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I just got my greedy little fingers on a finished copy of MacAuthor,
and after two nights with it, thought I'd post a review!

*****Review*****
MacAuthor, from Icon Technology Limited, is, as they claim, "More than a word 
processor".  MacAuthor is a combination word processor, page layout program, 
math text processor, book-processor.

First the features of the program:

  1)  Automatic word count (shown at the bottom left of the current window).
The word count is recalculated after every decent-length pause in keyboard 
entry.

  2)  Page layout much like the first version of Ready-Set-Go (I haven't used 
any of the later versions, so I'm not qualified to compare).  You make a text 
or graphic "frame" which is a unit all to itself, which can be moved about on 
the page.  This allows columns, text and graphics on the same line, etc.

  3)  Multiple super- and sub- scripting; also to the point of sub- and 
super-scripts having super- and sub-scripts respectively.

  4)  Strike out text (text with a line through it) to show revision 
information.

  5)  Multiple headers and footers.  Also right/left page specific.

  6)  An about window that gives you almost a page of info about the current 
document (the active document window); including things like total time wasted 
on this document; number of times edited; #pages, words, lines, and characters;
# words typed this and last session; start date/time of this and last session;
and the time spent this and last session.

  7)  The program is a TRUE WYSIWYG editor; more so then MacWrite!  If you 
specify left and right margins (especially the left one), you will see white 
space on the left.  If you specify a 1/2 inch top margin, that's what you'll 
see on the top of every page.  You'll also see the headers and footers (of 
course).

  8)  You can to kerning.

  9)  Multiple documents can be open at once (up to four).

  10)  You can create your own specialized characters by using an 
option-backspace combination (type-over, basically).

  11)  Multiple document styles available (comes with 5:  memo, letter, article,
script, blank).  I haven't figure out (yet) how to add my own.

  12)  Paragraph "scripts", where you define a "type" of paragraph (such as a
quote), which you can then invoke whenever you want.  Each type of paragraph 
that you define goes into the Paragraph menu, from which you can invoke them.
You can also assign command-key combinations to these paragraph scripts from 
within the program (though there are a limited number of command-key combos 
available).  This paragraph setup defines the left and right margins, the tab 
settings (of which there are many sorts), justification, and the font.


Which brings me to the next section, the not so nice "features":

  1)  You cannot change font from within a paragraph.

  2)  You cannot to footnotes a la MS-Word (must do them by hand).

  3)  All paragraphs below the one you are currently editing disappear from the 
screen, and only re-appear during the above-mentioned pause, during which the 
words are recounted.  This one is a biggie!  If I am just quickly adding 
something to the middle of a document, I don't want to HAVE to wait 3-8 seconds 
after I finish typing in that one sentence before I can go back to a portion of 
the document farther on.  Turning off "automatic repagination" doesn't seem to 
change this.

  4)  I get the impression that one can do with headings what MacAuthor allows 
you to do with Paragraphs; ie.: set up "heading scripts".  I don't know for sure
b/c I refuse to look it up in the manual (you should *never* need a manual with 
a non-database macintosh program), and I can't figure out how to invoke it (if 
it does indeed exist).

  5)  The mac-like interface isn't as mac-like as it could be.  For instance, I
should have an I-beam whenever I'm over the text of the document; there is no 
"about MacAuthor" option under the Apple menu, only an "about <current document
name here>" entry (nice idea, but have both, and not just the latter); placing 
the margins and tabs on the ruler isn't done by draging, but rather by clicking 
on the desired thing {left margin, right margin, tab}, and then clicking next 
the ruler where you want said item to be--after this though, you can drag the 
icon around along the ruler to change the position, or drag it off to remove 
it); many of the "dialog" boxes are actually windows w/out scroll bars (c'mon 
folks, for dialog use a dialog box); etc. etc.

  6)  Because of all the many things that it's doing (keeping track of the page 
length, number of words, etc. etc.), editing is just a tad slow.  Being a fairly
fast typist, I will make a correction, and type away, only to find that 
MacAuthor must first re-draw the (heretofore hidden) paragraph(s) below the one 
I'm working on before it will aknowledge that I've typed in other information.  
This also happens when I've finished a paragraph in the middle of my document, 
and go to scroll.  Nope, MacAuthor must first re-draw the paragraph(s) below 
the one I just completed.

And, of course, the bugs:

I found the program to be pretty bullet-proof--it didn't ever crash on me.  
However, there are a number of things that need to be changed to the extent 
that I feel they should be called bugs (undocumented features...).

  1)  MacAuthor doesn't believe that the system disk can be write-protected.  It
gave me the wierdest errors...

  2)  MacAuthor blithely assumes that you'll always want to print; and 
therefore doesn't allow itself to be run unless the system disk contains a 
"printing resource".

  3)  MacAuthor is copy protected.  Version 5.2 of CopyIIMac (the latest, 
as of this review) won't copy it.  


Sumary:  

The program is pretty well thought out and consistent.  Furthermore, it's the 
ONLY word-processor on the market (to my knowledge) that allows super-super-sub-
-scripts (and variations on that theme), and the only one that allows style 
sheets.  

MacAuthor is the only WYSIWYG word processor out there (MacWrite is pretty darn 
close though), for those that go for that sort of thing.  Personally I find 
that even a 68K at 7.xx Megahertz just isn't enough for a true WYSIWYG 
editor--it just takes too much time to do all the stuff that needs to be done.

However, it is in need of a version 1.1 to correct a few fairly minor things.  
A version 2.0 with a spelling checker, theasaraus, and other such frills 
(grammer checking, word analysis, etc.) would be most appreciated.  I'd also 
like to see MacAuthor read MacWrite, MS-Word, and ThinkTank files. Finally, 
they need to re-write the code that updates the paragraphs below the current 
one (along with an option to NOT have that feature)--as it stands now, it's far 
too slow for my tastes.

But, if you need style sheets, sub-sub-super-scripts,  the ability to create 
your own characters w/out having to use a font-editor, and kerning, then this 
is the program to get.

-----
Peter Korn				"Fred Astair?  Ginger Rogers did
korn@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU		 everything he did, backwards
{dual,decvax,sdcsvax}!ucbvax!korn	 and in high heels!"