Microsoft Word 6.0.1 - Software Review - Evaluation

Entrepreneur, March, 1996 by Cheryl J. Goldberg

Two updated Mac word processors offer more integrated features than ever before.

PERHAPS THE MOST notable feature of this year's top new word processors for the Macintosh from industry leaders Novell (WordPerfect 3.5) and Microsoft (Microsoft Word 6.0.1) is that they're more like low-end integrated software packages than simple word processors.

Not only do both programs boast all the standard word processing features, but they've also begun to pack in low-end spreadsheet features for creating tables, drawing and graphing features for making charts, and increasingly higher-end desktop publishing features. With WordPerfect, you can even edit documents and post them to the World Wide Web.

Where does all that leave the person who just wants to create a simple docu- ment? In the case of Microsoft Word, somewhat lost, because the interface has become far more complex than in earlier product versions. But WordPerfect has pulled off these new capabilities with amazing grace. Its icon bars are arranged in a user-friendly format, making it easy to find the tools and fea- tures you're looking for.

Extra, Extra

Perhaps one reason the latest versions of these packages include so many new features is that both had gone about as far as they could with basic editing and formatting capabilities. Now, to distinguish themselves, word processors are offering extra features.

For example, while both packages allow you to do a basic search and replace, you can also do one on something as specific as styles. Now. not only can you do simple spell checking, but you can also use auto-correct, which corrects misspellings as you type. The spelling checker in each package can even be set to correct words typed in a foreign language.

Formatting options for both packages include your basic fonts, type sizes, tabs and so on, as well as superscript, subscript, small caps, strikethrough and color. Microsoft Word distinguishes itself here with its Word Art feature, which lets you slant, rotate or curve text for fancy effects. Or you can also use the "drop cap" command to enlarge the first letter in a paragraph.

Both packages let you set margins, headers and footers; create newspaper-style columns; and change the widths of columns and the spaces between them.

Increasingly sophisticated desktop publishing features allow you to resize or crop a graphic, use frames to insert graphics and then wrap text around them, and add borders and shading. Drawing tools in both packages let you add lines, circles or polygons, or draw free form.

WordPerfect's "Make it Fit" feature is a nice addition that allows you to specify how many pages you want your text to fit into; the program then modifies word and line spacing to meet your requirements.

Turning The Tables

Both packages offer sophisticated features for creating and editing tables to include in your documents. You can insert graphics into table cells, shade table cells, even create charts from data within tables. Both packages also make it easy to edit tables; for example, you can spread a headline over two cells with the click of a button.

Both packages provide a variety of formats you can automatically apply to a table--simply preview the different styles, select the table you want to format and, voil[alpha], it's done.

WordPerfect gets one step closer to full spreadsheet capabilities by including a Sum command that allows you to add sums within cells and by letting you create mathematic equations to apply to cells within your tables.

Page Power

High-end word processing packages have begun adding features that make it easier to create and manage long documents. Both Microsoft Word and WordPer- fect include full outliners, which allow you to look at a document in outline view, expand it to see the full text, and contract it again to outline view. You can easily move whole blocks of text by simply moving outline headings in the outline view.

Both packages allow you to create footnotes and endnotes, cross-references, captions for a text box or graphic item, and bookmarks, which make it easy to find a specific point in your document.

Word makes it particularly easy to organize and maintain long documents though its Master Document feature. This feature allows you to divide a long document into several subdocuments and easily create cross-references, a table of con- tents and an index. With this feature, you can also print all the subdocuments at once without having to open them individually. To create the master docu- ment, you simply type an outline in the Master Document view and then divide the headings into subdocuments.

Little Things

WordPerfect 3.5 has gone the furthest in terms of offering new features. These include the ability to insert HTML (hypertext markup language) coding into documents, which allows you to publish documents on the World Wide Web. WordPerfect also includes features that let you download documents from the Web and comes with Netscape Navigator software that makes it easy to browse the Web.

Using WordPerfect, it's a snap to record sound clips within documents by using simple commands found at the top of every page. And text-to-speech features allow your Macintosh to vocalize the written text.