Date: Sun, 17 Jul 1994 07:36:27 +0700
From: eharold@sunspot.noao.edu (Elliotte Harold)
Subject: New version of the application faq
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps,comp.answers,news.answers
From: elharo@shock.njit.edu (Elliotte Rusty Harold)
Reply-To: elharo@shock.njit.edu (Elliotte Harold)
Organization: Department of Mathematics, NJIT
Summary: This document answers a number of the most frequently asked
questions about Macintosh application software on Usenet. To avoid
wasting bandwidth and as a matter of politeness please familiarize
yourself with this document BEFORE posting.
Subject: Macintosh application software frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Keywords: FAQ, Macintosh, Mac, macintosh, mac, apps, applications
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.apps
Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu
Archive-name: macintosh/apps-faq
Version: 2.3.0
Last-modified: July 11, 1994
Maintainer: elharo@shock.njit.edu
Frequently Asked Questions about Macintosh Application Software
===============================================================
comp.sys.mac.faq, part 4:
comp.sys.mac.apps
Copyright 1993,1994 by Elliotte Harold
Please see section 5.8 of the general FAQ if you wish to
redistribute, revise or republish this document in any way.
Archive-name: macintosh/apps-faq
Version: 2.3.0
Last-modified: July 11, 1994
Address comments to elharo@shock.njit.edu
What's new in version 2.3.0:
----------------------------
This FAQ list now features URL's for a lot of software. See
the general FAQ list for details.
1.6: What's the best spreadsheet?
Now that Lotus has abandoned 1-2-3 the only full-powered Mac
spreadsheet is Excel.
1.7: What's the best JPEG Viewer?
I've removed mentions of some of the less effective tools for
viewing JPEG's.
1.9: What's the best drawing application?
The release of Illustrator 5.5 and the proposed Aldus/Adobe
merger is making Illustrator a clearer choice.
1.11: What's the best OCR software?
Xerox TextBridge does a better job of recognition than I had
previously indicated.
Table of Contents
==================================================================
I. What's the Best...
1. Text editor
2. Word processor
3. Genealogy software
4. TeX/LaTeX
5. Integrated application
6. Spreadsheet
7. JPEG Viewer
8. Electronic publishing software
9. Drawing application
10. Typing tutor?
11. OCR software?
II. Microsoft Word
1. How can I assign styles to characters?
2. How can I automatically generate cross-references?
3. How can I change a Word document to TeX? and vice-versa?
4. How can I depersonalize Word?
5. Where can I get more information?
III. TeachText
1. How can I change the font in TeachText?
2. How do I place a picture in a TeachText file?
3. How do I make a TeachText document read-only?
RETRIEVING THE ENTIRE FAQ
=========================
This is the FOURTH part of this FAQ. The first part is also
posted to this newsgroup under the subject heading "Introductory
Macintosh frequently asked questions (FAQ)" and includes a complete
table of contents for the entire document as well as information on
where to post, ftp, file decompression, trouble-shooting, preventive
maintenance and conditions for reproduction, posting and use of this
document outside of Usenet. The second, third, fifth and sixth parts
are posted every two weeks in comp.sys.mac.system, comp.sys.mac.misc,
comp.sys.mac.wanted and comp.sys.mac.hardware respectively. Please
familiarize yourself with all six sections of this document before
posting. All pieces are available for anonymous ftp from
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/macintosh/
Except for the introductory FAQ which appears in multiple
newsgroups and is stored as general-faq, the name of each
file has the format of the last part of the group name followed
by "-faq", e.g the FAQ for comp.sys.mac.system is stored as
system-faq. You can also have these files mailed to you
by sending an E-mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
with the line:
send pub/usenet/news.answers/macintosh/name
in the body text where "name" is the name of the file you want as
specified above (e.g. general-faq). You can also send this server
a message with the subject "help" for more detailed instructions.
For access via Mosaic use
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/macintosh/top.html
=========================
WHAT'S THE BEST... (1.0)
=========================
TEXT EDITOR? (1.1)
-------------------
Available shareware and freeware text editors that can
handle more than 32K of text include McSink, BBEdit Lite, Edit II
(with grep style searching), Alpha (particularly nice for working
with TeX files), Stevie (for fans of vi), and microEmacs. The
feature sets of these editors overlap somewhat but are not identical.
