From: Quinn <quinn@cs.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: RE: WriteNow 3.0
X-Xxdate: Wed, 16 Sep 92 01: 44:18 GMT
Organization: The University of Western Australia
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d9
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 02:10:24 GMT

In article <10SEP199223560828@utkvx2.utk.edu> Jones,
ljones@utkvx2.utk.edu writes:
>     I sympathize with all those who are looking for an alternative
>to WORD, but for me, that alternative is not WriteNow 3.0

Well for me it is and I'll proceed to tell you why.  [Whether you like
it or not (-: (-: (-: ]

>     After a few days, however, I knew I'd stay with WORD. I missed some
>of the very clever, useful features in WORD that I had taken for granted:
>the ability to navigate Yes/No/Cancel dialogues from the keyboard,

Ah, RTFM next time.

>a list of the last four open files, the ability to delete files from
>within WORD, etc.

Both of these can be done using the Finder.  You have you document windows
open and just double click the files to open recent ones and drag them
to the trash to delete them.  No problem.  Alternatively just don't close
the files.  Personally I hate application developers who think that they
can implement parts of the operating system better than the system
developers.

>     Couple this with the fact that WORD is THE standard, and WN just
>didn't make any sense for me, though it may for others.

Yeah and MessDos is the default operating system so you're going to
go out and use it every day right?  "Fight the power" as the saying goes.

>     I do love WORD's ability to let you set the default font,

Hey, you can do this too.  RTFM.

>set save reminders,

Third party extensions do this.  Not that I need it.  WriteNow is so
fast that I just hit save at the end of every paragraph (a habit that
has got me into trouble on my PowerBook when the hard disk spins down
(-: )

>@Generally unattractive appearance, especially the icon and that
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You have got to be kidding right?  From a Word users!
                                                    ^^^^
Which icon, WN3 or WN 2.2.  I personally prefer the older one but
dismissing a Word processor because of its icon seems a little
extreme.

> TeachText Save/Don't Save/Cancel dialog box.

Come of it, it's in the Human Interface Guidelines as expressed in
Inside Macintosh VI 2-30..2-32.  One of my big complaints about
Microsloth is that they've never heard of the Macintosh standard
user interface.  WriteNow uses it and they get flamed by people
who don't know better.

>     The grass is always greener in another word processor, but in the 
>rush to trash WORD and praise WN, some facts seem to have been left out.

And never let the facts get in the way of a good story, huh?

How about my pet hates with Word...

o Slow.
o Huge on disk and in RAM.
o Looks like it escaped from Windows.
o Not as good as Word for Windows!

o Buggy.  Really I like the fonts in my styles disappearing when I
move between machines.  And I like tracking down *every copy of
Word* in my department and upgrading them all to Word 5.0a.

o Total lack of attention to the user interface.  Some dialogs are
modal but don't tell you so by having a modal dialog window.
Some of these modal dialogs are semi-modal (ie you can use some
menu items but not others), some fully model and some just strange.
Disabling Quit (my favourite Microsloth menu item (-; ) when the
spelling checker window is frontmost is *INSANE*.

o Incompatible.  Why did Word 4.0 require a new version for each new
CPU Apple released?  [Apart from it not being 32 bit clean (which
is like a major upgrade) WriteNow ran on every Mac from the 128
to the Quadra 900.]  And why did Word break when Apple introduced
TrueType?  [Anyone remember the Word TrueType INIT?]  Because
Microsloth are stupid.  They can't program an operating system
and they can't program a Word processor.

I could go on forever but I'm actually employed to work and not bash
Microsloth so I'll have to stop.

Quinn "The Eskimo!"      <quinn@cs.uwa.edu.au>     "Support HAVOC!"
Department of Computer Science, The University of Western Australia
  -- Microsoft:  Just say NO!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps