★ APPLICATIONS ★ BUREAUTIQUE ★ TASPRINT 8000 (c) TASMAN SOFTWARE ★ |
Tasprint 8000 | Applications Bureautique |
A friendly word on Tasword and Tasprint Releasing a new word processor for the PCW machines is a bold move even when the program in question is very cheap and also successful on other machines. What features are there available with Tasword 8000 that would attract users away from Locoscript? Firstly, Taswordisa remarkably easy program to get to grips with - the help menus are so self evident and extensive and the options available so straight-forward that there is almost no need to refer to the manual at all. This is not to suggest it is unsophisticated. Indeed, it is an improvement on the Tas-words released to date - it is faster and has some welcome additions - you can embed markers in the text for example to help you move around quickly, merge files at the cursor position, and the find/replace is vastly improved. "Locoscript has many excellent features" The display is completely what you see is what you get and Tasword has also pioneered where by you can use the arrow keys to get anywhere you like on the page to begin typing - just like a pen and paper. It's a small point but impossible on most word processors and a very friendly feature for beginners. Tasword works with pure Ascii text which makes it suitable as an editor for program listings, etc, and at least readable by almost any other utility available. It is also invaluable for editing and reformatting any Ascii files you may have created by transferring data down a modem or between different utilities. A quite sophisticated mail merge option is capable of making tests on the data supplied to decide what to print. The only feature this lacks is the ability to re-format the text prior to printing meaning that a ragged right edge is inevitable. Perhaps its greatest strength is the fact that the Ram of the M drive is used by the program for directly storing the text as you type it. Very large files can thus be created, about 100K on the 8256 and over 300K on the 8512. Because text is held in Ram moving around large files and making changes is very very much faster than with Locoscript or any other word processor I know. Tasprint 8000 supplies another six fonts that can be used with Tasword, directly with an Ascii file or via a sort of direct 'typewriter' option. Tony Kendle, Popular Computing Weekly
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