MacGowan's powerful wordprocessor Printer Control has, at last, appeared on disc. I reviewed Printer Control on cassette in the August 85 issue of Dragon User and gave it 5 out of 5. All of the original functions have been kept in the disc version, these were explained in the original review, so I wont go through them all again here, but for anyone new to this program, what you get is a very powerful wordprocessor, (40 column screen) and a simple graphics editor.

The big difference between this and other wordprocessors is that MacGowan will supply a custom version to suit almost any printer (they claim to have done 57 varieties so far).

So to the disc version; a four page supplement is supplied to augment the main manual, explaining the slight differences in operation. A useful, and very necessary option for upgraders is the extension program. This is loaded into the high-res pages used for the 40 column display and so does not affect any text file to HAM when called (the display reverts to 32 column). The extension menu allows access to Dragon Dos functions such as DIR, DSKINIT, KILL, RENAME etc. It also allows loading and saving of files to cassette.

Unlike the cassette version, the disc version only runs in 32K mode: it will not access the additional 32K on a Dragon 64. A little extra programming could have made it possible to use all of the available RAM surely? Printer Control was one of the first (and only) programs to use the extra 32k on the 64.

Cassette owners will be glad to hear that MacGowan are offering an upgrade service, which depending on your printer type, will cost between £10 and £18 to replace your cassette with a disc and supplementary manual - a little expensive maybe, but at least they are offering the service to those who want it.