing  should   have  a
complimentary  user's  eye  view  of  the  program  so  I  will   only  be
scratching skin deep.

Installation  of That's Write was easy,   simply clicking on  Install  was
all  there was to it,  there is even  a routine to make backup  copies  of
the  master disks.  The one  disconcerting  problem  is that with  4  megs
installed,  for  some reason an error report says the dictionary  has  not
been  installed due to  lack  of  disk  space,   however the  Readme  docs
point  this  out and ignoring the  error leaves the  dictionary  installed
and usable.

When  loaded,  That's Write looks clean  and  uncluttered on my  high  res
screen  and  the GEM menu bar  across  the top is sufficiently  simple  to
allow  the manual to be left in its rigid cover for most of  the  time.  I
would  like  some method of loading several fonts by default  rather  than
just  one  but this  was  not  apparently  possible although  the  default
font  could be  changed  easily.   A  way  around  this  is  to  load  the
required  fonts onto a blank page,   then  simply save the document  as  a
sort of template,  this does work but  I  like to see a little elegance if
possible.

I  was  initially confused by the  supposed WYSIWYG when I  first  printed
out  a  test document as I had  used  the  default font Pica BUT  had  the
printer  set to Script,   hence  when  printing  out  there  was  quite  a
difference  between the Screen & Paper images.  I think a  refinement  for
future updates could be font indication somewhere on the menu bar.

Speed  is all important with  a  word  processor,   Write  On could  be  a
little  slow at times,  this seems  to  be  cured with That's  Write  with
the  exception of changing the font on a large  block,  particularly  when
point  sizes differ,   the  font  appears  to  change  first  and  then  a
formatting  routine steps in and justifies everything.  Not too  slow  but
noticeable.  Speed   of  selection  of  a  particular  function   is  also
important  and with the GEM  base,   little  learning  time is  needed  to
produce  documents,  however ALL functions  are  selectable by  key  press
that are easy to get used to  so  for the faster typist,  the mouse can be
discarded.

A  neat  feature in the File  Menu  is 'Last Version' which  will  restore
the  last  version of the  document  you  are  editing that was  saved  to
disk so when making minor changes  for  instance and you delete a load  of
text  or  whatever,  you   can  quickly  re-start  without  much  messing.
Another  useful  feature in the  File  Menu is 'Disk  Functions'  allowing
Delete/Copy etc. without exiting the program.

The standard block Move,  Copy,  Delete  etc.   is easily achieved with  a
useful  Clipboard  function  allowing  Text  or  Graphics  to   be  stored
outside  the  document and pasted for  instance  in another file  or  even
another program (if that program supports the Atari Clipboard).

Footnotes,   Header,   Hyphenation   settings,    Page  numbering,   Index
Generation  and   multi-document  editing  are  all  simple   to  achieve,
although at times I did find the  manual not too clear,  however in all  a
pleasant program to work with.

Minimum  requirement  for That's Write -  any  Atari  ST with at  least  1
meg  of memory and 2  floppy  disk  drives,   the program  comes  complete
with  manual ,  C Font 2 together with some more fonts to  convert,  TRech
Pocket  Calculator,  That's Snap,  Keyshow and a Macro Editor and all  for
the princely sum of £130.

Contact:

         Compo Software Ltd,  7 Vinegar Hill,  Alconbury Weston,
               Huntingdon,  PE17 5JA.     Tel:  [phone]





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                ∙                                        ∙
                ∙      THAT'S  REVIEWERS  FOR  YOU!      ∙
                ∙                                        ∙
                ∙  or A User's View of 'That's Write 2'  ∙
                ∙                                        ∙
                ∙             by John Weller             ∙
                ∙                                        ∙
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Most  software reviews suffer from the same problem;  the reviewer  is  by
definition  new to the programme and can only deliver an overview  of  it,
rather than a full test based on a long period of use.   The best that the
reader  can hope for is that the reviewer is experienced in the *type*  of
programme  under  review,  and  is conscientious enough to  do  more  than
simply copy chunks of the manual into his or her review.

