Fresh Fish 9/FreshFishVol9-CD2.bin/bbs/reviews/text.lha/text/Excellence-vs-FinalCopy

Text File | 1992-09-11 | 31.8 KB | 641 lines

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Path: menudo.uh.edu!usenet
From: [e-mail]
Subject: COMPARISON: excellence! and Final Copy word processors
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Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.applications
Keywords: word processor, commercial
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Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 01:43:59 GMT


[Moderator's note:  When Ken says one product is better than the other in a
certain area, he uses the phrase "Edge to..." to indicate the winner.  For
example, if Final Copy has better graphics, he says "Graphics:  Edge to Final
Copy."  I explain this because some of our non-USA readers might not know
this American slang phrase.  -- Dan]

PRODUCT NAMES

    excellence! version 3.0
    Final Copy  version 1.3.2


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

    This is a review and comparison of two commercial Amiga word
processors.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

    excellence!:

    Name:        Micro-Systems Software
    Address:    12798 Forest Hill Blvd. Suite 202
            West Palm Beach, FL. 33414
    Telephone:    [phone]
    FAX:        [phone]

    Mail Order Price $107.95

    Final Copy:

    Name:        SoftWood Incorporated
    Address:    P.O. Box 50178
            Phoenix, Arizona 85076
    Telephone:    [phone]

LIST PRICE

    excellence!:        List price not given
                Mail order price $107.95
    Final Copy:        List Price $99.00
                Mail Order Price $59.95

COPY PROTECTION

    None.  Both install on hard drive.


PRELIMINARIES

    Let's take care of the preliminaries.  The computer system used to
test and review both programs was a Amiga 2000 equipped with Commodore's 2620
accelerator card, 5 megabytes of system RAM, and a 120 megabyte hard drive.
The printer used was a Hewlett Packard Deskjet 500.  AmigaDos 2.0 and 1.3
were used in evaluating the two programs.  I toggled between 68020 and 68000
to ensure compatibility and performance.

    Note:  excellence! does not capitalize the first letter of its name
and adds the exclamation point at the end.  I'm by no means emphasizing
"excellence!."  Throughout the review, I will spell excellence! this way.


SPECIAL HARDWARE/SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

    Both programs require that your Amiga have at least 1 megabyte of
RAM.  If your computer only has 512k, look elsewhere.  Both programs will
run under AmigaDos 2.0 or 1.3, but excellence! supports certain functions
available only under AmigaDos 2.0.  They are:  Appicon and Appmenu support.

    Final Copy will not work properly under AmigaDos 1.2, or below.
Micro-Systems claims excellence! will work under 1.2, but I was unable to
verify this.  excellence! has been available for the Amiga Since AmigaDos
1.2 (in earlier versions), so it is possible excellence! 3.0 is compatible
with 1.2.

    Both programs can be set up to run from floppy (you need two floppy
drives) or hard drive based Amigas.  To run these programs as they where
designed, it's recommended that you have a hard drive and AmigaDos 2.0.
While quite functional under 1.3, they just run, look, and feel better under
2.0.


INSTALLATION

    Both programs come shipped on 3 non copy-protected disks and install
easily to a hard drive.  Final Copy uses the Installer utility from
Commodore.  excellence! uses its own installer utility.

    Final Copy installed on the hard drive flawlessly the first try.
Final Copy needs 2 megabytes of free hard drive space; of those 2 megabytes,
1 megabyte is for the proportional fonts.  Final Copy does not need an Assign
statement to operate.  Overall, the installation was very intuitive.  To use
Final Copy from a floppy based system, you need two floppy drives and to
supply your own Workbench Disk.

    excellence! installed on the hard drive the first try, but took
slightly more work.  excellence! needs a Assign statement, but the Installer
utility handles the process for you.  All you need to do is supply the
correct path to your startup-sequence, or wherever you keep your Assign
statements.  You need 2.1 free megabytes of hard drive space to install the
full program.  Like Final Copy, excellence! needs two floppy drives and a
copy of Workbench to run on a floppy based system.  There are a few more
things you need to do to install excellence!, but it's all handled within the
Installer program.

    Both installer utilities made the hard drive installation as painless
as possible, so it was difficult to choose a clear winner.  Final Copy's
installation was a touch easier than excellence!.  Once the programs were
installed, they were ready to run.

