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AND NOW THE BAD NEWS. . .
Currently there are no import filters from Adobe for placing any Office 98 component files into PageMaker 6.5. In order to place a Word 98 file, it is necessary to save it from Word 98 in Word 5.1 a forrnat, and then open it in Word 5.1 a and save it again. This second step is essential, otherwise PageMaker will crash. The Word 98 saved as Word 5.1 file format DOES Not WORK!
While Word 98 has dozens of really cool features-among them the best editorial tools for serious writers of any word processor-one still has to ask "Do I want to give up 55mb of hard disk space (which the most stripped down version occupies) for a word processor?
Word 98 has a "Drag and Drop" installer which will not necessarily place all the components you need on your computer. Visual Basic, the Macro creating and editing application is typically not installed. Despite all the hype surrounding this feature, it is wise to use the Installer, performing a custom install as necessary. If you have a previous version of Word on your hard disk DO NOT allow the Installer to remove it-you will need it! Especially to import files into page layout programs.
The Installer will find your currently installed version of Word and pick up its serial number and incorporate it into your new Product ID number. There are basically three numbers to keep tack of: the CD Key number which is located on the yellow sticker on the CD case, the Product ID number (which the installer will prompt you to write down the first time you install-but not later) and your previous version of Word serial number. If you are a first time Word user, this last number is not something you need to worry about. But if you are upgrading, your Word 5.1a or Word 6.01 serial number is still your serial number. If, for whatever reason, you need to reformat your hard disk or reinstall Word 98, you will receive a second Product ID Number. And if the previous version of Word (5 or 6) is not on your hard disk at the time, you will not link into its serial number (I'm not sure what will happen then, possibly it will ask for that serial number-which you have written down somewhere, right?).
You receive a registration card with Word 98, but in very bold print it will tell you that you do not need to send it in because you can register by modem during the installation process. Apparently this is only if you are a new user. If you are upgrading there is no prompt for on-line registration. If you go to Microsoft's web site, chances are you will not even discover to link to the registration page. So mail the card in!
The first time you call Microsoft for technical support (and Bill Gates will answer your call personally, but only the first call) they will ask for your Product ID Number. Since the registration card does not ask for it (it doesn't even ask you what product you are registering!), you can simply read the number displayed in About Microsoft Word 98 under the Apple Menu - but make sure you then keep a back-up of this number. If you reinstall and try to get tech support again, you will have a new number and they will not find you in the data base. This process of receiving a new Product ID Number each time you reinstall is rather lame. It arises because the first thing the Installer does is trash all previous pieces of Word 98 including the prefs file where your previous ID number is stored. And if there are no longer any previous versions of Word on your hard disk (see above) then you will find yourself doing a first time user install, and will be prompted for a serial number.
ATM Deluxe 4 allows font sets to be opened/closed from within an open application and most applications will update their menus immediately. Not Word 98. One needs to quit the application and relaunch before the menus update.
Word 98 still uses Microsoft's unique implementation of the Font Menu. In other words, forget any font utility that adheres to the Macintosh guidelines. Products such as Adobe Type Reunion, Now Utilities WYSIWYG Menu and Super Fontina (which I use) will conflict with Word 98. Since Word 98 has its own WYSIWYG font menu, you might ask why use a third party utility? Well you might want to have your fonts grouped by family rather than non descriptive font names, or-like myself-you might want to use Super Fontina, which will take those hundreds of fonts you use for desk top publishing and display them in multiple columns rather than one endlessly scrolling list (it also groups them by family and has options to display the font's name in its own face or display the whole character set of the selected font). What happens if you try to use these font utilities with Word 98?
Well in the case of Super Fontina, Word will not allow you to create or edit macros from the Tools menu nor change the toolbars from the View menu. The latter can still be done through the Customize menu option, but macros cannot be created or edited at all. Also, selecting a font from the WYSIWYG menu does not necessarily give you that font. Even with the WYSIWYG menu shut off in the options dialog, font selection becomes a guessing game.
As to the problems with Adobe Type Reunion, let me quote from Joe Clark's Word 98 Bugs page.
Might be a good idea to BOOKMARK Joe Clark's Word 98 Bugs page too...
1. Attempting to pull down the menu bar's Font menu does nothing other than highlight the word Font. The menu works with no problems whatsoever only with a new empty document.
2. Pressing down on the Font pop-up in the Formatting toolbar causes a spurious window to appear somewhere else on the screen showing Type Reunion's font groups, but you can't follow those menus to get to the font you want; the individual font names do not appear. That happens if you've torn off the toolbar and are using it as a floating palette. If the toolbar is docked, either the same thing happens or Type Reunion's groups appear in the right place, though you still cannot follow the paths to any fonts (which again simply do not appear).
3. The Font field in the Character Formats dialogue box presents a scrolling list, not a pop-up menu, so Type Reunion is bypassed. We install Type Reunion for a reason, and it's to avoid dealing with an overly long list of hard-to-parse typeface names. Here, though, attempting to type a font's name does not trigger an auto complete function; you have to keep typing until you've entered an unambiguous stream of characters, which, in the case of something like TheSansMonoCon-4i SemiLightItalic, is rather a lot of characters to type."
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