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/ Amiga Collections: MegaDisc / MegaDisc 43 (1995-03)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 2 of 2)[m bamcopy].zip / MegaDisc 43 (1995-03)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 2 of 2)[m bamcopy].adf / Reviews / OnTheBall / OnTheBall

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Text File | 1995-03-23 | 18KB | 462 lines

On The Ball v1.24 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Personal Organizer Par Excellence! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Reviewed by Greg Hand, 10-10-94. Produced By: Pure Logic Software, 789 Butterfly Rd. Quincy, CA 95971 USA Available from MegaDisc, for a cost of $75. ~~~~~~~~ Check out this latest version on the fully functional demo disk:- Reference number "DE 222", available from MegaDisc, for $3.50, $2.50 for subscribers. 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Brief" Bio Pic:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm a 39 year old trainee computer disciplinarian in his 7th year of study. Contemplating the sad prospect of the day they turn the Amiga into a docile beast like the Mac. I'm currently using an A1000 equipped with a Phoenix replacement mother board, 2 Meg of chip ram, a 25 Mhz Derringer030 board with a 68881 maths co-processor & 4 Meg of 32 bit ram, a 80 Meg Quantum hard drive, & OS 1.3 & 3.1 hardware switchable. It's a great machine. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Real Thing:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Due to the existence of the demo version, I will not cover all of the numerous features of OTB. My intention is to give you an idea of the capabilities, quality & value of OTB, to provoke anyone who thinks that they might have use for such software to obtain a copy of the demo from Tim. After that I believe the software will sell itself!? I have used screen dumps (picture files which you've probably already peeked at,) of OTB to help my description. On with the show:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Have you ever wanted to be organized? Do pieces of paper with appointments & addresses just seem to disappear on your desk? In your wallet or purse? Perhaps they turn up in your clothes after wash day, stuck to your pocket? Do you remember dental appointments a day late? Birthdays? Anniversaries? The kids excursion fees had to be paid yesterday & they're expecting to leave tomorrow,... already! I can't remember any more things you might forget. I need a list, a well organized list that's easy to use so I won't forget how. A list that's too big to loose, or endup in the washing machine. I need an integrated, multi-view (day, week, month, year/s), appointment calendar, to-do list, address book, & notepad. A list that's got it covered. As you may have already guessed, I've found it, with bells on! System Requirements: A500 -> A4000. RAM: 330K minimum. 1Meg recommended. Disk space: 250K for main program, (Crunches down to 103K). Workbench: 1.3 - 3.x. Hard disk recommended: The Manual:- ~~~~~~~~~~ OTB, is supplied on a single non-bootable disk, with a 60 page 5" x 8" stapled manual. (A spiral bound copy would've been nice, they certainly make for easier reference). Anyway, I found the manual to be written & arranged in a very clear & concise fashion, the contents lacking in no department at all. I will make more particular references to the manual during the course of this review. Installation: ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hard Disk:- ~~~~~~~~~ The supplied interactive installation program makes the whole process a breeze... taking care of everything including modification of the appropriate sequence file/s so that OTB will be run when the Amiga is booted-up, if so desired. For those users (makes us sound like addicts doesn't it?) familiar with the DOS it is a simple process to install OTB, without using the supplied installation program, the manual again is informative. Floppy Users:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~ As supplied the OTB disk has 227K free, which means there is enough room left to make a bootable work disk, this is advisable for single drive systems because nobody likes disk swapping at all. Of course by the process of judicious pruning, far more space becomes available. Files which most single drive users could easily do with out:- * Unused language files, (yes OTB has multi-lingual support). * The Install_OTB & Remove_OTB files. (For hard drive users). * NagToOTB (if you own Nag then you will appreciate this feature). * 1 of the 2 Reqtools.Librarys supplied for DOS 1.3/2+. * There are example ARexx files which won't be used by all. * & 9 sound samples supplied as options for use