        Installation:  a tie

SETUP

    While you could just double-click on the program icons and they
would run, there is some setup that needs to be done to get the full benefit
of the programs.  When Final Copy first boots up, you are shown a startup
requester.  This gives you the opportunity to choose your screen type.  Once
you are running the program, you can set your screen preference so this
requester does not appear on startup.  excellence! boots directly into a
Workbench screen (640x200).  You can change your screen size through
Preferences settings.

    excellence! handles preference settings through one requester.  The
main requester branches off into other requesters as you choose your
different settings.  The main requester handles screen display, error
signals, cursor control, control over auto-save, file paths, the measuring
system, virtual memory and font selection on startup.  The other requesters
handle such duties and Grammar Checking Control, Screen Colors, Palette
Control, and Speech Control.  All the requesters have hotkeys to make them
easy to navigate.

    Final Copy uses a modular approach to preferences, with 5 separate
modules.  The modules include display, ASCII file input/output, startup,
speller, and hyphenation.  All the requesters are intuitive.

    Each approach gets the job done.  I do prefer the approach that
excellence! takes towards preferences, I'd rather choose one requester and
then work from there.  Final Copy's approach is not atrocious; it just takes
a little more work.  By working with the preference settings of both
programs, you can customize your work environment to meet your personal needs.

        Setup:  Edge to excellence!


PAGE SETUP

    This is the part of the program that defines your working page.
Both programs have page setup requesters to handle this function.  Each
program comes with a default setup which a new document will use when you
first run the program.  You can customize the page of any document.  Once you
save a document, all page setup information is saved as well.  Each program
has a few different features, but the requesters are similar in operation.

    You can access the Final Copy requester through a menu item or a the
hotkey.  Once the requester is opened, it's very easy to follow.  Final Copy
has predefined Page types which include US Letter, US Legal, A4, A5 and
custom.  If you choose custom you must enter the page size dimensions in a
height and width gadget.  Within the requester, there are gadgets to define
footers, headers, number of columns (6 columns per page), and whether your
document uses the title page in the numbering process.  Final Copy's page
setup requester also contains functions for setting the printing and editing
area of a page.  Printers cannot print to the whole area of the paper, so
with the requester you set the correct dimensions of the print area of your
printer.  The documentation contains examples of setting the print area of
three types of printers.  The edit area defines the area where text will
appear on the page, this is where you would setup your margins.  The default
settings are for a Hewlett Packard LaserJet printer.  Page Setup in Final
Copy is very intuitive.

    The excellence! approach is very similar:  you choose the page setup
requester from the menu.  It has no keyboard equivalent.  Once the requester
is open, you have many setting to control such as page width, height, auto
numbering, headers, footers, footnotes, multiple columns (8) and margins.
There are no predefined page types, so you must enter you page dimensions
through the gadgets.  excellence! does have other settings:  pitch control
and a facing page gadget.  The requester contains hotkeys for every
function.  All that's missing are some predefined page types.

        Page Setup:  Edge to Final Copy

FONTS

    We all know fonts and font support are very important parts of a
word processor.  Each program take its separate routes when it comes to
implementing fonts within the program.

    Final Copy takes the proportional font route only.  These fonts are
proprietary, so Final Copy is the only program that can address them.  Final
Copy does not have the ability to access the Amiga's bitmapped or
Compugraphic outline fonts.  The fonts Final Copy does supply are of very
good quality.  To choose a font, you open the font requester and select the
font.  Once loaded, the font is kept in a submenu for later access.  If you
need to change styles or point sizes, you must make another menu selection.
It has a requester that allows you to set the point size if the predefined
sizes do not suit your needs.  Final Copy supports font sizes from 4-200
points. (One point = 1/72 of an inch.)  Other options include leading
(spacing between lines of type), subscript, superscript, text width, and
case.  It takes some work to setup your font, but the quality is consistent
and good.

    The only downfall to the proprietary font system is that you are at
the mercy of the developer for new fonts.  I doubt that 3rd parties would
supply fonts for Final Copy.  If Softwood somehow allowed access to
Compugraphic fonts, it would enhance this package considerably.  Final Copy
comes with 8 fonts (35 if you want to count the different styles) which are
plenty to get you going.  Softwood has extra font disks for sale.

    excellence! supports the Amiga's bitmapped and Compugraphic fonts.
(Compugraphic support is for OS versions 2.0 or higher.)  Early versions of
excellence! had font menus which limited your font access.  Under
excellence! 3.0, a new font requester replaces the font menu.  The font
requester is very similar in operation to the font requester of Deluxe Paint
4.  You can choose a font and size, and then use the preview window to view
your selection.  excellence! can scale the Amiga's bitmapped fonts to any
size you like (up to a point size of 99); just enter the number in the size
window, and the font is automatically scaled.  Of course, the bitmapped fonts
when scaled do not look nearly as good as the Compugraphic fonts, but with
the proper font and experimentation you can get some OK results.

