Atlantis Word Processor
 Reviewed November, 2008

WHAT'S IT DO?

Atlantis is described as an “innovative no-nonsense word processor.” It accomplishes a wide range of word processing tasks and manages all components of complex documents, allowing encoding and security under 256-bit encryption technology; auto-correct; spell-check-as-you-type; customizable menus, toolbars, hotkeys, colors, sounds; portability on a flash drive; and more.


DOES IT DO WHAT IT PROMISES?

Reviewer 1: There are many word processors available from which to choose: Microsoft Word® in its various iterations which is fairly expensive, even as a stand-alone application; OpenOffice®, an open source office suite that is free; and, Atlantis full version that is only $35.00. Atlantis is a bargain for all the things it is capable of doing and a good contender as a replacement for Word as a standalone word processor without installing a full suite such as Open Office.

Reviewer 2: Yes it does. Writing is an intensely personal process. When I first started to use computers, it took me a long time to move from writing everything out by hand to writing directly in a word processor. Even now, many years later, I find myself editing drafts by pencil. It is difficult to change from one word-processing program to another. I become familiar with all the tools and tricks of one, and will usually try out a different one only for a while before falling back on the one that I am used to. Atlantis is different. Although I still use my "old" program in certain situations, I am gradually weaning myself from it and increasingly using Atlantis for my daily word-processing activities.

Reviewer 3: Absolutely. The Atlantis Web site claims that it is a “no-nonsense word processor” that is “fast-loading” and “powerful.” It is all of this and more. In fact, my only quibble with the developer’s claim is that I think “no-nonsense” might lead one to believe that it is a stripped down word processor when it is anything but that. It has nearly all of the features of, and is a reasonable replacement for, Microsoft Word in easily 99% of the case.


WAS IT EASY TO INSTALL?

Reviewer 1: It was very easy to install and activate. The set up files are only 3.73 MB and the installed size on my desktop was only 5.54 MB. One of the variants of Word I have installed is over 200 MB, so Atlantis is quite compact in comparison. It is available in a fully functional 30-day trial as well as a “U-3 smart flash drive” version. With this latter version, Atlantis can be used on any computer that supports it without needing to actually install it. It handily saves any changes back to the flash drive and leaves nothing on the host computer. There are also quite a few “add-ons” available including “sound schemes” (2), spell checkers in 12 languages, integration with WordWeb Thesaurus, several PDF printers and a password manager called “ImagiPass” that is free to registered users. There is also a zipped file of 47 sample documents and templates. Atlantis will run on all consumer versions of Windows, from 95 through Vista.

Reviewer 2: Yes. The download was less than one minute on a high-speed Internet connection. I was able to install the program and its shortcuts where I wanted to. In trial mode, the program is completely unrestricted, with all functions operable. Unlike many other programs, there are no pop-ups, splash screens or frequent reminders to purchase. Only after two weeks of using the trial version was I presented with a discreet registration screen, where I could enter my name and license key. Registration is under the Help Menu, and was easily accomplished. All in all, it is very clean, with no surprises or difficulties. I have Atlantis set to check for updates on a monthly basis. This process is also very smooth. When it is completed, I am either informed that I now have the newest version, or that I am already using the most recent one.

Reviewer 3: Yes. It is an amazingly small 3.74MB download for a full-featured word processing program and it installed, registered, and activated quickly, smoothly, and effortlessly , using a standard-type installation wizard, and taking only a scant 53.44MB of space on my hard drive with all optional modules installed. It integrated smoothly and seamlessly with Windows. There is virtually no set up or learning curve with a near clone of the comfortingly familiar Microsoft Word (in fact, it looks almost exactly like Word 97 through Word 2002). The set up procedure is very easy and at the same time flexible, allowing a choice of optional features (modules). There is a EULA (End User License Agreement) that is anything but standard as it allows for unlimited use and unlimited copies. Bravo to the developers! The program also uninstalls easily and cleanly, leaving no remaining junk files and very few empty keys in the Registry. This is the mark of a program with well written installation/uninstaller code, and not often enough seen.


GOOD POINTS?

Reviewer 1: This is a very feature-rich application. It has hundreds of features that are useful for an everyday user and many special features that would be usable by a professional writer. The interface and toolbars are fairly intuitive and the “Help” menu is extensive and easy to use. The explanations contained in the help files are clear and easy to follow and use. There is a feature called “Send by Email” that allows one to send documents by email as attachments, using the “Simple MAPI” compliant default email client that is likely already installed. The attachment can be zipped if desired. Atlantis will output a PDF file via a virtual PDF printer if one is installed. There are links to free ones in the “Free third-party Tools” section of the downloads page on the Atlantis site.. Atlantis supports multiple formats; *.rtf, MS Word .doc 6.0/95/97/2000/XP/2003 and of course *.txt files. of various flavors. It will also save as a Web page (HTML), a .zip file or a template. “Clippy Bank” , an icon of a pig located on the extended toolbar provides a special clipboard that captures items and document clips from other locations (via the Windows clipboard ) such as other documents or parts of documents as well as Web pages and saves them for use in current documents. Its default mode is to preserve formatting. Links are “active” right from the document without using “control-click”. It can be set to only gather text files as well. Clippy Bank clips provide a nice feature and are particularly handy for research. when you are not doing it all at one go. Atlantis uses 256 bit encryption to password protect your documents by using the option to create a new document as an encrypted document from the beginning or by using the Save As > save as Encrypted Document (*.COD) drop-down menu selection.

