The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Ventura Publisher Windows Edition Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au

VPWIN is a desktop publishing (DTP) package that is aimed at professional users. I haven't used its competitor Pagemaker since version 1.0 and am satisfied to hear from professional reviewers that Ventura Publisher is the better product for many situations, particularly technical publishing. (If anyone feels inclined to defend another product, please do so - I will try to get you a review copy if you need one). It also suits brochures, flyers, forms, newsletters or databases. 

You need at least an 80286 machine with 2 MB or more total memory, a hard disk, mouse, DOS 3.1 and Windows 3.0 or higher. The program will not run with less memory (I tried it on an 80286 with 1 MB memory).

What's New? 

If you know earlier Ventura products, the Professional Extension and Network Server are now part of both VPWIN and VPGEM 3.0. With VPWIN you benefit from the features of Windows itself, such as the print spooler, clipboard, task switching etc. 

Some people might wonder why a product such as VPWIN is necessary, when many modern word processors appear to produce similar output. It is a fair comment, but many subtle features are not noticed by a reader. For example, the cross-referencing feature enables the user to make references to figure numbers and not worry if one figure is later deleted - the rest are renumbered automatically. Figures can be "anchored" to words so that they do not stray from the reference if text is added or deleted. Scientific documents can use equations that are difficult to create with many word processors. Columnar material, such as tables, are easier to handle with a DTP package. Vertical justification enables you to have the last line on a page touch the bottom of the page, and insert requisite spaces between every line. This feature avoids white space at the bottom of some pages, but it should be used with care. The ability to control the size, colour, shade and spacing of text is also not available in many word processors.

Operation 

The principle of operation is as follows. Text is prepared using one of many popular word processors in their native formats (but not Word for Windows) or in ASCII format. Graphics are prepared using a drawing or painting package or scanner and saved in any common format. A style sheet is constructed to define each text element, be it a paragraph heading, bulleted list, body text etc. All typographic niceties are provided, so anyone with a three-day wonder course on DTP can run riot with kerning, leading and all those buzzwords (to an amateur publisher). I say that with tongue in cheek because I have seen too many typographical disasters ever since nonpublishing staff had access to DTP technology. I freely admit to producing some disasters too in my earlier efforts. 

The style sheet is broken down into "tags" that can be given suitable names. For example, a tag for a paragraph heading might be called @HEADPARA. Every tag is carefully sculpted for typographics, such as its size, face style, distance from next line etc (I am trying to avoid buzzwords). The document is then brought into the workspace. With the aid of a mouse, words or entire paragraphs are "selected" and then a tag is "applied". This changes the on-screen appearance of the text to something resembling the final printed output, which is known as What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG). In practice, several files are created for you, and are managed by a "Chapter" Me that tells the software where the component files are located. VPWIN goes far beyond the simple example given above, as most low-end DYP programs can do that. 

It excels at tasks such as automatic table-of-contents and index generation; numeric sequencing of chapters, figures etc; linking pictures to specific words, etc.

Look and Feel

VPWIN looks like a typical Windows program, but will be recognisable to former VPGEM users. Many of the commands are located in "new" locations but they are all there. Screen and printer-related matters are handled by Windows, so the manual is suitably sparse in those areas. A VPGEM 2.0 user will be able to run this program without reference to the fine, rewritten manual. My mild criticism of the manual is that I wasn't able to find the reference to the mouse feature that lets you scroll down the screen just as GEM users can with the help of the Soft Kicker by Aristocad. This only seems to work while making frames or while marling a block of text if you drag a frame border or mark a block of text outside the screen, the page moves. I suspect that this "feature" isn't mentioned because it is very slow on my 33 MHz machine. Another pleasant surprise is that the VPWIN comes on just two 1.2 MB 5.25" disks and three 720 kB 3.5" disks (A similar number of disks containing Bitstream fonts is also enclosed). 

Speed

Speed? On my 33 MHz machine VPWIN runs faster than VPGEM does on the club's 16 MHz unit. Read on to appreciate this apparently illogical comparison. I did not feel inclined to install the club's VPGEM 15 disks on my PC to run a comparative speed test because I can believe that the GEM version will be faster where graphics are concerned. The point is (as I remarked to Charles Wright for his Green Guide column) that one turns off pictures while scrolling around, anyway. I have produced several pages with heavy graphic content and did not find speed to be a problem. A serious DTP operator should be running a fast machine, and should consider the time taken to switch to other applications, if that is applicable. A larger DTP shop using division of labour will probably opt for VPGEM, but the one-person band will like the Windows version.

What Problems?

I heard a few horror stories from Stateside users when beta copies of VPWIN first leaked out. The worst one was that the Windows version was at least 10 times slower than VPGEM. or that a document prepared with VPWIN could not be read by VPGEM. When I first tried VPWIN on the club's 386 (Phoenix BIOS) I had a few crashes too and I was having grave misgivings about this program. At Comdex I took time to visit the Ventura folks and asked a few questions. When I returned home, I installed it on my own 386 (33 MHz, cache, fast disk, 4MB RAM) and I was amazed at the reliability. To date I have not had a single crash, and I attribute it to my use of a different brand of BIOS (AMI) and a better understanding of Windows 3. I haven't tried every feature to the limit so I would not be surprised to find a crash or two. So if you have dismissed VPWIN as a result of third party comment, I suggest that you reconsider the matter. Your own machine might be more compatible than theirs.

Compatibility

Version 2.0 and 3.0 files are mutually compatible. Files created with versions 1.1 and 1.2 are only upward compatible - their files can be read by versions 2.0 and 3.0 but not vice versa. VPWIN files are also freely interchangeable with VPGEM.

Fonts

The width table information is taken from the file ENVIRON.WID that is available to Windows. Four Bitstream faces (Courier, Dutch, Swiss, and Symbol) and an installation kit are also supplied. Additional soft fonts installed under Windows will be available to VPWIN. I haven't yet seen a way to use the old VP Users Group PostScript screen fonts, so the on-screen appearance of text is not as accurate as in the GEM version. I tried Adobe Type Manager to overcome this, but didn't find any noticeable improvement in small type size clarity.

Documentation

I was rather pleased with the Reference Guide, as I remarked earlier, although the index could have been made more comprehensive. The Training Guide has also been updated, and I have maintained in the past (and still do) that anyone who patiently works through the tutorials will learn most of the basic techniques to use VPWIN. The quick Reference Guide is also useful, particularly to look up the character sets.

Conclusion

The Gold Edition is an amalgamation of previously discrete products, and the Windows version adds the convenience of Microsoft Windows. When used on a fast 80386 machine, VPWIN gives the user the flexibility to switch to a word processor or other tool without leaving a program. Serious DTP operators should upgrade from earlier versions or consider purchasing VPWIN if they are new to the product. 

Review copy kindly supplied by Ventura Software.

Reprinted from the March 1991 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

[About Melbourne PC User Group]