CompuServe Thread

Claude, PageSetter is a page layout and design program. It allows you to mix graphics and text most anyway you want on a page. PageSetter is "page" oriented- you layout one page at a time, by putting empty boxes on the screen. You can then fill the boxes with text or graphics. Boxes can be linked, so if you had a large text file, the file will fill from one box to the next. Imagine an empty page(s) with three columns (a box can be a column) like in a magazine. You pour in your text file and as it overflows one column it runs into the next, etc. PS includes a word-processor but you could use any WP that will save in ASCII format. The distinctions between programs are changing as word-processors gain more features but page layout software gives you much more flexiblity in how things appear on a page. It would be very difficult to format a regular WP to print out like a magazine (boxes for pictures, columns, lines running down pages, etc. There is another kind of desktop publishing text editor which is especially usefull for long documents. Products like "MicroTex" are text editors which allow all sorts of formatting capablities. By embedding the various commands in your documents, you can drive a laser printer or phototypesetter. If you were writing a book, you wouldn't want to layout one page at a time. The formatting commands would be in the document which would drive the output device. George Glines