From: Stewart Russell <scruss@cix.compulink.co.uk>
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Jason L. Tibbitts III
Subject: REVIEW: Protext v5.5
Keywords: application, word processor
Path: menudo.uh.edu
Distribution: world
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.applications
Reply-To: Stewart Russell <scruss@cix.compulink.co.uk>
--text follows this line--
Protext is a word processor designed for putting words on paper
quickly and efficiently. It offers a powerful mail merge macro
language, phonetic spelling checker, thesaurus, hyphenation and
widow/orphan control, and full support for over 150 printers.
Swedish and German language versions are available, and English,
French, German, American and Swedish dictionaries can be
supplied.
What You Get
============
Protext comes on four disks - Program, Dictionary, Printer
Driver and Thesaurus. The system will run on a 1MB floppy based
system, but a hard disk makes life easier.
The Protext main manual (380 pages) contains everything you need
to know about the program. It's well written and laid out, and
was entirely produced with Protext. The current edition covers
v5.0 (essentially the same, except lacking the thesaurus) with
an additional booklet covering v5.5.
Other booklets contain the tutorial guide, and the printer
driver details (of which more later). It's handy to have these
separate from the main manual, as you can keep your place open
in the tutorial whilst referring to the other books.
In Use
======
Protext looks like a traditional word processor, with a status
box at the top. The window drag bar holds the active filename,
there are two lines of status information underneath, and then
the active ruler. It looks a bit like this -
PROTEXT v5.52 (c) 1991 Arnor. Document Protext.Usenet (6K) ============
Page 2 Line 20 Col 1 No markers set AutFrm Key f4 to view
Insert Justify Off Wd-Wrap SCR Printer NECP60 21:39:29
L-------!-------!-------!-------!-------!-------!-------!------R
Protext now supports Intuition menus by design, rather than as a
bit of an afterthought as in versions <=4.2. The command keys
follow the Intuition recommendations, although seasoned Protext
people will probably use the combinations employed in older
versions. [After using the old keys for four years, I switched
to the Intuition ones. I am now thoroughly confused, no matter
which set I try...]
If you need to type accented text, the program supports no less
than 14 different diacritical marks, plus the whole Amiga
character set. All Roman-based typeface languages can be printed
from Protext, as long as your printer can manage the bitmapped
graphics.
Multiple file fiends can have 36 open at once, with split
screens and cut/copy/paste between them. The Clipboard isn't
used, but Protext is happy taking input from Snap.
Timed autosave will ensure that power losses won't destroy all
your work. I have a timed save every ten minutes, so at the rate
I type, I might lose a couple of words if my machine went down.
v5.5 offers Auto hyphenation using the Proximity hyphenation
system and widow and orphan control with blank line carry-over
suppression.
The Help system has been expanded from a linear help file to a
mouse-controlled hypertext system. Online help is quite brief,
but often avoids the need to dig out the manual.
Although the ARP/asl file requester can be used, Protext's batch
file selector can do more. It's more a file manager than just a
selector, as files can be renamed and deleted with it
Arnor have finally allowed Protext to run on a custom screen
(with optional interlace). It reduces clutter on the Workbench,
and since there are no other windows which can obscure the
editing screen, scrolling is fast and smooth.
Spelling Check and Thesaurus
============================
("What's another word for `thesaurus'?" - Steven Wright.)
Protext uses the Proximity/Collins/Merriam-Webster dictionary
and thesaurus information, and does so very quickly. Over 2400
words, I managed 4500 words per minute checked on an A500 with a
Quantum LPS and A590 controller. You can expect 45000 words per
minute on an A3000.
Protext has two spell check methods. The first scans the whole
text, sorts the words and checks them in alphabetical order. The
newer method checks from start to finish. Surprisingly, the
former method (which has been used by Protext from v1.0) turns
out to be around 15% slower than the latter.
Even if your spelling is truly atrocious, the phonetic approach
used by the spelling checker should give the right answer. For
example "tlifshin" returns "television" (along with televising,
diffusion, diffusing, typhlosis and televises). "Merriam-
Webster" becomes "Murrain-Lobster", so maybe the phonetic
approach isn't so good after all.
The thesaurus is useful too, for it can suggest (or move, or
propose, or recommend even) alternatives to overused words. Just
hit Ctrl-T when over a word, and a list of substitutes appears.
Hitting CR on an suggested word finds synonyms of that word, so
you can browse down to quite a depth, and far away from the
original meaning.
Programming
===========
I use Protext's macro programming language very rarely, if at
all. I've been through the mail merge tutorial and everything
seems to work, but most of this comes straight off the spec-
sheet, I'm afraid.
Protext has a full programming language - with numeric and
string variables, conditionals and repeat-until loops. These are
implemented through '>' commands (similar to Wordstar's dot
commands) in the text file, so a document can also be a program.
