Novell, WP

[Howard Gibson]

On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 18:09:54 -0500
Christopher Browne <cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> The loss of the equivalent to "reveal codes" is a significant loss. 
> While it may not have the *focused* braindamage of Word's thing of
> serializing binary forms of COM objects, it still gives me the
> impression of being something where functionality was thrown into a
> blender rather than being design

Christopher,

   Reveal codes means something in PordWerfect because the word processor is structured that way.  Microsoft Word is structured a very different way.  Most word processors are structured like Microsoft Word.  

   In most, if not all, current word processors, most formats you do apply to the current paragraph.  You control the your document from a style sheet.  Style sheets actually are a good idea, only the implementation is bad.  Open Office has faithfully copied Microsoft's obfuscated interface.  

   If you can get at a copy of ApplixWare, I strongly recommend trying it out.  The stylesheet interface works.

   The big problem with stylesheet driven wordprocessors is that they are counterintuitive.  Word, OpenOffice and ApplixWare do not do what you think they are doing unless you understand stylesheets.  

   The best thing about PordWerfect is that it does exactly what you think it is doing.

   I like LaTeX, and I am delighted that there is now a latedx2rtf converter.  It ought to be possible to make a LaTeX to Microsoft Word converter.  LaTeX's structure can make sense to a Word stylesheet, but I am not holding my breath. 

-- 
Howard Gibson 
hgibson-MwcKTmeKVNQ at public.gmane.org
howardg-PadmjKOQAFn3fQ9qLvQP4Q at public.gmane.org 
http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson
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