Publish It Yourself (PageStream 4.1)

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Product:	PageStream 4.1
Date:	31/01/02 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Powerful and easy to use DTP software

Disadvantages: None really

When I joined the 21st century just over a year ago I missed not having a DTP package on the PC and considered the options available to me. QuarkXpress was out of my reach financially and even Adobe PageMaker, at nigh on four hundred quid, was far too expensive for my needs. Then I discovered that PageStream that I use on the Amiga had been ported over to the PC at a price that was more within my range.

PageStream made by Soft Logik first put in an appearance in the early nineties on the Amiga platform and promptly wiped the floor with its competitors on that platform. Virtually on a par with Adobe’s PageMaker 4.5 on the Mac, it served the Amiga community well although the upgrade to version 3 was a bit of a disaster, as it needed many revisions (up to rev j) before it was stable enough for use. After a three years absence Soft Logik, now called Grasshopper LLC, came up with PageStream 4 now at 4.1 not just for the Amiga platform but also for the Apple Macs and Windows. Available from www.grasshopperllc.com. at $299 or from http://www.pagestream.de/ at €349 + €10 p&p (about £220) PageStream has a few features not even incorporated in QuarkXpress, the industry standard and is in English, German and Dutch. Just a small aside. How did I get the € sign on my machine running Windows ME that is well over 12 months old? Try AltGr and $.

Much cheaper than the current competition, PageStream is an excellent DTP package for domestic and professional use alike and fully capable of producing what is needed from a DTP package.

Four days after placing my order with http://www.haage-partner.com/ the parcel arrived and as is usual these days the box containing the software is far too big but the package contained the CD and a hard copy manual of some 220 pages, although this was for PageStream 3. Also included was a card that contained the Serial Number and a letter with the Password that are required when first running the program
me. Thoughtfully there are two boxes on the first page of the manual where the user can make a note of these numbers.

As is my way, I curbed my enthusiasm to install PageStream straightaway and made a copy of the CD first, put away the master and used the copy to install the programme. Having forked out £220 I wasn’t taking any chances of a disaster happening to the master CD. I also made a jewel case for my copy that included the Serial Number and Password.

The CD does not have auto install in the classic manner as I had to open the CD and find the appropriate executable file that would install PageStream. On opening the CD I was faced with two folders, AmigaOS Dokumente and PageStream Installation and four files. Two of the files are in German but there is a ReadMe text file and also a digital copy of the manual for version 4.1 in PDF format. The install file entitled SETUP.EXE can be found in the PageStream Install folder. Double click on this and hey presto within a minute or so PageStream was installed. All I had to do was to copy the rather unimaginative icon to my desktop for ready use.

Being very familiar with PageStream from the Amiga it was like meeting an old friend and my first query was, would the documents produced on the Amiga version of PS import into the PC version? We…ee...ll I have to report that indeed they can and that is going to save me an awful lot of work. This implies that a document produced on any platform can be used by other platforms running the same or higher version of PS. Time to get my Amiga to ‘talk’ to my PC and transfer all my PS files.

This is not the place to detail each and every aspect of PageStream, you need to read the manual for that, but it is a first rate Desk Top Publishing package at a price, which is much cheaper than the definitive commercial programmes. Indeed on the Amiga I was able to lay out, publish and print a couple of books that I have written not t
o mention a variety of other projects. I produce my own calendars - you know those long ones where you can write in birth dates and the like. Thus I have the advantage of having the birth dates etc printed on the calendar and do not have to write them in each year.

PS will use whatever fonts you have installed on your system and is a WYSIWYG system. In other words what you see on screen is EXACTLY what is printed out. To aid this I have arranged that the screen display is the actual size of a piece of A4. That is on my 17” screen I have set the display to be 83%.

On running PS the user is faced with the programme window and a smaller window entitled PageStream Navigator, where the user can select to start a New document, Open an existing one or set the Preferences for the documents. The window also displays hints and tips. Clicking on Prefs opens Preferences where the user can set the parameters of a new document and where it will be saved. I have a special folder in my data partition that I have imaginatively named PageStream with sub folders for the various type of documents that I will work with.