And  there's  the rub.   Most of the reviews published in  the  commercial
magazines are ill-informed,  inaccurate,  and written by hacks who have no
knowledge  of,  and  even less interest in,  the type of  programme  under
review.   And that, dear reader, is why a badly bugged programme can still
get a glowing review in most magazines.

'That's Write 2' has been enthusiastically reviewed in all of the  comics,
but  very  few of the reviewers seem to have used the programme  for  more
than  a day.   The tempting features of the new version  are  listed,  but
none  of the writers thought to investigate how stable (or otherwise)  the
programme is,  how easy or otherwise it is to work with,  or how many bugs
it contains.   And let's make no mistake - all programmes are bugged,  but
some are more buggered than others.


                            That's The Truth!
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I've worked with TW2 for six months now,  and use it for an average of two
to  three hours every day.  Its main use is for correspondence  (I  prefer
the unfussy 1st Word Plus for articles and straight text entry),  but  the
reason I chose it was because it came with a good reputation,  was capable
of  using several fonts at once,  had a built-in Outliner,  and came  with
good picture-handling facilities.   And let's be honest here - it was also
a free review copy....

Installing  the  programme  onto  my hard drive was  simply  a  matter  of
choosing  which  features  I wanted to install,  and  then  following  the
prompts.  The  programme  now  occupies just under 3 Meg  of  my  wordpro-
cessing  partition,  but  a lot of this is taken up by the 300  DPI  fonts
needed for my HP Deskjet.

The installation may have been simple,  but getting to grips with the pro-
gramme was another matter.   'That's Write' is different from any other WP
that  I've ever used in that it is paragraph,  rather than text  or  word-
based.   You  can define a wide range of paragraph styles,  with each  one
having  its own defaults for fonts,  lettering  style,  tabbing,  distance
between lines,  and justification.   The drawback is that it's not so easy
to  alter the style as you go along;  you choose,  let's  say,  the  Times
font  and  set  it to bold,  only to find your text  appearing  in  italic
Proportional, or whatever default was set for that style of paragraph.

This  took  me a long time to get used to and I'm still not sure  if  it's
the  best structure for a general-purpose wordprocessor.   Having a  range
of  previously defined paragraph and page layouts means that it's easy  to
chop  and change between particular styles and layouts,  but how often  do
you really need to do this?   The examples given in the manual and on disc
include Academic papers,  theses, footnotes, and chapter headings, but how
many  people use their wordprocessor for anything more than  writing  let-
ters?  Give me a streamlined programme any day.


                             Just Like That!
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But these are minor problems,  compared with the number of useful  options
in  the  programme.   My favourite feature is the  'Print  Preview'  mode,
which displays a reduced size overview of the document.   This allows  you
to  check  the layout of your document before printing it and  make  sure,
for  example,  that  all illustrations are centred,  and that  the  'Yours
Sincerely' sign-off hasn't been shunted to the top of a blank page.

The font-handling is particularly straightforward and,  although the pro-
gramme  uses slightly modified GDOS fonts,  there's none of the lunacy  of
having  to  create a new Assign.sys file and reboot whenever  you  need  a
different font!   With TW2 you simply select 'Load Font' from a  drop-down
menu,  double-click  on the font you want,  and there it is,  loaded  into
memory  and  ready for use.   Up to twenty fonts can loaded  and  used  at
once; a true typographic nightmare.

I've yet to try out the 'Instructions' and 'Macros' modes,  but these  may
be  useful  to me in future (or maybe not).   These options allow  you  to
automate any sets of operations that you might want to use more than  once
but, let's be honest here, are only neccessary if you have a real need for
them; 99% of users will simply ignore them.


                       That's About The Size Of It!
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The main problems I encountered were that:

*  Illustrated  documents  saved  out as very  large  files.   My  average
letter length (without pictures) in 1st Word Plus would have been 10K;  in
Script, it expanded to 30K, and in That's Write 2 I now average 100 - 200K
per file, with long  and heavily illustrated letters taking up  some 300 -
500K.  The day of the 1 Meg letter is not far off!

