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We’ve covered Text Editors in some depth recently, so I thought it might be fun to take a look back at some of the word processors I’ve used…

WordPerfect 5.1

WordPerfect once owned the Word Processing market. You couldn’t get an office job without an encyclopaedic knowledge of WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. Fortunately help was at hand for those unable to memorise every single function – not an animated paperclip, or a handy-dandy help menu, but a little piece of card that sat over the F keys as a constant reminder of what key did what. Its distinctive blue background/white text interface made sure that anyone who had to use it for any great length of time went home with a migraine.

It was the first proper Word Processing package I ever used, and for the most part I hated it. One feature of WP 5.1 had that I do miss is the reveal codes function, which made it easy to spot the cause of any sudden changes in your work. But, for all its headache-inducing, F-key confusing quirks, WP5.1 was a good “no-frills” word processor that got the job done without any fuss. It was a massive step from typewriters and tipp-ex, and typists around the world were grateful for that alone.

WordPerfect still exists today, after a move from the WordPerfect Corporation to Novell, it is now owned by Corel, and forms part of the WordPerfect Office Suite.

You can still get the original, if you’re in a retro document producing kinda mood. It’s available here. The all-important function key reference card, however, isn’t so easy to come by. If any WP 5.1. fans out there know better, please leave me a note in the comments.

Find out more…

• Corel WordPerfect
• WordPerfect on Wikipedia
• Download WordPerfect
• WordPerfect 5.1 Preservation Society

IBM DisplayWrite

Arg! The horror! This was a word processor used only in IBM mainframe machines, and apparently still exists today. I remember spending a Saturday swotting up on DisplayWrite just so I could get a job that I ended up hating and leaving after 3 months. And one of the reasons for hating the job so much was that bloody DisplayWrite. The other were the people I had to work with. I hope they all still work there and are still wrestling with this wretched thing. It’s the least they deserve.

There’s not much information on DisplayWrite about, and I think this is because everyone who uses just doesn’t want to talk about it.

Find out more…

• IBM Displaywrite
• DisplayWrite on Wikipedia

AmiPro/Lotus WordPro/Lotus SmartSuite

AmiPro was the first windows-based WYSIWYG word processor I used. I thought it was magical! It was amazing to be able to click on a picture of a disk to save a file, to click on a picture of a printer! I was in awe of the sheer splendour of the technology having come from manual typewriters, to this via electric typewriters that didn’t break your fingers when you wanted to type ‘a’ or ‘;’. Exciting times! And discovering this package meant I had an easier time on my first encounter with Word.

SmartSuite is still around, but Lotus, now part of IBM, are now better known for Lotus Notes.

Find out more…

• Lotus SmartSuite
• AmiPro/WordPro on Wikipedia

Microsoft Word

I have a dysfunctional relationship with Word. Always have done. It causes me more frustration, anxiety, heartburn and tension and is responsible for at least 75% of my daily swearing. But, all things considered, I couldn’t live without it. I can live with its eccentricities and I am happy to admit that there are parts of it I will never understand, but it’s there, and I know its basic functions by heart. As a temp, visiting different organisations and being expected to get on with the work as quickly as possible, knowing Word’s there means I have one less thing to try and master and leaves me free to concentrate on other important office matters, like the coffee machine.

Word might well be a pain in the ass, but it’s a pain in the ass I’ve lived with for many years. The first version I really got to know was Word 6.0, which is thought of by many as the best version. It had all the features it needed with none of the features it didn’t (none of this “It looks like you’re writing a letter! Would you like some help?” nonsense).

Find out more…

• Microsoft Office Home
• Word on Wikipedia
• Download Word 1.0 – to run on Windows 3.1!
• Using Microsoft Office for Fun – our previous article about the creative possibilities of Office and similar products.

See Also

• Text Editors

Gas Mask picture from Modern Mechanix via Boing Boing.

From Modern Mechanix.