Since all are available via anonymous FTP, there's no reason not
to try them all and find the one you like best. See
ftp://rever.nmsu.edu//pub/macfaq/BBEditLite.sit.bin
ftp://rever.nmsu.edu//pub/macfaq/Alpha.sit.bin
ftp://rever.nmsu.edu//pub/macfaq/EditII.sit.bin
ftp://rever.nmsu.edu//pub/macfaq/Stevie.sit.bin
ftp://rever.nmsu.edu//pub/macfaq/microEmacs.sit.bin
ftp://rever.nmsu.edu//pub/macfaq/McSink.sit.bin
I use Rich Siegel's BBEdit Lite for the FAQ because it can word
wrap to a specific number of characters and indent lines with spaces.
(You didn't think I did all this nice formatting by hand, did you?)
It's also a very nice programmer's editor. BBEdit has an extensive
interface for adding custom externals written in Think C so if you
need a feature that's not built-in you can add it. For me the only
thing that's missing is automatic word-wrap, but that's available
from the Text Editor Patches 1.3.1 by James W. Walker. Some others
may also miss a macro language that's easier to use than writing
code externals in C which brings us to my second choice.
Alpha ($25 shareware) is a text editor that includes a full
featured implementation of the tcl scripting language and extensive
search and replace capabilities. Emacs users will feel at home
with this powerful program. Unfortunately it's System 7 dependent.
Shareware authors take note: About 40% of all installed Macs are
still running System 6. If you actually intend to make some
money, then you shouldn't cut out half your market at a swipe.
Stevie is vi-workalike for the Mac, but since Stevie isn't
an interface to an ex-style editor as is vi, it's not as powerful
as its UNIX inspiration. microEmacs is likewise NOT a full featured
implementation of Emacs. If you want to do Emacs style Lisp
programming and keybinding (and I can't imagine why else anyone
would ever want to use Emacs on a Mac) you'll probably be happier
with Alpha.
WORD PROCESSOR? (1.2)
----------------------
I have seen the future, and its name is WordPerfect.
WordPerfect has almost every feature of competing word processors
including not only basic and advanced word processing tools (style
sheets, spelling checker, thesaurus, grammar checker, outliner,
equation editor, on-line help, multiple import and export formats,
etc. etc. etc.), but many features more commonly associated with
desktop publishing software (text and picture boxes, tables,
multiple column layouts, indexing, EPS and uncompressed TIFF
importing, etc. etc. etc.) as well. Furthermore it has two
abilities that have been glaringly absent from Microsoft Word for
years, automatic cross-referencing and a built-in macro language.
While most of these features are available in third party products
for other word processors, by the time you've bought the other word
processor and one or two add-ons you've already spent more than on
WordPerfect alone. Finally there's a native PowerPC version. No
other word processor company has one yet. You can get a demo from
ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/WordPerfect_3.0_Demo.sit
As I said WordPerfect 3.0 is the future of Macintosh word
processing. Unfortunately I'm not sure it's the present. Not all
of these capabilities actually work. Many of those that do are
incomplete in their current incarnations. Finally WordPerfect
needs about 1800K of RAM and seven megabytes of hard disk space for
full functionality, and still manages to make Word look like a speed
demon. Screen redraw is abysmally slow. And there are non-trivial
bugs in file import and export, macros, and WorldScript. To finalize
matters street prices for WordPerfect have gone up, and Wordperfect
Corp. no longer offers lifetime toll-free technical support. As
thrilled as I was to see a real competitor for Microsoft Word, I'm
afraid the initial glow has worn off. I cannot recommend WordPerfect
at this time.
This brings us to the longtime champion of Macintosh word
processors, Microsoft Word 5.1. Word is still the market leader
and still fulfills ALMOST every conceivable word processing need.
Word is virtually guaranteed to have at least one feature you can't
live without which just isn't available in any other word processor.
(Well, it's probably available in WordPerfect, but the difference
is that in in Word it works.) For me that feature is outlining.
