& LIGHT-YEARS! - TRS-80 Color Computer Archive

n reviews
mapped formats. You can use the pro
gram's graphics editor to edit bit
mapped graphics and object-oriented
graphics (for drawing lines, boxes, and
circles). And unlike Pages, which takes
forever to display pictures, Publish-h!
Lite'quickly handles that task. That
means you can use the program effi
ciently on a PC or XT—no need to up
grade to an AT-class computer.
Publish-W. Lite!'really shines when
it prints. While the font quality of some
low-end publishing programs is suited
only for children's play, Lite's printing
is a cut above. That quality, however, is
limited to Epson-compatible 9- or 24pin
dot-matrix printers.
Lite comes with three typefaces:
Dutch (Times Roman), Swiss (Helve
tica), and Bullets. You can print any of
these fonts in sizes ranging from 7 to 36
points.
The program's excellent manual
is easy to follow and includes a com
plete tutorial. The onscreen help is lim
ited—enough to jog your memory, but
not complete enough to replace the
documentation.
As good as it is, however, Publish-
It! Lite! has some significant limitations.
More experienced users will find the
program lacking in advanced features.
It can't, for example, create documents
longer than four pages, and it hogs
memory when producing graphics.
Also, there are no automatic head
ers, footers, or page numbers. Hyphen
ation is completely manual, a blow to
justified text. You can't move frames
from page to page, and you can't turn
off the nonprinting page and frame
guides, so your screen display, while ac
curate, isn't what-you-see-is-what-you-
get quality. Most inconvenient, you
can't set a default type style for import
ed text: You must manually select the
text and then select a type style.
Publish-WLite.'is also missing
manual control for leading (the space
between lines). This limitation can be a
benefit to the beginner, who is ensured
that text is always set with enough lead
ing (no complicated settings to master).
More limiting, however, is Lite's inabil
ity to print landscape (sideways) pages.
Despite these limitations, Publish-
W. Lite! operates on a more professional
level than its low-priced competitors.
Its greatest edge is its upgrade path, n.i
inexpensive Laser Accessory Pack lets
you print to a laser printer. And, if you
outgrow Publish-W. Lite!'(and you will
if you're a frequent desktop publisher),
you can graduate to the standard Pub
lish-W., a full-featured program with all
the bells and whistles Publish-W. Lite!
lacks.
76
COMPUTE
Publish-W Lite! offers a stable, af
fordable entry into desktop publishing.
Though limited, it offers beginners an
easy-to-use framework within which
they can hone their page-design skills.
Ifs a good place to start.
— Daniel Will-Harris
Publish-lt! Lite!
For...
IBM PC. PS/2, and compatibles with two
disk drives or a hard disk; 512K RAM
(640K is required for Hercuies or EGA dis
plays): and CGA, EGA. MCGA. or Hercules
graphics—$59.95
From...
Timeworks
444 Lake Cook Rd.
Deerfieid.IL 60015
(312)948-9202
And...
A Laser Accessory Pack sells for $19.95;
users may upgrade to Publish It! for
$99.00.
WriteNow 2.0
There's nothing wrong with a word pro
cessor that doesn't jump through hoops
blindfolded, as long as it's designed to
handle pure text processing with grace
and common sense. In this regard.
$400 word processor that eats up more
than a megabyte of RAM. But if you
want a shallow learning curve, the en
durance of a marathon runner, and just
the right features to produce basic docu
ments, buy WriteNow. You only have
to feed it 512K of RAM.
As with most Macintosh word pro
cessors, you format paragraphs in
WriteNow 2.0 by changing settings on a
ruler at the top of the screen. Icons con
trol various tabs, margins, first-line in
dents, line spacing, and text alignment.
If you've been using a more powerful
word processor, you may miss features
that automate paragraph formatting,
like the style sheets in Microsoft Word.
WriteNow has similar features, but
they're not as elegant. To transfer for
mats, you must copy and paste rulers
throughout your document. You can
change all paragraphs controlled by
identical ruler settings, though, by se
lecting them and holding the Shift key
when you change ruler settings for one
of the paragraphs: the others will
change accordingly. A similar control
works on fonts, type styles, and type
sizes. For example, select several lines
of text, starting with a boldface entry;
then hold the Command key as you se
lect Underline from the Styles menu.
and all selected, boldface entries will
change to underline.
The program's spelling checker is
speedier than some because it skips text
Write Now 2.0 is a high-performance word processor in an entry-level package.
T/Maker's WriteNow 2.0 holds its own.
WriteNow is a good example of
what an entry-level word processor
should offer: ease of use. sufficient
speed, and economy. If you want a
complicated program that runs like an
Olympic sprinter and offers a long list
of obscure features, go out and buy a
previously checked until those sections
are revised. Several buttons control the
spell-checking procedure. One suggests
intelligent alternatives to misspelled
words—it's even smart enough to sug
gest transposed spellings. Another but
ton ignores spellings that are unique to
a particular file. Other buttons add and