| ★ APPLICATIONS ★ BUREAUTIQUE ★ ARNOR - PROTEXT PCW ★ |
Pro power for the PCW (Popular Computing Weekly) | ARNOR - PROTEXT PCW (8000Plus) |
Protext arrived on my desk just in time to earn itself the (unofficial) title of 'PCW utility program of 1986'. The program is actually an amalgamation of the three utilities sold for CPC machines - the Protext word processor, the Promerge mail merge extension and Prospell spelling checker. In the transition from the CPC range of computers the already excellent Protext has collected a range of new features. the most important of which are the ability to convert Wordstar files, as well as Ascii, into its own format, the ability to edit very iarge files and an option for creating Exec files. The latter are lists of commands that behave as if they have been typed in at the keyboard one after the other. The execution of the file can be made automatic as soon as the program has loaded. Together with all of the customisable options of the program itself and what must be the most powerful mail merging options seen on an 8-bit computer you have a utility that can be programmed as if it were a word processing language'. It can be used to produce the most complex documents time. You have complete cus-tomisable printer control (which is of course already set up for the PCW printer). automatically, combining supplied data with keyboard input, it can be used to set documents up exactly as you wish by merging in boiler plate' paragraphs - and much much more. Of course all of the old Protext features are there as well - the ability to edit two documents and switch data between them, as well as view or print other documents from disc at the same. You have an inbuilt calculator which can be used with the mail merge. You can assign foreign characters or pre set phrases to keys There are inbuilt disc handling options that let you copy or format discs without even leaving the program (you can even format or copy CPC data discs using the PCW). Protext is a command-based word processor rather than a menu-driven one like Locoscript. Not only does this make it much faster to use but it makes it possible to get the most from the Exec files Learning to use the program is however made simple by an exhaustive manual and the most logical selection of keypress commands l‘ve ever seen on a word processor. A welcome improvement on the old version is a complete inbuilt help option that gives a summary of every command and keypress. Accept no substitutes, this is the genuine as-seen-on-TV actual-size article, this is the word processor for the PCW Its range of features leaves Wordstar looking basic and its lightning speed leaves Loco-script, in even its improved forms, squeaking and creaking at the joints. Tony Kendle, PCW |
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