European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 4, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse By Jack Warner Cox news services Ord perfect is the most popular word processor for ism and compatibles but i never cared much for it until version 5 came along. Word perfect 5.0 is not so much an upgrade As a major revision. The look and feel Are intact but this is a vastly improved program. Even the documentation has been rewritten Lone Pine National Park through whose correspondence hundreds of thousands of people have Learned the program is almost nowhere to be found now. The tutorial now resides in a Large paperbound Book the reference manual remains in the Standard Loose Leaf notebook. The most important revision to me is a restructuring of the learning concept both in the manual and the on line help. Word perfect appears to be getting away from the infuriating habit of telling you once and once Only the real world key equivalents for commands for example f1 is the cancel key and forever after merely referring to the cancel key without reminding you that it s f1. The on line help formerly a simple list has now been expanded to a full explanation of the function key commands the big bore word processors have pretty much covered every Way in which words can be manipulated for the typed Page and now Are easing into the area of desk top publishing. Word perfect 5.0 has a graphics integration function. Images can be scaled rotated and linked to any part of the text. A sampling of pictures is included. Unfortunately As with word Star 2000, the actual graphic cannot be seen onscreen in the Normal Mode it appears Only in the Page preview. Along the same lines the program now makes All formatting adjustment based on measurements instead of character position. Also new is now a style Sheet function which allows the users to set up documents with often used formatting automatically and the user is Given the Power to completely remap the keyboard. These Are features a few other word processors have had for some time. A feature word perfect has Long had that should be copied by the others is the ability to Center a Short letter up and Down on the Page. The outlining feature is the Best i be seen on any word processor. The speller is excellent the thesaurus offers antonyms. Pagination is automatic As you go which is As it should be and Page Breaks Are routinely displayed on screen. Many of the editing commands have been mercifully simplified moving a Block now requires no More keystrokes than a write. Word perfect unquestionably remains tailored to the office and the Secretary rather than to the writer All the unassisted function key commands Are formatting orders. The Only complaint of any magnitude i can Muster is that it still offers but one extra window this surely will be changed on the next revision. A write offers nine and Borland s new sprint word processor will accept two dozen. Word perfect will not lure me from a write or its kissing Cousin Nota Bene which i feel Are still the Superior programs for the writer. But i can no longer Call word perfect difficult to learn awkward and slow. Word perfect 5.0, which the company says is already setting sales records clearly deserves its Success. The list Price remains $495 it can commonly be found in the United states for about $225. Owners of any previous version of word perfect can upgrade for $60, which they ought to do posthaste. You say $225 is too much sprint or pcs professional still too pricey at about $125? Well How about a $21.95 word processor the byte size word processor is a fairly crude piece of work but for the Money it s amazing. It has macros Block functions a speller and search and replace. It will address an envelope from the header in a letter. It will print in bold or underline not italic. It will not a peculiarity noticed in other very cheap word processors allow you to split one paragraph into two by sampling placing a return where you want them to break. This is such a Basic function it is a Shock to discover its absence. The byte size word processor is no easier to use than any of the mid Price $200 list programs and it s not nearly As Good. I question How Many users having paid $1,200 or More for their computer will be hesitant about paying $125 for a first rate medium powered word processor. Byte size would be Fine Only if writing letters and memos is a Mere afterthought to your computing practices. Rma Bombeck the last bastion of privacy isolating Man from a Telephone has fallen. A March that has taken communications to the Friendly skies to hotel bathrooms cars and hot tubs has now closed the distance Between an expectant Mother and her unborn child. That s right. You can now Call Abdomen to womb with an instrument called the Presa phone with no time limit and no installation charges. The Only catch to it is that you never know when your party is on the line. The phone is a Bright yellow three part device with a mouthpiece and a funnel. The funnel is placed on the Mother s Abdomen and her voice is amplified. Does it work ten thousand phone owners say it does. One Mother said she recently underwent ultrasound treatment and was Able to watch her unborn baby s reaction. When the baby heard her Mother s voice she made sucking motions and her heart rate increased. When her Mother did t speak the baby did t react. With Hindsight there is 20-20 vision but knowing what i know now about my kids i can imagine the Way our conversation might have gone had i called them on the Presa phone. Hello baby heartburn this is your Mother. You Busy what do you mean you re putting me on hold you do not have a Call coming in on your other line. You Don t have another line. And Don t even think of turning on that stupid answering machine. It s the worst impersonation of Annette Funicello i be Ever heard. You eating Good you should be. I gained another 6 pounds this month. If you Don t make your move pretty soon i m going to Start buying my clothes at an upholstery shop. So is there any reason Why you re three Days late i am not trying to interfere with your life. I m just asking. If someone told you you had to have a full set of Teeth to come into the world that someone is wrong. Don t worry your Little head that people set drinks on my stomach at parties. That s Mommy s problem. I got your room All ready for your visit. I know you la have friends to see and you la want to go to school and College and Call up friends and make plans to get married someday but it would t Hurt you to hang around for 20 years or so and spend some time with Mommy and daddy. Is that asking too much Well talk about it when you get Here. Incidentally where were you last wednesday when i called out where i be suspected for a Long time that the umbilical Cord is actually a Cable hooked up to Mabell and Sci. That s Why it s Only a matter of time before a Presa phone rings at 2 . And the Mother tells her unborn child it s for c 1989 Erma Bombeck saturday february 4, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 17
