I have long believed that View is by far the best word processor for the Beeb (see Beebug Vol. 2 No. 2), but I have often felt myself to be in the minority. Now that Acorn have sold over a 100,000 Masters and Compacts, each with a copy of View included, I no longer feel so alone, and the arrival of two brand new books to support the View family is added comfort. Despite popular opinion to the contrary, I do not believe that View is difficult to learn, but in common with most of the better things in life it does demand more effort from the would-be user. Even so, a little help can go a long way, and both the books reviewed here will do that and a whole lot more.

Clive Williamson's book is devoted not just to View, but also covers ViewSheet and ViewStore (the spreadsheet and database applications in the View family). Perhaps because of this, the book starts with a wealth of general information - setting up a system, differences between the B, B+, Master and Compact, choice of filing systems, etc. I am sure that much of this is useful, but some 30 pages have passed before we hear much of View itself.

The initial introduction to editing text in View I found to be excellent, with some very clear diagrams showing the range of cursor movements possible. The simpler function key operations are also well described. There is one major hiccup - the illustration of the View function key strip has disappeared from page 37 leaving just the function keys themselves - not too disastrous though; all View users will have their own function key strips anyway.

The book moves on to the loading, saving and printing of View files, followed by the use of rulers, a fundamental aspect of View, and stored commands. However, two further chapters entitled 'Common View Problems' and 'Advanced Techniques' fail to provide more than cursory descriptions of commonplace and important editing operations. Markers get very little attention, and the whole business of moving, copying or deleting complete blocks of text is poorly covered, if at all. Page 83 even includes a reference to a non-existent View command, Copy!

The remainder of the book provides a similar introduction to ViewSheet and ViewStore, but at about 50 pages each, no more than that. This is more than adequate for the beginner to these applications, but the more experienced user will find little of which he/she is not already aware. There are many illustrations that could have added much to the text, but the frequent poor quality of reproduction renders many (page 169 for example) less than useful. The attempt to reproduce the screen appearance of white on black is far less successful than the less accurately representative black on white of Bruce Smith's book.

Bruce Smith has produced a book that is devoted entirely to View, and as such has much more to offer the already competent View user, as well as the comparative novice. The style is generally 'chatty' and Bruce Smith's now considerable experience as writer and author (much of it using View) is often apparent, and adds convincing support to what he says.

Even so, I felt that some of the introductory material, covering simple editing using the cursor keys, was not as clearly presented as many beginners to View might wish. You have to veritably 'mine' the relevant information out of some copious text. Once into his stride however, Bruce Smith becomes much more readable.

Rulers, markers, formatting and all the rest of View is described clearly and with many clear well chosen examples. In fact, I thought the way in which example View screens are presented a particularly strong feature of this book.

One of the other attractions here is the inclusion of listings for several utility programs. As might be expected there is a Printer Driver Generator, but also a View Manager, Extended Disc Catalogue, and five utility programs. The listings are, however, very wasteful of page space, and 'appear' all to be wrongly titled. As might be expected, all these programs and some others are available on disc at £7.95 (5.25" DFS), £9.95 (3.5" ADFS).

It is always interesting to undertake a comparative review, and this occasion is no exception. Clive Williamson's book provides a most useful introduction to the three main components of the View family, and his initial coverage of editing text with View will find favour with many who have perhaps 'struggled' with View in the past. However, several important features of View are poorly described, and as already mentioned, the illustrations (of screens) let the book down badly.

Bruce Smith's book concentrates solely on View, and as a result has much more to say on that subject, most of it being practical and down-to-earth in style. The early pages are not as clear as the rest, but the thorough coverage, additional programs, and reference appendices will allow the more demanding user to make the most of View.

In summary, anyone just starting with View, and those who want to know about ViewSheet and ViewStore too, will probably prefer Williamson, at least to start with, while for those who want a complete, thorough and readable guide to View then Bruce Smith is your man.

And if you wonder whether, after more than four years of using View, either book was able to teach me anything new about view I can only say both did, but professional pride prevents me from revealing what!