Re: Application Recommendations - Part 2

esther@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: 
Amazon does list three copies through Amazon sellers, though at least
one of them is missing the CD.

The book _is_ the software, in a way. That is, the word processor was
on the CD and the book is its manual -- a way for the publisher to get
the app into bookstores as well as software stores. Anyhow, there's
little point in buying the book unless you get the CD.

And a note for the person writing about downloading it... if I recall
correctly, the downloadable version was a time-limited one; it only
works for 30 days. (Of course, I may not remember correctly. It's been
a while.)

I did love DeScribe, which is why I was willing to be lead author on
its manual. (As you might imagine, writing for a software publisher,
however indirectly -- as I did through Que -- meant that I couldn't
cover word processing apps for magazines for the next couple of years.
It wasn't a hardship because I was already biased towards DeScribe. Or
at least towards the software; the company was another matter.)

DeScribe did some things _elegantly_, which I haven't found duplicated
in other word processors. For instance, its thesaurus was simply
excellent, and I loved the way it handled spelling checks. Its nested
styles made some tasks incredibly easy.

On the other hand, if you fire it up, you'll see that DeScribe hasn't
aged particularly well. You can't print in color, for example, unless
you go into graphics mode. If you use style sheets often (I do), you'll
be frustrated by the fact that DeScribe applies styles only to
characters, not paragraphs. As a result, if you've carefully italicized
three words in a paragraph and you apply another style to the
paragraph, your italics go away. Frustrating, to say the least.

If you can get a copy of the software for $5 or so, I'd say, "Go for
it." Especially if your word processing needs are simple.

--Esther Schindler
  who is many things, these days
  http://www.bitranch.com


So you are the famous Esther Schindler. Do you still use OS/2 or tried ecomstation? If you have tried ecomstation, how does it compare to OS/2 Warp 4 or MCP 1/2 - in you opinion?

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