Label: Cardex 11 Marsh Street, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria LA14 2AE
Author: P Sneesby
Price: £14.95 (cassette) / £16.50 (Microdrive) (mail-order only)
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: None
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

WordMaster is a pretty ambitious program. It uses a 64-column text display, and can hold in memory several short documents at once, up to a total of over 29,000 characters.

WordMaster has all the text functions you could hope for: Insert, Delete, Margins, Block Copy, Underline, Search and Replace, Headers, Footers, Page Numbering and so on. Functions are controlled both by a screen menu and in-text control characters. Unusual features include seven user-definable characters, and graphics handling. Graphics can be cut out of pictures saved as screen strings, incorporated into the text, and printed out in mono or with shading representing colours.

WordMaster will work with Centronics or RS-232 printers, though not every printer will work with all the graphics facilities.

The package is well seeking out if for any reason you find you don't get on with the more established processing programs.

A WORD IN YOUR SPECTRUM

The Spectrum is under-estimated as a word processing machine, says John Wase. Here he reviews eight programs in support of his argument.

Word processing does not require much computer power. PipeDream on the new Z-88 uses exactly the same Z-80 chip as all versions of the venerable Spectrum. Thus the Spectrum, too, should, in theory, provide good word processing facilities, although in practice there are limitations like memory. A 48K Spectrum has around 41K for both program and text file, around 110K for the 128K version, and the screen display at only 32 columns.

Nevertheless, I found eight readily-available packages, plus variants for various models, of assorted prices, features, sophistication and complexity. Each has been written with some particular purpose in mind and all have virtues and vices associated with what is, after all, a compromise, for no word processing program suits everyone or all applications.

The constraints of the 32-column screen are overcome in a variety of ways. In some programs text lines continue along a second or third display line and end with some recognisable symbol, while in others the screen is re-defined to up to 80 characters per line, further augmented by multiple lines or sideways scrolling, giving as many as 148 characters per printer line.

While it is possible to provide a good deal of the information about the packages in tabular form, it really gives little feeling for the strong and weak points, the aims and the overall success of each package. Therefore I have chosen a combination of tables and comment to provide sufficient information to guide you in choosing packages suitable for your needs. The packages are Mini-Office, a suite of programs for younger children; Ramprint, an add-on printer interface with integral word processor; Spectral Writer, bundled with Wafadrive; WordMaster; Word Manager; The Last Word; The Writer and finally, the Tasword family. They are listed in table one, along with the outstanding features of each package, the cost and supplier.

The easiest thing to do is to take them in groups. First, Mini-Office, which has a very simple set of instructions on a cassette-sized book; interpretation by an adult will be necessary. There is a simple test piece to be typed-in; it appeared in big letters an inch or more high in yellow on a black background on my old TV; it is very easy for a child to write a simple letter but with very little more scope.

The normal mode is insert and there is also a crude copy, so letters or lines can be added or deleted; crude tabs complete the features. The main menu offers the usual save, verify, load or options with a further choice of double height, double width, margin setting and characters per line.

It could have been an excellent program to introduce a child to an integrated suite had it been revamped but there are no facilities to use a printer other than the obsolete Sinclair gadget or compatibles, and the other options integrate badly into the word processor. You would need a suitable printer for your child to make the most of it.

The next pair are proper programs, both intended for the serious user, and both released relatively early. Tasword 2, a development of Tasword on the ZX-81, provides a 64-character line, a fixed text length of 320 lines - 10-and-a-bit pages of double-spaced A4. Spectral Writer is similar but with squarer letters some say much more legible. In both programs insertion is by opening a word or a line and then re-justifying; there is no auto insert mode.

LINE AND COLUMN

Line and column are given on-screen but there is no word count. The cursor will move by line, character, or to the start or finish of the text; in Tasword 2 it is very slow. Word wrap is automatic, characters and lines can be deleted, blocks can be moved and copied and there is a crude search and replace.

Text can be justified with smooth or ragged right margin and centred and margins can be set for tables but there are no tabs in Tasword 2 and no headers, footers or auto-page numbering, no mail-merge, conditional printing or macros; just start and finish lines, one copy only. You can put eight printer codes in the program at once and change them whenever you like.

Both programs are good, straightforward, very simple word processors. You can achieve professional results very quickly Spectral Writer scores by having tabs, a line-end bell and is a little slicker but it normally is only bundled with Wafadrive, Tasword 2 is ubiquitous and bundled with Microdrives.

