Re: GraphicWriter III v.2.0.

[gareth@vcn.bc.ca (Gareth Jones)]

Long post warning!

Since I posted the question to ask about what people thought of 
GraphicWriter III version 2.0, I've had a chance to play with a friend's 
copy and I've sent off the money to buy an update for myself. I also 
wrote a review for my User's Group newsletter (The Apples B.C. News). 
I'll post the review here, since at least one person has requested a 
review :-)

-Gareth

Review: GraphicWriter III, Version 2.0
 
Gareth Jones
 
 
Introduction
 
GraphicWriter, a desktop publishing program, was one of the first 
programs written specifically for the Apple IIgs. It evolved through 
several iterations to GraphicWriter III, version 1.1, where it stayed for 
a couple of years. However, at last, version 2.0 has been released. Since 
I rely on GraphicWriter for everything from my letters to a 
self-published book, I was eager to see the new version.
 
An Overview of GraphicWriter
 
Like other desktop publishing programs, GraphicWriter III allows you to 
create and arrange painting, drawing, and text objects on a page. The 
painting tools are simple, reflecting the fact that they are meant for 
touching up imported art rather than creating it from scratch. The 
drawing tools are fine for creating simple lines and polygons in your 
choice of colour and line thickness. The text tools are equivalent to a 
word processor. In addition to the usual font, size, style, and selection 
commands, it includes a spell-checker with an 80,000 word dictionary. It 
also supports  kerning and leading control,  three kinds of text wrap, 
custom tab leaders, Rsnap-toS guides, and a few other typographic 
controls not likely to be in a typical word processor.
 
New and Improved
 
The changes to GraphicWriter are extensive (the new version is over a 
third larger than the previous one),  but easily summarized. IUd like to 
discuss the new features in GraphicWriter III 2.0 in two categories: 
Standardizing and New. Standardizing features replace some ideosyncracy 
with AppleUs prefered way of doing things. New features add new 
capabilities to the program. As it turns out, the two categories overlap, 
but there you go.
 
Standardizing
 
There are many small, but appreciated, changes: the watch cursor is now 
the standard one, so the Twilight II screen saver wonUt interrupt a print 
job; the sounds you select in the RSoundsS Control Panel will play at the 
appropriate times; GraphicWriter III now tells the printer driver the 
name of the file that it is printing, which is useful for users of the 
RExpressS printer spooler; the RAuto-SaveS preference has been removed, 
and double-clicking a GraphicWriter document in the Finder will now load 
the document, as well as launching the program.
Finally, version 2.0 has adopted separate Font and Size menus instead of 
a combining them. The combined menu frustrated people who used a large 
number of fonts, and it did not work with the RTypeSetS Control Panel.
One standardizing feature is probably more important than any other 
change in the program: The Cut, Copy, and Paste operations now use the 
System Clipboard instead of a private one. This means that you can cut or 
copy something in another GS/OS program and paste it into GraphicWriter 
III, or vice versa. Best of all, if the object you paste into 
GraphicWriter III is a QuickDraw PICT, then it will print at the best 
resolution your printer can provide. A useful technique is to turn a 
painting or text into a PICT by opening it in another program (such as 
AppleWorks GS or Platinum Paint), copying it to the clipboard, and 
pasting it into GraphicWriter instead of importing it directly into 
GraphicWriter. In this way, for example, I was able to place artwork and 
screen shots into GraphicWriter that could be smoothly reduced to one 
quarter their original size and still print sharply.
 
New Features
 
Dialogue boxes have mostly turned into either windoids (think of them as 
dialogue boxes that can be moved around the screen) or actual windows. 
For example RFind/ChangeS is now a window, meaning that you can leave it 
open on your desktop and click on it whenever you wish to use it.
Speaking of dialogues, one of the three new menu items in GraphicWriter 
III is RObject Specs...S. (The others are RHelp...S and RCopy Master 
GuidesS). Selecting this brings up a windoid that lets you see and change 
the size and location of a selected object by typing new values for them.
One feature of the new GraphicWriter will not be apparent for a while. An 
RExtrasS menu will appear on the menu bar only when Extras are installed. 
None have yet been written.
Depending on what Extras are written, the Extras menu may be-come the 
most powerful feature of the program. In order to get a sense of what is 
possible, spend some time with the Additions menu in Page-Maker or the 
Extras menu in Quark Express and let your imagination soar.
 
The Journey is the Reward?
 
As much as I like this update, there are certainly more changes that IUd 
like to see. For example, I was a little dissapointed that the text 
editing commands donUt include the standard Control-F and Control-Y 
commands (except in the dialogue boxes), smart quotes, smart 
cut-and-paste, and smart delete. The ability to create white text on a 
black background would also be useful.
Although it is nice to be able to launch a document from the Finder, 
there are other messages from other programs that GraphicWriter ignores: 
it wonUt print a document directly from the Finder, nor Open or Print one 
under command from HyperCard IIgs. 
And, while we're at it, the Help window in the Finder lets you copy help 
text to the Clipboard. Is there any reason that you can't do that in 
GraphicWriter. (Quibble, quibble).
More importantly, IUd urge Seven Hills to consider redesigning the 
Toolbar as a floating palette resembling the tool palettes in HyperCard 
IIgs and HyperStudio. This would allow the user to read the entire width 
of text on a page without scrolling horizontally.
There is a bug left over from the old version that causes squares and 
circles to be not-square or not-circular when you create them by holding 
down the shift key as you drag the appropriate tool. The resulting shape 
is about a tenth higher than it is wide. This can now be corrected with 
the Object Specifications dialogue, but should be squashed.
Seven Hills has several file translators that have been in beta testing 
for a while, including AppleWorks GS, WordPerfect, BeagleWrite and 
Thunderscan. I presume that these will be released eventually.
 
Conclusion
 
The previous version of GraphicWriter III was one of my staple programs. 
This version is better. In my opinion, the four greatest deficiencies in 
the previous version were:
% No standard clipboard
% No way to precisely place or size objects
% You can't see all the way across the page when you are typing
% There is no text-wrap allowed around text objects.
The first two of these four have been corrected. The last one hasnUt been 
but, as I mentioned, the standard clipboard offers a workaround to the 
problem. (More on that in another article).
Anyone who owns an earlier version of GraphicWriter should dig $28.50 
U.S. (postage included) from their pockets for the upgrade. That amount 
is miniscule compared to the benefits.
People who donUt own GraphicWriter III have to justify a cost of $68.50 
U.S. (postage included). However, if they do any page layout, they will 
do it faster, better, and easier in GraphicWriter III. For example, to 
wrap text around a graphic takes a menu selection and a mouse click in 
GraphicWriter; in AppleWorks GS the user has to create several linked 
text objects and fit them carefully around the graphic. Although Publish 
It!4 is an excellent program, GraphicWriterUs access to the System 
Clipboard and standard desk accessories, to high quality TrueType fonts 
via the "Pointless" Control Panel, and to a spell checker are all big 
advantages. In addition, its publishers are still in business. It is to 
our benefit to support them.