*  Pictures take up a lot more space in a TW2 document.   A 138K,  300 DPI
scan produces a 240K file when used as a letterheading with four lines  of
text.  Presumably TW2 saves any IMG data in an uncompressed format.

*  Files with illustrations take a long,  loooong time to  load,  although
you can save a lot of time by switching the 'Show IMGs' option off.

*  The 'Save as ASCII' option is only useful when you choose the 'CR/LF at
the end of each line' setting.   Selecting 'CR/LF at the end of each para-
graph' produces files that will crash 1st Word Plus.

*  Pictures cannot be laid out on the same lines as text.  You can put the
picture  anywhere  on the page,  but you can't have  text  around  it,  or
alongside it.   This is rather strange in a programme that sees itself  as
a document processor, rather than a straight wordprocessor.

*  The manual doesn't have an index, only a table of contents, which means
that you can waste a lot of time before you find the information that  you
need.   I still haven't worked out how to put footers into a document,  or
perform  some of the more arcane operations.   The lack of an index  would
perhaps  be forgiveable if there wasn't a 'Generate Index' option  in  the
programme itself....  I assume that Compo used TW2 to prepare the manual?


                               That's Odd!
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Bugs (bügƒ?), and other undocumented features:

*  The  cursor  often changes position when you go to select  a  different
typeface or lettering style.  You occasionally find yourself typing in the
style  and  typeface  that  you want,  but in the  middle  of  a  previous
paragraph...

*  Beware saving to an almost full disc or hard-drive partition!  TW2 will
save the header and then freeze up:  heart attack time!  This is  the most
serious bug that I've found (I've had to do a *lot* of retyping because of
it)  and one that could easily have been avoided by having  the  programme
check  for free disc space before saving,  and then display a 'disc  full'
message if there's not enough room for the complete file.


                          That's Entertainment!
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That's Write 2 is enjoyable to use, but there are a few questions that any
prospective purchaser should ask:

*  "Is  it  as good as it's made out to be?"  I'd say "Yes",  but  with  a
reservation  about the high price.   TW2 is a  particularly  well-featured
programme,  but  one that takes a lot of hands-on use to feel at home  in.
Many of its options will only be of interest to a minority of users  (when
did you last put a footnote into a document,  or need to generate a  Table
of Contents or an Index?), but for any serious writers who need a built-in
Outliner  and  the ability to store a wide range of  layouts  and  styles,
then  it  offers good value for money.   For users who only want a  WP  to
write  letters  in,  but who still want good graphics and  font  handling,
then Calligrapher Lite is a cheaper and better option.  (See Evelyn Mill's
review of in this issue.)

I'm honestly not the best person to answer this question,  as I think that
there  are  very few programmes that are really 'worth'  more  than  £100.
Compo's  Recommended  Retail  Price for TW2 is  £130,  but  I've  seen  it
offered  at  £109 by the Cambridge Business Centre and  secondhand  copies
are currently selling for £60 - £80.

*  "Is  it  a Word Processor or a cut-down DTP programme?"   A  very  good
question!   TW2's What You See Is What You Get (or 'WSYIWYG') display will
give  you many happy (but not really productive) hours of  playing  around
with  a document's look and layout,  but it fortunately falls short  of  a
full-blown  DTP programme's complications.  The best way to look at it  is
as a Document Processor - a way of producing high-quality text and layout.

Liz  and I use TW2's multiple column mode to produce an illustrated  news-
letter for our local Falconry Club;  this is a quicker,  cheaper and  less
complex option than using Calamus or PageScream 2.

*  "Would  you recommend it?"   Yes,  I certainly would.   My previous  WP
was  a  German  programme called 'Script' that needed at least  1  Meg  of
memory and a mono display.   It wasn't as well-featured as That's Write 2,
but  it  made up for it in its intuitiveness and ease of  use.   The  only
problem  was  that  it  never sold very well in the UK  and  that  when  I
upgraded  my printer to an HP Deskjet,  I couldn't find laser versions  of
my favourite fonts.   I was then sent a review copy of TW2 and decided  to
test it by using it exclusively for a few weeks.   It's now six months  on
and I'm still using it...  Need I say any more?



                             And That's That!




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