The chief advantage of both programs is that they are very simple; much is in Basic and is easily user-adapted. The major disadvantage is that printer control codes in the text destroys WYSIWYG concept unless you adopt low cunning or a patch. For simple letters of only a few pages they are easy and adequate.

The other processors are, in general, more sophisticated and it is probably easier to deal with their main features in a large table and just comment briefly on their strengths and weaknesses. The simplest is probably Ramprint, a printer interface and joystick port with a built-in word processor on ROM. I found the documentation brief but the gadget easy to use.

Although it contains most features one needs, there are disadvantages. It will work only with tape or Microdrives, for instance, and it will display only 32 columns when you are entering text, making complex work almost impossible, although it will display a 64-column screen to show you what the work will be like at the end.

That apart, having the works in an EPROM means that there is no software to load; plug it in, type one command and go. For straightforward documents, also those needing underlining, italics and other such fancy bits, even page numbering, it works and works well.

Word-Master again is for the Spectrum owner who has no discs. It works well with tape or Microdrive and an EPROM-driven interface. Within limitations I found a program which was specifically aimed at crude desk-top publishing. The documentation could be improved and I did not particularly like its 64-column character set. A further problem is that right justification could not be implemented on-screen, although was satisfactory when printed; that does not help DTP layout.

Against that, several files can be held in memory at once, page numbers, headers and footers are catered for and printer control codes are handled beautifully, either in a command line which does not print but affects the text below or as special characters for the more common sorts, so that H2O can be printed readily without upsetting justification.

PICTURES

Pictures can be incorporated with the graphic commands and text can be printed either to the right or to the left of it; again, instructions are a little sparse. Graphmate, a separate, stand-alone program, produces bar charts or pie charts easily but with provision for labelling axes left to Word-Master. The programs are independent and the products of Graphmate have to be saved before incorporation.

Cardex also supplied Headliner on a separate tape. It will produce headlines in a variety of styles for subsequent incorporation. This is a useful suite as it stands; further development and the production of disc/128K versions using more interfaces would make it still better.

Word Manager 4 is aimed at a different end-user, evident from its being bundled with Mail and Address Manager II. The review version 4.2 has a number of improvements over earlier issues, including a completely re-written Address Manager II. All saves and loads are in Basic and I liked particularly the single keypress to modify and transfer everything to disc. The 64-column character set looked almost like script, unlike any of the others; I liked it. The normal screen is bright. Lines longer than 64 characters are wrapped round and shown on the line below - not bright.

The instruction book was adequate. Some features were easy to use but I did not like the constant switching between modes to use cursors and delete, the lack of on-screen prompts - particularly caps - or the way in which paragraphs were completed before on-screen justification took place.

Page numbering is there but not headers or footers. Address Manager II is a database specific for Word Manager; Mail Manager takes the text from Word Manager and the names and addresses from Mail Manager and integrates them. There are conditional indices for Mr. Mrs. M/s or Miss but no real conditional printing is available.

For circulation of simple club letters or even, at a pinch, a short club magazine, this would do the trick satisfactorily if you get used to the vagaries involved in editing and, at the price which includes all three programs, it is unbeatable.

In contrast, The Last Word has a very well-produced and extensive manual. I found it very easy to use. Again, all the loads and saves are in Basic but you will have to type-in some new lines - supplied - to get it working from Microdrive or disc; a novice might not like this.

The screen display is changeable from 40, 48, 60 or 80 characters per line - not too good on a monitor, better on a large television set where the slight fuzz causes the eye to assume a good deal. It has most of the features one might expect, like headers, footers, page numbers, selected printing from Basic and mail-merge, with its own data files.

Because lines are terminated by a carriage return symbol there is no insert mode; you have to split a line to insert letters or words. Screen refresh is a trifle slow and the program is 48K, although the author says that there is the possibility of a 128K program in the future.

That said, everything else is good. Control codes do not disturb justification; by screen wrap-around you can get up to 148 characters per line; formatting is very flexible, exiting into Basic to insert your own routines is encouraged and examples given.

Tutor files loaded from tape help you to learn to manipulate text and load and save mail-merge information. Although I had never used it previously and am very familiar with another processor, I found the keys logical and liked the program.

