Requirements to be eligible for future Beta releases of Word Pro and receive your complementary copy
Methods of Communication
How to return log files, problem reports, and comments to Lotus
Using the Cleanup After Word Pro application
The Cleanup After Word Pro application is no longer installed as of this beta. If you see this application in your program group, please delelte it.
Major Changes
Word Pro is the new team word processor from Lotus. While many of the features of Word Pro will look familiar to current Ami Pro 3.1 users, there has been major changes to the user interface, the capabilities and the way the product is used. Below are a few of the really important changes. Please take a minute to review them, as they will help you begin to use the Beta version of Word Pro.
New Properties Dialog (the Lotus InfoBox)
All the controls needed to change properties (such as Bold, font size, named style) are now contained in a single properties dialog. The Properties dialog will have everything you need to modify your current selection. The dialog has tabs just under the title bar, allowing you to see groups of related controls, such as font, indention, named styles, etc. The properties dialog is not modal, meaning that you do not need to close or click Apply to see changes in the document, and therefore, there is no preview.
New Context Sensitive User Interface
The Word Pro user interface is "context sensitive". That means that the menus and SmartIcons change based on the current selection. The options provided are the options that can be used with the selection. Other options are hidden until they are needed. Word Pro offers nesting contexts, such as text in a frame. In this case, the products interface changes to show you options for both text and frame.
The following components are now context sensitive...
MenusThe menu between Create and Window is context sensitive and called the Context menu. When the insertion/selection is text, the context menu will become Text, and offer commands that operate on text. When the selection is a frame, the menu will become Frame. When the selection is text in a frame, the menu becomes Text and additional context menu Frame is added to the right of the Text menu.
Right Mouse Button Pop up MenusClicking the mouse's right button will display a popup menu. This popup menu contains a subset of the main context menu, plus some common clipboard commands.
SmartIcon SetsThere are now two types of SmartIcons sets, Universal and context sensitive sets. The Universal SmartIcons set contains icons useful regardless of the selection, such as Open, Save, Cut, Copy, Paste, etc. The context sensitive sets consist of icons useful for a particular type of selection, such as text, or frame. There is a context sensitive SmartIcons set for each type of selection in the document, including many nested selections (such as text in a table cell).
Properties Dialog (InfoBox)The InfoBox is a tabbed dialog, containing controls for settings all the properties of the selected object.
New Named Styles Model
Lotus Word Pro has a new named styles model. Like Ami Pro, all text is assigned a named style. Unlike the previous version, Word Pro allows you to set any type of property as a local override of the text's base style. This includes paragraph spacing, bullet styles, and other properties that required a named style in previous versions.
Creating named styles is also different. In Word Pro, you first format your text to look the way you want your new style to look. Then, select the text and create a new style by example.
Frames, Tables and Cells now have named styles. As with text, modify the frame and then create a named style. That named style can now be applied to other frames.
New SmartMaster Model (style sheets)
Word Pro uses style sheets called SmartMasters. SmartMasters contain page layouts, named styles and content. All documents are created using a SmartMaster, including a "plain" document. The new document copies the SmartMaster on creation, and is no longer referencing the original SmartMaster. You can change the SmartMaster the document is using via the File menu. This Beta release does not come with many SmartMasters. You can make you own by saving a file with the type "SmartMaster".
Because styles are copied from the SmartMaster to the document when the document is created, it is no longer possible to change a SmartMaster by creating a document, modifying the styles in the document, and then using File Management to move the styles back to the style sheet. If you wish to save style changes in a document to a style sheet, you will need to save the document, then open the SmartMaster and copy the styles from the document to the SmartMaster.
Internet Access
Word Pro offers the ability to open a file on the Internet, to edit it, and then to save changes back to the Internet. Access will be offered to files on the World Wide Web as well as through FTP in the final version, although for Beta September (32 Bit), only FTP access is supported. For information see FileèInternet.
When you "open" a file on the Internet, Word Pro copies the file to your local system, and all editing changes are made on the local system. When you save your changes, Word Pro copies the changes back to the host, assuming you have write access on the host.
While you have the ability to specify a proxy when you specify your Internet host systems, we have not conducted extensive testing with proxies and/or firewalls. If your system uses a proxy, we would appreciate information on the type of firewall installed, and the results you experience. Please send your comments to Sigmond_Withano@crd.lotus.com.
Online Documentation, Ask the Expert and Help
Word Pro has redesigned online documentation. There are now thousands of task-oriented How Do I topics. The topics display in a small Help window that you can leave up while following the steps.
To help you find help on the capabilities in Word Pro, there is a new feature called Ask the Expert. Using you own words, you can ask "how do I" type questions, and the Expert will either find the appropriate topic, or suggest similar topics. To assist in making the Expert more accurate, ALL QUESTIONS ARE LOGGED, and Beta testers are asked to return the file to Lotus when prompted by the program. For more information, click on the tab entitled "Returning the Expert Logfile". Please use the Expert early and often.
Other New Capabilities and Features
There are thousands of new capabilities and features in Word Pro. Here are few of the most interesting and important ones.