    excellence! handles Compugraphic fonts the same way as the bitmapped
fonts, by selecting the font and choosing one of the predefined sizes or
entering your own size.  The Compugraphic fonts when scaled look very good.
Like the bitmapped fonts, they are limited to a point size of 99.
excellence! also includes some Postscript fonts which you can copy to your
font directory.  They contain metric information for scaling when printing,
so some setup is required to get any use out of these fonts.  If you have
Professional Page you can also use the fonts included with that package by
using the MetricConvert Utility; again some setup is required.

    Its hard to choose a clear winner in this category.  Final Copy's
fonts are outstanding and offer more sizes and look very good.  However,
excellence! fonts are easily assessable, more versatile, and easier to
manipulate.  If I were to judge on font quality alone I would give the edge
to Final Copy.  However, there is more to fonts than just looks.

        Fonts:  Edge to excellence!

FEATURES

    Most Amiga users tend to be feature creatures, so I will do my best
to reveal both of the programs' best features.  If I miss a certain feature,
it will not be intentional.

    Final Copy's main features and strengths are its use of proportional
fonts and high quality printing.  Final Copy has the basic editing
functions cut, copy, and paste, and it supports the Amiga's clipboard.  It
has a clear function which allows you select any portion of text and clear
it from the document quickly.  The clear function does not support the
clipboard, so if you clear some text it's gone for good.

    Final Copy comes with a spell checker, thesaurus, and hyphenation
system.  The automatic hyphenation system is very good; it's transparent to
the user.  All you need to do it is set the hotzone and let Final Copy do the
work.  You can toggle the hyphenation system on and off.  The spell checker
has options to check just one word or the entire document.  One unique
feature of the spell checker is the built in corrector.  The corrector will
flag certain errors like capitalization and repeating word errors; however,
it is not a grammar checker, but helpful. The thesaurus is good.  It
provides a definition of the word selected and a list of synonyms.  You can
replace any word in the document with a word from the list.  You can get
additional lists of words buy selecting a word from the list and using the
Find button.  You can keep doing this until you find a word of your
inclination.  Final Copy has a document statistics feature that gives you
basic document information like size, words, lines, sentences, paragraphs,
and number of pages.

    Final Copy has several predefined page sizes.  You can set up custom
page sizes with a set of gadgets if the predefined pages do not suit your
needs.  Final Copy includes support for multiple columns (6), multiple page
views (25%-400%), first page as title page, insert date, inset time, and
page numbering.  Page numbering can be set either has numeric, roman
numeral, or Alphabetic.

    Final Copy has Macro support but only through ARexx.  You can assign
10 macros to the function keys.  Any other macros must be ARexx scripts
accessed through a requester.

    With the Ruler Bar, you can make global changes to your document.
In Final Copy, with the paragraph requester you can give each paragraph its
own set of unique attributes such as line spacing, text alignment, indents,
and hyphenation.  One feature of Final Copy is its ability to load documents
from different word processors and retain the formatting.  The word
processors supported are Word Perfect, Pen Pal, and ProWrite.  Final Copy
contains a substantial list of features for a word processor in this price
range.

    excellence! does not suffer in the feature department.  Some of the
features are auto-save, support for Workbench 2.0 screen modes, speaking
capabilities, ARexx, Foreign Language support (German and French), Bookmark,
clipboard support, AppIcon and AppMenu support, cursor rate control, virtual
memory, built in grammar checker, math support, multiple column support (8),
footnotes, headers, footers, auto numbering, postscript support, mail merge,
spell checker, thesaurus, Table of Contents and Index generator, undo
typing, color support, and macro language.

The auto-save function is a welcomed feature, and excellence! handles this
well.  By making a few entries in Preferences requester, you are set.  You
can also set it to warn you when a save is coming.  To abort a auto-save,
press the Esc key.

    The speaking capabilities of excellence! use the Amiga's narrator
device.  Just highlight any portion of your document, select Vocalize, and
the Amiga will speak the contents to you.  excellence! also allows you to
set the error signals to use the narrator device.  I find this feature more
annoying than useful, but this would be a welcome feature for beginners or
the vision-impaired.

