DOES YOUR PCW MEAN BUSINESS? Do you need to make a good impression on paper? Are you dissatisfied with the quality of the PCW8256 printed output? If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions - and my guess is that the majority of you have - then what can you do about it? There are some good printer utilities around - PRINTIT in public domain libraries is an excellent example of how the PCW printer can be made to change fonts - but the result is always the same. Letter quality can not be obtained from a 9 pin dot matrix. NLQ yes: full LQ, no. To upgrade to something better need not cost you anywhere near as much as you might imagine. Daisywheel printers do not cost what they used to, especially if you are prepared to shop around. The RS232 interface is also cheaper than it was, which all helps to make the upgrade an attractive proposition. You may wish to buy second hand but some retailers - Crown Computers (0704 895815) of Ormskirk for example - can supply to the public computer equipment at less than trade prices. You will not always be able to choose a current model but at these discount prices you will think twice. Recently advertised was a Brother HR1 for #99, they used to be #695 about 3 years ago, but with ribbons and spares still readily available it must be very good value. You should be able to pick up a new, guaranteed, daisywheel printer for around #100, made by a well known manufacturer. A hidden extra you may overlook is the upgrade from LocoScript 1 to something that will support an external printer. I found LocoScript 2 was ideal for me - some package deals come with LocoScript 2 bundled with the hardware - so study the market carefully. Your new daisy will not deliver that black rimmed telegram: "Dot Matrix is dead", and do not think you will be able to pension her off either, she is still very much alive and needed to do all those other chores like screen dumps; desktop publishing program output; draft printouts on cheap paper; printouts from programs that are dedicated to the PCW's own printer or that include graphics. You will, however, need to think about where your new beast will live, because daisywheel printers tend to be considerably larger than Dot Matrix. They also vibrate and some models can be quite noisy and may require an acoustic hood. If you use LocoScript's extended character set, and LocoScript 2 has in excess of 400 characters available, you probably will not be able to print them out on a daisywheel, and even simple things like changing to italics mid-stream can not be done. You need to consider these restrictions carefully before upgrading to a low cost full letter quality printer but if you do you will never need to be concerned with the quality of your correspondence. It is sure to impress. If you do not use proportional spacing, right justification or bold print the recipient will probably imagine you have had the correspondence typed up by hand. The quality of printout is as good as the best 'golf ball' around. If you have just cause to be proud of your printed word, whether it be a manuscript searching for a Publisher or your Business correspondence needing to win customers, you do not have to buy a PCW9512: Upgrade your printer. You will save #'s and still have the benefit of your 'nine pins'. END