====================================================================== WORDPROCESSINGTASWORD 8000 ====================================================================== TASWORD 8000 HAS BEEN AROUND for quite sometime - since 1986 to be precise - and can be bought for about #18. With wordprocessing software available for as little as this or as much as #195 for WordStar, what can TASWORD 8000 offer in a marketplace full of choices for the author? If you have upgraded from the CPC464/664 or 6128 and used Tasword on one of these earlier Amstrads you will welcome the chance to return to familiar territory. If you are likely to upgrade to a PC or compatible you can make the move up with a faithful 'old friend' as well. Tasword has some facilities that LocoScript 2 lacks. It has a Wordcount facility for one and a Mail Merge for another, both built into the basic program. Whole documents are held in memory - about 100K on an 8256 or well over 300K on a 512K PCW - which makes movement around a large document quick and to the point. There are still more features available, so lets take a look... Tasword runs under CP/M and instructions are provided for creating an auto loading disk. Alternatively you may prefer to load Tasword from CP/M in which case you can specify the text file you wish to be loaded ready for editing by: A>tasword filename or A>tasword b:filename Whether you load a file directly with Tasword, or just load the program by itself, you are taken directly into edit mode. By pressing the EXIT key you are returned to the Main Menu screen where you may select the Print/File/Drive & User/Spell Check options. At the foot of the Main Menu screen Tasword displays the pertinent data relating to the file currently in memory. This shows you the size of the file in Words, Lines and Characters plus the amount of free memory available and the selected drive/user. Here lies your word count facility, in full. The 'Save Tasword' and 'Customise Program' options are also available from this screen. When customising Tasword you are able to define : Page Layout; Normal and Extra Character Set Print Characters (Transliteration); Printer Control Characters and Initialisation Sequence. To adapt Tasword itself select : Change Tasword Program. This choice concerns the cursor shape, keyboard language type, alternate video and the like. Once these options have been selected you may save Tasword onto disk. Now you have your customised working copy of Tasword 8000. EDITING TEXT Jumping around in a text file is reasonably fast - six seconds to go from top to bottom of a 26K file, about 4 seconds to return - but the FIND and REPLACE option is very slow. Unfortunately Tasword doesn't make use of the extra PCW keys like DOC/PAGE, FIND/EXCH, LINE/EOL etc. It makes use of CUT, COPY and PASTE, but these only work on defined blocks of text. On the whole there are more than enough cursor movement and text manipulation commands but these will have to be learnt because they use a combination of either ALT, SHIFT or EXTRA and a letter, keypress. For example, to delete a word you press SHIFT and the DELETE key. To quickly change Capital letters to lower case press ALT and F or ALT and G to change lower case to Caitals. Transposing letters, one of the most common typing errors, is catered for as well. These options are unavailable with LocoScript 2. To help you until these key combinations are learnt there is a comprehensive on screen Help panel which you may scroll or, by pressing STOP, the whole screen is filled with it. This Help page may be edited and saved to suit your own requirements. Any other features? Well, Tasword 8000 comes with two alternative fonts, Lectura and Median with a further six fonts available seperately on the Tasprint 8000 disk. Tasprint fonts may be changed at will, even within a line. Text files on disk may also be chained - that is instructions within one file may specify further files to be printed and, when finished, control is returned to the original document. Tasword uses a unique system of 'notepads' which, although they are stored along with the document being edited, are quite independent. You may transfer text to and fro between the document in memory and the notepad, but the text in the notepad isn't printed. You may define twenty keys to each hold up to 250 characters. These key definitions are saved along with Tasword, and when Tasword is subsequently loaded they are available for use. Tasword comes with a basic built in 'Data Merge' program which can handle Conditional Printing and Labels as well as the usual merging of a text file with your database files. Alternatively you may specify to be prompted for the details at the keyboard. CONCLUSION Tasword can not be adequately described in a short review such as this. I have been able to give a taste of what is available. The features available are very welcome however it is not dedicated to the PCW and its printer to the same extent as LocoScript. If you are thinking of buying new word processing software you may feel that a basic word processor such as Tasword, with its built in word count and mail merge are attractive. The availability of a spelling checker and aditional fonts, should you wish to 'bolt on' further enhancements, may also be important. If you need to depend upon software that is really dedicated to the PCW think twice, otherwise a very good 'all-rounder'.