    The Bookmark function allows you to place bookmarks throughout your
document.  Once the bookmarks are set, you to jump to different parts of your
document that you specified with the bookmarks.  This is a helpful feature if
you work with large documents.

    excellence! allows the use of virtual memory.  You set up a swap file
in the Preferences requester, and the VM is transparent to the user.
excellence!  defaults to a 1mb swap file.  With tool types, you can increase
or decrease the swap file.

    The math function in excellence! is easy and simple to use.  Just
type in your formula, highlight it, and choose the Math function from the
Edit Menu.  The results will be stored in the clipboard.  Use the paste
function to place the results into your document.  The math function
supports the basic math operators and exponents.

    The Spell Checker will check the entire document or will check as
you type.  The Thesaurus is excellent:  it gives you a definition of the word
plus synonyms, antonyms, related, comparable, or contrasting.  Each of these
can be toggled off through checkboxes.  You can also step through the list
of words like Final Copy allows.  The built in Grammar Checker is also very
good.  It has a multitude of configuration checkboxes that you set through
the Preference requester.  The Grammar Checker allows you save your document
errors to a file.  This enables you to load in a document, run the Grammar
Checker, and leave.  When you come back you can scan the errors file and make
your adjustments.  excellence! also supports Hyphenation.  You can hyphenate
a selected word or the entire document.  While not quite as eloquent as Final
Copy, it works.

    excellence! has a Document Summary function which is the equivalent
to the Document Statistics feature of Final Copy.  The Index and Table of
Contents generators operate the same.  You mark your entries with the
appropriate command.  When you're done, use the generate function, and your
Table of Contents or Index will be stored in the clipboard.  Then just paste
the contents into the appropriate place in your document.

    excellence! does not support different view modes.  It does have a
Print Preview which will give you a full page preview of your document.  You
cannot do any editing in the Print Preview mode.  excellence! supports Mail
Merging and you can have more than one record per page.  You can also sort
paragraphs in ascending or descending order.

    One unique feature of excellence! is Insert Literal.  This allows you
to bring up a requester which contains the entire 256 character set.  You can
scroll through the list, choose the character, and it's automatically
inserted into your document. This is great for finding that mysterious
copyright character.

    Macro support in excellence! is the most powerful feature of the
program.  It's handled through what Micro-Systems calls the Document
Glossary.  The Document Glossary is a program module that controls and makes
your macros, hotkeys, and ARexx scripts.  With the Document Glossary, you can
gain control over the program by customizing to your individual word
processing needs.  For example, you can create and launch ARexx scripts
directly or assign them to an Amiga Key.  You can also create macros, select
menu items, load text, IFF pictures, store Letterheads or style sheets, and
all can be assigned to any combination of Amiga keys.  The Document Glossary
is very versatile, and its power is easily accessible by the average user.

        Features:  Edge to excellence!

INTERFACE

    Both programs shine in this area.  Both have the new 3D look
throughout the program.  Even under Workbench 1.3 the new look is retained.
If you use 1.3, some color adjustment maybe necessary.  With the new
interface, the programs gain a polished look.

    excellence! is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) word
processor, so what you see on the screen is generally close to what your
output going to be.

    excellence! makes use of proportional fonts in the requesters and
menus, keeping them readable no matter what screen resolution you choose.  A
important part of any program's interface is the file requester, and the file
requester in excellence! is outstanding.  It supports the main features plus
some powerful others like pattern matching and hotkeys.  The file requester
supports the all the normal Amiga wildcards, including the new ones of
Workbench 2.0.  It also tells you how much free space is available in your
current path.

    When using Amiga word processors, it is best to use an interlaced
screen to display as much of the page as possible.  Of course, if you don't
have a de-interlacer, this means suffering the dreaded interlace "flicker!"
excellence! helps diminish this problem very effectively by providing a
nice selection of contrasting colors.  You can adjust the colors that will
work best with to your particular monitor.  excellence! supports a 2-16
color interface and supports Workbench 2.0 enhanced modes.

    Keyboard support is OK with most of the major menu items accessible
through hotkeys.  The excellence! interface is consistent throughout with
emphasis on Workbench 2.0, with support for radio buttons, cycle gadgets,
push-buttons, checkboxes and slider gadgets.  One of the better interface
features is the hotkey support within the program requesters.  For example,
if you had the preference requester open and choose the hotkey Right-Amiga-C,
you would be get the Colors requester allowing you adjust your screen colors.
All the excellence! requesters operate in this manner.