Reviewer 2: This program is full of welcome surprises. A simple but brilliant example – using “Save-As” (F-12 hot-key): select a file-name from a list in a folder, a new pane appears (“readable preview”) to the right of the document, showing the contents of the file about to be replaced. Previously, I would have to slip out of my word processing program into Explorer, and open the file I was going to replace to make sure that I was overwriting the correct one. I commend the Atlantis spelling-checkers. I can, for example, easily move back and forth between Canadian (British) English, French and American spellings. I can do so within the same document, or I can set up document templates which will default to one language or another. Dozens of other language dictionaries are also available. Atlantis opens very quickly and loads all the documents that were on the “Tab Line” when it was last shut down. It automatically assigns a new file name for any document started but not actually saved. The automatic numbering for these files is remembered from one session to the next, and one day (or week, or month) to the next. Personal preferences can be saved to a desktop shortcut. Multiple users on the same computer can save their own Atlantis versions, each with their personal shortcut on the desktop. Other innovative features include a sophisticated backup system, and tabs for open documents. To open a document from an Explorer window, simply drag the document to the Tab bar, and it is immediately the active document. A very interesting feature is the Control Board where the user can open a panel on the left side of the document work space. Using the different tools in the panel (Headings, Bookmarks, Sections, Styles, Lists, Format Palette and the Clip Library) one can very quickly navigate through the document, format parts or entire sections of the work. From the Clip Library, predefined Closings, Greetings, Headers and Footers, Phrases, Salutations and Images can be inserted. At the bottom of this panel are tools to add, rename, edit, remove, and otherwise customize all of the items in any of the Control Board tools. Good support is critical. Not surprisingly, Atlantis shines here as well. Apart from the excellent Help file, I found myself turning to the easy-to-use online forum when I was not clear on one thing or another. Judging by the number of postings and by the number of times that most views have been read, this is a very active group indeed. Answers and suggestions are posted by enthusiastic users as well as the forum moderators and administrators. Each time that I submitted a question, I had replies the same day, and sometimes within minutes. Although none of my questions were particularly urgent, this kind of support is invaluable. In addition to this personalized help that is so readily available, the Web site itself is an excellent resource. Not only are there many ideas and suggestions for the use and features of Atlantis, but there are also links to other sites which focus on the content and process of writing itself.

Reviewer 3: I found this comparison interesting:

ATLANTIS Cost: $35.00 Size: 3.74MB Size on HD: 53.44MB DL Time: 1 minute Required Memory 32MB Updates: Free Limitations on use: None Security Risks: None

MICROSOFT WORD 2007 Cost: $230.00 Size: 388MB Size on HD: 1.5G DL Time: 21 minutes Required Memory: 1G Updates: Not free Limitations on use: Severely restricted Security Risks: Many

Atlantis Word Processor has almost all of the features one would expect from a word processor including document templates, style sheets, text clips, and on and on. In addition to auto-save, the Save Special Command allows a user to save the current document as a ZIP archive, template or HTML page. In addition, there are a large number of text formatting features, autocorrect, multilingual spell-checking, and a unique typing assistant that creates a smart database of the most-used words and their context. When I started to type one of my favorite phrases, a warning sound was played and a popup appeared showing a list of words to quickly insert into the text. Another excellent feature is the Atlantis Backup that creates automatic and regular backups of all open documents. Successive versions of each document are saved to a special folder so that earlier versions of the document are accessible. All of the tool bars are highly configurable and endlessly customizable, and there are also 200 hotkeys. One short cut key that I found extremely useful was for changing lowercase to capitals and vice versa. I have a tendency to inadvertently start typing a sentence in caps, and with this shortcut key I can quickly invert them back to lowercase; or, I can use the shortcut key to invert a string of text if I have inadvertently been writing with the caps lock on for a period of time. This is a very handy and most welcome tool. There are advanced features tied to the mouse wheel, a magnifying class tool, fully supported drag and drop editing, an excellent clip manager, and one can attach documents to an email using the “Send by Email” command and even have them compressed as Zip files by Atlantis if desired. At the Web site I was able to download a free (for registered users) password manager, PDF printer, and a thesaurus. There is even 256-bit encryption available to securely store critical documents. One other feature worth noting is that Atlantis Word Processor is portable. I installed it on a USB drive and it worked flawlessly. Not only is Atlantis a feature-rich fully functioning word processor but it is fast! It opens almost instantly, opens documents whether one page or 200 pages long instantly, and it does so without using hardly any computer resources. It consumed zero CPU cycles and at its peak amazingly consumed 84MB of memory as compared to Microsoft Word which consumes on average 148MB doing the same work. Finally, I believe a program is no better than its support and here, too, Atlantis shines. There is an extremely active forum of over 1,000 topics with most questions answered often in hours; there is online help; an excellent help file; an FAQ; a “tips” section; a section of useful links which offer writing help tutorials as well as free fonts; a mailing list to keep the program up-to-date and provide tips; and an excellent email tech support which, while suggesting no turn-around time, answered my support requests all within 24 hours. Atlantis Word Processor is truly an excellent alternative to Microsoft Word for most people. The price is a bargain; it has an impressive number of features; there are even additional components for downloading on the web site; and in over four months and probably well over 1,000 pages of writing, it never froze or produced a single error. Not only does Atlantis have my unqualified recommendation, but I have recommended it to everyone I know.


