★ APPLICATIONS ★ BUREAUTIQUE ★ BRUNWORD 6128|Amstrad Action) ★ |
| Brunword 6128 | Applications Bureautique |
Back in December '85 Chris Anderson reviewed Brunword in AA. He concluded that the word-processor fell down on several fronts: user-unfriendly, no automatic word-wrap, text could be entered only in 40 columns, right-hand justification couldn't be turned off... The only thing it had going for it was the price (£16.50 tape and £25 disk) and an inbuilt spelling-checker (which could hold only 7,000 words). Brunning Software has re-emerged with a new version, Brunword 6128. And first impressions are favourable, starting with the clever tutorial on the disk. The new Brunword requires a 6128 computer or a 464 with DKtronics expansion RAM. The reason is that the spelling checker and dictionary make use of the second memory bank - a good idea as you don't have to wait while it loads from disk when you need it Text can be entered in either 40- or 80-column mode. And words automatically wrap over. There is extensive cursor control and movement is generally fast, but moving up or down a line is relatively slow. Margins can be set anywhere for the whole text or individual paragraphs. The justification system is better than that found on Tasword or Protext. rather than padding out a line with spaces from left to right, it alternates from left to right towards the centre of the line, giving the text a more balanced look. Particularly nice is Brunwords way with superscript and subscript. Things like H2SO4 and a2 = x2 + y2 appear in true size on screen and on the printer. It's a pity this wasn't taken one step further, to display bold, italic and underline on screen. You have extensive control over documents sent to the printer, multiple copies, appropriate headers and footers for odd and even pages. You can even redefine 10 characters, which display on screen and print (if your printer is capable of this feat). Maximum filesize is about 10 pages, but you can link several files when printing. The spelling-checker has a dictionary of about 30,000 words, with room for another 5,000. Its beauty is its speed: it's memory-resident. Pressing a key will check the spelling of the word under the cursor - handy. Brunword 6128 represents real value for money. A word-processor, spell-checker and data-file (to do "personalized letter" tricks) for £25. Not only does it outperform many word-processors on the market, but ifs friendly and fast.
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