#Final Writer Q's
11 messages in this thread
Over the next few months, I'll decide whether to buy an accelerator + memory
for my 3000, or a PC or Mac. If I elect to keep the Amiga, I'll want a great
word processor. Final Writer (3?) seems to be the best choice, but I'd like to
know from FW users what unpleasant surprises they've had. Is it missing some
common features?
I'm basically an office WordPerfect 5.1 power user. How does FW compare? Many
thanks.
Blaq!
Blaq!
I've used WordPerfect in the past and now use Word at work. I am no power user,
but I get stuff out. I have found a few things (can't recall now) that have
been frustrating with FW, but not usually impossible. I get frustrated with
Windows based programs, too.
I don't use many of the fancy functions though.
I'm happy with FW.
Robb
There aren't really any unpleasant surprises per se with Final Writer 3. (Wayne
Cole might disagree with me there, but I think you mostly get what you pay for
with it.) Otoh, the interface isn't the prettiest. The screen can't be made
public (neither can Wordworth's) and it uses its own bitmapped font instead of
one you choose, so if you have a high-res display card, you'll be squinting a
bit at the menus unless you use MagicMenu. Likewise, the buttons don't come in
a large size, which isn't a problem unless you use a really high res display.
It does have ARexx, which is a major plus as compared to Wordworth (which on
the other hand does offer much more in the way of goodies like font setting)
but unless I'm mistaken it doesn't let you inquire which document you're in
from an ARexx script.
FiW prints very well and supports Type 1, NimbusQ, and CompuGraphic fonts on
any printer; NimbusQ fonts can even be downloaded to a PS printer. Wordworth
supports Type 1, CompuGraphic, TrueType, and Amiga bitmap fonts, as well as
some printer fonts.
For display readability with either program you'll want to use a sans font like
Univers or ShannonBook or something. I think Wordworth has a more readable
display, but I tend to type in one font and print in another on any platform,
since I'm picky – except for Courier, which both handle well, and which I need
to type in anyway since scripts are too formatted to make font switching
practical.
Also, FiW supports paragraph and text style tagging, which WW doesn't.
FiW4 is expected late this year, I don't know when WW4 is expected.
Basically, it depends what you need to do. FiW is definitely more powerful,
although there are a couple spots that WW edges it out in. WW is prettier. I
use both for different purposes.
Mr. Zombie – now 76375,1776 – Warped again?
>> FiW prints very well and supports Type 1, NimbusQ, and CompuGraphic fonts on
any printer <<
Did I read that right? I can use Postscript fonts and FiW will rasterize the
document out to a printer that doesn't support Postscript? That would be great
news for my Deskjet 500!
A few more questions:
– Does FiW support "record on the fly"-type macros? I use them _constantly_
in WordPerfect.
– I use a non-AGA machine, so my screen is quite standard. When you say
that FiW uses its own fonts, do you mean that it uses only 2 generic
fonts for the screen display, one serif and one sans serif? Or does
it use Amiga bitmapped fonts for screen display? I'm confused.
(I intend to use whatever-word-processor-I-buy with Postscript fonts)
– How well does it handle graphics? If I import a 24-bit graphic, will
FiW dither it to B&W dots, at the printer's resolution? (300 dpi, in
my case) Are the results as good as dithering in a dedicated image
processing program? What kind of control do I get over graphic sizing?
What I _don't_ want is the "Amazing Computing syndrome", where it seems
like they _cannot_ size graphics exactly, creating duplicated or
missing rows/columns of pixels in screen dumps, which lead to moire
artifacts in patterned backgrounds, and make every few lines of text
look positively pukey.
– As a WordPerfect power user, one aspect that is paramount is day-to-day
editing and cursor positioning. Does FiW have as rich a set of keyboard
commands as WP? (Examples: go to beginning of line/end of line,
word left/right, screen up/down, page up/down. Blocking should be
versatile, e.g. <Block><x> will block text up to the first instance
of <x> — useful when <x> is a hard return: you block the entire
paragraph in two keystrokes. Deleting/copying/moving a block should
be as streamlined as possible)
– Can you search & replace text only, or can you include codes? (Again,
WP allows searching for [Bold], or [HardReturn]-[Indent], and so on)
Thanks!
Blaq!
Yup, you read that right! WW rasterizes its supported fonts too.
FiW doesn't have record-on-the-fly.
What I meant about fonts is that FiW is not font sensitive, so you can't set
the font it uses for requesters and the like, whereas you can for WW.
I don't really know about graphics since I don't use them. You can scale them,
but how good the printout is, I don't know. Not bad I'm sure though, for b&w.
Keyboard commands… I don't really know how they compare to WP, but I'm
basically satisfied.
Search and replace is one thing that WW and to a greater extent WP have it over
FiW in. No codes. (God I miss that feature of WP! The whole codes thing is
great!)
Mr. Zombie – Warped forever!
Paul,
>> it uses its own bitmapped font instead of one you choose, so if you have a
high-res display card, you'll be squinting a bit at the menus unless you use
MagicMenu.
I don't think so, sorry. FW uses your Workbench font (at least it does in my
German version 3), so if this is big enough for a high res display it is fine.
I use 800×600 from my PicassoII and Helvetica 13 on an 17 inch monitor.
I agree with your other items.
Regards,
Joachim Sondermann-Bieker
on Amiga AutoPilot 1.77 from Cologne, Germany
Joachim-
Say what? Your FiW titlebar and requesters and so on use Helvetica 13? How did
you accomplish that? Mine uses a bitmapped font that comes with FiW, called
SWScrFont located in the FWFonts subdirectory of FiW's directory. Is there a
preferences setting I'm missing?
Mr. Zombie – Warped forever!
Joachim-
It just occured to me that SWScrFont looks fairly like Helvetica, so I think
you're mistaken.
Mr. Zombie – Warped forever!
Paul,
oops, I was wrong. That SWScrFont _really_ looks almost exactly like Helvetica
13. But Jonathan pointed out how to do it: If you open FW on Workbench it will
use your system font for its menus.
cheers,
Joachim Sondermann-Bieker
on Amiga AutoPilot 1.77 from Cologne, Germany
It will only use your system font if you run FW on the Workbench. If it runs
on a custom screen (even on my Picasso II), it will use it's own font. I am
using FW r3
-Jonathan
MAC Quadra/486PC compatible courtesy Amiga, Emplant and BB. Emplant beta
tester. Running AP v1.77. E-mail: JonathanB@delrina.com
Jonathan,
I was wrong. That FWFont looks very similar to Helvetica 13, so I was mistaken.
🙁 . Thanks for the correction.
cheers,
Joachim Sondermann-Bieker
on Amiga AutoPilot 1.77 from Cologne, Germany