Microsoft pushes the envelop for word processors
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): Well, it's been a long time since the last time I reviewed a software product for you.
That's because I haven't been able to land my hands on a really interesting program lately.
But I've just got myself a copy of Winword 6.0, and I have to confess that I like it enormously.
This program is so great that I think I owe you a brief description of its much touted user-friendliness and usability, although actually it's much too late for an in-depth review.
With this new version, which has been around for a couple of months, Microsoft succeeds one more time in raising the standard of usability in word processors.
Typo-free
The keyword of Winword 6.0 is really `automatic'. You have AutoCorrect, AutoText, AutoFormat, Table AutoFormat, Wizards, and Tips of the Day.
What's more, most of these auto-everything features veritably work; they truly simplify typing chores in manners that no other word processor can match.
Type in the word "teh" for the English definite article, for instance, and AutoCorrect will automatically change it into "the."
Oh, do you sometimes forget to press the Shift key as you type in the first letter of a new sentence? No sweat! AutoCorrect will capitalize for you the first letter after a character, a period and a space.
On the other hand, your fingers may work too fast for your little fingers; your other fingers keep pounding on the keys before your little ones have the time to release the Shift key, and the result is "BIll CLinton" instead of "Bill Clinton."
Again, no problem. AutoCorrect will correct the capitalization for you.
Each of us has a number of vulnerable words that we very frequently mis-type. One of mine is the word "of"; I tend to type in "fo" instead.
AutoCorrect can be instructed to change "fo" to "of." You can also train AutoCorrect to type in something for you each time you type in a specific abbreviation.
For instance, each time I type in "sila4", AutoCorrect will translate it and type in for me "Kerakyatan yang dipimpin oleh hikmah kebijaksanaan dalam permusyawaratan perwakilan" (the fourth statement of the state ideology on consensus) -- and suddenly my writing will emanate a more patriotic aura.
Work in Style
Styles are nothing new in word processors. However, Winword goes one step further with Wizards that will help you with newsletter creation, resume completion and so on, one step at a time.
Unfortunately, though, Wizards are not for those of you who still use a 386 class machine.
Mine is such a machine, and on it Wizards can only crawl -- reminding me of the grueling time I once spent on completing a newsletter with PageMaker and a 286 machine.
Clean Screen, too
Ami Pro was the first word processor to offer a clean screen option, which allows you to use the entire screen for your docu ments.
Winword beats Ami Pro by still allowing you to access the menus although the menu bar itself is not displayed.
The ruler in Winword also works more like the one in PageMaker, and that makes the chores of indenting paragraphs and altering their margins a snap.
Perhaps you also remember back in the DOS days that most word processors came in white characters on a blue background.
It is reportedly the most widely favored combination for working with text on the screen, as it is very easy on our eyes. Winword 6.0, as shown in the illustration, allows you to have white text on a blue background.
Down sides
The above are just some of the examples that have made Winword 6.0 such a popular program in a very short time after its re lease.
Its mail-merge is at least as good as that of its competitor. Table creation is as easy as in the other top word processors.
Of course, there are other great features that we don't really get into here as they are meant to handle more complex tasks.
And, needless to say, there are down sides as well.
One of my biggest disappointments, for example, was the fact that I could not circle through open documents just by pressing Ctrl and Tab, like in most other Windows programs.
To move to another already open document, we have to go to the Windows menu on the menu bar.
Another big disappointment is that you have to access the menu to change the size of your view.
The zoom percentage on the button bar is not very helpful, either.
In Ami Pro, for instance, all you have to do is press Ctrl-D to toggle between Normal View and Full-page View. Winword, however, allows you to see as many pages at once as your screen resolution permits.
On my 1024 by 768 screen, Winword can display up to 36 pages simultaneously, and this can be a truly useful feature when it comes to checking the overall page layout of the document.
Grab it?
The bad thing about so much usability is that once you get accustomed to it you don't want to part with it.
You'll want to work only with Winword. And that's not so simple, since Winword 6.0 does have heavy hardware demands.
My own experience tells me that you need 8 MB RAM to run Winword 6.0 smoothly for simple document creation, even if you only have a 386DX processor on your PC.
Au contraire, on a 486DX 33 MHz machine with just 4 MB RAM, Winword runs a little bit more sluggishly.
This is another evidence that, if you're going to use the latest crops of software programs, you'd better spend your money on bigger RAM capacity than on a higher class CPU.
If you only have a 486SX machine or less with 4 MB of RAM, just forget Winword 6.0. Ami Pro 3.01 is still your best bet for such a machine, although this two-year-old word processor doesn't have many of the facilities that makes Winword a winner at this time around.
(By the way, a major upgrade of Ami Pro is reportedly on the way). Choose WordPerfect for Windows 6.0 only if you have a 486DX 33 MHz with 8 MB of RAM and if you'll need all the facilities and tools it has to work on complex documents.
However, if you need to make simple of repetitive jobs, just go out and buy a couple of more RAM SIMMs and buy Winword 6.0. At the end of the day, I guarantee you'll be happy.