Excellence! - Amiga Word Processor Review

Excellence!

Micro-Systems Software

1987-1993

$299,$199.95,$99.95

*My video review for Excellence!

*I've also reviewed WordPerfect on the Amiga
*Download review in Excellence and ASCII format
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*This review entirely written using Excellence! v3.1 on my Amiga 500

And The Word Was Made Perfect

      Previously I reviewed WordPerfect for the Amiga. Through a lens of history, it marks a worthy footnote in terms of that machine. It was the only cross platform word processor ever developed for the system. When reading a review of the program in the American magazine Amiga World, it was praised to no end. Biblical artwork adorned their pages with the quite bombastic heading of "And the Word was Made Perfect". I contrasted their thoughts with my own review. They never mentioned or critiqued how the program was largely a straight port. It worked in a shell type of interface on top of Workbench, having no real graphical user interface. Most features were intended to be used via keyboard, even if there were clumsy pull down menus for use with the mouse. You could only use the default system font with your documents, it featured a poor spelling dictionary, offered no kind of clipboard to multi-task with other Amiga programs, and even had minor issues with its main selling point of bringing documents to and from other systems. It was far from perfect in my eyes, even if it was a very competent program. It just did not take advantage of the Amiga's hardware. When WordPerfect was later released for Microsoft Windows in another straight port from DOS, the magazines were nowhere near as kind as Amiga World.

^Various menus

      My how the simple passing of time can change our once strongly held beliefs. With the release of other Amiga based word processors, even Amiga World would come to distance themselves from their remarks on WordPerfect. The first version of Excellence! entered into the picture not long after WordPerfect. While not perfect itself, I can easily say it is far more deserving of the very near sighted headline of "... the Word was Made Perfect."

Excellent...

      The original release of Excellence! was not too dissimilar to this final version I'm coming to you from.  Version 1.11 offered PostScript printer support, up to eight print and display colors, automatic index and table of contents generation, IFF graphic support, a 70,000 word thesaurus, 90,000 word spell checker, and a 300 page manual. Not that you'll be requiring that manual, as the program was very intuitive from the start. If you're used to any modern day word processor, you'll have little difficulties picking your way through this. It's when thinking of the time period where the features become truly impressive.

^Spell check, thesaurus, summery

                It was not the first Amiga word processor with the page view and ruler look. The first ever Amiga word processor holds that title, Textcraft. But before that the Apple Macintosh had the "look" taken care of. What we have here is everything the non GUI based processors tried to say that you couldn't have with graphics, now presented in a package with those graphics. Excellence had most of the robust features of WordPerfect, but it gave it to you in a way that made it clear Amiga users need not look for hand outs from DOS. The original Excellence came with a 1mb or 512k program file, and even on low end hardware you got the full dictionary. Amiga World summed up their review for version 1.11 by saying "... Excellence is the kind of word processor Textcraft was meant to be and WordPerfect should have been..."

^Different versions

Moving On Up

                With release 2.0 Excellence! got even better. It was more stable, featured faster scrolling, and the text speed kept up no matter how fast you typed. Landscape orientation was added to printer options, as well as support for virtual memory. This allowed documents to be as large as 976 pages. The dictionary has been added on quite significantly, now at 140,000 words. Gone now is the 512k version, the added features now require a 1mb RAM system. Amiga World's final thoughts on version 2.0 noted that other word processors may have performed certain tasks (like graphics) better, but "If the ability to handle and manipulate words is your main concern... I recommend Excellence! 2.0 above the others." They noted how well it compared to non graphical word processors by saying "It is the only graphics-oriented package that comes close to the powerful but annoying WordPerfect in terms of text handling."

                3.0 would see the look of the programs interface change to a Workbench 2.0 look, while still retaining 1.3 compatibility. Layers of backup were added in the form of timed saves. If ever needing to find yourself back at an important part of your document, you may now use the included bookmark feature for your traveling needs. Gone are any annoyances caused by being frozen out of your document when a file requester was open, you may now check your spelling while scrolling or typing away. In its final review for an Excellence! release, Amiga World said it "...does just about everything you might want or expect in a word processor...", even starting off the review by saying it finally lives up to its name.

^Yummy cake picture

You May Have Your Cake, Eat It Too

                Unquestionably this is my favorite Amiga word processor, and I've experienced no shortage of them throughout my years. I can recall the very first one in Textcraft, I remember making pals with PenPal, went pro with ProWrite, taking my final dance with Final Copy. I even dived head on for my review of WordPerfect, but I keep coming back to Excellence!

                Some may wonder just why there would be any need to seek out a dedicated word processor on the Amiga. There have been several recent articles describing how certain people have never left their old computers for their writing. They know what they want and they don't want to over complicate things or have modern processors tell them what they meant to write. Excellence! does have the capability to help you along the way, but it defaults to telling you nothing. It is possibly a perfect compromise when it comes to the modern processors getting in the way, and the George R.R. Martin DOS processors that give you nothing. Write your heart out with a pleasant page view. Enjoy the art of writing, but have at your disposal many of the great features modern processors can give you. Have your cake and eat it too.                ^My original disks for version 1.12

               You could very much write your next (or first) novel with this program, but that's not the angle I'm going for with this review. Anyone who uses the Amiga today via emulation or the real thing, they have a reason to seek out a word processor. While the Amiga was a champion when it came to graphical user interfaces, at one point or another anyone using this machine is going to find a need to enter into the command line. Some commands can be quite obtuse, write them down in a handy how-to document and save it for later use. There truly are reasons for any Amiga user to pick up a word processor. I'd recommend you install several as a matter of fact, but if you can only be bothered with one... I can sincerely recommend Excellence! above all others.