    The excellence! screen layout is similar to early versions of the
program with cosmetic changes and some new additions.  excellence! has the
usual Ruler bar, tab markers, justification gadgets, and spacing gadgets.
The new additions are the font, font size, and style gadgets.  The new font
and style gadgets make it very easy to change a documents fonts and style
types just by highlighting the text and clicking the appropriate gadget.
(This is very similar to how the smart icons of AmiPro work.  Note:  AmiPro
is a Word Processor for PC clones.)

    excellence! has a gadget on the bottom right of the screen that
keeps track of your document page number and total pages.  If you click on
the gadget, a requester will appear giving you some information about the
document length and the ability to jump to a specific page number.

    Final Copy is also a WYSIWYG word processor.  Final Copy's interface
supports the new 3D look and is very slick and clean.  The file requester is
not as robust as the one in excellence!, but it's quite functional.  It does
have a button you select for saving ASCII or Final Copy format documents.

    Final Copy can use up to a 16 color Workbench.  It has no provision
for adjusting pallets or colors within the program like excellence!.  It
must be done through Workbench preferences.  Final Copy supports up to a
hi-res interlace screen.  The interlace screen looks good, but screen
flicker is more noticeable than in excellence!.

    All the requesters throughout the program are well designed and easy
to read and use.  Final Copy's document window has the standard Ruler bar,
justification, tab selectors and margin makers.  It also has a hyphenation
selector and hot zone which make hyphenation a snap and automatic.

    If you have Workbench 2.0 or later, it supports the zoom gadget,
which helps when working with multiple documents.  You can keep track of
your page number by looking at a small window at the bottom left of the
screen.  Final Copy has excellent hotkey support.

    Both interfaces were easy to navigate.  More Amiga programs should
follow these examples.

        Interface:  Edge to Excellence!

GRAPHICS

    excellence! has graphic support, but it's limited.  It will load any
standard IFF mode except HAM and 24 bit IFF.  When you load a picture into
excellence! it remaps the image to match the excellence! display.  For
example, if load a 32 color image, and are using a 4 color excellence!
screen display, the program will match the image the best it can with those
4 screen colors.  Once loaded into excellence!, a image cannot be
interactively moved with the mouse.  The only way you can move it is with the
cursor.  Careful planing is a must when placing graphics.  excellence! does
treat images like text, so you can cut, copy, and paste images.  excellence!
can re-size and crop images; however, you cannot flow text around a image,
which is a major limitation.  excellence! does not contain any drawing tools
or functions.

    One area I guess would be graphics related is that you can change
the foreground and background colors of your text.  You must have a color
printer to take advantage of this feature.

    Final Copy's graphic support is excellent.  You can load any IFF
image including 24 bit.  Final Copy does not display the image in color but
remaps the picture to a grey scale.  There was a color option in the
preferences settings, but no matter what I picked, it always mapped the
image to a grey scale representation.  Final Copy does retains all color
information for printing.  Final Copy has much more control over graphics
than excellence!.  You can set the image to be transparent so your text can
flow nicely around any image, and Final Copy can draw borders around your
image in various point sizes to enhance the look.  Once inserted, an image
can moved, sized and cropped.  Like excellence!, Final Copy does not have
any drawing tools.  The graphics features of excellence! just don't measure
up against Final Copy.

        Graphics:  Edge Final Copy


OUTPUT

    You've heard the old saying "what good is a word processor without
good output?" (I think that's how it went?)  Both do it very well with Final
Copy getting the edge in print quality.  Both programs support Postscript.

    excellence! uses the system's bitmapped and Compugraphic outline
fonts.  It also includes a set of Postscript fonts (Times, Courier,
Helvetica and a symbol font): not a complete set, but a enough to get you by
until you find a source for more.  The ProPage DTP package is a good source
for more fonts.

    excellence! has four printing modes:  draft, NLQ, graphics and
Postscript.  Draft mode will print text only.  NLQ mode will let you control
print density and the other setting through the AmigaDos Printer
preferences.  In NLQ mode you can print text and graphics.  Graphic print
mode does a screen dump of your document.  With the proper setup you can get
some very good results.  Graphic Printing mode, however, is very slow.
Postscript mode allows you print to the serial and parallel port, or you can
send it to a file you specify.  If your printer driver supports it,
excellence! will allow you to use your printer's internal fonts.  excellence!
does a good job of printing and gives you a few different avenues to choose
from.  It will take some experimentation to find what works best for you.

