CompuServe Messages

Basically, it comes down to Final Writer 3 or Wordworth 3.1. I have both of them, though I have a lot more experience with Softwood's stuff (Final ___) since I've been with them since Final Copy 1.3. Final Writer's implementation is very solid – I've basically never crashed because of Softwood's products, but in some regards it's not fully system standard and compliant. For example, it uses its own bitmapped font which you can't change for menus, title bars, and the like, whereas WW is pretty much completely selectable. Both use the display database. For readability onscreen, I'd say Wordworth wins out. For text layout features, FiW wins hands down – it has layout style tags and the like, which are sadly missing in WW. Otoh WW looks more polished and has more of other kinds of features. It has a niftier looking and feeling interface. So far, although I haven't delved in all the way, WW's features all seem to be there. Both programs increase the fragmentation of memory, which is a real problem. I'm not yet sure, but I think WW might actually use a little more CHIP MEM, but I may be wrong on that. If you have any specific questions I'll be happy to answer them; I don't want to go on and on about what you might not even be interested in. In short, though, it's a tough choice and depends on what you're doing. For highly formatted documents, FiW wins hands down as I said. Oh – another BIG lack in WW is NO AREXX, not even any macros at all. For certain other tasks, like letters, fiction, what have you, WW might win because of better screen readability and a slight edge in some features. Also, FiW supports its own NimbusQ font format as well as PS Type 1 and CompuGraphic; whereas WW supports the Amiga's bitmapped fonts (!?) as well as Type 1 and Compugraphic and, more importantly, TrueType fonts, and internal printer fonts, although someone tells me that last feature isn't complete yet. (Soft-Logik's TypeSmith can load but not save NimbusQ format fonts, so you can convert them to other formats.) Paul – wearing my black construction paper funeral suit