This episode features Fancy Writer, originally released in 1983 by KidStuff Software. It was written by Frank Roberts.

Podcast: Download

Box and Supplement Scans

KidStuff logo:

 

The disk:

 

 

Fancy Writer in Action

Booting

Loading:

 

Page 6 version printer selection intercept:

 

Page 6 version menu:

 

Usage

General font selection screen:

 

1 – Print From Disk

Entering filename:

 

Is printer online?

 

Uh Oh!  Error.  It is handled gracefully:

 

While printing:

 

What next?

 

2 – Put Text On Disk

Loading:

 

Insert data disk:

 

Filer menu:

 

Editor window:

 

Editing existing text.  This is a LINE editor:

 

Loading text:

 

Saving:

 

3 – Keyboard Entry

Selecting font:

 

Loading Cursive font:

 

Loading Old English font:

 

Loading Countdown font:

 

Loading Futura font:

 

Loading Baby Teeth font:

 

Is printer ready?

 

Enter your text.  Don’t type until the buzzer sounds! :

 

Whats next?

 

4 – See Directory

Does what it says, though limited to drive 1:

 

0 – Exit

Exit menu:

 

Files

The main menu is on both sides of the disk, as is DOS and the RAM disk handler.  The individual programs that make up the suite are distributed between the two sides.  It doesn’t matter which side of the disk is booted.

Test file contents:

 

 

Original version:

 

Page 6 version:

 

 

Printing

Print Baby Teeth font – small:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/s4e10-prt-bbt-sm.pdf

Print Baby Teeth font – large:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/s4e10-prt-bbt-lg.pdf

Print Countdown font – small:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/s4e10-prt-cnt-sm.pdf

Print Countdown font – large:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/s4e10-prt-cnt-lg.pdf

Print Cursive font – small:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/s4e10-prt-cur-sm.pdf

Print Cursive font – large:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/s4e10-prt-cur-lg.pdf

Print Old English font – small:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/s4e10-prt-eng-sm.pdf

Print Old English font – large:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/s4e10-prt-eng-lg.pdf

Print Futura font – small:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/s4e10-prt-fut-sm.pdf

Print Futura font – large:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/s4e10-prt-fut-lg.pdf

Print from Keyboard with font samples:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/s4e10-prt-key-fontsamples.pdf

 

 

Instructions

The manual?  I couldn’t find one.  If you have one, please scan it and upload it to the Internet Archive (https://archive.org).

 

Show Links:

• Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_Office_II
• AtariMania: http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-fancy-writer_30192.html
• Logo Trademark: https://trademarks.justia.com/734/35/n-a-73435978.html
• Unfinished Bitness iTunes Stats: https://unfinishedbitness.info/2018/05/04/itunes-missing-feature-library-statistics/

Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.