SCOUG OS/2 For You - June 1995

Clearlook 1.1 - A Review

by Tony Butka

Before commencing this review, I must confess to a bias. I've always (somewhat nostalgically) wanted a word processor that worked like the old WordStar, where the default mode is non-document/ASCII, and at the same time you have the choice of going to full featured word processing if you want. I just hate the import facility in Word and WordPerfect which does not properly format ASCII files.

For me, the wait is over, and it came with a neat OS/2 full bore application called Clearlook. Fast, small, and it does just what I wanted - defaults to ASCII or Clearlook's own format, although you can import/export to other formats if you would rather. But, more on that later.

Anyhow, I can finally get rid of the system editor and the enhanced editor, and simply use my new word processor to mess with config and cmd files, as well as mucking around with those massive downloads from CompuServe, the Internet, and our own BBS.

At the March user group meeting, Clearlook's president, John McCarron, was kind enough to demonstrate this program. He was using a brand new beta which did some unusual things with the shape of the mouse cursor periodically. Other than that, the demonstration went splendidly, or at least well enough that I bought version 1.1 on the spot.

Installation is a breeze: the software comes on two high density floppy disks, and a simple "a:install" does the rest. The whole installation takes up less than 4 Mb of disk space, including sample files.

The Design is Cellular

The tutorial is, by and large, complete and succinct. The basics are covered in about 19 pages and three chapters (simple, sophisticated, and full featured documents) with plenty of icons & clear space. The only concept I found at all tricky was the section on how to manipulate cells (e.g.- create a table, in this case). I am such an unthinking slave to the DOS/Windows way of doing things that it took a second look at the manual to turn on the 'area' command (block, if you're used to spreadsheets) and do the resizing for a group of cells.

In fact, the cellular commands reminded me for the first time that this word processor is somewhere between a word processor and a 'spreadsheet' text editor. I think if you intellectually accept the idea that text and numbers are all the same "stuff," just manipulated differently, then Clearlook suddenly starts making eminent sense. At least for me.

Visually, WYSIWYG is redefined. With a couple of clicks, your page is displayed (including graphics and margins) properly centered on the screen. All of the formatting stuff and graphics are also displayed at the percentage size. I know the concept is not new, but compared to the relatively slow and clunky (and not always what you see is what you get) display from WordPerfect and Microsoft Word, this is neat. Also, the best thing is that it's fast! On a 486/66 there is no perceptible 'lag' time, at least with the relatively short documents I have been working with.

Someone on CompuServe was making an observation the other day to the effect that a person's "impression" of fast has mostly to do with how quickly the keyboard and screen seem to respond. True, true. Here Clearlook scores big.

Clearlook exploits OS/2's multi-threading capabilities.

Regarding the supported formats, Clearlook is working to add more and more. The word processor itself defaults to either Clearlook's own '.ctx' format, or ASCII. You then can either import or export to WordPerfect 5x format. Or, if you use a '.wp' extension, you can use a WordPerfect 5 document.

In version 1.1, my WordPerfect files worked fairly well, except for some graphics and some macros. The new beta version 1.5 (available free as a download to registered owners) adds support for WordPerfect 6, as well as better handling of WordPerfect 5x documents with complicated formatting. I am told that Microsoft Word is high on the list of formats to be added, and they are looking at DeScribe's format as well.

In my case, I was able to use WordPerfect for Windows 6.1's integration tools to create a WP Docs folder. Then, from that folder I could directly use drag and drop to open a WP document in Clearlook. The only things that do not seem to import are the graphics (I assume because Clearlook currently supports BMP only) and fancy memo templates.

The 1.5 beta is a beta, of course. I was able to lock up the system by trying to drag & drop a WPWin 6 file with a large (1.2 Mb) EPS graphic into Clearlook. Using Clearlook's import feature will avoid this kind of problem. The beta does fix one of my major peeves with Version 1.1 - you couldn't use the numeric keypad to insert numbers, and most touch typists find this simply unacceptable. Another area to improve would be graphics support - in this day and age BMP without automatic conversion is just not going to make it.

On balance I like this word processor very much. It is not a full blown close to desktop publishing package like DeScribe or WordPerfect. It is a small and fast word processor for 80% of most of our real world needs. I did not compare Clearlook to DeScribe because I do not own Describe. Their purchase-upgrade policies turned me off, frankly, so I did not buy it. Perhaps another member could do such a comparison.

If you are interested...

Clearlook is from the Clearlook Corporation, PO Box 11219, Burke, VA 22009, phone (713) 425-1163. It is available from Indelible Blue for $149.

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