WEAK POINTS?

Reviewer 1: I had some problems apply formatting as I am accustomed to in other writing application, even Web-based forms and forums. The “select by dragging” would not function properly. The selection would not “hold” and would not work if the focus was removed. I think there was a conflict with a “click lock” function of the mouse I had enabled. I reinstalled Atlantis and it worked as expected. I had to turn off the automatic bullet list / outlining feature and manually insert them while writing a chapter in a book I’m working on. It kept inserting the wrong number or letter and not indenting as I thought it should. There is a learning curve. It is hard to be creative while learning how to use a certain feature of a new program so I turned it off and continued writing. I found the “on by default” sound schemes annoying and turned most of them off.

Reviewer 2: “Tables”, such as can be found in MS Word, Open Office Write and even in Pegasus (my email program) is the feature that I miss the most in Atlantis. This is a topic that has been heatedly discussed on the Atlantis Forum for several years. The reply from the developers is that it will be included in a future release, but they do not promise more than that. I have tried creating a table in Open Office, and pasting it into Atlantis, but the result is not particularly satisfactory. Until this feature is included, I have to go back to Open Office when I need to create and include a table in a document. I have also had some trouble in recreating the letterhead that I have at the top of my official letters. When I originally set it up in Word, I thought that it was the Header on the first page of my letters. However, it actually turns out to be a pair of Text Boxes, one beside the other at the top of the page. As Atlantis does not support Text Boxes, I am unable to reproduce my current letterhead. I also had a minor quibble about the way in which I enter the accents on documents that I write in French. MS Word has an excellent system, which is very easy to use, without having to set up and load a French keyboard layout where a number of keys get redefined. When I inquired about this point on the forum, suggestions were made, including a quick method of accessing the accented letters I wanted through the Clip Library. But for me, the system which I have to use outside MS documents (the Alt-key plus numbers on the keypad) is faster than learning a third method of entering such letters as é or à.

Reviewer 3: I found no glitches or flaws in this program in over four months of professional and academic writing. That is not to say that there are not some weaknesses and some things that I personally found problematic, but these are related to your intended use of the program as well as personal taste. For me, the biggest weakness was that it does not support table layouts. In fact, if it were not for this I would be willing to uninstall Microsoft Word and use Atlantis exclusively. Hopefully this feature can be added in a future version. As for personal taste, Atlantis has sounds which for me were, at best, annoying! It offers honks or whoops or assorted other strange sounds when certain functions are used or the caps lock is on, etc. In fact there are sounds seemingly everywhere. Alternative sound schemes can be downloaded from the Web site for sounds of wildlife or cartoons rather than the default whoops, bells, and whistles. Fortunately, sounds can be disabled; but sounds and no support for tables seems a puzzling choice to me.


OTHER COMMENTS?

Reviewer 1: Learning the ins and outs will take some time. Atlantis is a very powerful word processor application that is capable of producing professional level documents or everyday letters and notes. It can also make a slick, macro-filled form or do a mail merge from an address book or data base and print the letters and envelopes. I found the “Power Type” feature useful. It learns one’s vocabulary and style and will suggest words as they are being typed.

Atlantis’ Developers Replied: The present version of Atlantis Word Processor has no support for macros.

Reviewer 2: In the past year, I have actually tried out several word-processing programs. Each one had its strengths, but I have really been impressed with Atlantis. It loads quickly, does not make heavy demands on system resources, has many interesting and configurable features, provides outstanding support second to none, is inexpensive, has an industry-leading license agreement, and is fun. I have no hesitation in highly recommending it.

Reviewer 3: I am a published professional and academic writer and found, with the one exception above, nothing that I could not do as easily or better with Atlantis Word Processor than with Microsoft Word. The fact that the developer(s) is constantly involved with and attuned to his or her customers as seen through the forum, and that there seems to be regular updates as seen through the version history, all leads me to believe that this is a program that will be around for a long time and will continue to improve.


WILL YOU CONTINUE USING IT?

Reviewer 1: I am going to keep it loaded on the system and will continue to explore its capabilities. I have the full Microsoft Office suite on both my computers already and don’t really need this but it does have some features that I want to further explore.

Reviewer 2: Most certainly.

Reviewer 3: Yes. Atlantis Word Processor has replaced Microsoft Word for approximately 85% of my word processing.

OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN THIS REVIEW
Windows Vista Home Premium, XP Pro, XP Home, XP Media Center

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