Nested Document Architecturethis allows you to create anything inside of anything, for example, creating a table inside a table cell. Also allows drag-and-drop between cells, text and frames.
Unlimited Undo/Redo Levelsyou set the number of undo to any number under 32,000. However, each undo does consume some memory. See FileèUser SetupèWord Pro Preferences to set number of undo levels. See EditèUndo/Redo Special for dialog listing actions that can be undone/redone.
Interactive Visual Spell Checkyour document is constantly being checked for spelling in the background. You can view misspelled words (shown with blue highlighting) while editing the document. With the Spell Check Bar displayed, you can correct spelling in way similar to previous versions. See EditèSpell Check to display the bar. See ViewèShow/HideèMisspelled Words to highlight misspelled words as you type.
Status Bar-more formatting controls are available on the Status Bar, including text color and basic attributes of Bold, Underline and Italic.
SmartEditing-selects whole words when selecting more than one word, and fixes up missing or extra spaces when you paste or drag-and-drop text.
SmartCorrect-SmartCorrect can correct commonly misspelled words, fix common typing errors, such as two capital letters at the beginning of a word.
Divisions-a document can be divided into divisions. Each division is basically a document, with its own styles and SmartMaster. Divisions are shown via Divider Tabs, as in Lotus 1-2-3. Divisions can contain other divisions, allowing you to structure your large document, and like an outliner, collapse divisions when you are not interested in seeing their divider tabs. See CreateèDivision.
Sections-a division can be divided into section. Each section can restart paragraph numbering, page layout, headers, and footers. See CreateèSections.
Versions-a single file can contain several versions of the document. You can view old
versions of the document to see the document the way it was before you created a new version. Versions are very efficient, and do not increase the file size significantly each time you add a version. Old versions are used as needed by newer versions, and thus old versions are read only. SeeeFileèVersions to create and/or review old versions.
Access and Editing Rights-using Document Control, you can limit access to some users, and those users can open the file with out a password, while all other users will not be given access. Additionally, each user can be given editing rights, restricting their edits to a new version, always revision marked, or even limit them to only reading the document with Copy, Print and Save As disabled. See FileèDocument PropertiesèDocument Control.
Multiple Document Compareusing TeamConsolidate, you can compare more than 2 copies of a document, and in the results, see copies of paragraphs edited by more than one user. See FileèTeamConsolidate.
Modeless Dialog BarsSpell Check, Find and Replace, Revision Review, Grammar Check, Mark as TOC/Index, Envelope, Merge are now mode-less dialog bars that allow you access to their capabilities without preventing your editing of the document. You can have multiple bars displayed simultaneously. See the above features, most are in the Edit menu.
Better Commenting Tools Comment Notes are now just like your main body of text, and can contain formatted text, frames, tables, even parallel columns. You can also have more than one Comment Note open at a time. See ViewèShow/HideèReview and Comment Tools.
Highlighter-you can shade the background behind text with a highlighter pen. From the View menu's Show/Hide, display the Review and Comment Tools.
Better Revision Marking-Marked edits are now styled per editor. You can even have your deletions hidden. The Review Revisions bar is mode-less, and can even tell you who typed what in a sentence. See EditèMarkup Edits to turn on revision marking. See EditèReview Marked Edits to display the review bar.
Format Check-checks your document against common typing conventions, such as using symbols for (R), 10% smaller caps in acronyms, etc. See EditèFormat Check.
Even More New Features To Check Out
Auto timed save of untitled documents. Saves into a temporary file, without interrupting you or requiring a filename. The temp file can be recovered if Windows or Word Pro should crash before you actually save your file. See FileèUser SetupèWord Pro Preferences.
Continuous page scrolling between more than one page.
Print selected ranges of pages. See FileèPrint, and click Selected Pages. You can enter individual and or ranges of pages.
Perform Image Processing on color images.
Easier to use envelope function. See CreateèOther Document Part.
Print multiple layout changes and orientations in Duplex printing.
New View SmartIcons allow you easily switch between different view levels.
New Table Grid Create SmartIcon allows you to easily create a table by clicking and dragging.
Preview all graphic images before importing, no matter of graphic format. See FileèImport Picture
Easily add background fills and patterns to selected text or an entire page. See the properties dialog for what you want to fill.
User definable file extension (.sam is no longer required). Word Pro now senses the file format, so you can use the extension for your own file management needs.
Improved functionality of Tables.
Doc Builder
You MUST complete the Doc Builder Script to be eligible for the next Beta
You must follow specific guidelines to be eligible to continue receiving the Word Pro Beta releases. One of these guidelines is to submit the results of the Doc Builder test. You may run the Doc Builder program as many times as you like, but you are only required to submit the results one time.
What is the Doc Builder?
The document builder is an automated program and will automatically create a test document in Word Pro. This document tests and demonstrates a variety of features on your machine. The uniqueness of your configuration of your machine can help us test areas that we might not catch.
How to start Doc Builder
Double click on the Doc Builder icon and wait for about 15 minutes. A dialog box will appear telling you that the program has finished. At that time you may exit the Doc Builder.