^High resolution

Great Computers Are Made Of More Than Games

                While I don't expect too many to be wanting to write entire reviews here since it's easier to do on a modern computer, I'd be lying if I didn't try and convey to you just how much fun I'm having right now. Just try the vocalization command, I dare you to not have fun when your documents are read out to you using the Amiga's built in speech synthesis. The Amiga is a computer, it's not a console. While games tend to stand the test of time longer than software which is easily updated, you are doing yourself a grave disservice by not recognizing the power in this machine many claim they love.

                I can tell you I've had a lot of fun writing this review. It's by no means the first time I've written a document using this program. I've been doing it since I was a kid. It was a vital tool to me then, it is vital to me now. There are processors which gave you a tiny bit more, Final Copy II comes to mind. But I'm writing this to you coming from a classic Amiga 500 on good old Workbench 1.3, with the only upgrades featured in the form of an added hard drive and extra RAM. While my machine can run some of those programs, I can't say it runs them very smooth. While Excellence! may have a hiccup here and there (don't hold down the backspace key for long), for the most part I feel it's lightning fast.

                The features are numerous. For this review I'd say I've been using the extensive spell checker more than anything else. That's always been my number one problem when it came to older word processors. They don't tend to feature the robust dictionary this poor speller requires. If I feel it's as good as newer versions of Microsoft Word when it comes to spelling, then this thing is something special. This man needs his spell check, Excellence! does not disappoint me.

^NTSC med res, PAL med res, and high resolution modes

                I've written most of this in NTSC medium resolution mode (640x200), as that's the default on my setup. The fonts just feel like they were designed for this mode. Excellence! is fully up to the task of going into NTSC high resolution (640x400), and my European friends will be happy to know this program also supports the greater resolutions PAL offers. PAL medium resolution (640x256) and PAL high resolution (640x456) will both offer you just that little bit more in terms of seeing your document.

                Fonts on the Amiga are setup in much the same manner as Windows treats them. Should the program in question offer the support, all fonts available to Workbench are available to Excellence! From simply installing various games and software on my hard drive I've amassed a sizable collection of fonts. If you're not happy with the fonts at hand, find yourself a fonts collection disk. Just throw the fonts into the Workbench fonts directory and they will be at your disposal in Excellence!

^Fonts, print preview, page and printer setup

                In another nod to the Amiga's immense capabilities, Excellence! cooperates with the Amiga's clipboard. As long as other programs in question do the same, Excellence! can copy and paste into and from other Amiga programs. It seems to be limited to single paragraphs from my experience, but it may come in useful for some multi-tasking. Several documents can be opened at one time within Excellence! itself, and you may copy and paste entire documents complete with formatting inside of the program.

^Saving in ASCII for file transfer to modern PC

                Transfer from the Amiga to modern systems (and vice-versa) is a simple matter of saving in the ASCII standard. It's not a perfect solution if you're looking to preserve everything exactly how you wrote it, but I can't imagine it's not good enough for most people. Breaks and tabs will make the transition, but any special formatting like fonts, bold, italics, and underlines will not. If you're really wanting that look to make the leap, you can always write down the fonts you used, their sizes, and bold etc. the words that you need. WordPerfect is the only Amiga word processor I've used that offers formatting transfers. That program is not even perfect when it comes to that, and in the end if you're just going to be copy and pasting it on the web (like I am) then formatting would never make the trip anyway. Save your document in ASCII and transfer it over to your modern system. Open it up in any decent word processor and you'll get the essentials. You may also save anything you want on your modern system in ASCII and send it over to the Amiga for viewing in Excellence!

                As Amiga World said, Excellence! is probably the best word processor for the Amiga if you are dealing with words. Others might be better in single areas like graphics, but through and through this is the best overall. I use several word processors on my Amiga, I plan on installing several more, but so far this has been my go to and I don't foresee that changing. It is a wonderful word processor. It is a wonderful piece of Amiga software. It is also an example of the many great Amiga programs being designed in America. These days that truth is being lost. The last version of this program came out in 1993, a year before Commodore filed for bankruptcy. It was a program that took advantage of the Amiga from 1987 onward. Even if you don't see a need to have an Amiga word processor yourself, I hope you agree that Excellence! is at the very least, a program worth remembering.

                I hope those reading will take a look at my video review for Excellence! There you'll see me point out more of its various features, and even take a step backward in time to show you version 2.0 and 1.12, which is what I used back in the day. If you're wanting to dive into more Amiga word processors, I've already covered WordPerfect in the form of a written review and video.

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And The Word Was Made Excellent!

Fin