NO COLOURS

The Writer is in two versions, 48K and 128K. Although Softek was very helpful on the telephone and promised to send both programs, plus The Artist, plus a pre-release version of The Filer, they did not arrive in time for this review. Fortunately I was able to borrow a 48K version of The Writer. It is well-presented with a good instruction book. No colours are used; the screen is uniformly white letters on a black background and looks very smart.

The 64 characters a line lettering is clear, square rather like Spectral Writer - and easy to read. The normal text manipulations are on symbol or extended mode and the program starts in insert mode. Press "Edit" and move the arrow over the top-line menu; up comes an overlay menu with obvious choices for all the things like file handling, saving and so on.

Printing includes mail-merge, conditional printing and can include calculations. All in all, a very impressive package. I found it easy to use, too, and liked it. The 128K version contains a pagemaker facility which imports pictures from The Artist. I had hoped to be able to look at this, too, and compare it to the Word-Master DTP facilities.

Finally, the Tasword series. Tasword 3 uses the same black on white character set as Tasword 2 - adequate and readable but scarcely exciting - but there the similarity ends. Because, unlike several of the other programs, all loads and saves are in machine code, there are a number of versions to fit various machines and devices, including Microdrive. Opus and Disciple discs, but there is no tape version, because to fit in all the features and still keep a respectable length file, the main menu is fed in as an overlay; it is frustrating to have to wait seven seconds for it to load from Microdrive or Opus.

All the standard features are present; mail-merge from Masterfile or from its own address lists produced from within the program, headers, footers, pagination, plenty of control codes to send, print several text files sequentially, print multiple copies, customise program, overtype - standard - or insert mode, word count, space remaining - do not fill it too tightly, though.

The main menu is, like all the Spectrum Taswords, accessed by symbol shift and A; the rest is easy. The manual is well-printed and laid-out and a tutor file is included. The 128K versions are almost exactly the same, except for the control key for insertion and some tidying as the Amstrad Spectrums no longer have symbols on the keys.

The main menu appears instantly and the text file is large, between 40 and 50 pages of double-spaced A4, which is a tremendous advantage if you write complicated documents and need to keep referring to what has gone before. The new +3 version appears similar to the user but contains code enabling a spellchecker to work and the extended mode bug which locks the main menu has been fixed.

The biggest disadvantage is the lack of justification when control codes are inserted - redeemed by a patch from Seven Stars Software; against this is the ease of use and the fact that Tasword and Masterfile are both available on a range of machines, even PC compatibles. Again, I liked Tasword; it works well and is good value.

Compared to most other machines, the choice of word processors on the Spectrum is wide and some are technically very good. There is no need to buy that new Amstrad or PC-compatible if all you want is a word processor, particularly if you have a +2 or a +3 with their good keyboards. After all, Tasword is very similar on the PC. Moreover, the PC will not play budget games as well when you are not using it.

RAGE HARD!

More like Rage Soft this month, as techno Phil Snout takes the first of an irregular series of forays into the best in hardware based software.

There are some people in the Spectrum world who think that technically speaking, Spectrum computers are a dead duck. No advances being made, except the +3, and no serious software. This point of view couldn't be further from the truth, as anyone who attends the frequent ZX Microfairs in London will attest, and I personally get sent a huge mound of interesting independent software every month. So, why not do a software special in the old Hardy page, I thought. No sooner said than written, old chums.

The sorts of things I get sent are mostly in the utility line, with disk-based material being on the up and up lately for blindingly obvious reasons. But the one thing I didn't expect was the Desk Top Publishing environment from Cardex.

WORD-MASTER AND TYPELINER
Cardex
£14.95 and £10.50

These are, I must say the most impressive pieces of software I've ever seen for the Spectrum. No kidding. The output of these programs, when put through an appropriate printer (and we're only talking Epson matrix with ESC "L" 120dpi graphics mode, here) is of such good quality that I had to look twice before agreeing that it could possibly have been originated on a Spectrum. WordMaster has been out for a while, and is a pretty good word-processor program in its own write (ho ho). But with the addition of Typeliner, an extension program which you load into WordMaster, it becomes a powerful page lay out program. Using easily remembered single letter commands, you can position blocks of WordMaster text on an A4 page on screen, using boxes and lines, and a number of excellent and readable fonts. This could be your chance to get into publishing. Using another program called Headliner (unfortunately not available at time of going to press), you can paste graphics into your page, too. So you could conceivably use pictures grabbed using the video digitisers we showed you a couple of months ago, just to add an air of professionalism to the output.