Latest Update: Adding piccies…

Yesterday, we attended the opening of the new Hobbycraft store in Nottingham. There’s been a Hobbycraft for quite a while there, and this is the second time they’ve moved.

Originally, they were on the Riverside retail park, which was reasonably convenient for us, and we visited a few times. After that, though, they moved to the Broadmarsh Centre, in the city centre, which was much more difficult for us – rather than just parking for free right outside, we had to park in the nearby car park, pay to park, and go over a covered walkway over the road to the shopping centre, then around to the shop. So, we didn’t go as often.

It was still worth it, sometimes, though, as they stocked a selection of art and craft materials that few other places in the area could match.

Anyway, now they’ve moved to another retail park – Lady Bay, and it’s one of our favourites, because it also contains Staples, where we spend far too much money, and buy quite a lot of the things we write about here.

Opening Day?

They’ve actually been open there since last Monday, but they only had the opening ceremony on the Saturday morning. They’d done a bit of advertising, and were offering a mystery free gift for the first fifty people through the doors at 09:00, and a prize draw at 10:00. We had no idea how desperate people might be for a free mystery gift, but we settled on the idea of going along for 08:00, and if there were already more than fifty people, or if there were hardly any people, we’d go for breakfast at the nearby Burger King.

We were late, and got there for about 08:15, but there was pretty much nobody there. Except for the town crier, in his full red and yellow outfit, with a bell and a bugle, and a voice that really carried. We waited around in the car for a little while, then went and joined the queue when there were five or six people there. By 09:00, there was a long queue, completely past the next two shop fronts, and the quoted “first fifty people” had slightly extended to the “first fifty or so, maybe seventy” people, as they’d obviously decided to over-cater a bit. A couple of members of staff came out and handed out sweets, and a slightly odd sort of clown came out and started making balloon animals for the children. Starting with one very bemused looking kid who just stared open-mouthed at the snake she’d made for him. I don’t think he particularly wanted a balloon snake to walk around clutching, and I think he was even less pleased when the next kid along got a biplane on a stick.

He had a point. Snake: lame. Biplane on a stick: cool. Snakes on a Plane: Samuel L Jackson.

Town Crier

The town crier was somewhere between annoying and excellent. Having someone around who kept yelling and blowing on a bugle definitely isn’t what you want early on a Saturday morning, but he was a very good master of ceremonies, and kept everything running along smoothly. He also managed to keep a good little burst of comedy going with little asides in a quiet voice in between yellings.

The Free Prize

So, what was the free prize? We didn’t know – we were given a ticket that we could use to claim the free prize at the cash desk or help desk later, on our way out.

The Store

Well, the store is really excellent now. It’s much bigger, a lot bigger than we were expecting. Although it’s actually a smaller space than the Staples store a couple of doors down, they’ve done a lot more with it. They have put in another floor, so it’s on two levels, but with the first part of the store open to both levels – the top level is like a huge balcony. There’s a lot more stock, and a few new areas – they now stock modeling stuff, with things from Hornby and Scalextric. There’s lots of Derwent stuff, much of it really horribly tempting, but far too expensive for us. Sam picked up a pack of their relatively new Inktense pencils, so we can improve our rather small review (we wrote it originally with the one pencil that Derwent sent us to try out).

Anyway, the store was better than we were expecting, and we had fairly high hopes for it (hey, we were there at quarter past eight on a Saturday morning . Well worth visiting if you’re anywhere near and you’re into any sort of art or crafts.

The Prize Draw

Long story short: we didn’t win. Bummer. The MD of Hobbycraft was there, and used much of his speech time to thank the staff for all their hard work in moving the store, and saying what a great job they’d done. The Lord Mayor was there, and talked about how glad he was that Hobbycraft was in Nottingham, and how much he likes the jobs and money they bring.

The Free Prize – Really This Time

We checked out, and collected our free prize, in a tied-closed bag, so we had to pull it open in the car park to find out that we’d got…

• A copy of CrossStitcher Magazine, with a free cross stitch kit on the cover.
• A paper punch in the shape of a dove. Not a lot of use to us as such, but it’s something we probably would never have bought that we can try out and write about – free review materials! Yay!

