CompuServe Messages

This message is also to Roger Hand, and a few others interested in PC-based desktop publishing. A few weeks ago, I bought MICROSOFT PUBLISHER, mainly because "Windows User" ranked it first among ALL available desktop publishing programs available for the PC. This is a joke. MSP is more like a super-smooth PRINTSHOP. Granted – it does allow you to produce a VERY limited number of good-looking projects in a flash. It utilizes Page Wizards – exactly like PPage Page Genies – as well as templates. The company also markets a template package, which I bought. A SUPER collection of clip art is included. But – the program is extremely unstable (and this is not a factor of memory); many of the templates contain text which cannot be edited without the formatting breaking up, and revising the templates and the genies is a pain. Today, I had quite a long conversation with one of the developers of Quark, and he was amazed to learn that I did most of my publishing on the Amiga. He was more than amazed when I told him about the feature I find most valuable – the virtual page. I've used this feature for a long time – formerly with the assistance of a public domain utility. The essence of this concept is that, by defining the appropriate screen size in Preferences, I can create screens for PageStream or Professional Page large enough to utilize a single- or double-page spread in its entirely. My 16-inch monitor is merely a generous-sized window onto this screen, and, using another handy utility (Pop-up-Menu), I can zip around at top speed – composing and filling with nary an unnecessary screen refresh. I can put a page together at least twice as fast as any of my PC-owning friends, including my son, who publishes a magazine (Earth News) out of LA using PageMaker. It has long been beyond me as to why C= hasn't capitalized on the Amiga as a DTP machine, and why both Gold Disk and PageStream sort of hang their heads apologetically at the mention of Big Q. One of the features the fellow at Quark pointed out to me so proudly was their use of diagonal text boxes! Now, I was nicely polite. This was, after all, a cordial conversation and I WAS ordering a demo copy of his program. I LOVE to see PP and PStr developing, and I particularly love to see more and more import modules – because it means less work for me converting text and graphics. If there were decent word processors available for the Amiga, and, if some enterprising fellow (Ben, are you lurking) developed a HI-JAAK-type program for the Amiga, I think a lot more people would consider the Amiga for DTP. This latter shouldn't be too difficult – most of the necessary code is floating around here and there in the public domain. As for word processors, developers just have to get their heads out of the sand. I fully expect here to get the usual flurry of blasts defending Amiga word processors. The truth is, that all available programs, except for Amiga WP, are lightweight – not even up to academic thesis preparation. Fonts and clip art do not a word processor make. As for Amiga magazines – we need more DTP coverage. The current series in "Amazing" is an embarrassment: how to make an ugly business card containing misspelled words, using PageStream, in about triple the steps such a process would normally take – completely ignoring all PageStream's and "Radical Type's" resources in that area. But then, there's always Radical Type – an outstanding resource. (A good thing, because it's the ONLY resource.) Sorry for the ranting and raving. It's Friday – and there just may be a full moon outside…..Nancy