Kuma
£49.95
K-Word is a GEM based word processing package from
the growing K Series of 'ST Solutions' software from Kuma Computers.
It is supplied in the standard K series packaging, a rather flimsy
cardboard bookform affair, with pockets on the inside to take the
slim, 36 page instruction manual and one single-sided disk. The disk
holds the master copy of K-Word, and you have to make a working copy
either on a hard disk or another floppy for general use. Kuma's
protection system allows only this one working copy of the master to
be made.
WYSI WHAT?
If like me you're new to the ST, and are used to
8-bit word processors, then K-Word comes as something of a culture
shock. It uses the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) principle
- your text prints out on paper exactly as you see it on the screen.
Gone are the embedded control codes and the need to switch into
preview mode to see the actual text layout. With K-Word you still
key in control codes, but they take effect immediately. For example,
Control-C causes the cursor to immediately jump to the centre of the
input line, then any text you input gets centred in real time, as
you key it in. Similarly, you can see the effect of bold, italic and
underlined text right there on the screen as you enter it - a real
revelation for the hardened 8-bit user!
It's possible for the program to have up to four
windows open at once, but only one can be active at any given time.
Each window can hold a document, either loaded from disk or by
keying. You can copy or cut and paste between them using the
clipboard facility. When editing text, cursor movement is
particularly versatile, as you can move in units of character, word,
line, screen or document, either forwards or backwards. Taking the
cursor off the bottom or top of the screen causes it to scroll by
about 10 lines, which I found a little disconcerting. I'd prefer a
single line scroll. Also, you can skip to the next or previous
control character, which is useful for jumping a paragraph at a
time. Insert or overwrite mode may be toggled, and deletions can be
made by character, word or line to the right or left of the cursor.
Other units of text may be deleted by highlighting with the mouse,
and using the cut function from the menu. Deleted text goes onto the
clipboard, so you can put it back if you change your mind, or insert
it elsewhere in your text using the paste function.
Search and replace functions are provided,
allowing any text string to be located, and changed if required, in
either a forward or backwards direction from the current cursor
position. Another nice feature available from this menu permits an
immediate jump to a given page and line number from wherever the
cursor happens to be at that time.
Left and right margins, paragraph indent, and tab
positions may be set and reset anywhere in the document, so it's
easy to change the layout to suit most requirements. Or at least it
would be, if the instructions were clearer. This part of the manual
was not well written, and I had to resort to trial and error before
I got things to work satisfactorily. The program's Help facility
wasn't that helpful, either. Also, while struggling to master this
area, I managed to inexplicably lose the document I was working on -
several times!
DATA INTERCHANGE
The usual file operations are provided, allowing
you to load and save your text to disk, with automatic backup of the
previous version, if you want this. You can also load a file
directly into another document at any point.
K-Word has two additional file functions, known as
Give and Take. Their purpose is to allow the interchange of data in
DIF or ASCII format between K-Word and other applications in the K
series, or indeed any other ST application programs which can accept
these formats. I tried it by passing text to 1st Word using the
ASCII option, and it worked quite happily.
PROGRAMMABLE FUNCTION KEYS
Another useful feature of K-Word is its function
key definition facilities, with which you can assign a string of up
to ten characters to any function key. The keys can be used with
shift, giving a total of twenty strings, if required. The character
strings could be frequently used words, control characters, or even
foreign language characters. Ten characters isn't a lot, but you can
nest definitions up to four levels, giving longer strings on one
key, if you need this. Definitions can be saved to disk and recalled
whenever you need them.
Before printing for the first time, you have to
configure the printer routine to match your printer. There's a
default configuration file supplied for Epson and compatible
printers, so you don't need to do anything if you've got one of
these. If not, then you step through a dialogue, answering the
questions as appropriate. It seems that the configuration process
can only handle codes for bold, italic and underlined text. Other
selections are on the menu, but can't be selected and the manual
gives no clues as to how to do this. In fact, the manual is quite
confusing, as the printer configuration section continually refers
to K-Spread rather than K-Word.
The main print menu provides facilities for
selectively printing parts of your document, to provide page header,
footer, and numbering information, and the usual line spacing, page
length and top/bottom margin values. There's also a facility for
sending control codes direct to the printer, for switching it to NLQ
mode, for instance. When printing begins, its progress is shown
on-screen by a moving 'thermometer' type diagram, so you can easily
see how much is left to print.
There's a mailmerge feature too, but this probably
isn't of much interest to the average home user. It's useful for
club secretaries, small businesses, and others needing to send out
standard letters, though. Variable information is held on disk in
DIF format, and the feature looks as if it's really designed to be
used with other programs in the K series, such as K-Data and
K-Spread.
CONCLUSIONS
Overall, I quite liked K-Word. It was relatively
easy to learn, and I was using it productively after only a short
period of familiarisation. I used it to write this review, and while
that's not the most demanding of tasks, I did get to try out most of
the features 'for real'. Generally speaking, they all worked as they
should, but I did manage to crash the program on one occasion, and
I'm still not sure how or why it happened.
If you need a word processor with such features as
comprehensive cursor options to speed up editing, definable function
keys, mailmerge, and data compatibility with other applications
(especially other K series programs), then it's probably worth
considering K-Word. My only real criticism concerns the manual, and
if Kuma improved this the resulting package would be a reasonable
buy at the price.
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