ST Writer Manual

[Ripdubski]

Was there a manual for Atari's ST Writer? Is the manual digitized somewhere?

 

It was free software from Atari. Since it was free, did it have retail packaging? What was the official distribution? I recall getting it back when I had my ST, but don't remember how. Probably through trades because I don't remember having an Atari branded disk for it.

 

Thx

Wade

[Zogging Hell]

ST Writer was a straight up conversion of the Atari 8bits Atari Writer as far as I know (with some GEM embelishments), it was released originally with early STs to provide a stop gap until GEM Write arrived (which it didn't) then was replaced with 1st Word as the pack in. As such some of the Atari Writer commands should work. I think later versions of ST Writer were a bit more GEM friendly though (iirc). I don't recall seeing any retail packaging, it probably came on an Atari labelled disk with the ST somehow. It then went into PD libraries, where it would only have the particular PD libraries branding on the disk.

[Fletch]

You can download ST Writer from a pubic domain disk archive that I uploaded a while back.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/241169-public-domain-disks-archive/?do=findComment&comment=3290888

[Kylev]

Ripdubski,

 

I only have ST Write Elite in my current disk image collection, but the manual for this word processor is included on the disk in the form of an ST Writer text file. It contains a full length tutorial on the commands to use the program.

[Ripdubski]

I have several versions including 3 of the Elite ones: 3.00, 4.00, and 4.8. I was more interested in the "how" it was distributed originally, and seeing that original distribution. From the documentation it appears it may have been a download from Atari BBS. If it was only digital, then the point it mute. If anyone sees or has any physical distribution media or manuals I'd like to see them scanned.

 

Thanks for the replies.

[atarian1]

STart magazine used to include it in the magazine disk that came with every issue. I believe there were small articles in the magazine itself when a major new revision was released. Time to check out the STart magazine archive.

 

I used it a lot back then because it was fast. Faster than any GEM based word processor or document processor. Unfortunately, the GDOS font system was so slow that it crippled otherwise great word processors. That made it unbearable to me. I used AtariWriter as my main word processor on my Atari 800 before I upgraded to the ST and being able to get the cursor to different parts of the document quickly was my favorite feature about it. It wasn't until 1991-92 when Papyrus coupled with NVDI and SpeedoGDOS was released that I finally retired ST Writer as my main word processor.

 

ST Writer Elite evolved into MultiWriter Elite and was sold by the Medical Designs Software. The owner was Dr. Bruce Noonan who upgraded ST Writer through its many upgrades, It would be interesting to know how he got Atari to let him upgrade the program to sell it on his own.

Edited October 28, 2015 by atarian1

[Ripdubski]

STart magazine used to include it in the magazine disk that came with every issue. I believe there were small articles in the magazine itself when a major new revision was released. Time to check out the STart magazine archive.

 

I used it a lot back then because it was fast. Faster than any GEM based word processor or document processor. Unfortunately, the GDOS font system was so slow that it crippled otherwise great word processors. That made it unbearable to me. I used AtariWriter as my main word processor on my Atari 800 before I upgraded to the ST and being able to get the cursor to different parts of the document quickly was my favorite feature about it. It wasn't until 1991-92 when Papyrus coupled with NVDI and SpeedoGDOS was released that I finally retired ST Writer as my main word processor.

 

ST Writer Elite evolved into MultiWriter Elite and was sold by the Medical Designs Software. The owner was Dr. Bruce Noonan who upgraded ST Writer through its many upgrades, It would be interesting to know how he got Atari to let him upgrade the program to sell it on his own.

 

Thanks! It's interesting to me to see how people move between software products and their thoughts about them.

 

The original STWriter shipped with bugs. Atari didn't want to fix anything because it was "complete" and "free". From what I can tell, Bruce asked to look at the source to fix the bugs and the rest is history.

[STuck]

I used ST Writer Elite for my GCSEs. I still think it's one of the best word processors of all time