When Impression first appeared in late 1989 - it was reviewed in The Micro User, January 1990 - it showed promise as the leading desktop publishing package for the Archimedes. Now version two has arrived, bearing even more desirable features. But have they put it ahead of the field?

As it is based on Impression version 1, I need only concentrate on what has been added. The package itself is much as before, with a ring-bound manual - totally new and 300 pages long - a dongle and a copy of the book DTP At A Glance.

There are now five discs instead of four, the extra one containing a selection of additional frame borders, sprites and !Draw files to enliven your documents, as well as software extensions for loading text files prepared in alien formats and also for draft printing. Fonts provided are now Character (bit-mapped and very clear on screen), Greek, Dingbats (symbols) and Pembroke, a Palatino equivalent, as well as Acorn's standard Corpus, Homerton and Trinity.

The software contains many new facilities as well as various fixes for earlier bugs and features. I shall list only the major changes as there isn't space here for them all.

One of the drawbacks of version 1 was that all text attribute changes had to be defined through styles, even if some were needed only once in a document. Version 2 overcomes this by having a new item on the main menu: Effect. So if, for instance, you want to change to a different font on a few occasions, the quickest way is via the Effect submenu. You need to remember that effects are local to where they are applied, and have to be adjusted individually if you change your mind later. But that is a small price to pay for the convenience.

In a new area of the Style submenu are ruler options to apply tabs and margins to your text by defining named rulers. You can now also conveniently place margins and tabs by typing exact values as well as by sliding icons on the ruler. The operation of rulers is global like styles, rather than local like effects.

All the strengths and flexibility inherent in Impression's original style system have been retained, and now that text formats are listed as effects there is no need to define a style for each one.

Menus now show the relevant key short-cuts, making them much easier to learn. A possible criticism is that they also make for more clutter, but perhaps in future versions we could be given the choice whether or not shortcuts are shown.

In principle, this is possible now because all the menu and dialogue texts are in a text resource file which you can alter with !Edit but it would be tedious for all the menus.

A new Preferences dialogue box gives greater control over the start-up options. Among the new selectable features are access to on-screen page rulers, making positioning items on the page very much easier, and a flashing cursor which stands out better.

A major addition is the enhanced graphics option, which permits graphics - sprites as well as !Draw files - to be rotated in real time on screen. If you've ever tried rotating a sprite with !Paint you'll be amazed at Impression's speed. Graphics can also be panned around with their frames simply by dragging.

Frames have been augmented in several ways. First is the ability to group frames, either temporarily so that they can be moved, resized or copied together, or permanently so that multi-element illustrations can be assembled with their captions and treated as a single entity.

Version two now has a new frame type, the repeating frame, which to some extent takes the place of master frames. As its name suggests, a repeating frame placed on a page will be repeated on all subsequent pages. This is very useful for page headings in a book, for instance, because the frame's contents can be changed chapter by chapter.

Frames can be made to repel text inside as well as outside, with independent control of horizontal and vertical repulsion of the internal text. Border selection is easier and more versatile, and additional borders can be designed using !Draw and then imported into Impression.

Another improvement to frames allows the selection of successive individual ones in a stack. This means that even a completely buried frame can be selected.

Finally, arrows can be brought forth to show the flow of text through linked frames.

Text handling has not escaped attention, though the editing controls are virtually unchanged from version one - and some of these originated with Wordwise.

Several new features make for a more professional finished appearance. A text gridlock system has been devised for the benefit of multi-column work which forces text to line up horizontally across the page. A "keep together" option prevents headings from appearing at the foot of the page. This is fairly useful, but it still can't prevent widows or orphans - those lonely part-lines at the top or bottom of a column.

The hyphenation system has been improved by the addition of a soft hyphen facility which lets you specify where a word should break if required; if it isn't, the hyphen is omitted. for tabular work, you can now use a leadering string of up to four characters, and not just one.

A handy enhancement is a text overflow indicator, a red arrow which warns you if an unlinked frame is too small for the story in it.

Imported text can now contain complete style definitions, so you can set up detailed document specifications while preparing your text, as long as you know exactly what you are doing. However, a style already defined in the receiving document will not be redefined by one of the same name in the imported text.

The font menu has been given a hierachical structure, which cuts down the number of choices appearing at a time. Once you've acquired a large number of fonts you'll appreciate this.

The master pages have been rearranged in a more logical order and include some containing only guide frames. Chapters defined with facing pairs of master pages can now start on a left or a right page.

Automatic insertion of chapter numbers is now supported, in addition to that of page numbers, though the formatting of automatically inserted numbers is still a problem.

File saving has been changed to conform more with Acorn guidelines - the last-used document name is remembered. Ctrl-F3 brings up a dialogue box whereas before it saved to the original document name, so you have to remember to press Return now too.

If you prefer, the document name can be changed at this point. Automatic timed saving might be a useful addition. Also, a helpful asterisk is now added to a document's title bar to indicate it has been modified.

The print borders are now shown correctly, depending on the rotating and scaling specified in the print dialogue box. Draft printing is more intuitive, using a printer module rather than a save module.

Almost all the dialogue boxes have been changed, though they mostly build on familiar ground. Choosing colours has been made easier by the introduction of colour pickers, where you can point at the colour you want and click on it.

Impression 2 is upwards-compatible from version one, so if you are already familiar with the original you can quickly get the hang of the new one. It also means that version one documents can be loaded into Impression 2, though there is still a problem converting the main heading style.

Computer Concepts offers a free upgrade - program disc only, plus notes of the changes - for registered users of the old Impression. Alternatively, for the modest outlay of £23, you can obtain a complete new set of discs and the full manual. Either way, if you have version 1 you have no reason to miss out on the new facilities. Site licences are available at extra cost and a network version that doesn't require a dongle can also be obtained.

Computer Concepts have evidently been listening to their customers because this is a considerable improvement on what was the best DTP package of its time. It's still the most comprehensive available for the Archimedes, and although dearer than the others, you should bear in mind that DTP programs with comparable facilities on other types of micro cost several times as much - and they aren't anywhere near as fast.