Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

SoftWood camp. Not to be out
done by Digita, SoftWood have
0 he lite' phenomenon has hit the
seen in to release a cut-down version
of their top selling page publisher, Final
Writer 4. The Amiga has always been sold as a
complete low-cost computer system, and as
such there are many people who have
Amigas but do not have the funds to expand
the machine past the basic specification.
Due to the competition between Final
Writer and Wordworth, both programs have
seen many new features added, so the
resources needed to run them has grown
along with the programs. This has reached
the point where a basic Al200 is not enough,
so a cut-down version of the original program
is a superb idea because owners of unexpanded
Al 200s can still use these excellent
programs.
IMPORTANT FEATURES
Final Writer lire is basically the same as the
original program, but with the most important
features remaining. This is not as bad as it
may sound because virtually all the original
features make it into the lite version intact.
You get all the recent changes to Final Writer
A's interface, including the addition of the
click tabs that allowed all the menus to be
reorganised into a much clearer order, with all
the preference options being moved into their
own specific requesters. The click tabs are
atso used in the main window to allow you to
quickly jump between different pages
and document sections, making document
navigation much quicker.
The omissions that have been made
are kept to a minimum. The first two, and
probably the ones you would expect,are the
grammar checker and all the AReu functions.
Leaving out the grammar checker is not much
of a surprise as it is very large - over a
megabyte - and the ARexx port is probably
used by only a small percentage of users, so
no great loss there.
Type and spell has gone, even though the
normal Collins dictionary and thesaurus
remain untouched. It is also impossible now
to import EPS images. The postscript library
used to handle the EPS images was large, and
displaying EPS images is quite processor
intensive so this is understandable, If you
have EPS images this is quite a disadvantage
as there are not too many programs that will
alow you to convert an EPS to an IF image,
which is the only format Final Writer will
import . •
One thing you do lose that is not part of
the program as such is all the extra fonts and
0
1
1
Usually not too keen to
have his vital parts
removed, Neil Mohr
sees if Final Writer lite
has suffered at all
COED eCOS
... . . -
ounnevisionoluiuortirusOwitimariren_t_lar; 771.
lii
nothing ,. stopping
M
'
a l l a off I i
you cre a ting
good looking
I r a w imam.. Mei lo .1%.• to am au
- -
documents
,
mom S. , . . . o w . . . . . .
Pmamma
ma a am, M . mama m masa! Ma imp a • , • ....
. m
even in this fi t.
ama_ m5 ma maaproma me mama ant5 Ma am,,. mg.
o , ma . ..5 dMaammaa a 'dm
ve rsion
n
,
•
, ea aaa,
o
t okaa narimma s i n M— or a aialma . a . am
tam. 411,4 am. 11...mar fte Mamma
p
t
, am mmaaaad 55 m I. am 1• 1• = .P
0
t
e
* , The %I= ma, ...am m u airma m am.. 5, maa. an m dm. mumwde,
c
M ago . , a or Mo • • • • • • ..m. Mara aamatima.
• a. . . am m . ma. M. and mem amots. 'dam
n re......§,ill,
a
, M• • a
o
m
. Ow marialm, mama me • ma Mamar aan
h
mamma l al. at meat 5. am. La .555m.am
o
aSet
• Eam ami ,
ID
d
m
• •••11•1 • • • • • • • • • • • d ma ma
..
t3
,
a , w o w .
ma. mom a mg. Ma Mamma • a traml ma. ang .....•
OW. ma maaSi' ha mem.a mF
M .
m ti
.•
M T . . n
a.
-
,
N
o
mM
N • ma
•• tr:lannommummi
O
w e
t
a n
--- •
prosmmasolus
t
t -------l.
= o
••
,
t
m
P
'
m
clipart .
M
•• you get , with the l full version of
M
.
a W
I
i
Final 1
.
= Writer. This n will limit a you to the supplied
. •
a •
,
O
three 1
m
0 fonts, even though you can use any
•
•
•-
m •
Compugraphic •
1
or Postscript •
t • fonts you have
•
•
yourself.
.
.
1
6
M
, 1
I •
Out of all the 1 omissions -
.
n I would find the
,
•
O
0 _
a •
-
.
m •
loss .
M
of the group function the most annoying.
_
m —
If you want to create any diagrams in Final
, o
M
•
Writer this is used h•
a lot to collect objects
S
m o
•
together to allow . you to treat them as a single
-
E
M •
image. It makes •ait
quite easy to quickly knock
•
W
m•
up complex diagrams that you can then resize
aQ
•
O
k•
ERAPHIC OBJECTS
.
/
f
a
,
S
.
0 . . t SPacipoi l e d WC.
M
Pal$50.1.c r a n I a.ca a M a l f t i l M f t 1 a f t a i l l 0 5
If
Anything in Final Writer that is not text is treated t. as a graphic
object. One thing that makes Final Writer so easy 0. to use is that
whatever type of object you are manipulating, .. you always use the
same functions on every one.
•,
Once an object has been created you can move, .. resize, rotate,
cut, copy, paste and add text flow to any graphic .• object. The outline
to these objects can be changed, and for precise positioning you
can enter co-ordinates directly.
)
— 1
— 1
SOCiagfamak, —
.*F — Cipliona — • ,..211t —
I tan,
d r . Voolltga
0
0 T, ...dm
, Tranmial. OPMa
. 111 1,dd Corda.
, Tranmial. OPMa
. Caolaftr
_,1 bre WOW,/
, ! I 1 1SOW
—
3
. Mort Co.., Moe
,.....
. Ih"
,)15:5.11
, GM .
1Mji 11.1.51551.00.!
GM .
Si.
j $0.05 .op Dtapley --/
W r
c
,
Mf
k .
rs
es .
.
•C
—
r
......
an
5_
,
....
S
m
() Eve .. n in the lite ve rsion.
..
Fina l Write r's gra phic
,
..•
abilities a te ve ry impre ssive
_
I
4111111Li
,
Kil
l
—
1
k
.
.
J
C AMIGA COMPUTING
a MA
n
and place in your documents. The loss of the
group function also means that if you import
a Final Writer document that has grouped
objects, the lite version will simply treat it as a
single graphic object, so you will be unable to
modify this except for being able to resize it.
For the money you are paying, Final Writer
lite is superb value. The features that have
been removed are not essential - practically
speaking, the only two that could cause you
problems are the loss of the group functions
and the inability to import EPS graphics, but if
you are only planning to do letters, faxes or
straightforward essays the functions that
remain are more than enough. All Final
Writer's text formatting functions remain
untouched, and as long as you don't want to
do any fancy diagrams with the structured
drawing tools, you will be able to use all Final
Writer's drawing tools to the full.
For people with a limited budget who need
a page processor that will work on a
low specification machine, Final Writer lite
provides everything you need,
2 Mb
Product
Supplier
Price
Tel
Ease of use
Implementation
Value For Money
Overall
Bottom
line
Workbench
I 3 Mb hard
020 Processor disk space
PRODUCT DETAILS
Final Writer Lite
Gordon Harwood
£39.95
01773 521606
SCORES
93%
81%
96% o r
86%
59