🚀 go-pugleaf

From: todd@uhccux.UUCP (The Perplexed Wiz)
Date: 19 Jun 87 09:59:18 GMT
References: <20932@sun.uucp>
Organization: U. of Hawaii, Manoa (Honolulu)

In article <20932@sun.uucp> seismo!oddjob!sphinx!pre1 (Grant Prellwitz) writes:
>appears that the two programs vying for the lead in the IBM-compatible
>world right now are clearly Ventura Publisher and Pagemaker.

I think that Ventura and PageMaker are really aimed at two different
audiences.  More on this opinion later...
>
>First, I would like to note that of the two, only Ventura will run
>acceptably on any sort of a PC (and apparently fairly quickly on a
>turbo PC) and that you should forget running Pagemaker on anything less
>than an AT class machine.

Agreed.  I think that the reason lies in the underlying PC window environment
chosen by Ventura and Aldus.  Ventura Publisher runs under GEM which is
relatively simple, non-multitasking, and relatively fast.  Aldus PageMaker
runs under Microsoft Windows which is a real porker in the speed department.
>
>Second, I would like comments on which is better for each of the following
>applications:
>1) a short 1 page item like an ad mixing text and graphics extensively

	PageMaker

>2) a 3-4 page newsletter, mainly text, but some graphics

	PageMaker

>3) a longer manuscript (100-200 pages)

	Ventura Publisher

>4) does it support Hercules mono graphics and is it sufficient

	I should check the manuals to make sure.  But I think a
	"sort of" answer is:  If the underlying window manager
	(GEM or Windows) supports Hercules (I think Windows
	supports the Hercules).

>I would like to know how they compare in terms of using a variety of fonts,
>printer support, ease of flowing around pictures and entering text, whether

Both seem to support a good number of fonts.

>changes you make in an included document are reflected in both places,
speed
>of printing, and general speed.  Of course, don't feel limited by these
points 
>:-)  assume running on a 10 MHz AT clone.

Ventura is real slow in both screen updating and printer speed.  PageMaker
is relatively fast in printing to a HP LaserJet Plus.  Even its screen
update is pretty good (especially considering how slow Windows is!).

A recent issue of PC World had a very nice side by side comparison of
Ventura Publisher and Aldus PC PageMaker.

A couple of comments.  I found that PageMaker had a much shallower
learning curve than Ventura.  I was up and doing what I thought was
pretty nice looking output very quickly (one afternoon).  It was
very easy to import text created by WordPerfect and graphics created
by a variety of low-end drawing packages and merge the two together.
I also ran into the limitations of of PageMaker very soon.  Some
characteristics to consider are:

PageMaker does not handle widows and orphans
PageMaker can import files better than Ventura
Ventura can export formatted text back to your word processor very
	nicely; PageMaker cannot export at all
It is pretty hard to handle tabs nicely with Ventura.
	PageMaker handles tabs in imported text very nicely
Ventura's tagging feature lets you make global formatting changes in
	your document very easily.  PageMaker does not have any
	such feature (at least none I can find)

I found it much easier and faster to create short (less than 10 pages)
documents with PageMaker than Ventura.  However, if someone told me
I had to produce a camera ready book, I would go with Ventura.  Its
tagging feature and the ability to export text back to my word processor
gives it the edge when working with large documents.

-- 
Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii Center for Teaching Excellence
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