Re: more power, more speed

[Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- FS -dot- COM -dot- AU>]

I started here with Word 6 on a 386 DX/20 and a 14" VGA screen.
Entering text was tolerable but layout and production was impossible.
Unfortunately I had to do it anyway as there was no alternative.

Speed: in Word you have to do a lot of the finishing off in Page Layout
view. It took 15-20 minutes for Word to switch from Normal view. You
have some control over repagination, but frequently you make a change
that forces Word to repaginate. Coffee time. Other nightmarish tasks
included generating indexes and TOCs and repositioning graphics.

Usability: even with a heavily customised screen (merged toolbars, all
non-essential screen clutter switched off) it was not possible to make
the display both easy to read and show a useful portion of the page. I
chose to squint, because with a slow machine you _don't_ want to do
any scrolling that can be avoided.

After a particularly frustrating debacle, the boss took pity and had my
PC upgraded to 486 DX2/66, 8 MB RAM. This made a world of difference. I
wasn't counting, but it must have saved me literally three or four hours
a day. Not that I was idle during those pagination fugues, but it's hard
to find coherent 10 - 15 minute jobs to switch to at a moment's notice.

Unfortunately, even though my PC was transformed from a nag into a grey-
hound, it didn't change the fact that the jockey (i.e. Word) was still
a pig. And it still had a bum monitor.

Now: we are ditching Word in favour of Frame. We tried hard to make Word
work under Wabi so I could use my nice Sun 17" display, and gave up.
Word is not up to our needs, and under Wabi it _eats_ memory.

I'm taking the 486 home to replace my 386/40. The 486 will be transformed
into 'Princess Mombi' with the arrival of a second-hand 17" monitor. Now
the only thing holding me up will be my slow brain, and not equipment.
If Frame is sluggish I will go for another 8 MB, but I'm told this
probably won't be necessary.

Benefits: I can work efficiently both at home and at the office.
I can have both my document and the software I'm writing up on the
same screen at once. In fact all my tools are available from one
display, so I can insert screen captures and cut-and-paste text with
ease. I can work normal days, see the family, I smile more...

If this doesn't impress your accountants, time your most common and
annoying tasks, and make the point that they are only getting seven
hours (or whatever) work from your eight hour day.

Good luck.
---
Stuart Burnfield (slb -at- fs -dot- com -dot- au)        Voice: +61 9 328 8288
Functional Software                     Fax:   +61 9 328 8616
PO Box 192
Leederville, Western Australia, 6903