as reminders. I hazard a guess some samples are fair game for the axe. * Sample player documentation. Having deleted these files & crunching what was left (I used Imploder v3), there was 666K (believe me, this is NOT an evil program!) of free space on the disk. This is ample room to make a bootable work disk & save a lot of OTB data. If you have 2 drives & you're not into ruthlessly cutting & crunching disks for fun, then don't bother, there is no need, just put OTB, in your 2nd drive after boot-up, & your away! Main Screen Layout:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The typical front end for OTB, is the resizable (also auto' detects overscan screens) Multi-Application Window (MAW). If you would refer to the "Appointments.pic" in this drawer you will see the button gadgets named "Appointments", "Addresses", "To-Do List", "NotePad", "Add", "Delete", "Update" & "Search". These are constant through the 4 screens named:- "Appointments", "Addresses", "To-Do List" & "NotePad", this is helpful. In "Appointments" mode, the MAW displays "Week", "Month" & "Year" gadgets down its lower left hand side. These buttons call resizable "Viewing Schedules", titled "day-at-a-glance", "week-at-a-glance", "month-at-a-glance" or "year-at-a-glance", all apt titles. You can print out a nicely formatted copy of your days agenda, taking advantage of your printers style capabilities. Below these is the "Print" gadget, we'll look at OTB's printing abilities a little later. "Start", "End" & "Reminder" times can be input via mouse (the use of the shift qualifier key gives more power to this operation,) or directly via the keyboard. OTB will not allow an appointment to start after it has finished! The little "F#" with the "0" underneath is for running anything you desire to connect to the 40 possible function keys. This actually has great potential:- timed hard disk backups, DOS scripts, ARexx scripts, here's one from the manual - "You could even attach a special reminder to birthdays that searches OTB's address list, finds their name & address & prints a birthday card -- automatically!" You can simply use one of the variety of sound samples supplied, as a reminder for an appointment or special date, whatever the requirement. If you don't like the samples supplied, you can supply your own. Under the "Note:" heading is the "note box", into which you type any text you wish attached to your appointment, when you select the "Add" gadget the text is relocated to the right hand side of your appointment time. Repeat Modes:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Following is a list of repeat modes available via the gadgets situated on the lower right hand side of the MAW, refer "Appointments.pic" :- * No Repeat * Selected Days Of Week * Bi-Weekly * Monthly * Week From Beginning Of Month * Last Week Of Month * Days From End Of Month * Yearly * Week Of Month Yearly * Last Week Of Month Yearly * Daily * Forever-Repeats * The number you enter in the "Reps" box. Preferences:- ~~~~~~~~~~~ When viewing the "Appointments.pic" you will see I have opened OTB's preferences screen. This little screen is mostly self explanatory, the larger rectangle in the upper left hand corner with the time on top, & the month of October displayed in it, is actually a representation of OTB's icon. Double clicking the genuine icon brings up the MAW in which ever mode you have configured OTB to open, selecting any of the days of the month in the icon will change the date of OTB to that day. The "<<>>" in the lower right hand corner, move the calendar on the icon forward & backward through the years, without changing the month. The "< >" do the same thing, but through the months. When moving from December to January, or vice-versa the year changes appropriately. The "X" brings us back to the current date. The "Preferences Menu" also includes the options of:- * Change font:- self explanatory. * Change language:- 7 language files are included for configuring the menus. The locale facility is used if you're OS is capable. * Change palette:- up to 8 colors on a custom screen. * Change screenmode:- OTB can open on the workbench or on it's own custom screen. Printing:- ~~~~~~~~ Powerful printing facilities have been incorporated into OTB. Exactly what is in the window can be printed out, The option "Big Font" will use the largest font available (i.e., courier 24 or a compugraphic font), the option "Show Apps" will print the active ("Tagged" - I will pursue this topic later), appointments in the week or month calendar schedules. If no active appointments exist OTB will print a blank week or month calendar. Whilst on the topic of printing I will mention that in "Addresses" mode, printing mailing labels is well catered for: