Not Too Friendly...

Text Editor is attractively packaged in a videocassette style plastic case, but unfortunately the software inside - from G. Soft - is not up to the same standard.

Once the program has loaded, the user is asked to set the page width. If no number is entered this defaults to 80 columns. Setting page width to 60 columns results in the right-hand 20 columns being shaded.

This is merely a visual indication of the length of the line. Any text entered beyond the end of the line will appear on the line below on the screen, but will appear in its true length when sent to a printer.

It is therefore essential to press Return at the end of each line so that each is assigned a new line number and the printed text has the same format as that displayed.

The line length setting causes havoc with another of the editor's facilities. By pressing f4 at the start of a new page the user's address will be printed at the top of the page.

When using any page width setting other than 80 columns, the address will appear disjointed on the screen and will always be sent to the printer in 80 column format despite the width setting of the bulk of the text.

I experienced some difficulty when attempting to save a page of text to tape merely through a lack of user friendliness. When asked whether I wanted to load data I could get no response from the program whenpressing either Y or N.

I had resorted to listing the program before realising that the program was only checking for an upper case reply. This problem occurred throughout the program.

Text can be formatted using the Centre command, which moves any text to the centre of the line, such as for headings, and the Indent command which can be used to indent text at the beginning of a new paragraph. Indent should not be confused with TAB - which is not implemented - as pressing indent in mid-line will erase the text at the beginning of the line.

Printer control codes can be embedded into the text by enclosing them between square brackets.

If one disregards the ambiguous information referring to the insertion of the user's address, then the accompanying booklet is quite good.

There is also no need to make a note of the function key tasks as these are displayed in the top few lines of the screen.

Overall the package - which costs £9.95 - is a little rough around the edges. If it was re-written to implement optional double spaced printing, a TAB key, and even a simple search and replace routine, then it would be worth consideration as a text editor for the user who merely wants to send the occasional letter and keep a copy on tape for reference.

Jon Revis