Re: Differences between AppleWorks 3.x, 4.x, and 5.x

[mfumu@alphalink.com.au (Bill Robbins)]

In article <35484C4C.6C12@hotmail.com>, paySlick_RCBD@hotmail.com wrote:

> I've been using AppleWorks 3.0 for several years now. I had upgraded
> from version 2.1, and liked the improvements. Is it worth it to upgrade
> to 5.0?

In the first place, don't even think about AW5.0.  5.1 is a significant
bug fix and it's a FREE upgrade from 5.0.  I believe most definitely that
the jump from 3.0 is worthwhile.  You will loose a few of the TimeOut
applications which were never updated (or actually incorporated into
AW5.0), but you gain a much more stable, bug free platform with far better
integration of not only its traditional modules but with many of those
extras we knew as TimeOuts and add ons in AW3 and are now actually a part
of the program, UltraMacros, Outliner and Total Control being just three
of the major ones.  There are also many improvements and added features. 
I'll take a risk and say that most people would agree that the jump
between 3.0 and 5.1 is a significantly greater improvement gain than the
jump from 2.1 to 3.0.  I have heard no one say that they wish they hadn't
bothered making the upgrade.  Oh, yes, the beauty of the way the
improvements were made is that you can still use 5.0 the same way you used
1.0, ignoring all the improvements.  There are only a few situations in
which the changes are intrusive.  What this means is that you can take
them at your own speed in your own time while remaining productive with AW
from the moment you install the new version.

There are some minimum hardware requirements, however, and it's been so
long since I installed 5.1 I'm not entirely confident in my memory.  I
believe you will need a 512 K minimum of memory to run the program (or is
it 256K), and you will need a drive larger than 800K (hard drive or
SuperDrive) to run a full installation of the program.

Good luck.

Bill Robbins
mfumu@alphalink.com.au