For you it may be styles or mail merge or cross-platform support.
Whatever you need chances are that Microsoft Word can provide it.
Finally since Word is the market leader, there's a greater
chance that it will be upgraded and supported in the future, both
by Microsoft and by third parties. Many people have been burned
by committing to word processors that were subsequently abandoned,
leaving them with files they could neither exchange with others
nor convert into better supported formats. It's also nice that you
can be virtually certain that anyone you send a Word file to will
be able to read it, and that any program which needs to import
word processing documents will import a Word file. And if there
is some feature you need that Word doesn't have, like auto-numbering
of equations, there's a very good chance a third party tool exists
to provide it.
Users with limited disk space, 68000 CPUs, or less than four
megabytes of memory may want to consider WriteNow 4.0, a word
processor noted for its speed, small memory appetite, minimal
disk footprint, and small price, about sixty dollars. Unlike the other
products discussed here, WriteNow really is designed first and last
to be a word processor, not a document formatter. It doesn't have
an equation editor, text boxes, an outliner or other features more
associated with desktop publishing than with writing. If all you
want to do is write, WriteNow may be the choice for you. Users
behind the power curve and even those out in front of it may also
want to consider ClarisWorks whose word processing functions are
more than sufficient for basic writing. While more expensive than
WriteNow, ClarisWorks also provides many other well-integrated
features in a small and speedy package.
Almost everyone who buys a computer immediately either buys or
borrows a word processor. Certainly they get one before they get
a modem and net access. Consequently the market for freeware and
shareware word processors is miniscule. Nonetheless there is one.
Datapak's Word Solution Engine Demo 2.2 is a full-featured free
word processor. Don't let the word "Demo" fool you. What Datapak
is demoing is the capabilities of the word processing engine they
license to software developers, not the word processor itself which
is fully functional and free. WSED supports editing files larger
than memory, WorldScript, simple styles and all the standard
features you'd expect in a Macintosh word processor. There's no
manual or technical support, but what do you expect for free?
In any case the program is simple and intuitive enough that
neither should be necessary. See
ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/WordSolutionEngineDemo.sit.bin
Among writers of technical documents that include many
numbered equations, tables, and figures, FrameMaker is particularly
popular. Unlike Word it has the cross-referencing, auto-numbering
and sectioning capability to match its tables, drawing package,
and equation editor. However FrameMaker really is more of a desktop
publishing package than a word processor, and it's priced like
one. The educational discount price for FrameMaker is close to
the non-educational, street price of Word 5.1 or WordPerfect; and
competitive upgrades are not available. When creating a Framemaker
document you need to give a lot more initial thought to the layout
of the page than you would with most word processors. It's much
harder to just launch FrameMaker and begin writing than it is in
any of the other word processors. FrameMaker is not well suited
to general use.
Many netters swear by (and at) Nisus from Nisus Software. Nisus
3.4 has has several features not found in any other Macintosh word
processor including very powerful macros and multiple Undo's. It's
also missing many features included in other similarly priced
packages like tables, useable styles, and support for most System 7
features. The fully WorldScript savvy edition is copy-protected by
an ADB dongle; but if your writing is limited to Roman languages
and Japanese, the non-copy protected limited flag edition will
serve equally well. Furthermore Nisus can actually handle all the
languages it claims to, unlike WordPerfect which keels over when
faced with anything more complicated than Cyrillic. For writing
in non-Roman languages Nisus is the obvious choice. However for
writing in English or another Latin langauge, you'd probably be
better served by one of the other cheaper, more feature rich
programs like Word, WordPerfect or WriteNow.
MacWrite Pro 1.5 is a solid product but has nothing special
to recommend it beyond the name of the company that makes it.
If MacWrite was produced by Friendly Neighborhood Software (tm)
instead of Claris, it would have been eliminated from the market
long ago.
