Choose your weapon: Amigawriter2.2, FinalWriter97 or Wordworth7? Why?

[the_leander]

I have to be honest out of the three, only two are really in the running, I tried AmigaWriter and it was by far the most horrid WP experience I ever came across.

Day to day I used WordWorth and it really was a dream to use, with a clean, modern (well, modern for the time) interface that really did leave you alone to get on with what you needed to do, I must have logged thousands of hours with WordWorth over the years.

That said, there were jobs that I think FinalWriter simply did better, it felt to me less of a pure word processor such as WordWorth and more like a step toward desktop publishing (but not as extreme as PageStream). I personaly didn't much care for the interface but I did use it and it was as stable as a rock.

But yeah, AmigaWriter... Crap interface, poorly thought out, unstable, few options, no ability (at the time I tried it, it may have changed since) to save to RTF or similar portable format... Just really, terribly poor.

These days... I tend to use OpenOffice Writer, though I'll use Abiword at a pinch.

My back to school pack A500 came with Pro Write, it was with that piece of software I wrote my first short story...

Over 15 years ago now.

[InTheSand]

adolescent wrote:
OpenOffice, at ~440MB, can't really be considered "thin".  Plus, the facts that it mangles about half the MS Office files it opens, and isn't nearly as powerful for actual business users, should be at least considered when dismissing Office because of "bloat".

440Mb? A full install takes up ~330Mb here... But yeah, not exactly "thin"!

As for mangling MS Office files - I've had a few instances where some formatting is altered slightly, but the bulk of MS-format files import fine, including large Word documents with multiple sections and styles.

And for 95% of business users doing typical word processing and spreadsheet/graphing tasks, OpenOffice is more than powerful enough. Granted, for the top 5% of "power" users, it may not suffice, but for the others, it's great.

Last year at my workplace, the time came for renewals of MS Office to upgrade from the 2000 version and we made the decision to junk it and go with OpenOffice instead for everyone except for ~30 people at the company's HQ. Aside from a few initial teething problems, it went very well and is now nicely integrated into our environment.

Anyway... I digress!

 - Ali

[Tenacious]

@QuikSanz

Did you read the whole thread? Check my post on the first page.


@amljot

They wouldn't do that. Cant be. Really?  Gee!

[ZeBeeDee]

adolescent wrote:
OpenOffice, at ~440MB, can't really be considered "thin".  Plus, the facts that it mangles about half the MS Office files it opens, and isn't nearly as powerful for actual business users, should be at least considered when dismissing Office because of "bloat".

I don't need a full install of OpenOffice so the 440mb comes down to approx 60mb (custom installs, don't you just love them). Plus all my letters are originally written in OpenOffice, so the mangled M$ Office files aspect you mentioned doesn't exist for me.

I'm a home user, not a business user and I consider my HD space a premium asset ...  even my XP is a 'lite' version - linky  :-)

[QuikSanz]

@Tenacious,

Your post did not really give me any info on the background, it came around. Thanks

Chris

[InTheSand]

ZeBeeDee wrote:
...all my letters are originally written in OpenOffice, so the mangled M$ Office files aspect you mentioned doesn't exist for me...

Yup! No sense in converting to/from MS Office formats every time a file needs to be opened or saved. And with OOo's nice and easy PDF export, that does the job for anything that needs to go to non-OpenOffice users...

 - Ali

[AmiBoy]

I was going to suggest Papyrus Office from Titan but after reading how bug ridden it is and slow eve on a "fast" 68K) I would say Wordworth 7 but only because thats the only one I have on my 1200 and its never caused me any problems and I find it nice to use if a little old

[amigadave]

QuikSanz wrote:
Hi,

When I bought my A2000HD used from a store it came with a GVP Combo 030/40 and some software, one of them being "Final Copy", anybody know if it's any good or just a cut down Final Writer?

Chris

I needed a better word processor than what I originally had on the Amiga back in 1987 (can't remember what it was) so I purchased Final Copy when it first came out, upgraded to Final Copy II and on through all the versions of Final Writer, including buying the Windows version so working on my PC at work for personal letters or papers (frowned upon and later impossible to install any software on your workstation without administrator approval).  Final Copy is the precursor to Final Writer, not a cut down version of it.  Final Copy is not bad for 7MHz Amigas, but get Final Copy II instead if you need a word processor for a stock A500, or A1000.  I can't really compare Final Writer to the others, but can say that it was the best Amiga word processor before Wordworth came out and might be as good or better than WW.

What the AmigaOS4.x and MorphOS2.x need is a port of Open Office complete.  That would go a long way toward making the two Amiga PPC OSes usable alternatives.  Is there a version of Open Office that runs on Linux PPC?  I use Open Office for everything on my PC and hope to never have to buy a MS Office product again in my lifetime. (I hate Word and its quirks that I just can't get around.)  My other preference is WordPerfect12 Office Suite.  "Back in the Day" and perhaps even still today, WordPerfect was the best, most intuitive and easy to use PC word processor.  Too bad the Amiga version was dropped and 4.xx.  I still have the boxed Amiga WordPerfect.

[swoslover]

Word Processors

I am selling some word processors, to be honest I only want p&p as I am trying to make some space in my rather small flat, if interested pm me and we could arrange it.

[adolescent]

InTheSand wrote:

As for mangling MS Office files - I've had a few instances where some formatting is altered slightly, but the bulk of MS-format files import fine, including large Word documents with multiple sections and styles.

The problems I normally see are with embedded objects, tables, margins, and to some extent fonts.  Try some PowerPoint slide decks if you want to see some real carnage.  IMHO, a compatible product should be... compatible.  (It's getting better I know.)

And, I agree with using the OOo format for your own files.  But, what if you need to exchange files with the rest of the computing world?   :-)

[adolescent]

amigadave wrote:
Is there a version of Open Office that runs on Linux PPC?

Yes.  But it's a very old version, 1.1.2.

My other preference is WordPerfect12 Office Suite.  "Back in the Day" and perhaps even still today, WordPerfect was the best, most intuitive and easy to use PC word processor.  Too bad the Amiga version was dropped and 4.xx.  I still have the boxed Amiga WordPerfect.

Then why not use it (WordPerfect 12)?  Why be compelled to use something new, just because there is something new?  (Of all people, I'd expect Amiga people to understand this...)

[stefcep2]

kavelaars wrote:
Hi Marc,
I have an Amiga4000, OS3.9+b1+b2, '060 and Cybergraphx4, but when using Wordworth7, I can't see any text on my ViewSonic 17" Monitor.
Any suggestions, please?
Thanks
Joseph Kavelaars

it maybe the cybergraphx screenmode you are using.  try a different color depth eg 256 colors, 15bit, 16bit, shouldn't need 24 bit.

[jj]

My fav WP off all time for speed of use was protext on the amstrad cpc, had it in a rombox along with maxim ( assembler /dissasembler)