    Final Copy's output is very good and the better of the two.  It
offers the same types or printing modes as excellence!:  draft, NLQ,
Postscript and graphic.  Final Copy's print requester is very good, and all
the settings can be made from Final Copy so you don't have to go Workbench
Preferences to make changes when printing graphics.  Final Copy has a option
to send color information to a Postscript printer and comes with a
Postscript driver.  You can send Postscript output to the serial or parallel
ports, or to a file.  Overall, the output quality is very good and consistent
and easier to setup than excellence!.

        Output:  Edge to Final Copy


AREXX

    Both programs support ARexx.  You must have AmigaDos 2.0 or a copy
of the ARexx language to have access ARexx facilities of each program.

    excellence! can run ARexx programs two ways:  you can use the
Document Glossary keyword to run a external ARexx script, or load the actual
script into the glossary a run it as a normal macro.  With the Glossary and
ARexx you're not limited to the function keys for your macros.  You can use
any combination of Amiga keys.

    excellence! seems to have a OK command set to communicate with
outside programs and comes with some sample scripts you can study to help
you understand how excelence! uses ARexx.  The ARexx documentation could be
better.

    Final Copy's ARexx design seems more adapted to be a interactive
macro language than to communicate with external programs.  You can just
about automate every menu function with ARexx in Final Copy.  You can only
assign 10 ARexx Macros in Final Copy to the function keys.  Any other ARexx
scripts must be executed from a menu command called "other."  Final Copy
comes with no ARexx examples so beginnerss are going to have trouble making
macros.  Final Copy's ARexx communication with outside programs is weak.

        ARexx:  Edge to excellence!


DOCUMENTATION

    The excellence! manual is large: over 300 pages, though I did notice
there was quite a bit of white space.  It comes in a 3 ring binder similar
to the AmigaDos 2.0 manual, but you can at least lift this one without going
to the gym.  Each chapter has physical divider tabs which aids in using the
documentation.  The 2nd chapter is a tutorial that steps through the various
functions of the program.  The more advanced features of the program are
explained in later chapters.  There are a fair amount of screenshots that
help you along.  The Table of Contents, Glossary and Index are good and easy
to use.  The supplemental manual for people upgrading needs some work.  It
just does not cover the new features of the program that well.

    The Final Copy documentation is spiral bound and the layout is easy
on the eyes.  One nice touch is the mini Table of Contents for each
chapter.  The manual is full of screen shots which are much better than the
ones in excellence.  The tutorial covers all the major parts of the program
and is easy to follow.  I did find that in some areas the documentation just
did not go far enough in explaining features or functions.  The manual has a
Table of Contents, Glossary and Index.  The Index needs work:  it's really
light.

    The documentation of both programs is good, but not great.  I would
like to see Amiga manuals that cover these types of programs to do a better
job of explaining features.  Experimenting with a program is fine, but there
is no excuse for not explaining a program's features.  On-line help would
help would be a nice touch.

        Documentation:  Edge to Final Copy


SUGGESTIONS/COMPLAINTS

    I would like to see Final Copy somehow get access to Compugraphic
Fonts.  I hate being locked into that proprietary font route.  Support for
the AmigaDos ASL file requester would be a plus.  ARexx support needs
revamping and there are no ARexx examples anywhere in documentation or
program disks; this is going to hurt beginners.  The documentation could be
more complete.  The biggest gripe I have about the program is the way you
have to access the fonts, making all those menu selections for simple
changes, gets tiresome after a while.  I would also like the ability to
toggle the Ruler Bar on and off.  One major feature missing is a mail merge
function.

    excellence! needs to improve its graphics support.  It can't load
certain IFF modes, and once you do get the graphics into the program, there's
not much you can do with it.  It's hard to believe that a word processor of
this caliber lacks the ability to flow text around graphics.  Hotkey support
could be better.  I would also like to see the program offer different page
views for editing and allow for point sizes larger than 99.


OVERALL

    While working with these programs, I never once had a system crash.
This does not mean they are bug-free, but both programs were very stable.

    excellence! is decidedly the better word processor of the two, it
just offers more power to user than Final Copy.  It would be good a good
choice for long documents or book projects.  The interface is good, the
program is easy to use, and the macro system is one of the better ones I
seen in a Amiga program.  If you just want one word processor for your Amiga
excellence! would be a good choice.

    Final Copy is a very good program.  Its graphics support is good,
the output quality is great, and the program is cheap.  This program would be
great for smaller projects or whipping out letters, but it lacks several
features needed for serious projects.  If your needs are light, mainly for
letters and memos, Final Copy would be a excellent choice.

Copyright 1992 <<Ken Sequeira>> All rights reserved
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