Final Writer 5

Softwood enters Round 5 of the Word Processor Battle, and they've come out swinging



When Softwood introduced Final Writer a few years back, many people were quite pleased. No, this wasn't a case of "this product has promise;" it was a case of "this is one great product right now!" Well, not to leave well enough alone, they introduced updates at fairly regular intervals, sometimes tuning up little details, and other times, implementing major new features and design revisions.

All of this has culminated in Final Writer Release 5, introduced this spring. This, of course, shortly after the release of version 5 of Final Writer's greatest (perhaps only?) competitor, Digita's Wordworth, which also seemed to gain a favorable reaction from the Amiga press. So Softwood had a lot to live up to.


Upgrade time!

[Registered] owners of Softwood products have probably grown accustomed to receiving notices in Final Writer-printed envelopes and documents in the mail from time to time, either in the form of an announcement for the latest Final Widget program, or an upgrade notice for a current one. Not to knock this; it is good to see a company that actually communicates with its customers (it seems that, in the past, product registration cards were sometimes bundled with products just as a matter of course). Well, the day came in May when I found one such thing in my mailbox. Apparently Softwood had once again defied the idea implied by the word "Final" and developed a new version of its program. In addition, they were offering several upgrade options, with the program by itself, or bundled with the Windows 95 version of the program (which they take great pains to point out was developed by an independent group), or with a web site on Softwood's new web server.

So I wasted no time in calling the order number and requesting a copy of Final Writer 5. No, I had to say, I don't have Windows 95 on my PC, and I already have a web site; but they were pleased to send me Final Writer 5 nonetheless.


Installation

There's almost nothing to say here. Any competently-written Amiga program these days is likely to be easy to install, largely because of the ease-of-use and standardization brought with Commodore's Installer program. Final Writer held true to this standard, and its past precedents, in that regard. The update came in the form of a 3-disk set to replace the previous disks 1, 8, and 9. Also included are explicit instructions for installing it. You really can't go wrong. In terms of manuals, a "Final Writer Release 5 User Manual Addendum" is included which, incidentally, is significantly thicker than the old Release 3 Addendum.


First Impressions

When Final Writer opens, the only difference you're likely to notice at first is the screen title: "Final Writer - Release 5." The first-rate and incredibly thorough graphical user interface remains fairly consistent with Release 5. The improvements are more "internal."

What you are likely to notice quickly if you should happen to press the right mouse button is that the menu layout has changed somewhat. There is a new menu area labeled "Tables." "Font" has been added to "Layout." And the "New," "Save," and "Open" items in the "File" menu have been changed somewhat to provide greater versatility. We'll get into this in terms of the new features.


What's new?

After all, people generally don't buy a program for a number that's pinned on it; they are interested in its capabilities. Final Writer 5 introduces a number of new features and updates, so we will cover these briefly (without echoing the manual addendum verbatim).

Results/Analysis

In conclusion, as a Final Writer user of several years, and as a writer for this magazine, I give Final Writer 5 a high rating. Softwood has made a number of significant improvements in their heavy-duty word processor, and it's more user-friendly than ever. The new Table feature, and HTML export driver, broaden the capabilities of an already wide-ranging program, and the RTF capability can only aid Softwood's rapport with the word processing community. We also mustn't forget how fortunate we are to still have Softwood around. The last few years have been trying times, and many companies have not survived them. But Softwood has stuck with us, and continued to update their products. Despite how good this program is, there are, however, several things that could be improved or added.

Suggestions for improvement

One final interesting detail of note is that the date stamped on the program in the "About..." menu item was AFTER the date I ordered it...;-)


Final Writer Release 5

Version 5 of Softwood's most powerful word processor for the Amiga

Softwood Inc.

Suite 270
7776 S. Pointe Parkway West
Phoenix, Arizona 85044
http://www.softwood.com/
ATTRIBUTES
PERCENTAGE
COMMENT
Installation:
Ease of use:
Compatibility:
Performance:
Features:
Interaction with company:
95%
92%
99%
82%
93%
100%
Uses Commodore's Installer program
Very complete GUI
Works well with system software
Some functions a little slow; some of this due to ECS
Many useful features
No problem so far
Overall Score:
93.5%
A truly excellent piece of software; one of the Amiga's best of all time

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Amiga, AmigaDOS 2.0, Motorola 68000, 1 Floppy Drive, Hard Disk, ca. 3.5mb free disk space
(Required)
AGA Amiga, AmigaDOS 3.1, Motorola 68030, at least 10mb free disk space
(Recommended)
-By Michael Webb-
Write to him at email address 103165.3700@compuserve.com