Copyright: Copyright 1992 Lotus WPD


What's New in Ami Pro 3.0

Lotus Ami Pro 3.0 makes power word processing so easy that it is fun. Because the user interface gives you direct control of your document, Ami Pro enables you to do more than you ever thought possible--in less time.

With release 3.0 of Ami Pro, Lotus is once again setting the standard for today's word processors. The design for Ami Pro 3.0 was based on the findings of extensive usability analysis. The result is the best-designed word processor for Windows--a perfect blend of word processing tools and power easily accessible through an intuitive user interface.

With a focus on day-to-day word processing needs, Ami Pro 3.0 adds features, such as Fast Format, Drag & Drop, Envelope printing, SmartMerge, and SmartIcon enhancements, that give you direct access to all of its features and functions. The following are descriptions of some of the new features in Ami Pro 3.0:

Drag & Drop

Fast Format

Enhanced SmartIcons

Right Mouse Button

SmartMerge

Envelope Printing

Label Printing

Automated Style Sheets and Viewer

Document Viewer

Clean Screen

Grammar Checker

Enhanced Macros

QuickStart Tutorial

Context Sensitive Help

Bullets

Table of Authorities

Other Enhancements


Drag and Drop
Drag & Drop

In Ami Pro 3.0, you now have the ability to move text by dragging and dropping it in the desired location. Simply select some text, drag the mouse to the new location, and drop the text. You can Drag & Drop a word, paragraph, cell, row, or column. In addition, you can copy the desired text (anywhere in your document) by holding down the control key while Drag & Drop is activated. And of course, you can still drag and drop frames and wrap text around them, as you could in Ami Pro 2.0.


Fast Format

Fast Format gives you a direct and easy way to extract formatting information assigned to text and apply it to other text in a document. First, format text the way you like it, then select that text and click on the Fast Format SmartIcon. Your mouse pointer changes to the Fast Format arrow. You can apply the extracted formatting information to other text with a stroke of the mouse. It is that easy. With Fast Format you can quickly apply text formats and paragraph styles throughout your document--in main body text, headers/footers, tables, text frames, etc.--with fewer keystrokes than ever before.


Enhanced SmartIcons

The SmartIcons in Ami Pro 3.0 are even more powerful and easier to use than the SmartIcons in Ami Pro 2.0. First, you can quickly and easily rearrange your SmartIcon set directly on your screen by simply holding down the control key and dragging the mouse to the desired location. Second, you can group similar types of SmartIcons on the screen by inserting blank spacers between groups. Third, you can now create your own custom icons with Ami Pro 3.0's built-in icon editor and then save the icon with a macro for fast and easy customization of your Ami Pro environment. Finally, with Ami Pro 3.0 you can create and save your own custom sets of SmartIcons. These custom sets are easily accessible from the SmartIcons button on the pop-up status bar at the bottom of the screen. In fact, Ami Pro comes with 8 pre-configured SmartIcons sets--Default, Editing, Graphics, Long Documents, Macro Goodies, Proofing, Tables, and Working Together--which you can use in conjunction with your own sets when performing common word processing tasks.


Right Mouse Button
Right Mouse Access to Modify Dialog Boxes

Ami Pro 3.0 has one-click access to dialog boxes which enable you to modify paragraph styles, page layout, and frame layout. For example, all you need to do to change the look of a paragraph style is press the right mouse button while the insertion point is located in text. The Modify Style dialog box displays on the screen. Press the right mouse button when the mouse pointer is any where in the margin of the document, and you have quick access to the Modify Page Layout dialog box. And, for an easy way to modify the look of a frame, press the right mouse button when the mouse pointer is on a selected frame to bring up the Modify Frame Layout dialog box.


SmartMerge Automated Mail Merge
SmartMerge

The Ami Pro 3.0 SmartMerge function will guide you through a successful merge. No more guesswork. Simply select Merge from the File menu, complete steps: 1- Select a data file; 2 - Create a merge file; and 3 - Merge and print.  It really is as easy as 1-2-3. Each time you finish a step, Ami Pro suggests the next step so that you know exactly what to do next. You can painlessly perform a merge with all of the major data file types, including 1-2-3, Paradox, dBase, Excel, DIF, and ASCII. In addition, Ami Pro 3.0 supplies a card file database front-end through which you can create and edit your own merge data files.


Envelope Printing

Have you ever tried to print an envelope from your word processor? Have you always retreated to your typewriter? Not any more! Ami Pro 3.0 makes printing an envelope simple. First, select the address in your letter and click on the Print Envelope SmartIcon . Second, choose the envelope size and the desired return address. Third, Ami Pro prints the envelope. You can even save several return addresses so that you do not have to retype your address every time you want to switch from your home address to your business address. In addition, you can use a merge document to print multiple envelopes.


Label Printing

Ami Pro 3.0 comes with a style sheet for automated Avery label printing. Select the Label style sheet from the File/New dialog box and Ami Pro will prompt you for the type of label you would like to create. Choose from the entire list of Avery label types, or create your own! Then, either merge the desired data from a database, or type the label contents directly onto the label.


