Ability Office 98:
Fit, Lean Software - Bridging the Gap ...

Ability brings you a powerful word processor , a sophisticated spreadsheet , an outstanding database , including an innovative approach to business forms and reporting, and a set of drawing tools. Four distinct but fully integrated modules in a single suite.

The only true integrated office suite. In most office suites, integration is a clumsy affair - an attempt to force years of development of individual products into a common package. Ability was designed from the ground up with integration in mind.

Here are some of the benefits of true integrated design, only available in Ability:

• Formulas can refer to data in any other Ability application
• Write and Spreadsheet can browse table information from Database
• Write and Spreadsheet can use Database information directly in calculations
• Spreadsheet can perform mail merges as well as Write
• A single recalculation engine keeps all data live - change data anywhere and the links will be updated automatically
• Does not rely on slow OLE methods to recalculate links

The individual applications within Ability Office are obviously best suited to working with each other. However, they have also been designed to work alongside and complement any existing office products from other software publishers rather than directly compete with them. This office companion approach enables users to bring the benefits of Ability's flexible features into their existing desktop setup. They will not have to move away totally from the standard office tools they may be required to use or with which they have already become familiar. Ability has been carefully designed to ensure that the majority of office product users will automatically feel at home.

SQL Mail merge between Database, Spreadsheet and Word Processor is the most obvious example of our companion design. Our soon to be released Ability Field OCX Toolkit will even allow SQL mail merge between MS Word and MS Access, something which Microsoft's flagship products are not capable of by themselves!

"... the idea is that you have them in addition to the main application for those people and situations where the Microsoft option is too complex."
[Kay Ewbank July 1997]

Integration works at the document level too. Spreadsheets and Charts can be inserted into Write, documents can be inserted into Spreadsheets, and all document types can be inserted into the OLE fields in Database.

Ability Office comes with a comprehensive on-line manual containing all the information you'll need to get the best out of Ability. A full installation of Ability weighs in at less than 20MB.

As far as download file sizes are concerned, "Ability is amazingly restrained in terms of the system resources it asks for. Yes, that is nearer 9Mb than 90Mb!"
[Kay Ewbank July 1997]

Ability Write 98:
Fit, Lean Word Processing - Bridging the Gap ...

Ability Write 98 gives you everything you need to prepare, edit and present better looking letters, reports, quotations, memos, mailings and leaflets.

Write is, above all else, easy to use. Interactive rulers, intelligent drag and drop editing and short-cut menus make revising text simplicity itself, while borders and backgrounds, inserting graphics, spreadsheets and charts are just a few clicks away. A comprehensive dictionary and thesaurus is available to add polish to your prose.

Mail merge, the bane of many a user's life, is given special treatment in Write - data can be browsed, filtered and sorted on the fly before the results are printed. For the (very) serious mail-merger, the MS Access based database engine used by Ability allows SQL queries to be defined and merged.

"The latest version of Ability aims to offer a solution to ... [complex mailmerge] ... by providing simple alternatives to Word and Access for use with Access format databases."
[Kay Ewbank July 1997]

We've not forgotten the power user in other areas as well. There are styles, templates, frames, callouts, captions and columns. Like all Ability products, Write has an advanced fields capability - you can link directly to documents from companion applications (Write and Database) to share up-to-date information.

Write looks good too. It uses the latest Microsoft Office look and feel with tear-off, configurable coolbars. Write operates in a true-to-life preview mode, and with full-screen editing and a variety of zoom options you'll find it as easy on the eye as it is on the pocket.

Ability Spreadsheet 98:
Fit, Lean Spreadsheets - Bridging the Gap ...

Ability Spreadsheet 98 gives you new power to manage your business and control your finances. You won't find a spreadsheet that is easier to use, with labour saving tools like AutoSum, AutoStats, AutoSpell and AutoList controls. Or one more comprehensive in usable features, allowing you to work on many worksheets at once, each one up to 256 columns of 65,536 rows.

Choosing fonts and formatting cells with borders and background colors can all be done from the toolbar - so within minutes you will be able to bring new clarity to those petty cash records. Preparing budgets, accounts, financial analyses and reports has never been easier, even if you've never used a spreadsheet before.

Ability brings you hundreds of predefined functions, grouped into categories, to help speed your worksheet design: mathematical, financial, trigonometric, logical, statistical, date & time, document information and text manipulation. Our SQL database querying functions allow you to analyse data from many standard databases, including Microsoft Access.

"The mailmerge options in Ability Write are also available in the Spreadsheet."
[Kay Ewbank July 1997]

To finish off your spreadsheet, there are: a comprehensive range of charts (including 3D and surface plots), headers and footers, freezing of row and column titles (on-screen and at print time) and user definable page breaks.

Ability Database 98:
Fit, Lean Database - Bridging the Gap ...

Here's proof that advanced SQL databases don't have to be complicated. Building and maintaining your databases could not be simpler. Ability's unique object-based querying will revolutionise the way you manage your records.

Once you have entered your data, with no limits to the number of records per data-table, Ability makes it easy to sort, search and select information. You can then print off mailing labels for new customers entered in the last two months, for all your contacts in a certain area, or for all the people who did not receive your last price list.

Ability has taken the standard query model apart and introduced the unique concept of named Query Components. You can create many different sort orders, field lists and filter conditions, give them all names, and select them in any combination from the Query Toolbar, which also appears in Ability Write and Spreadsheet. When you have a particular combination you wish to store for later recall, you can save it as a standard Named Query. Ability simply gives you the most flexible, easy to use and comprehensive querying mechanism available today - at any price!

"... don't buy the more expensive Office Professional for everyone in the company; instead, you buy it where it's needed, and give other users the rather less expensive Ability Database alongside Standard Office."
[Kay Ewbank July 1997]

While we have produced a remarkable new style of interface design, which makes your daily work easier, we have not forgotten the need for power. Ability Database 98 is based on the same database engine Microsoft use for MS Access, guaranteeing industry standard performance and robustness. For those power users out there who appreciate getting their hands dirty, Ability allows direct SQL statement editing, with full language support including UPDATE, INSERT INTO, INNER LEFT RIGHT JOIN and GROUP BY commands.

Ability Database holds "... attractions for professional database developers. Behind the scenes of the mailmerge facilities lies an OCX, so ..." when Ability release it as a developer toolkit "... you could include it in your Visual Basic programs rather than write your own query management and data field routines."
[Kay Ewbank July 1997]

Built into our Database application you will find both forms and reporting facilities. Our easy-to-use design ethic has produced single click switching between table grid, form and report layouts. This automatic creation of forms and reports will save you hours of unnecessary effort.