OS/2 e-Zine! - Sneak Peak: Lotus WordPro 96 for OS/2

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Sneak Peak: Lotus WordPro 96 for OS/2

- by Chris Wenham

While Lotus is still keeping a tight lid on official news about WordPro 96 for OS/2, I had a chance recently to play with a preliminary beta copy. Since it will still be some time before it is released, no features or interface characteristics should be considered set in stone. Still, I thought you might like a sneak preview of what's likely to come in the final release. Just keep in mind that all of this is unofficial and just a sample of the many enhancements that will ship in the final version and should be viewed as such.

Bells and Whistles

Okay here's the meat: Lotus Corp's successor to AmiPro, WordPro 96 (gif 18.5k), adds literally thousands of new features including some that integrate it with the Internet, being of interest to both collaborative teams and web site designers like me. Lotus calls it the Team Word Processor although you don't have to be in a team to use it. This simply refers to its ability to do revision marking, version control and other collaborative tasks--especially over a network.

WordPro/2 also adds what was sorely missed in AmiPro/2 which is a complete drawing module--enough for anything that's no more complicated than a picture of a house or a network diagram. WordPro still keeps the frame metaphor of AmiPro too.

Getting started with WordPro as a new user promises to be much easier thanks to "Smart Masters" (gif 11k), a collection of templates suited for the most commonly used business and personal documents. SmartMaster will prompt you to, "Click here to type the title," or, "Click here to type the recipient's name," etc.

WordPro also has a feature called "Ask the Expert" (gif 17.6k), a help search engine that responds to plain English "How do I..." type questions. It is remarkably comprehensive and as long as you ask clear and direct questions it performs well, even in this preliminary version.

The version of WordPro I saw will have the ability to load and save files directly over the Internet using either the FTP or HTTP protocols. Its HTML capabilities look especially nice since it has not only the ability to edit HTML files in WYSIWYG mode but also to save HTML-related graphics files as separate files on the server. One could theoretically maintain a web site without having to copy and store any files on the local hard drive.

Of course, the user interface is much improved with cosmetic and usability changes abundant. Dialog boxes have more help information built into them, and Lotus' "Info Box" (gif 4.5k) technology is used everywhere for controlling context sensitive options like text formatting and graphic elements.

WordPro's "SmartIcons" are still as configurable as before, plus you can now place them anywhere you like on the screen with simple click-and-drag operations.

When's It Coming?

Lotus WordPro 96 for OS/2 looks like it has great potential for any OS/2 user--in a team or not. We're all eager to see a shipping product and of course OS/2 e-Zine! will bring you a full review as soon as that happens. At the time of this writing, Lotus still had no official word on a release date but it should be some time this spring or summer. And with the recent developments at DeScribe, that's not a moment too soon.

WordPro 96 for OS/2
Lotus Development Corporation
Release Date: Unknown

Chris Wenham is a Team OS/2er in Binghamton, NY with a catchy-titled company--Wenham's Web Works. He has been writing all sorts of strange things from comedy to sci-fi to this.

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