🚀 go-pugleaf

I've been following the FullWrite discussion on comp.sys.mac, and would like
to thank all of the contributors for their interesting observations.  I too
have found MS Word buggy, clumsy, and frustrating, and looked forward to the
official release of FullWrite with great anticipation.  I've been using it for
a few weeks now.  Here's some more or less random first impressions of version
1.0.
 
The user interface is GREAT.  The icon bar/panel/sidebar way of doing things
is very elegant and powerful, and most of the other features are also very
nicely implemented.  This is one of the most well designed programs I've seen
on the Mac.
 
I'm a firm believer in reading manuals from cover to cover when I start using
a new program, so I worked through the learning guide the day my copy of
FullWrite arrived.  Since then I've only had to look things up on very rare
occasions.
 
I've used FullWrite on my 1 meg SE at home, on my 2.5 meg SE at work, and
briefly on a Mac II.
 
On my 1 meg SE I use FullWrite with no INITs other than Vaccine and a startup
sound INIT, no debugger, no RAM cache, and of course SoloFinder.  It is
usable, but it runs low on memory very quickly.  For example, with a five page
single column document with two sidebars, one picture, and a few footnotes, I
was unable to check spelling because of insufficient memory.  The manual
claims that 25-30 pages per chapter of single column text will fit on a 1 meg
machine, but I haven't tested this.  It seems clear that sidebars, pictures,
multiple columns and other fancy features use up memory quickly.

On my SEs FullWrite can be slow.  It sometimes can't keep up with my fast
typing, which is very annoying.  This seems to be a problem mostly inside
panels, with multiple columns, and in other fancy situations.  For simple
single column document text like this I don't notice any speed problems.

FullWrite is very pleasant on a Mac II with lots of memory (>= 2 megs).

I've noticed one oddity with footnotes.  When a column break or page break is
inserted, footnotes are placed at the very bottom of the column or page, with
lots of blank space between the end of the text and the footnotes.  At a
chapter break and the end of the document, however, the footnotes are placed
immediately following the text, not at the bottom of the column or page.  Is
this a feature or a bug?  It seems strange to me.

I recall that someone reported a problem with the Save As format "text only
with line breaks".  Most lines are improperly indented one or more columns.
I've noticed this problem too.  In addition, if automatic hyphenation is
enabled, and if FullWrite decides to hyphenate (which it often does), the
hyphenations are removed when the text is saved in this format.  For example,
if line 12 ends with "foot-" and line 13 starts with "notes are placed", when
you save the file line 12 will end with "footnotes" and line 13 will start
with "are placed".  This screws up the right margin.  These bugs are annoying,
because I'd very much like to use FullWrite to prepare network mail, postings
like this one, and other files destined for uploading and consumption on a
mainframe or mini.  In the case of this posting I'm using FullWrite anyway,
with hyphenation disabled, but I'll have to use an editor to get rid of the
extra leading blanks on lines before I post it.  Yuk!

I'd like to be able to enable and disable automatic hyphenation on a document-
by-document basis, but I don't think this is possible.  The option is global,
selected in the Preferences dialog.

The only time I've seen FullWrite crash was while trying to work with an
outline in a two column document.  The document was only a single page long,
and I was using the full recommended FullWrite memory partition under
MultiFinder on a 2.5 meg SE, so I'm sure it wasn't a memory problem.  I
haven't been able to reproduce the problems, but it happened several times in
different sessions and different situations.

I used to think outlining was for wimps, but I've been using it in FullWrite
quite a bit lately.  It's especially nice as a quick way to get numbered
paragraphs and bullet lists.  No messing with rulers - just select the text,
pick Make Outline from the Edit menu, and then pick Itemize and Format from
the Outline menu.  Except for the crashes with double columns noted above,
I've had no problems with outlining, and I find FullWrite's facilities for
outlining very natural.  Other people have complained about it in their
postings, and I wonder why.  I've never used any other outliners, however, so
I can't compare FullWrite with anything else.  I also haven't attempted
outlines that span chapters, although the manual says this is possible.

Sizing sidebars is very clumsy, as many people have already noted.  This is my
only major complaint about sidebars.  I'd especially like to see an option to
automatically adjust the bottom of the sidebar to fit whatever is placed
inside the sidebar.  Then I could edit sidebar text, making it shorter or
longer, without having to manually resize it each time.  The ability to resize
sidebars directly in the WYSIWYG display would also be enormously useful.

I don't object to FullWrite's draw module at all - I think it's convenient, if
not as powerful as separate drawing applications.  It should cost next to
nothing in terms of memory if it's segmented properly.

I had one problem with printing.  I was preparing for a talk on FullWrite, and
tried to print all the sample documents.  When I printed the Tutorial Sample
Doc (the one pager with the funky picture of a space station), the text
printed on our LaserWriter, but not the picture!  I was using my 2.5 meg SE
with MultiFinder and background printing.  I tried both a LaserWriter and
LaserWriter II, and both of them failed to print the picture.  I have over 4
megs of free disk space.  I turned background printing off and this solved the
problem.  I've since attempted to reproduce this bug without success - it
prints properly today under identical conditions!  A real mystery, and I'm not
at all sure it was FullWrite's fault.  

Many people have remarked that FullWrite's style sheets are not as powerful as
MS Word's.  This is true, and I'd also like to see better style sheets.  I'd
also like more control over page breaks.  I used to use MS Word's "keep
paragraph on page" option, and I miss this feature in FullWrite.  You can use
sidebars for this, but it's not as easy.  I also miss MS Word's "chained"
styles.

I'm using FullWrite with the new System 6.0 release, and I've only noticed one
minor problem.  I have MacroMaker enabled, which adds a tape recorder icon to
the menu bar.  I'm also using MultiFinder.  When I have FullWrite's outlining
view selected, FullWrite's extra Outline menu appears, and the menu bar on an
SE is completely full.  Everything fits, but just barely.  The small FullWrite
icon at the far right side of the menu bar is positioned farther to the right
than usual.  The problem is trying to do a MultiFinder switch by clicking on
the small FullWrite icon.  I have to click on the very left edge of the icon
to get it to work.  If I click on the center or right edge of the icon nothing
happens.

FullWrite DOES NOT properly implement intelligent cut and paste!  For example,
if you double click on a word and delete it you end up with two blanks instead
of one.  This is inexcusable in any Mac word processor.  I'm quite surprised,
since in other respects FullWrite seems to follow Apple's human interface
guidelines quite religiously.

FullWrite doesn't even attempt to do equations.  Most of the people I know
with serious math typesetting needs are using some variety of TEX, and most of
them would very much like to see good WYSIWYG math typesetting in a general-
purpose word processor.
 
Despite all these complaints, I must agree with the rave reviews FullWrite has
been receiving from many of the net reviewers.  I trashed my copy of MS Word
after only a few hours in FullWrite!  I'm more than willing to live with the
inconveniences mentioned above in exchange for FullWrite's amazing power and
elegance.

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John Norstad                                 Bitnet:   JLN@NUACC
Academic Computing and Network Services      Internet: JLN@NUACC.ACNS.NWU.EDU
Northwestern University
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