GENEALOGY SOFTWARE? (1.3)
--------------------------
Leister Productions' Reunion is the most powerful, flexible,
graphical, and easy-to-use Macintosh software for producing family
trees and doing genealogical research. At $115 street it's also
the most expensive. Reunion is available from all the usual
sources of payware software. If all you want to do is chart your
own family tree back a few generations, you may want to consider
the less powerful and less flexible, but considerably cheaper
Personal Ancestry File (PAF for short) from the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons for short). It's designed
primarily for easy downloading of data into the Mormons' central
database so it's not as easy to use as Reunion and lacks some basic
features. For instance there's no provision for children of
unmarried couples. PAF is, however, only $35. It must be ordered
directly from the Mormons at
Salt Lake Distribution Center
1999 West 1700 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84104
(800) 537-5950
The product number is #30992 (Macintosh) and an IBM version is also
available. MasterCard and Visa are accepted for a $2 fee. However
your card is charged for a cash advance rather than a purchase so
interest will begin accruing immediately and your credit card
company will probably tack on about a 2.5% cash advance fee.
Simple descendant and ancestor charts can be produced with the
shareware HyperCard stack Our Family Tree 1.3 by Timmy G. Bremer. See
ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/OurFamilyTree.sit.bin
However this stack is limited compared to PAF and the much more
powerful Reunion. For instance, pedigree charts can only go back
five generations.
TEX? (1.4)
-----------
Textures from Blue Sky Research is easily the superior
implementation of TeX for the Mac. It's the only TeX for the Mac
that typesets and displays text and equations continuously as the
TeX code describing them is typed, includes PostScript versions of
the Computer Modern fonts, or allows simple copying and pasting of
graphics and formatted pages between TeX and other Mac applications.
If you work with TeX on a daily basis, Textures at $195 student price
is worth a look. Blue Sky Research is famous on the net for technical
support that should be a model for the industry. For more information
send E-mail to sales@bluesky.com.
Andrew Trevorrow's OzTeX is not as sophisticated or as Maclike
as Textures, but OzTeX files are somewhat more easily exported
to TeX systems on other platforms than are Textures files. More
importantly OzTeX is only $30 shareware and available from
ftp://midway.uchicago.edu/pub/OzTeX/
OzTeX is the most integrated and Maclike of the shareware TeX's.
It's also the only shareware TeX with anything approaching complete
documentation. It's slower than the other programs discussed here,
but does allow background compilation and printing. If you only
need to print or preview an occasional TeX document, get OzTeX.
Tom Kiffe recently released CMacTeX 2.1, a more modular TeX
for the Mac. The different pieces of this full TeX package like
dvipreview, TeX, and METAFONT are all available separately. CMacTeX
is available in both freeware and commercial versions. The
freeware version is available for anonymous ftp at
ftp://ftp.shsu.edu/tex-archive/systems/mac/cmactex/
The freeware package includes information on ordering the commercial
version which costs $25 and adds the "big" TeX and Metafont packages.
Both versions include METAFONT, dvips, and various other TeXie tools.
However both versions require a PostScript printer. Unlike the
other TeX programs CMacTeX cannot print to a QuickDraw printer.
CMacTeX's documentation is somewhat lacking.
Finally Wilfried Ricken maintains DirectTeX, shareware,
$100 for up to three copies, $20 for each additonal copy. It
can be retrieved from
ftp://hadron.tp2.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pub/directtex/
DirectTeX sits on top of and requires the payware MPW. This
provides it with exceptionally strong macro abilities but makes
it by far the least Maclike of the four packages. DirectTeX
supports bidirectional typesetting as is needed for Hebrew and
Arabic. It includes most TeX utilities such as BibTeX, METAFONT,
and various tools for working with .dvi files. DirectTeX is the
fastest shareware TeX and offers the most complete collection of
TeX capabilities and tools.
INTEGRATED APPLICATION? (1.5)
------------------------------
Most software is driven by the needs of power users. Features
are added to sell into the power-user segment of the market since
they're the hardest to please and spend the most dollars. Triple
Omega Paperware Corp. and its competitors need to design cocktail
napkins in 16,000,000 lifelike, mouthwatering colors so
Big Software Inc. has its programmers spend many hours adding
photorealistic color capability to Bloated Draw 7.2. Meanwhile
Father O'Brian finds he needs all the hard disk space on his Color
Classic and more money than he gets in the collection plate on
a good Sun…
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