The program worked brilliantly on our office set up, which is quite amazing really, considering the fact that nothing works on our system, given the slightest reason not to! No crashes, nice bold output on the battered old Epson, and ease of page editing. Also, as well as some very nice fonts to play with, there's a font editor too, so you can either design your own fonts from scratch, or delete some of the less useful characters (/, {,},$.[.] etc...) to save memory. The grid on which you design the fonts is a massive 24 x 24, unlike the piddling 8 x 8 usual Spectrum font, which obviously makes for some more interesting typestyles.

There's a lot of work gone into this suite of programs, and in my opinion they're worth every nickel of the £35 you'll pay for the whole lot of 'em.

Z80 TOOLKIT AND MICROMATE
LERM Software
£7.99 and £13.99

LERM has been around for gawd knows how long now. I remember distinctly using one of its tape back up utilities in about 1983, and it working remarkably well. It's nice to know that small firms can survive with the right products. LERM is currently advertising a bewildering array of utilities for all flavours of Spectrum, notably in the line of tape-to-cartridge-to-disk type copying programs, but two programs which did catch my eye were its Z80 Toolkit and MicroMagic (now called Micromate).

The Toolkit is a full featured Assembler, machine code Monitor, Toolkit (of course) plus a full Disassembler. The aim of the package is to give you the facility to write and de-bug machine code programs with the minimum of fuss! As the cheapest Assembler/Monitor package would have cost you £15 until now, the Toolkit represents excellent value, and is actually quite well put together. Programmers used to using the ZEUS assembler for example, should note that the LERM Assembler in this package will load files from ZEUS with no trouble at all.

The screen editing is a bit like a word processor, allowing you to cursor key all over the screen and alter any bits of the files at will. This is nice, as the assembler I used to write on would only accept single lines and wouldn't let you fiddle with the lines of text so freely. The Monitor is pretty good too, allowing you to examine any area of the Spectrum's RAM or ROM. and edit the contents (RAM only). Using this facility you can alter machine code programs without disassembling them, and also inspect embedded text in programs... very handy for naughty people who can't finish an adventure game. (Shocking but true. Ed) The Disassembler takes a standard block of machine code and crunches it back down to its source code, an essential tool for potential game hackers. ZZKJ and Dave McCandless wouldn't be seen dead without at least one good disass about their person.

All this adds up to a brilliant package, with the toolkit functions letting you step through your programs to see the precise effect of each instruction. Z80 Toolkit is the best value for money in this line on the market, so look out for it.

The MicroMate is the perfect addition to any microdrive based system, doing jobs like supplying you with a fast CAT command, hard copies of directories, BACKUP files on m/drive, and a Toolkit facility for inspecting memory. There are also two excellent Tape-To-Cart and CartTo-Tape utilities for those of you who've recently upgraded to drive from tape, and would rather like to have copies of all your progs on cartridge. Full documentation is provided in the form of a sturdy 50 page A5 booklet, which gives details of all the functions of the program, and some handy hints and tips on how to best use them in your set up. A lot of quirky configurations are catered for, and incidentally you could use the programs with OPUS disk or DISCIPLE/PLUS D, as they both use the microdrive syntax, - LOAD* "m"; 1 ;"file" and all that... If you use microdrives, get MicroMate and speed up all your jobs. (Oo-er). Seriously though, using the functions of MicroMate gives you more power, without the price!

THASS ALL, PEEPS

And there you have it. The finest in technical software as we know it. I'll be looking at much more of this sort of thing in future editions of Rage Hard so don't stop sending it to me, programmers I've just received some +3 utilities from a firm called ZX Guaranteed, which look very good indeed. I'll be looking at them in the future edition of Rage Soft.

Next issue though, Rage Hard'll be back and I'll be looking at a pair of colour printers. Sound good? Okay then, keep it here and we'll see you next month, when we'll be back to our normal hardness. (Fnar).

(Simon N Goodwin owns the copyright to this review. Please visit http://simon.mooli.org.uk to find original articles and updates, much new material and his contact details.)

PUBLISH AND BE DESKTOPPED

Become a Spectrum press tycoon for 20 quid!

Bored of hearing about Norman's mother all the time, fed up with having to lend him a cup of Jif every week for a the shower and basically worried about living so close to the Bates Motel, SIMON N GOODWIN packs his toothbrush and his middle initial and decides to let some else take his Tech Tips slot.

