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Matt Neuburg No comments

Nisus/Word Comparison

Here's one more drop in the never-ending flow of One Person's Opinions comparing Nisus 3.06 and Word 5.0. Your mileage may vary, and this is certainly not the last word - pun intended, as I suspect that Word 6.0 (mid-1993 is the current fantasy prediction) will change things considerably, especially if it includes a macro language and automatic numbering of figures, cross-referencing, and so forth. These comments adopt roughly the order and categories of my review of Nisus, published by TidBITS and living on sumex-aim.stanford.edu as /info-mac/digest/tb/tidbits-nisus.etx; see it for more detail if desired

Adam Engst No comments

Administrivia

Nigel Stanger writes about Apple's choice of the name Newton: "It's quite obvious when you think about it. What was Apple Computer's first logo? Newton sitting under the apple tree

Adam Engst No comments

QuickTime Tips

Mike O'Connor, author of Navigator and programmer extraordinaire, passes along some QuickTime tips of interest. Here is a user interface command I'll bet nobody knows

Adam Engst No comments

Salient Acquired!

Talk about frustration. I was watching America Online's FlashMail download my mail earlier this week, and I'd received a couple of files that were going to take 20 minutes to download

Adam Engst No comments

Gateways 1: Internet

The time has come. You've probably noticed that I usually write out addresses in the so-called Internet format. For example, when I give a CompuServe address, I replace the usual comma with a period and append "@compuserve.com" to the end

Adam Engst No comments

PowerBook 145

The latest solid rumor, oxymoronically enough, concerns the next round of PowerBooks to emerge from Cupertino. From the sounds of it, Apple will be upping the ante in the middle of the line with a PowerBook 145 that will essentially be a 170 without the active matrix screen or the FPU

Adam Engst No comments

Nisus Compact

Small, modular programs are among us. Not many, but a few, and it's a trend I hope to see more of in the future. Why pay for and store the program code needed to do something you don't want or need

Matthew Wall No comments

ClarisWorks Review

by Matthew Wall -- [email protected] This review does not compare different works programs, but it will give you a good understanding of how ClarisWorks integrates different types of software into one functional package

Adam Engst No comments

Basic Facts

ClarisWorks requires at least System 6.0.5 and 1 MB of RAM. Under System 7, like everything else, it requires 2 MB of RAM. The manuals include installation instructions appropriate for floppy-based Macs and hard drive systems

Adam Engst No comments

Integration

Works programs typically divide their functions into modules traditionally corresponding to simplified versions of high-end applications. ClarisWorks eschews the whole module idea for the concept of "document type." ClarisWorks has five basic document types: Word Processing, Graphics, Spreadsheet, Database, and Communications

Adam Engst No comments

Page Layout Capabilities

The most amazing feature of ClarisWorks is the least touted in the advertising and packaging: page layout. The combination of three elements makes ClarisWorks one of the better low-end page layout buys to date on the Mac: flexible and editable views, the frames concept, and the object-oriented graphics document type. All document types and frames allow completely flexible and editable views of the document from 3.13% all the way up to 3200%

Adam Engst No comments

Import/Export Features

ClarisWorks really suffers in file import and export. Using numerous translators and the XTND system, ClarisWorks can import and export a fairly impressive range of word processing and graphics documents for a low-end program

Adam Engst No comments

Macros

Another plus for ClarisWorks is its simple macro feature, available in every document type. These are record-only macros; there are no scripts to save or edit via a command language

Adam Engst No comments

Word Processing

The word processing tool/document type/frame is essentially a slight reworking of MacWrite II, with a few features missing and a few added. If you're unfamiliar with MacWrite II, it's a capable entry-level word processor with enough features for most people

Adam Engst No comments

Graphics

The graphics layer is the only part of ClarisWorks that can be described as truly disappointing. Although it supports color fills and lines, it's otherwise a generic draw program