Automated Style Sheets
Automated Style Sheets and Viewer

Ami Pro comes with over 55 professionally designed style sheets to make the creation of letters, memos, fax sheets, calendars, and more, quick and easy. Thirty-two of these style sheets are automated; when you open a new document and select one of these style sheets, Ami Pro will prompt you to enter the standard data required for that type of document. For example, in an automated letter style sheet you may be prompted for your name, the recipient's name, company name, title and address, and the salutation. You can easily create your own custom style sheets by entering the desired data into the dialog box and selecting Save As. If you do not wish to be prompted for information, you can choose to turn off the automation by deselecting Run macro while you are in the File/New dialog box. (See the Style Sheet Guide for more information on style sheets and style sheet automation.)

In addition, there is now no guesswork in finding the right style sheet for the document you are trying to create. In Ami Pro 3.0 you can choose to list your style sheets by file name or by the long description name. And if that is not enough for you to determine the right style sheet, you can preview the contents of that style sheet with the style sheet viewer by selecting the Preview check box from the File/New dialog box.


Document Viewer

Do you often search for a certain document and have to open several before finding the right one? Ami Pro 3.0 will now save you time and aggravation by enabling you to preview any document from the Open dialog box. When you select Preview, your document displays with all of its fonts, attributes, colors, graphics and tables in a true WYSIWYG view. Once you have found the file you are looking for, you can scan through the document using the scroll bars, switch to enlarged or full page view, print it, copy text from it, or select OK to open it--all from the Document viewer.


Clean Screen

The Show Clean Screen option on the View menu gives you a quick way to maximize your editing workspace by hiding some or all of the windows controls from the Ami Pro screen. When you choose this option, Ami Pro will remove the title bar, menu, SmartIcons, status bar, and vertical and horizontal scroll bars so that you have the whole screen to view and edit your document. With a clean screen, you can continue to edit your document and access the menu using the ALT-keys on the keyboard. For example, you can press ALT+F to access the File menu. In addition, you can selectively choose which parts of the window you want to hide and which ones you want to show on the screen--giving you complete control over your editing environment.


Grammar Checker

Now Ami Pro 3.0 includes a grammar checker as well as a spell checker and thesaurus! The grammar checker provides a quick way to check your documents for grammatical errors. It contains seven pre-defined sets of grammar rules and styles for different types of documents--business, legal, technical, fiction, academic, formal, and casual. You can even define your own rules and styles sets. Not only does the grammar checker indicate grammatical errors, it also provides suggestions for correcting the errors. You can edit your document to correct the error, and then resume the check.


Enhanced Macros

The Ami Pro macro language now has more macro functions than ever before. (For more information, choose Help/Macro Doc.) Ami Pro 3.0 also has a new and improved set of over 65 macros that come with the product. You can easily learn about these macros by running the GOODIES.SAM file and using the SmartIcons available in the Macro Goodies SmartIcon set. In addition, you can customize your Ami Pro environment through the Special Features dialog box accessible by running SPECIALF.SMM.


QuickStart Tutorial

To quickly learn the basic Ami Pro functions and the new features in Ami Pro 3.0, choose Help/QuickStart Tutorial. The QuickStart Tutorial is an online tutorial that runs within Ami Pro. The tutorial contains 6 lessons--Quick Tour, SmartIcons, Tables, Frames, Styles Sheets, and What's New--none of which are over 6 minutes long. Therefore, in about a half an hour you can learn all of the basics of Ami Pro and immediately start creating great-looking documents. We encourage even current Ami Pro users to work through the tutorial. It's fun and you're sure to learn some new tricks.


Context Sensitive Help

Ami Pro 2.0 had context sensitive help. Ami Pro 3.0 goes one step further, making help even easier to access. Now each dialog box has a help button (a question mark) in the upper right corner of the title bar. This help button accesses the online, context sensitive help related to that dialog box. Of course, you can still access Help by pressing the F1 key or by choosing the desired item under the Help Menu.


Bullets

In addition to placing bullets in paragraph styles, in Ami Pro 3.0 you can now place bullets anywhere in your text. Place the insertion point anywhere in a word, sentence, or paragraph, and select Insert Bullet under the Edit menu. Ami Pro 3.0 displays all of the bullet types available for you to choose from. You just select the bullets you want to insert and choose OK. Ami Pro inserts the bullets at the location of the insertion point. Once you have inserted the bullets into the document, you can edit, move, copy, and paste them as regular text. You can even make the bullets as large or small as you want.


Table of Authorities

Ami Pro 3.0 includes a Table of Authorities feature. With one click of a SmartIcon, you can mark long and short citations throughout your document. Ami Pro links the short citations to the long ones. You can then generate the Table of Authorities, listing the similar long and short citations together and applying the attributes used in the main document. For Help on Table of Authorities, open GOODIES.SAM.


Other Enhancements

Table of Contents

You can generate a table of contents of up to nine levels in Ami Pro 3.0. You can also mark text in the document to be included in the Table of Contents, in addition to the entries, Ami Pro marks according to the paragraph style levels.

Footnotes

With Ami Pro 3.0, you can now insert daggers and asterisks as your footnote reference characters by changing the footnote paragraph style. As you add more footnotes, the number of daggers or asterisks increases to indicate the footnote number. As in Ami Pro 2.0, you can have the numbering restart on each page, and you can create end notes as well.

Line Numbering

Ami Pro 3.0 has improved line numbering so that it meets all legal document requirements. You can now not only number lines at evenly spaced intervals in the left margin of your document, but you can also choose to number only those lines that have text on them.