The Easi-Amsword word processor from Juniper Computing, marketed by Amsoft, is a fairly basic word processing program which allows text to be entered, formatted and dumped to a printer. It will operate in either the 40 or 80 column modes available on the CPC 464 so that, if you have the colour monitor, you can view the text without strain. In use There are eight major functions offered on the main menu when the program is loaded from cassette. None of these should puzzle anyone who is at all familiar with word processing programs. The Create option sets up a document from scratch. Having decided on a name and in which screen mode it will be presented, the processor automatically enters the Edit mode. This is where most of the work is done, and offers a blank screen of 24 lines with a status strip along the bottom, offering the document name, the number of lines currently within it, the number of letters entered since the beginning of the last paragraph, and the status of the insert/ overwrite toggle. I would give quite a lot for a current word count rather than the line and letter counts actually offered. The text cursor takes the form of a copyright symbol, and is not as clear as it might be in the 80 column mode; a solid block would be better. It may be moved around with the cursor keys (although the auto-repeat is uncomfortably slow) or to the beginning or end of the current paragraph or document using these keys in conjunction with ctrl. Tabs may be set and characters inserted or deleted, but it is quite possible to type ahead of the deletion buffer and wipe out more than you intended. Text movement is sluggish, but usable. The Name option is mainly used for retitling a document when you want to keep more than one version of it. This can be used for holding preset letter heads, for example. Retrieve will load a document, previously saved to tape, and shares a sub-menu with the Save option. Selecting print displays another submenu, offering a number of options for print formatting. If all is ready, the printout may be started from this point. The last two options from the main menu allow a whole series of documents to be printed from cassette — each may use a print format saved with the text—and to change the default colour scheme of white on black, if usinga colour monitor. The 16-page manual for Easi-Amsword is small in all respects, fitting comfortably inside the cassette case. It does, however, cover all the functions of the system in adequate detail. Verdict The choice of some of the control codes could have been a little less obscure and the occasional stop for garbage collection can be a bit distracting, but overall the program is usable for letters (and short articles such as this one). It would, however, prove annoying for anyone trying to use it on a regular business basis. For the asking price, though, that is not unreasonable. SIMON WILLIAMS, Personal Computer News #8
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