Best Word Processor for non expanded A500 ???

[Retro1234]

What was the best Word Processor for non expanded ECS machine i.e A500/+/600

This means most features, fast and minimum disk swapping.

I had a few but they all needed a Hard Drive to be usable.

Maybe a few CoverDisks Demos were ok but they were Demos.

[demolition]

I used InterWord on my A500+ back in the day and found it quite nice. I also used KindWords if I needed more advanced layouts (like writing invitations) however it was too heavy to use as a general word processor. While both of them benefit from a HDD, they can run from FDD, but more than one FDD was nice to avoid disk swapping.

[Retro1234]

KindWords looks ok

But ........ Look at these Atari ST word Processors
https://www.google.com/search?q=atar...&bih=512&dpr=2
They look much nicer.

and I remember these being runnable from floppy like 1 or 2 floppys.

Also classic 68k Mac System 6

[demolition]

But are they all for ½/1 MB floppy-only machines?

If you have a HDD, you can also get some more elaborate programs for the Amiga like Amiga Writer or Final Writer. Could also go all the way with a DTP program like PageStream:
https://www.totalamiga.org/images/diary_layout_full.jpg (ok, that one would also need more mem and a gfx card)

But you did ask for floppy-only and max 1MB software which limits it somewhat.

[Retro1234]

Yes the equivalent Atari ST stuff is looking better(no Hard drives )unless anyone has any suggestions

[demolition]

You could also get Word Perfect for Amiga, however I don't know if some version of that could run off floppy, but I would guess not since that was definitely one of the leading ones when it came to advanced features.

[khph_re]

Amiga excellence was..erm..excellent way back when.

IFF support, Postscript, thesaurus and spell checker included.

https://www.google.com/search?q=amig...ECA0QAwhttp://


Prowrite was pretty good as well.

[Retro1234]

Excellence looks ok

Seems just opening own screen like Dpaint did going Hi-Res, greyscale and a good font would have improved the look 100%

[demolition]

I thought you focused on 'features, fast and minimum disk swapping'. You didn't mention aesthetics in your original post. Not using WYSIWYG will greatly improve the speed and leave room for more features if you are running on limited hardware.

[Retro1234]

Ok let's start with one that doesn't look horrible then Features etc

[Photon]

Here's the same random image search with the computer name swapped out. Looks much more awesome!

For a 7/8 MHz processor and 1 floppy disk, you must lower your expectations substantially if you want something like we mean today by word processor.

Vector fonts will be extremely slow, and bitmap fonts for just a few fonts, sizes, and styles will themselves occupy a disk. The other problem to overcome is enough CPU and RAM to actually have a layout back buffer, or else have very slow redraw every time you typed a character.

At the time of A500 and before, there was the concept of printer-only fonts: word processors like Wordstar used a text mode or similar to emulate styles but not fonts, but you could still print them using fonts in the printer's RAM. Layout would be almost nonexistant - you'd get the text out in the right order of flow and lines would wrap, but that was it.

I'm pretty sure KindWords works fine if slowish on an A500 with a sidecar harddisk+RAM or the equivalent. That's where I feel the minimum spec is.

[Retro1234]

Even with the more powerful Amiga processors the screen layout and font look horrible, Gem/Tos and Mac OS definitely have an advantage.

[Hercules]

Back in the day I used Transwrite. It was a commercial word processor made by Gold Disk (the same company that produced MovieSetter). Transwrite later appeared on a coverdisk.

[idrougge]

I think ProWrite was generally well-regarded. Unlike KindWords.

[Retro1234]

ProWrite does look more crisp.

[khph_re]

Originally Posted by Retro1234

Excellence looks ok

Seems just opening own screen like Dpaint did going Hi-Res, greyscale and a good font would have improved the look 100%

Hires interlace flickers on a TV. Wasn't until ECS that a stable monitor friendly hires mode came out. The images you see of the ST would require a dedicated monitor, Your average Joe would be running their programs in 320x200 16 colours, or 640x200 in 4 colours

On the Amiga I used 320x256 + overscan in 16/32 colours or 640x256 in 8/16.

Excellence and Prowrite could use vector and bitmap fonts, so your choice is your own.

[daxb]

On an A500 floppy only system I would recommend a text editor like CygnusED for example. Some people also like Redit.

[roondar]

Originally Posted by demolition

You could also get Word Perfect for Amiga, however I don't know if some version of that could run off floppy, but I would guess not since that was definitely one of the leading ones when it came to advanced features.

That'd be my suggestion too. Wordperfect never looked good, but it had a very robust feature set. I didn't even know about WP* back in the day, so I used Kindwords. Work fine overall, but I'd not call Kindwords a great word processor.

That said... It's hard to argue with that Atari ST black and white monitor. It was truly excellent for productivity. My dad had one and it was the one thing I 'envied' on his ST.

Edit:
*) On Amiga that is, I used it all the time for school on a PC.

[BastyCDGS]

Hello!

Originally Posted by Retro1234

What was the best Word Processor for non expanded ECS machine i.e A500/+/600

Back in the old Amiga 500 times, I used a word processor called Excellence! which worked very well from floppy and 1MB. It's quite advanced for a word processor. Disk swapping was minimal, if I remember correctly.

Here's a YouTube video showing it in action:
[ Show youtube player ]

[Retro1234]

Excellence is ok feature wise but does look horrible.

I don't remember Atari ST HI-Res flickering on TV??? but it might be my memory.