1st Word Plus is not a totally new product having been first developed by GST for the Atari some 5 years ago. However, unlike Logistix reviewed in RISC User Issue 3, the package has clearly been substantially re-written for the Archimedes, using colour, windows and mouse to the full. As you read this review please remember that this is a pre-release version of the software and documentation which Acorn has kindly made available to us.
What then does 1st Word Plus offer? It has, of course, all the basic facilities one would expect of a word processor for entering and editing text. Indeed, up to four documents may be open and in use at the same time, allowing text to be moved or copied from one document to another. Text is limited to one font in one size, but may be styled in a variety of ways such as bold, italic and underline. Virtually ALL the characters of which your printer is capable, such as foreign language characters, may also be used on-screen.
There is a built-in spelling checker with a 40,000 word dictionary, and the facility to add supplementary user dictionaries. Graphics pictures may be positioned on the printed page, and there are excellent print control facilities using one of the many supplied printer drivers, or one of your own creation. Finally, there is an extensive mail-merge option called 1st Mail for standard letters and the like.
As word processing by its very nature makes extensive use of the keyboard, it is pleasing to note that the majority of mouse operations can also be initiated just as readily from the keyboard. Overall, initial use of the software shows that considerable thought has gone into designing a package that is very easy to use and yet provides a rich working environment.
On first loading 1st Word Plus, the file menu is displayed on the screen showing a list of files in the default doc directory. 1st Word Plus makes it quite easy to move up and down the hierarchy of an ADFS format disc and select the required file, or create a new one. The main edit screen is a typical Archimedes window, with the name of the document in the header, and a ruler at the top of the window. New rulers may be added wherever required in the text, or existing rulers edited, but only one ruler is ever visible at a time.
The selected (or default) printer driver is permanently displayed in the bottom half of the screen showing the full range of characters (up to a maximum of 188) of which the chosen printer is capable. Non-standard characters can be selected from here using the mouse pointer. The bottom two rows of the screen show the legends for the function keys f1 to f12. All or part of this information may be covered up by adjusting the size of the edit window as required.
The editing cursor may be moved through the text using either mouse or cursor keys. Sections of text may be highlighted (or marked) by dragging the mouse pointer across the relevant section, and then styled or subjected to block operations. These are activated, as are most of the functions of 1st Word Plus, by pressing the menu button on the mouse to display the top level menu and then following your choice sideways to display specific subsidiary menus. Block operations include cut and paste which can also be used to move text and graphics between different documents as well as within a single document.
A page layout menu allows details of headers and footers to be specified, and the sizes of header and footer margins and page length. Automatic page numbering is provided for. The layout of the text on the page is determined by the use of rulers. When a new ruler is to be created or an existing one edited a ruler menu is displayed. Rulers may be up to 150 characters in length.
Tabs can also be adjusted on the ruler itself using the mouse pointer, and either a text tab or a decimal tab may be specified. It would have been nice to position tabs more precisely than whole character positions (1st Word Plus appears not to support proportionally spaced text at all), and to have text centred on a Tab as an option rather than just left justified.
In use, pressing Tab moves to the next tab position but results in hard spaces being inserted in the text which must then be deleted individually if the need arises. Much more useful is what 1st Word Plus calls an Indent which inserts a variable width space. This behaves more like a conventional Tab key and is the obvious thing to use for tables.
Another feature of page layout is the use of hyphenation. This is optional, but if switched on, 1st Word Plus will try to hyphenate long words if necessary. The hyphenation menu allows you to determine exactly where, if at all, hyphenation should take place. This is about the minimum that can be provided for hyphenation. One might have anticipated more control with a full hyphenation dictionary and a customised exceptions table.
Before the spelling checker can be used the dictionary must be loaded into memory. This of course reduces the number of pages of text that are possible in memory. Acorn says that 150 pages of 250 words each (small pages!) are possible on an A310 without the spelling dictionary loaded. Spelling can be switched on for constant checking, or complete or part documents can be checked as required. Words not matched may be added to a supplementary dictionary, or browse mode selected to find a correct spelling.
A graphics mode may be selected and any mode 12 (or mode 20) picture may be loaded and positioned on the page. Because of the different aspect ratios between screen and printer this shows both the picture on-screen and the space it will ultimately occupy on the printed page. Pictures may be moved around a document and text may be superimposed upon the graphics. You can also do things like cut and paste a section of a document containing graphics. However, there appears to be no facilities for cropping or scaling graphics, so the facility is quite limited.
Print control appears to be excellent. Any set of consecutive pages may be printed, and multiple copies made as well if required. Best of all, you can select draft or NLQ mode from the same menu, an example of the well thought-out user-friendliness I referred to at the start.
This is effectively a separate package, and appears to be quite comprehensive though I was unable to try it out in the time available.
1st Word Plus certainly has far more features than any word processor on previous BBC micros, and the integration of a spelling checker, graphics and mail-merge in the one package is an agreeable step forward. It is also more flexible, with many more features than the free ArcWriter, though that will undoubtedly satisfy the needs of many. There are also many additional touches that I have not had the space to mention let alone describe - the use of footnotes for example. I do have some minor gripes as indicated, and others might emerge after more extensive usage.
At this stage I feel quite impressed by what has been achieved. At the expected price 1st Word Plus offers excellent word processing power. I hope, though, that Acorn will not let matters rest here, but will seek to provide further improvements and facilities for a future release and produce the best word processor in the world. Surely that's what the world's fastest micro really deserves.
Product 1st Word Plus Supplier Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge Technopark, 645 Newmarket Road, Cambridge CB5 8PB. Tel. (0223) 214411 Price Not yet confirmed but expected to be under £80 inc. VAT.