Clicking on New, a window opens where you can set the parameters of the document to use. Portrait is by default and the paper size can be set to any one of 20 sizes- plus custom. Margins too can be set in here as can the number of columns and the gutter. Landscape documents can also be set as can Double-sided. The New document can also be named at this stage although this can be done when saving it for the first time. Whatever settings are made, clicking on ‘Remember’ will ensure that the set parameters are used each time a New document is opened.

Now we get to the page proper with rows of tiny black grid dots and the margins in cyan, a ruler across the top and down the left side. As is usual with most programmes there is a set of menus across the top and underneath just above the ruler is the Toolbar. Down the left s
ide and overlaying part of the ruler is the Toolbox although it can be dragged to any part of the screen. Right at the bottom left is the Custom Palette the contents of which change with the tool in use. This too can be dragged to any position on the screen and it would be prudent to move it up a bit so that you can get at the Zoom In and Out buttons, the button to adjust the screen page size display and the forward and backward arrows.

One thing that I noticed, that unlike in other PC programmes like Word etc. when you rest the pointer over an icon a tiny box comes up stating what the icon is for. This does not happen on PageStream. Not really a downside as the icons are standard and some will be ghosted until you can use that particular facility. For instance the copy icon will not become clear until you have text to copy or an object has been selected. Also the Right Mouse Button is not functional on PageStream, which some people will find a bit of a handicap, although the scroll wheel works. Another aspect that is different to the run of the mill Windows applications is that hitting return whilst in one of the many small windows that appear will not be the same as clicking the OK button. You have to click on OK.

When PageStream opens a ‘New’ document it also opens unlimited pages but these do not come into play until required. That is until you actually put something on them. I got to 500 pages before I got fed up trying to find the limit. I doubt if there is one. No memory is used until a page has something on it. The pages are just there.

The grid dots can be set to any spacing that you choose and objects and text boxes can be ‘snapped’, or not, to any of the grid dots. This enables easy lining up of objects.

So what’s all this about objects and text boxes? PageStream handles text in two different ways. You can create a text box by accessing Menu/Layout/Create Text Frames and import or type in t
ext and in effect use it as a word processor. If you alter the size of the text box the text will auto justify. If there is more text than the box can hold a small plus mark in a square appears just below the bottom right-hand corner of the text box. To see all the text you just grab an ear and increase the size of the box. Text can be arranged to ‘flow’ from one text box to another in any order that you choose be it all on the same page or on different pages. You just have to show the programme the path that you want the text to take. A text box can also be created by clicking on the text box icon in the toolbox and click, hold and drag on the page to create whatever size you like. A text box can always be recognised by the fact that there will not be any grid dots in it. The text box is still an object and can be moved around to your heart’s content. However if you select ‘A’ from the toolbox and click the cursor anywhere on the page and type in whatever you want, it then becomes a real ‘object’ and as such, if you alter the size of the ‘text box object’ the text will also alter in size. Thus you could type in your name, select the Arrow from the Toolbox and elongate the object downwards, upwards or sideways and the text would be stretched accordingly. Objects can be rotated, slanted and twisted in increments of at least 0.1 degrees as well as flipped vertically and horizontally. As you would expect from a DTP package text can be manipulated for its ‘kerning’ and ‘leading’. Don’t ask unless you want to read another 1,000 words.

An object, apart from a text object, is a drawing, be it just a straight line to a shape or an imported picture. Thus if you draw a circle you can shrink or enlarge it PERFECTLY and there will be no “jaggies” as although PS displays on screen in bitmap (pixels) and you may see ‘jaggies’, the printed version will be a smooth a
s a baby’s bum. All objects can be manipulated in a variety of ways and can be grouped together or locked into place.

Just a final word about the manual - it is well laid out, clear and jargon free with a couple of tutorials to help the newcomer get started. I may even read it one day.

There is no end to what PageStream can be used for and once registered, owners can expect updates from the web site at http://www.haage-partner.com/ as they happen and support when they need it for FREE.

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