What to do with the results
When you execute the document builder the file RESULTS.TXT is created in the document builder directory docsrcip under the wordpro directory. Paste the contents of the RESULTS.TXT file into an E-Mail message and send to the following internet address:
Sigmond_Withano@crd.lotus.com
The subject line of you E-Mail MUST state "BETASCRIPT".
Beta Site Requirements
You MUST report weekly to be eligible for the next Beta Release
Once Word Pro has shipped, all Beta sites who have been active and are in good standing at the end of the program will receive a complimentary package of Word Pro. They will also be eligible to participate in future Beta programs. Beta sites who become inactive will not receive the next Beta and will be dropped from the program. Those persons who are Pre-Release sites are not required to report and will not receive the complimentary package awarded for regular reporting and completion of the Beta program. Your sales representative will have informed you if you are a Pre-Release site.
The Weekly Report format program
You can use E-Mail to mail the report once a week or use our Web site. If you are using E-Mail, you must use the Weekly Report program to format the report. Once a week, simply start the program, fill in the fields, click on the areas in which you worked on, fill in the total hours spent on the combined fields for that week, and click on the Create File button. A file weekly.rpt is created in the wordpro directory. This file or the contents of this file should be mailed to the following internet address:
sigmond_withano@crd.lotus.com
The subject line must be "Weekly Beta Report"
The Weekly Report from the Web
You can use E-Mail to mail the report once a week or use our Web site. If you are using E-Mail, you must use the Weekly Report program to format the report. Once a week, simply start the program, fill in the fields, click on the areas in which you worked on, fill in the total hours spent in Word Pro, and hit the Submit Weekly Report button. You may use this method instead of E-Mail. The location is http://america.net/com/lotus/weekrpt.html
You MUST complete the Doc Builder Script to be eligible for the next Beta
You must follow specific guidelines to be eligible to continue receiving the Word Pro Beta releases. One of these guidelines is to submit the results of the Doc Builder test. You may run the Doc Builder program as many times as you like, but you are only required to submit the results one time. See the Doc Builder section for more information.
Providing Feedback & Problem Reports
There are reporting requirements to maintain your status as a Beta site in good standing. We are trying to make reporting as easy and convenient as possible and offer several alternatives. The specific reporting requirements for Beta September (32 bit) are:
1) If you find bugs, you should turn them in by following the proper procedures. There are many things that are not yet fully operational; we know that. We won't be able to give you much feedback regarding your bug reports during Beta September (32 bit), because we will be very busy clearing out bugs ourselves, in preparation for the next beta. That's when the fun really starts.
2) Use the helps (On-Line documentation) and let us know what you think. Many areas won't have topics yet, but we want to know if you find using the feature to be easy or difficult. Send us any comments you have about it.
Methods of Communication
For your convenience, we have several paths of communication available for reporting problems or reporting general comments. We really want to hear your input about the product and encourage your feedback using one of the following methods.
E-Mail
All Beta Sites are required to have at least e-mail capabilities. This channel will be the default path of communication between Ami Pro Beta Support and the Beta Site. To submit problem reports, use the "betarpt.exe" program provided. This will format the report you wish to send so that we can provide feedback in the most efficient manner possible. You must adhere to the format that "betarpt.exe" supplies or the problem report will go unnoticed. E-mail the file to sigmond_withano@crd.lotus.com with the subject line "bug4u".
Beta Report Exe
There is an executable "betarpt.exe" that is installed with Word Pro. This program is only for formatting text to be sent by e-mail. This program will create a file, REPORT.BUG, in the same directory as the executable. The contents of REPORT.BUG is in a format required to process the information into our databases when you use e-mail.
World Wide Web (WWW)
You may use a WWW browser and go to location "http://america.net/com/lotus". Enter your information and hit the submit button. All information will be e-mailed to Lotus, and you will receive a response by e-mail shortly afterwards.
CompuServe
Interactive electronic support for this beta release of the software is available on LotusWP forum on CompuServe. Enclosed you will find an Introductory Membership Offer that describes the available services. If you are not already a member of CompuServe, you can use this form to subscribe to the service. CompuServe's Introductory Membership Offer provides you with:
Free WinCim software
The 1st month of basic services free
A $15 usage credit (more than 3 hours of extended services)
A Free subscription to CompuServe Magazine
Call 1-800-848-8199 and ask for representative #226 to initiate a membership.
To participate in the beta section of the forum, you must first log onto and join LotusWP forum (GO LOTUSWP). Notify the Sysop that you would like to gain access to the private beta section by posting a message addressed to "*Sysop" (no quotes). Be sure to include the asterisk (*) in front of the word 'Sysop' to insure privacy. The sysop will send you a message with instructions for accessing the beta section. If you have any specific questions about beta participation on CompuServe send email to ID 76702,1772.
Lotus Notes connected through Notes Net
If your company is on NotesNet, you can actually be communicating via the same database as other sites. This allows you to communicate with other Betas in a Forum style arrangement. Please e-mail your request to Sigmond Withano @ WPDQE @ Lotus @ Notes Net. The e-mail subject line must be "Beta Site Request for Notes Replication" for the request to go through.