But he's not a man to give up easily - first he says he'll carry on writing for CRASH, and then he announces he's go lots to say about Spectrum word processing and publishing this month.

Unfortunately there's only been time for a very brief look at Cardex's Spectrum desktop-publishing system in this month's Tech Tips. The main program is Word-Master, a very respectable word processor which fits into a 48K Spectrum, leaving 29K for data, and can call up other utilities - including Headliner, which lets you create simple graphics and headlines in six different typefaces.

The top of the range add-on is Typeliner which miraculously persuades the 48K Spectrum to work like a desktop-publishing system, with text in columns and graphics mixed on an A4 page. Its not a particularly friendly program, and - as with all DTP - the results depend, more than anything else, on your own ability to design a page. But it works.

The amazing thing about this system is the quality of the results it produces - some of the best dot-matrix DTP printouts I've seen. The typefaces are proportionally-spaced - for instance, the letter 'M' takes up for more space than an 'i', as in CRASH typesetting - and look quite professional.

All you need is a 48K Spectrum and a printer that can wind the paper forward in units of 1/ 216 inch, and recognises Epson control sequences like ESC L... plus patience, of course, and some trial and error!

UNEASY READING?

The entire Cardex system is accessed from Word-Master, which has a 64-column display - like Tasword's, but slower and perhaps a bit harder to read. Letters like 'M' and 'W' are difficult to make out.

After 20 lines of text there are four lines of prompts at the bottom of the screen. There's no onscreen help, as that would take up valuable data space.

Word-Master has few cursor-movement commands, compared with Tasword, and the cursor keys repeat almost immediately, so it's easy to move too far.

It shows the rough layout, including underlining and word-wrapping, on the screen. Tabs appear as arrows until you print the file out; the effect of the tab depends on your printer settings.

Detailed format control is through command lines - special lines in the file that aren't printed but control features like the typeface, justification, margins and page breaks. Commands are in effect until they are cancelled, so you don't have to describe each paragraph or line individually, as you do in Tasword. The disadvantage is that it takes experience to guess what a document will look like in print.

Command lines also let you call up user-defined printer characters, and send control characters directly to the printer. You can print selected pages of a document, but Word-Master can't automatically chain between files as Tasword can.

THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW

Block-handling is much like Tasword, but search-and-replace options are better. You can search for any string of up to 64 characters - not just a word or part of a word-and you can tell the program to replace all instances without asking you about each one. There's also an option to make 'intelligent' use of capital letters for instance, so that a single command replaces 'now' with 'then' and 'Now' with 'Then'.

Headers and footers are also handled rather better than in Tasword - they can be several lines deep, and can be different for left-hand and right-hand pages (as, for instance. CRASH page numbers are always on the outside of the page).

The biggest advantage of Word-Master over Tasword is the way that it lets you mix text and graphics in a file. You can load SCREEN$ files - like those produced by Spectrum art packages - snip sections out and mix them into your text. Beware: the program gets confused it you load normal CODE files when it's expecting a screen dump.

You can't print text both sides of a graphic, or two graphics side by side, unless you use Typeliner as well as WordMaster. The Typeliner documentation contains some excellent diagrams, explaining the intricacies of dot-matrix printout.

The 29K of free memory can be split into any number of RAM files. You can link files, but for some unexplained reason you can't split them. Graphics are compressed in memory, so you don't need a full 6K to store a screen - the amount of space a picture needs depends on its complexity.

NOT SO FRIENDLY

Word-Master is not as friendly as Tasword, but it's very powerful. In conjunction with Headliner and Typeliner it can produce better results than the expensive DTP packages for much bigger computers.

Word-Master sells for £11.90, with Headliner at £8.95 and the latest version of Typeliner considerably improved on the original - at £16.95. Disk versions are available for the +3 or Plus D (3.5-inch only), and cost an extra £2.50 or £1.50 respectively.

The programs run on any Spectrum with at least 48K of RAM. The extra memory on a 128 is ignored, though you can use the RAM disk on a +3. The suite works with an impressive variety of storage systems: cassette, microdrives, Plus D, +3, Disciple, Opus Discovery, TR-Beta disk and Swift Disk.

The manuals are double-cassette sized: 47 pages for WordMaster, 40 for Typeliner and 20 for Headliner.

Cardex are at 3 Barton Street, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria LA14 2EP. Tel (0229) 36957.