PROWRITE 3.1

Highly intuitive and designed specifically for the Amiga, Pro Write 3.1 is an extremely powerful yet deceptively simple-to-use graphic word processor. Using ProWrite's pull-down menus and keyboard shortcuts, it took my ten-year-old son only 15 minutes to learn to use the program.

Text editing is beautifully implemented and very fast. The four main commands are under the left hand: Amiga-V to paste, C to Copy, X to cut, and Z for the new Undo function, which has become one of my favorites. You can undo all editing and formatting commands, alignment changes, picture moves, ruler changes, and other actions. You can even change your mind and undo the Undo command. You can also edit headers and footers, include automatic dates and page numbering, and use subscripts and superscripts.

If you like a clean writing screen, you can toggle the ruler away. The screen isn't cluttered with gadgets, so you can see more of your text. You can have up to ten windows open at once, containing pictures and text, with multiple colors and fonts. The WYSIWYG display takes all the guesswork out of formatting and printing.

The 100,000-word spelling checker lets you check a range of text, look up a single word, check continuously, and add words to the user dictionary. The 300,000-word cross-reference the-saurus allows you to move back and forth through several hierarchies of words.

Pro Write 3.1 has many powerful new features including both newspaper-style and snaking columns, ARexx macros, and a special story-boarding feature. Pro Write will automatically open its screen in the same resolution as your Workbench screen, or you can force it to use almost any other screen mode, including the new ECS Productivity and SuperHires modes.

Version 3.1 includes an improved file requester that's still easy for novices to use but that now lets you type filenames and paths directly into a text box, move forward or backward between disk directories, and select a path from a list of disks and system assignments. It also adds an adjustable Speak command that will read a marked block of text back to you. The improved font requester shows you a sample of the font you've chosen and lets you install your favorite fonts in a quick-access submenu.

Pro Write has many user-definable parameters that can be changed by the user and saved as defaults. In fact, everything in your document setup that can be changed is now saved in your Prefs file. This welcome new feature makes starting writing sessions a breeze.

Print options abound, including smoothing and print reduction for high-quality output on a dot-matrix printer. You can also print back-to-front, odd-even, or collated. Pro Write will print using Amiga bitmap fonts or native printer fonts. You can even mix graphics with your printer's built-in letter-quality fonts. If you have a color printer, you'll be especially pleased with Pro Write's excellent dithered color graphic output.

The Pro Write manual is easy to use, with sections for quick reference and a good index. You probably won't need the manual much at all, but I recommend browsing through it to find all the nice little extra touches this program has, such as several editing shortcuts.

New Horizons deserves top marks for its Bug-Free Guarantee. If you find a bug in the program, the company will fix it free within 30 days or you can return the program. Pro-Write's flexibility and speed, along with its great range of options, make it an excellent value.

PAMELA ROTHMAN