…so not a tremendously useful bit of stuff, not not cheap and tatty enough to be disappointing either, and it gives us a couple of creative bits to try and write about.

Staples

We can’t visit Lady Bay Retail Park without going to Staples. And I can’t go to Staples without spending a long time dithering about Filofaxes. It’s the law.

On this occasion, Sam didn’t fancy it, and waited in the car for me. I was gone for around half an hour, and most of that time was spent poking various Filofaxen. I finally decided not to buy any, and I’d already reasoned that the gel pens I’d wanted to get were only available in much bigger packs than I wanted, so I was about to leave empty-handed. Then it struck me that if, after half an hour, I returned to the car having bought nothing, and had to admit that I’d actually just spent thirty minutes yet again staring at Filofaxes, Sam may not be too delighted with me. So I bought the pens and returned to the car.

“Sorry I took so long.”

“Dithering over Filofaxes again?”

<hangs head in shame>

“Thought so.”

On we went for some food at Burger King, but by the end of the meal, I’d changed my mind and decided I did want a Filofax. Another Filofax, that is. We already have…

• A Pocket Hampstead, which we think is somewhere in the house still. It’s very nice.
• A Personal Cosmos, which is looking quite badly worn out, but still works well enough. Old model.
• A Personal Ranger which looks a bit purse-like, but is quite a handy thing, with lots of pockets.
• An A5 Finsbury in brown, which Sam bought and used for a while (the inside pocket will take a pocket Moleskine, but it’s a bit of a stretch). Nice full-grained leather.
• An A5 Identity which I bought reduced in Staples, thinking it would at least let me find out if I got on with the A5 size. It did. I didn’t. And the ‘leather-look’ PVC finish really isn’t nice.

After all that, I still was tempted for another. The one I’ve wanted for a long time is the Lyndhurst, which is a nice soft leather, with a zipper around. I’d been thinking that maybe with the zipper, the A5 wouldn’t feel so big, but it really does – it feels huge. Models with a zip are bigger than others, and they really feel it. So, now, to add to all of the above, we have…

• A Pocket Lyndhurst, which Staples had marked up at an oddly cheap price – the pocket was cheaper than the mini, which doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Anyway, it makes a really nice wallet, and a handy little notebook with replaceable pages, and the paper (whilst not cheap) works out cheaper than buying Moleskines. My cards and cash all fit inside, along with my Lamy Safari pen and some index cards. And it should last a long time.

Besides, it’ll be good for the economy.

Then it was off home, after spending an alarming long time on a single retail park.

And now we have a cross stitch kit. And Sam doesn’t want to do cross stitch, but I think one of us should have a go at it. Hmm. Looks like I’m going to by trying my hand at some cross stitch…

Another Update: It’s all Moleskine news today here. The watercolour notebooks seem to actually be available now, and Idle Minutes have been playing with them – unfortunately, they’re not all that keen on them, but do say they’re much better than the old sketchbooks. See the story on Moleskinerie. NWD, of course, have them for sale, as do Mojo in the UK.

Two Updates…

• NWD has taken the new notebooks for a test drive – and it looks good.
• Worse news – they won’t be available as soon as hoped. A whoopsie with the glue used to hold the covers on has put the release back for at least couple of months, and perhaps more.

Ninth Wave Designs have finally got their hands on the new Moleskine Reporter Watercolor Sketchbooks. First impressions seem very positive. The small is 60 pages, and the large is 72, with all pages perforated so you can remove them.

“Modo & Modo has designed a sketchbook with the needs of a professional artist in mind. This is a painter’s sketchbook. This makes me very happy, and I know it will make many other people happy as well.”

As for the paper itself…

“I have tested out the paper briefly and the results are good. I will need to spend some time working on these pages to see how the results are, but everything about the surface of the watercolor pages looks to be very nice to paint on. I will post the results as soon as I have something.”

