Editing Amstrad PCW (section)

====Locoscript word processor====
{{main | Locoscript }}
[[File:Locoscript.png| thumb | right | 300px | [[Locoscript]]'s file management screen on an Amstrad PCW ]]
The [[word processing]] software [[Locoscript]] was included in the price of the hardware. The manual provided both a reference and a tutorial that could enable users to start work within 20&nbsp;minutes, and some users found the tutorial provided as much information as they ever needed.<ref name="Whitehead1986ElecOfficSys">{{cite book|last=Whitehead|first=J.|title=Implementing the electronic office|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1986|pages=195–197|chapter=Appendix B: Some Typical Electronic Office Systems|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GX8OAAAAQAAJ&q=amstrad+pcw&pg=PA195|access-date=2009-05-01|isbn=978-0-7099-3674-9}}</ref>

The program enabled users to divide documents into groups, display the groups on a disk and then the documents in the selected group, and set up a [[Page layout|template]] for each group.<ref name="PopularScienceNov1986" /><ref name="UserGuideFirst20Min">{{cite book|last=Gilmour|first=J.|title=PCW8256/8512: User Guide - CP/M Logo & Word Processor Manual|publisher=Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc|year=1985|pages=11–26|chapter=Your first twenty minutes|url=http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/amstrad/manuals/pcw8256/pcw8256.pdf|access-date=2009-05-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720221017/http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/amstrad/manuals/pcw8256/pcw8256.pdf|archive-date=2011-07-20|url-status=dead}}</ref> The "[[limbo]] file" facility enabled users to recover accidentally deleted documents until the disk ran out of space, when the software would permanently delete files to make room for new ones.<ref name="UserGuideKeepingOnDisc">{{cite book|last=Gilmour|first=J.|title=PCW8256/8512: User Guide - CP/M Logo & Word Processor Manual|publisher=Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc|year=1985|pages=27–50|chapter=Keeping your work on disc|url=http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/amstrad/manuals/pcw8256/pcw8256.pdf|access-date=2009-05-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720221017/http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/amstrad/manuals/pcw8256/pcw8256.pdf|archive-date=2011-07-20|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Layout facilities included setting and using [[tab stop]]s,<ref name="UserGuideFirst20Min" /> production of page headers and footers, with automated page numbering; typographical effects including proportional spacing, a range of font sizes, and bold, italic and underline effects.<ref name="PopularScienceNov1986" /> The [[cut, copy and paste]] facility provided 10 paste buffers, each designated by a number, and these could be saved to a disk.<ref name="PopularScienceNov1986" /><ref name="PCW8xUserGuideCutAndPaste">{{cite book|last=Gilmour|first=J.|title=PCW8256/8512: User Guide - CP/M Logo & Word Processor Manual|publisher=Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc|year=1985|pages=LocoScript 111–114|chapter=Cutting and pasting|url=http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/amstrad/manuals/pcw8256/pcw8256.pdf|access-date=2009-05-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720221017/http://amstrad.cpc.free.fr/amstrad/manuals/pcw8256/pcw8256.pdf|archive-date=2011-07-20|url-status=dead}}</ref> The menu system had two layouts, one for beginners and the other for experienced users.<ref name="PopularScienceNov1986" />

Locoscript supported 150 characters and, if used with the dot matrix printer, could print European letters including Greek and [[Cyrillic]], as well as mathematical and technical symbols.<ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" /> The program allowed the user to work on one document while printing another, so that the relative slowness of the basic printer seldom caused difficulties.<ref name="PopularScienceNov1986" /> Locoscript did not run under the control of a standard [[operating system]] but booted directly from a floppy disk.<ref name="Micromart2007LocoScript">{{cite web|url=http://www.micromart.co.uk/features/article/default.aspx?id=22612|title=Whatever Happened To LocoScript?|year=2007|publisher=Micromart|access-date=2009-05-02}} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> Users had to [[Booting|reboot]] if they wanted to switch between Locoscript and a CP/M application, unless they used a utility called "Flipper", which could allocate separate areas of  RAM to Locoscript and CP/M.<ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" />

Locoscript version 1, which was bundled with the PCW 8256 and 8512, had no [[spell checker]] or [[mail merge]] facilities.<ref name="OldComputersPCW8xxx" /><ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" /> Version 2, which was bundled with the PCW 9512, included a spellchecker and could provide mail merge by interfacing to other products from [[Locomotive Software]], such as LocoMail and LocoFile.<ref name="OldComputersPCW8xxx"/><ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" /> Locoscript 2 also expanded the character set to 400.<ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" />