Cunning things can be done with variables; numeric variable can
be defined to auto-increment, which can be used for section
numbering. Field manipulation for mail merging is strong, so
with a bit of skill, automated letters could look personal.
Although it's possible to write quite a passable database in
Protext, Arnor also sell the Prodata database. This interfaces
with Protext to provide a powerful system for retrieving and
printing information. Since I've never used Prodata, I can't
comment on it - but I know plenty people who swear by it.
Printing
========
Preferences printer support is all very well, but how do you
tell a Preferences printer how to printed in Proportional
Outline Shadow Helvetica? My Pinwriter can do that, but
Preferences can't. Hence Protext uses its own drivers.
Protext printer drivers are editable text, and if you have an
obscure printer you can create a driver for it. Most printers
are already supported by Protext, except for PostScript.
One of the better reasons for using custom drivers is micro-
spaced printing. Most printers have a proportional setting, but
very few word processors know about font widths to insert
microspaces to have properly justified text. Protext handles
this well although the price you pay is a non-WYSIWYG display,
since standard screen fonts are fixed pitch.
User Support
============
In the UK, telephone support runs between 1400 and 1730, Monday
to Friday. A Priority Support service is available at #30 per
year, which guarantees priority when telephoning and rapid
turnaround of written enquiries. Free maintenance updates are
sent automatically to Priority users.
'Exfile' (named after the default command file executed at
startup) is Arnor's support magazine, available by subscription.
It contains a whole host of hints and tips, macros and general
Protext-related chatter. Exfile subscribers are eligible for a
free maintenance update - so you can catch up on user-suggested
features at low cost.
Arnor are active on CIX (Compulink Information eXchange), and
have a busy informal support conference for all their products.
Queries are answered quickly, often by the Protext development
team themselves.
Miscellaneous
=============
Protext uses its own file format, the details of which are
available from Arnor. A highly useful utility called Convert
will convert to/from a variety of other file formats - ASCII
(output is reformattable, and works well with PPage), Wordstar
(including v5.5), First Word and RTF. No specific Amiga file
formats are supported, but Convert can be programmed to
substitute control codes in the text.
Another utility is Fsort, a program which sorts ASCII files on
certain key fields. Originally designed for mail-merge address
sorting, it does have other applications (if only I could think
of some).
Both these utilities can be run from inside Protext, or from the
Workbench. Protext is rather old fashioned in that it has a
Command mode; however AmigaDOS commands can be run from this
mode or from Protext batch files.
Conclusion
==========
I've been using Protext for the last five years, on various
machines. It's not perfect, but with every new version it gets
better and better. There's lots of stuff I've missed out here
too, but I don't need most of the more intricate and clever
features.
I use Protext for producing magazine copy, or for creating
source for AmigaTeX. On the rare occasions I print from the
program I'm impressed by the results obtained from built-in
printer fonts, especially when proportionally spaced.
If you want pictures, use DTP and wait while the screen redraws.
Protext is zero-wait-state *word* processing.
--
PROTEXT v5.5
Arnor Ltd
611 Lincoln Road
Peterborough
PE1 3HA
England
Tel- 0733 68909
UK Pricing (Pounds Sterling, inc VAT)
Protext v5.5 #152.75
Extra Dictionary for v5.5 (Fr/Ger/US/Swedish) #35.25
(including thesaurus and hyphenation files.)
Protext v4.3 #50.00
Protext 5.5 runs on all Amigas with Kickstart 1.2 or greater and
1MB or more of RAM. It is also available on the PC, ST and Acorn
Archimedes.
[Protext 4.3 is a cut down version which will run on 512KB
machines. It has a simpler spelling checker, no thesaurus, and
less of the clever formatting and printing features.]
A Protext v5.5 demo is available free of charge from Arnor, or
from your local distributor.
Distributors
[Contact the company concerned for the current price in your
currency.]
USA France
Michtron Inc. Jessico Impex
3201 Drummond Plaza 8 Boul. Joseph Garnier
Newark DE 19711 06100 NICE
Tel: +1 302 454 7946 Tel: +33 93 516130
Fax: +1 302 454 1403 fax: +33 93 970700
Sweden (Swedish version available) Australia
Bremberg Electronics Pactronics Pty Ltd
Villa Bergvalla 5373 98 Carnarvon Street
S-54400 HJO Silverwater
Tel: +46 503 40330 NSW 2141
Fax: +46 503 40033 Tel: +61 (0)2 748 4700
fax: +61 (0)2 748 4604
Germany (where Protext is known as Prowort, for legal reasons)
Prowort Service
Postfach 1316
D-8045 ISMANING
Tel: +49 (0)89 966270
Fax: +49 (0)89 965001
--
Stewart C. Russell I live for CIX, but we don't share opinions.
scruss@cix.compulink.co.uk
Fidonet: 2:259/2.4 "I've seen it. It's rubbish." - Marvin