War of the words - Software Review - Lotus Development Corp.'s Ami Pro 3.0 word-processing program - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1992 by Kay Yarborough Nelson

War of the Words

Ami Pro 3.0

Rating * * * 1/2

AT A GLANCE: New version of easy-to-use word processor offering Fast Format (a "paintbrush" that lets you format text with a couple of mouse clicks), customizable icons, automatic envelope printing, formidable tools for desktop publishing, and so much more; its only problem is an excruciatingly slow spelling checker.

DOCUMENTATION: User's guide is well written and complete.

EASE OF USE: Easier and more intuitive than any word processor I've used.

SUPPORT: 24-hour technical support. Toll call, but it doesn't take long to connect with a human. Generally very helpful; support by fax also available.

VERSION REVIEWED: 3.0

LIST PRICE: $495

AVERAGE STREET PRICE: $299

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: 2MB IBM compatible; hard-disk drive; EGA, VGA, or Hercules; mouse; Windows 3.0 or higher and DOS 3.1 or higher

PUBLISHER: Lotus Development Corporation, Word Processing Division, 1000 Abernathy Rd. NE, Bldg. 400, Suite 1700, Atlanta, GA 30328; (404) 391-0011, (800) 831-9679

In the Windows word-processing world, Ami Pro 3.0 comes close to being perfect. In my mind, it stands above Word for Windows and WordPerfect for Windows both in its function and in its speed. And Ami Pro is incredibly rich in features. It has all the top-of-the-line features such as graphing and drawing capabilities, a collapsible outliner, a full-featured macro language, a grammar checker and thesaurus, OLE support, and then some.

What's new? I could take up the rest of this space just listing new features in Arni Pro 3.0. I found Fast Format the most useful. You simply format one paragraph as you like it, choose the Fast Format icon, and select the text you want to apply that same formatting to. It's faster than using style sheets, because you don't have to remember the name of a style and then use a menu to find it; just click on the Fast Format icon and go. You'll never believe how useful this is until you've used it to standardize your reports, articles, whatever.

But creating style sheets isn't that hard, either. As with Microsoft Word, you can format a paragraph as you want it and then create a style based on that selected paragraph. To modify a style, just click the right mouse button. Combined with Fast Format, this takes almost all the pain out of formatting and styling documents.

Drag-and-drop delights. Version 3.0 also provides drag-and-drop editing: You can move and copy words, paragraphs, rows, or columns using the mouse. You can also create sets of custom icons, rearrange the SmartIcons (an included set of icons representing frequently used features) in any order, delete icons you never use, and turn the icon button bar into a floating toolbox that can be resized and positioned anywhere on the screen.

I found the custom-icon feature useful for inserting special characters, since I didn't have to reach with the mouse to click at the top of the screen. If icons get in your way, a Clean Screen feature lets you remove the icons, the title bar, the scroll bars--everything except the text--so you have a clean screen and more room to work.

Previewing saves time. There's a new Preview mode that lets you see what's in a document before you open it. In addition, you can do file management in the document viewer-print, search through files, or copy documents without retrieving them to the screen.

Also new in version 3.0 is SmartMerge, a feature that guides you through the mailmerge process. In addition, there's a frontend card-file setup for creating your own phone hook and name-and-address lists. This is a vast improvement over WordPerfect for Windows' mail merge, and with the card-file interface, it's also even better than Word's mail merge.

No more address mess. The best aspect of SmartMerge is an Envelope feature, which lets you create and store different return addresses, so you can access both your home and business addresses. Avery label formats are set up and ready to use, too. Ami Pro comes with its own print manager that replaces (and enhances) the Windows Print Manager. You can continue to work while you're printing in the background. The program is also bundled with ATM (Adobe Type Manager), meaning that what you see on the screen will print more quickly and easily.

Attempting to get a share of the WordPerfect market, the new version of Ami Pro comes with not only an on4ine tutorial but also a SwitchKit that lets you use familiar WordPerfect commands.

Good DTP functions. In general, I would also rate Ami Pro 3.0 better for desktop publishing than the other Windows word processors, because of its abundance of refined features. For example, you can do image processing, such as tweaking scanned-image files, right there in the program. Its graphics handling and capabilities are excellent.

I found Arni Pro easier to use right out of the box than any other Windows word processors I've tried. Maybe this is because I'm used to Windows, and in Ami Pro things happen in Windows-like ways. If you're considering switching from a DOS-based wordprocesssing program, this could ease your learning curve and help you master Windows at the same time.