Editing Amstrad PCW (section)

==Software==
This section covers the PCW 8xxx, 9xxx and 10 series; software for the PcW16 is described above.

===Bundled===

====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" />

====CP/M operating system and applications====
The PCW included a version of [[CP/M]] known as "[[CP/M Plus]]".<ref name="OldComputersPCW8xxx" /><ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" /> This provided a range of facilities comparable to those of [[MS-DOS]], but imposed a significant limitation: it could not address more than 64&nbsp;KB of RAM. Since CP/M took 3&nbsp;KB of this, the most that CP/M applications could use was 61&nbsp;KB. The rest of the RAM was used as a [[RAM disk]] (exposed under the drive letter "M:" for "memory"), which was much faster than a floppy disk but lost all its data when the machine was powered off.<ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" /> On the other hand, the [[standalone program|standalone]] Locoscript word processor program was able to use 154&nbsp;KB as normal memory, and the rest as a RAM disk.<ref name="OldComputersPCW8xxx" />

[[Mallard BASIC]], like  LocoScript, was a Locomotive Software product, but ran under CP/M. This version of [[BASIC]] lacked built-in graphics facilities,<ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" /> but included JetSAM, an implementation of [[ISAM]] that supported multiple indexes per file, so that programs could access records directly by specifying values of key fields.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fvempel.nl/basic.html|title=Joyce Computer Club Public Domain - BASIC|date=April 2005|access-date=2009-05-03}}</ref> The CP/M software bundle also included the [[Digital Research]] implementation of [[Seymour Papert]]'s [[LOGO programming language]] and a graphics program that could produce [[pie chart]]s and [[bar chart]]s.<ref name="Whitehead1986ElecOfficSys" /><ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" />

===Sold separately===
Many software vendors supplied versions of their products to run with [[CP/M Plus]], making a wide range of software available for the PCW, often very cheaply:<ref name="Whitehead1986ElecOfficSys" /><ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" />
*Alternative word processors included [[Superwriter]] and [[WordStar]].<ref name="Whitehead1986ElecOfficSys" /><ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" />
*Several [[spreadsheet]] programs became available, including [[SuperCalc]] II and [[Microsoft]]'s [[Multiplan]].<ref name="Whitehead1986ElecOfficSys" /><ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" />
*[[Database]] programs adapted for the PCW included [[Sage Database]], [[Cardbox]] and [[dBase]] II.<ref name="Whitehead1986ElecOfficSys" /><ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" />
*The ''MicroDesign'', ''Desk Top Publisher'', ''Newsdesk'' and ''Stop Press'' [[desktop publishing]] packages were used by groups of authors for newsletters.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Crouch |first=R. |date=January 1997 |title=Desk Top Publishing |journal=Writers' Monthly |pages=32–33 |url=http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rwcrouch/dtp.pdf |access-date=2009-05-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605134222/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rwcrouch/dtp.pdf |archive-date=June 5, 2011 }}</ref>
*[[The Sage Group]]'s Popular Accounts and Payroll,<ref name="Whitehead1986ElecOfficSys" /> and the Camsoft payroll and accounting software.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cambriansoftware.co.uk/about.html|title=About Cambrian Software (UK) Ltd|access-date=2009-05-08}}</ref>
*Other programming languages, including [[C (programming language)|C]].<ref>{{cite book|title=C compiler|publisher=Mix Software, Inc.|year=1987|edition=3}}</ref>
*Many [[List of Amstrad PCW games|games]] for the PCW. Most were text adventures but there were also graphical games like ''[[Batman (1986 video game)|Batman]]'', ''[[Bounder (video game)|Bounder]]'' and ''[[Head over Heels (video game)|Head over Heels]]''.<ref name="Rohrer2007Nostalgia" /><ref name=":0" />

===Free software===
Many free packages could run under CP/M but required careful setting of options to run on the PCW series, although a significant number had installer programs that made this task easier. Programs that were already configured for the PCW covered a broad range of requirements including word processors, databases, graphics, personal accounts, programming languages, games, utilities and a full-featured [[bulletin board system]]. Many of these were at least as good as similar commercial offerings, but most had poor documentation.<ref name="Austin1989MoreThanWP" />