80-Column A8 Word Processor

This award-winning word processor includes many of the innovative facilities found in classic text editors like Paperclip, TextPro, and The 1st XLent Word Processor, and version 3.21 sees the introduction of a spelling checker. More recently, the application has gained compatibility with VBXE’s hardware 80-column display.

All versions of The Last Word since v.3.0 have been augmented by wonderful font collections designed by Paul Fisher (MrFish), who also authored the font catalogues and designed The Last Word’s loading screen.

The Last Word won the “Application of the Year” award two years running (2009 and 2010, for versions 3.1 and 3.21 respectively), voted for by members of the ABBUC forum.

Below is a sample of the praise offered by users of The Last Word, following its initial release on the AtariAge 8-bit forums in 2009:

“Your word processor is the finest one ever seen on A8 machines.”
“Awesome work!”
“A monumental accomplishment.”
“An amazing piece of software.”
“This is fantastic. Voted ‘Best software of the Year!’ by me.”

The Last Word offers:

Dual 80 and 40 column displays, selectable at any time without clearing the text buffer
Hardware 80 column text mode and optimised editing speed for VBXE owners
Up to 240 column editing in a horizontally scrolling window
Editing of up 10 files simultaneously on a expanded memory machines
Sophisticated keyboard macro language
80 column print preview
Spelling checker
Feature-packed file management menu with up to 80 filenames in a scrolling window
Support for SpartaDOS X directories with time/date stamps
High speed editing, even at the top of large files
Support for SpartaDOS X, MyDOS, DOS 2.5 and many DOS 2 derivatives
International characters and customisable printer drivers
Comprehensive 80 page manual
Large collection of macros, printer drivers and help files

The Last Word 3.3 with VBXE Support

Version 3.3 of The Last Word includes VBXE hardware 80 column text support and numerous speed and performance improvements. This version has been at the release candidate stage for some considerable time now, and this has given me a chance to clean out a couple of bugs. Note that this release (hopefully the last version of the program in its current form) will be augmented by an updated manual and support files when time allows. Until then, extensions from previous versions should NOT be used with this release. Updated extensions will be provided when the final version of The Last Word is released. In addition, only the VBXE driver supplied here should be used with this version. The driver from the RC version will crash the program.

Note: the previous version 3.3 offered for download turned out to have several nasty bugs, and is therefore superseded by the version below.

Download The Last Word 3.3 Test 7

Previous Versions

The Last Word 3.21b

Note: LW 3.21b is a minor revision of version 3.21, and fixes one serious bug in the file deletion verification routines, as well as a bug in the display routines of LW 3.21a. Version 3.21 and version 3.21a should be abandoned and 3.21b used instead. The new version is completely compatible with the support/configuration files of previous versions, and includes a couple of other improvements, such as the ability to manually specify RAM banking values.

The Last Word 3.21b

Download Polish Font Pack for The Last Word (updated 15 April 2011)