🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <39102@sun.uucp> chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
>I just spent 20 minutes with the demo that Ann Arbor Software is giving away
>at Macworld Expo. It is a mostly functional version of FWP (among the
>missing things are spellchecking and the thesaurus, along with other
>features I probably haven't figured out exists yet).

The thesaurus and dictionary that came with the beta (and which are referred
to in the documentation) are by Microlytics -- the thesarus IS the excellent
Word Finder thesaurus, integrated into the product, and the reference manual
states that the spelling checker uses the "SpellFinder technology".  I think
this is an excellent move -- why re-invent the wheel when someone else has
done it so much better?  Integrate it into your product, pay the original
creator and save yourself time and headaches.  Rewards excellence, too.

>It supports a good subset of layout functions, primarily oriented towards
>memos, reports and technical documents. It doesn't look like FWP would
>handle a publication like OtherRealms or graphically oriented ad copy like
>PageMaker does, but for the most common "desktop publishing" functions --
>corporate work rather than commercial -- it looks great.

Examine the "sidebar" functionality -- I think it could do quite a bit for
the more graphically-oriented publications (but I haven't seen OtherRealms
on paper, so I can't say for sure).

>What doesn't it have? Good question. Probably a kitchen sink. It doesn't
>have equation processing (AAS said to use something like MacEQN, or do it
>in the draw function. It's an obscure enough function that I'm sure it
>doesn't make sense putting the effort into doing it for the number of people
>who care. Table of Contents, on the other hand..... And that they DID do.)

Yeah, that was the only major thing I noticed it not having -- but Word does
such a sloppy job of it, and MacEQN such a good one, that I think that it's
not much of a drawback.

It also doesn't have the "hidden" text attribute; but this is pointless,
since it allows you to hide outline headings (which was the only place I
used the hidden attributes in outline mode), and post-it notes (little notes
which appear as icons in the icon margin -- double-click them, and they
appear in all their glory, but they don't print).

The only real inconvenience I can think of will be that, as of the beta
version, FullWrite doesn't read Word files (1.05 or 3.x).  It does read
MacWrite files (Chuq, please test those out with the demo version -- see how
well it runs), so you can convert most of your Word files downward.  If that
is true for the release, it will be a little awkward during the switch from
Word to FullWrite -- possibly more than some people who have become
accustomed to Word will want to make.  Not me, though -- having worked on
the FW beta for the weekend (with docs), my opinion of FW is about twice as
enthusiastic as Chuq's is.

>Damn, I wish I had the documentation. I want to know what I'm missing.

Well, let me take a look through the reference manual (flip, flip, flip...):

-   The ability to "classify" a section of text or an illustration -- and
    then insert "citations" to that illustration anywhere (a graphic window
    pops up, you pick the illustration or section of text, and then the darn
    thing asks you how you would like that citation to look -- via radio
    buttons, of course!  Yow!).

-   Automatic repagination (but you knew that, didn't you?).  And their
    WYSWIG mode is MUCH easier to use (though the standard mode is very
    close to WYSWIG).  

-   Any kind of placement (or kerning -- yes, they have that, though just
    between characters) is done giving you the choice of various
    measurements -- lines, inches, centimeters, pixels, points, picas.

-   Auto save options and file compaction (slower save).  Smart
    Quotes option (just like the Smart Quotes INIT, I imagine).

-   God, is this thing Maccish. (just had to say that)

-   Can save in "Template" mode -- opening up a Template FullWrite document
    is like opening up a Word document in Read-Only mode.  You can't
    overwrite it -- PERFECT for letter and article templates.  I always
    forget to use Read-Only mode in Word once a month, and overwrite my
    template letter with a lot of junk.

-   Tried the keyboard equivalences?  They have ones for the major
    functions, but any menu item can be pulled down by hitting a two key
    sequences -- one a numeric one that pulls down the menu (for instance,
    Clover-1 for the FILE menu (which it pulls down without you ever
    touching the mouse), and then Clover-n, where n is the nth item on the
    menu that doesn't already have a key equivalence (since the menu's down,
    you can see the n listed next to the item).  Very logical.  Oh, and you
    can walk down them with the arrow keys, if you find the mouse
    inconvenient to word processing.

-   Bookmarks... set one up (a text label), and then you can go to it by
    selecting it from a selection box.  This babe is built for BIG
    documents.

-   Gray scale for text -- ANYWHERE!  Paragraphs!  Drawings!  Double Yow!

-   *ahem*  Get ahold of yourself, Meyer.

-   Want to place a picture in the text?  A cinch.  Check the SIDEBAR option
    out -- lets you pop the picture in.  Gives you a choice as to how text
    should wrap around it -- either a lasso (text wraps around the outlines)
    or a rectangle (a marquee -- text wraps around a square enclosing the
    graphic).  Of course, you can have it draw a border around the marquee,
    automatically, set the gray scale of the background, etc., etc....

-   Dictionary is bigger than Word's -- 100,000 words; and the thesaurus is
    Word Finder, which says it all (220,000 entries).

By the way, for anyone who wants to convert their User Dictionaries over
from Word to FullWrite:  I looked at the User Dictionaries for both
programs.  FullWrite's is fairly complicated, but Word's is a bunch of words
seperated (I think) by tabs.  Probably use DiskTop or ResEdit to change the
dicitionaries type to text, read it into FullWrite as a text document, and
run the spelling checker on it; insert the words manually into FullWrite's
dictionary.  If someone can get a format specification for the FullWrite
dictionary, it'd be a lead-pipe cinch to convert the things over on Unix.

--------------------

Anyway, I can't think of a product that has surpassed my expectations more
than FullWrite Professional; I've tested the beta this weekend (not under
MultiFinder, though), and no explosions.  If Chuq and I were Siskel and
Ebert, I guess we'd both be giving this two thumbs up each.

I know you're used to seeing ecstatic reviews about new Mac products, but
believe me, no product since the Mac was released has excited me more.  I
spend a lot of time writing, and THIS is what I have been wanting -- this is
the word processor I imagined (without detailing the features) when I first
saw the Mac and decided to buy it.  HyperCard is probably a more
interesting/novel/amazing product, but for me, no product will be more
useful -- or more used -- than FullWrite Professional.  I have, after two
days of intense use, no reason to believe there are any serious bugs in it
(and, as said elsewhere, many reasons to believe there is not -- AA does not
want a repeat of the Word 3.0 disaster).

That is, as soon as my release copy gets here (TIM, DID YOU BUY ME A COPY AT
EXPO?!  I'LL TAKE AN I.O.U. FROM ANN ARBOR!  I'LL TAKE SCRIPT!  I'LL TAKE IT
REFUNDABLE IN CONFEDERATE MONEY!).

                            "Butter becomes weightless?.... Raymond Burr
                             must be in orbit by now." 

                                        Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET:     moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP:  {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, hplsla, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO:        You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>