• Read the full post over at Ninth Wave Designs – with pictures.

Yesterday, I got to Cory’s post about the new alpha release of Firefox (called “Bon Echo”). I tend to stay away from alpha releases for anything I have to rely on too much, but I really fancied having a go at this. I’ve heard good things about the memory usage compared to 1.5.x, and Cory seemed to think it was a lot faster.

I downloaded the installer, backed up my profile, and installed away, thinking “I’m probably going to regret this.”

I haven’t, so far, and I’m still using it. If you’re not too confident about fixing any problems that come up, I’d probably wait for at least a beta version, but if you’re reasonably happy with such stuff, I’d give this one a go. I’ve not had a single crash yet, and once I installed the Nightly Tester Tools, and told it to enable all the plugins, Adblock, Mozex and Session Manager all work just fine. Session Manager even brought back my last working session when I next restarted. I’m not really sure how much better the memory usage is yet, as it’s only been a day or so, but it’s looking pretty good. To be fair, the minor updates released since 1.5 have helped a lot with that, but it does seem to be better again.

It does seem to be speedier too – flicking between tabs is pretty much instant.

Downsides? Only that some extensions won’t work, and you’ll need a hack like the Nightly Tester tools to convince even ones that do work to load. Also, not much seems to have changed on the outside. At the moment, though, the changes might well be more about rewriting what they need to rewrite on the inside, and making it work the same as it did, then concentrate later on adding the features those changes enable. Either way, even though it’s alpha code, it seems to run better than previous versions, which suggests that the final release could be very good indeed. Nice work!

• Available from Mozillazine. It’s not aimed at end users yet, so take care if you do decide to give it a go, and make sure you at least back up your profile first.

Chris Brogan has posted in his blog a list of books and magazines he adores and finds really useful. I thought that sounded like a good blog meme, and thought I’d hop on the bandwagon with a list of my own.

Books – Non Fiction

Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg

A lovely little pocket sized book that strikes the right balance between practical instruction and spiritual observation. Perfect for chucking in a bag with the Moleskine for handy bites of inspiration right when you need it.

Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers

The classic self help book, and it’s a classic for a reason. It works. Yes, there is a fair amount of self-help speak that can put a lot of people off, but the idea of just altering the way you think about life. Another book by Susan, End The Struggle And Dance With Life expands on the ideas mentioned in Feel The Fear, and is just as good.

Succulent Wild Woman: Dancing With Your Wonder-full Self! by SARK

I’m a SARK nut. I love her books. They’re such a wonderful, colourful, hand-written treat and my first port of call if I want to get girly. This book covers all topics affecting women including sex, self-esteem and money. Her other books concentrate mainly on creativity (and she does that amazingly well, too – check out Sark’s New Creative Companion: How to Free Your Creative Spirit as a starting point).

E-Books

I’m not normally a fan of ebooks, I find reading on the iPAQ a bit hard going, but I had to make an exception in the case of..

The Day Job Survival (& Escape) Kit by Durga Keyser

Durga is a good friend of mine (as well as mentor, listening ear and role model), and her book is nectar to any creative soul struggling with a day job that gets in the way of their creative dreams. I’m still working through it, but what I’ve read so far has spoken to me on so many levels, and it’s helping me make sure my creative life doesn’t suffer while I’m working full time.

Magazines

Leisure Painter and The Artist

Both good magazines for anyone interested in drawing and painting.

Total Guitar and Guitar Magazine

Two great magazines for articles on the latest gear and new tab to learn. Of course, if there’s the odd picture of The Lovely Mr Hudson on there too, I’m not going to complain .

Let’s try and turn this into a bit of a meme… Michael? Your turn, sweetheart…

The Lovely Mr Hudson is back in business doing what he does best. Here are some shots from the recent VH1 Rock Honors event, where he played in an all-star band honouring KISS.

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[image:1981 size=original] with Scott Ian of Anthrax

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Want more? Visit my good friend WOTW at All Things Considered Slash!.