| ★ APPLICATIONS ★ BUREAUTIQUE ★ ARNOR - POCKET PROTEXT ★ |
POCKET PROTEXT (Amstrad Action) | ARNOR - POCKET PROTEXT (8000Plus) |
The first thing to say is that if you are serious about word processing you should, at least, have a look at Pocket Protext. If you only knock out an occasional letter then it is probably not worth while thinking about it, but if you do write a lot and are prepared to make the effort to get to know Pocket Protext it should repay the investment. But remember Protext is an investment in time as well as money. The more time you spend learning the system the more time you can save. And the savings in time can be considerable - for there is no doubt that it is the fastest word-processor available for the PCW in virtually every department. Don't be fooled into thinking that because it is missing a couple of features (see the box) Pocket Protext has lost any sophistication. It is the same fast, powerful program with many features that have proved popular with PCW Protext users. But these have to be learnt. You don't have the homely LocoScript menu system to fall back on. In Protext you learn the codes and use them. With a little regular use they become second nature but it does require a period with the help prompts showing on the screen or the manual open beside you before you feel really confident, Spoilt for choice Another complication comes from the fact of Amor being almost too helpful. LocoScript users, for instance, are delighted to find that many of the keys like [FIND}, [COPY], [PASTE] etc have similar uses in Protext, But if you are more used to WordStar-type commands and your finger constantly strays to the [ALT] key you will find many similarities here too. This does mean that there is a profusion of choices that can be confusing to the beginner. At the end of the day you find that whether you type DIR (a la CP/M) ,press [f1] (LocoScript) or even type CAT (to make Amstrad CPC owners feel at home) you will get a directory of files. You just have to decide which one suits you best and then stick to it. Most non-Protext users will probably think that the speed of any package depends on the actual speed that you can move the cursor round the screen and there is no doubt that in this area Protext is outstanding. At times it can move so fast that it is difficult to control - for instance if you let your finger dally on the 'move a word to the rtght" key you can find yourself several paragraphs down the page. The lightning speed with which you can move from one page to another will also be a pleasant suprise to someone who has grown up with LocoScript scrolling. And yet you probably save as much time from the little touches that Protext gives you. There is a full variety of 'Delete* commands (delete line or block, delete to end of line, delete from beginning of line) allowing you to cut as much or as little as you want and just as important it often allows you to Undelete when you have got too enthusiastic. But what about the simple occasion when you get two letters out of order? Instead of tortuously deleting one and replacing it in the right place you press [ALTJ-A and the two are swapped for you. It is a trick that you can become so unconsciously reliant on after typing a page of hte' and nad' that you will start trying to use it in other programs and cause total havoc, usually ending up with a line of Greek characters! Just as simple is the ability to change a lower case letter to upper case and vice versa in one simple keypress. Super-accurate typists might disdain such touches but finger weary journalists find them a god-send. And brain weary journalists have been known to weep with gratitude at the word count which is so simple and quick to use that you can find out in seconds whether you have written enough words to fill the review (sorry, you're only half way there - Ed), "Take two letters... It might sound a bit vague to say that you can edit two files at once, but when you discover that you can switch from one document to another at the press of a key and move text from one to another in seconds you soon begin to think of uses for it -for example a jotter and doodling pad for your brainwaves. There are time saving features beyond the obvious area of getting words into files. The file handling facilities are well organised and slick; Protext doesn't have LocoScripfs groups' idea to as large an extent, but you can partition files into 16 user areas which gives you the same effect. Protext also has simple and effective Copy and Erase facilities that you soon find yourself forgetting about PIP and organising all your discs with Protext. You can format discs in Protext too. Anything wrong? Sounds wonderful. So what are the disadvantages? Well for a start Protext doesn't mollycoddle you the way LocoScript does. You can learn LocoScript by logically working your way through the menus. That doesn't apply with Protext and you really have to open the manual (gasp!). Admittedly there have been some improvements to the manual since Protext was first unleashed, most notably the addition of an invaluable index, but it is still not really written with the beginner in mind. Computer buffs may be quite at home with the concept of the ambiguous filename' often mentioned but the beginner could be confused by this ambiguous wording (in case you're wondering it just means a filename using wildcards, like * ,bak). There is no equivalent of LocoScript's templates, although you can simulate them with a bit of trickery. You can make up a number of different files which hold your standard Protext commands to set up the margins and page dimensions for your paper, and merge them with your text to control the printing format - admittedly not too painful a solution. But the problems are more apparent when it comes to actually printing something out. It is not difficult to get something printed out in draft form, but if you are the sort of person who likes to use exotic character spacings and margin styles it can take a few tries and a few yards of wasted paper. To make it worse it is not obvious at first how to abort printing when things go wrong - you can do it with a simple [PTR] reset but this doesn't seem to be mentioned in the manual There is a handy command PS which allows you to preview on the screen how the the pages will look when they will be printed but even this doesn't pick up the quirks of the enlarged text embedded print command which can cause havoc. Trying to centre a line of enlarged text causes all sorts of strange effects, usually ending up with the printed result spread over several lines. It is not that you can't do most of the fancy effects with headers and footers but it does seem a bit less obvious than LocoScript There are also more serious problems like proportional printing causing total confusion to the page unless you switch off the Justify Right command which justifies the text to both margins. None of these problems are fatal but they can be annoying. Verdict For anyone really involved in bulk text processing, Pocket Protext is just as powerful as the full Protext and at a very attractive price. The missing spell checker and mail merger are nice in the full Protext, but most people will be glad of the option of saving £40. It's a very welcome and well-pitched addition to the PCW word processing market. Pocket Protext is well worth the investment although it does take time to learn to use to its full capacity. It is also true that most of the bugs that plagued PCW Protext in its early days are well and truly eradicated. If you need to use complex text printing commands, you may find Protext a little frustrating at times. 8000Plus |
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