Custom layouts are provided, or you can design your own labels. A variety of configurable default printer setups are available. Several preset label sizes reside in OTB, designed for common Avery brand labels. Currently I am without printer, so I can't relate how well or otherwise these options work, perhaps Tim, our esteemed editor might add a note here, being an OTB user himself? Tags:- ~~~~ Another level of organization becomes available with the ability to "Tag" your entries. Which translates to the ability to divide your data into separate categories & still have the speed & convenience of having it in one data file. This is OTB's "Tag" team:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Customizing your Tags is easy. * Color coded Tags:- allow easy identification without having to display tags. * Current Tag:- will be used to tag any new or updated entries. * Viewing by a Tag:- shows only the selected tag, e.g., "Customers". * Multiple Tags:- allows viewing of more than 1 type of tagged file, e.g., "Customers" & "Personal". * Redraw:- editing of taged selections is postponed until "Redraw" is selected, this updates your changes all at once which saves being slowed down waiting for multiple small updates. * Show Untagged Entries:- allows tagged & untagged to be displayed. * Show All Entries:- all entries are displayed regardless of tag status. Addressbook:- ~~~~~~~~~~~ Selecting the "Addressbook" gadget found on the bottom of the MAW, will put the user into "Addressbook Mode", which is the same as the "Appointments" screen in the top 2/3rds, & changed in the bottom 1/3. Please refer to the "Addressbook.pic" in this drawer, it will save you & me from my clumsy description! The picture is quite self explanatory, the data is entered in the appropriate fields & when "Add" or "Update" is selected the address is added to the upper part of the screen, for later access via the "Rolodex Buttons" (A..Z gadgets), "Search" or the slider gadget on the right hand side of the screen. The OTB "Sort" gadget, defaults to sorting by name. To choose another field to sort by, select the field then the "sort" gadget. Referring to the "Addressbook.pic" you will notice that I have the "Labels" requester showing, once again the picture is self explanatory. See the earlier section called "Printing" again if you need a refresher on mailing labels & OTB. Attaching a "Note" is as easy as selecting an addressbook entry then the "Note" gadget. You can add as much information as you wish & when you close the note window the entry will be updated. Double clicking on any of the entries in the address list will also open a note window, if you color tag your entries it is easy to see which have notes attached. More information on the "NotePad" later. Phone Dialer:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have a modem OTB will dial phone numbers from your addressbook. There are a variety of options available here, one being "Auto Stamp Notes" which will automatically open the note associated with the entry you are dialling out of & append a time-stamp to help keep transcript of your converstation. The above is paraphrased from the manual 'cause I don't own a modem. ToDo List:- ~~~~~~~~~ When in "ToDo List" mode, adding entries is similar to editing "Appointments", type into the "Note:" box, set the "Due Date" or the "No Due Date" box, if your satisfied select "Add". You can print selected "ToDo List" entries using different styles if your printer will. To-Do items are listed chronologically, so most urgent first, no due date last. NotePad:- ~~~~~~~ Is a reasonably powerful text editor, but seems incapable of loading files which weren't created by it? Which is unfortunate. I can't load any ASCII files from my S: directory. Apart from that flaw it is quite good, with all the standard cut, copy, paste, search, find/replace, tab size, mark block etc. Once again you can print selected "NotePad" entries taking full advantage of your printers capabilities re: style. ARexx Support:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The OTB manual devotes 11 pages to ARexx, mostly as a reference to the commands which are available to OTB. It would seem to the casual observer that the doors are well & truly open to interprocess communication. I Quote a small section from the manual: "There are many uses for the ARexx interface to OTB. OTB's extensive ARexx interface can be used to send data into or get data out of OTB in addition to providing a few basic window manipulation commands. This is useful for writing conversion programs that can convert data that you may already have entered, into OTB format. It can also be used to link the address book to a word processor or desktop publisher, to be used with mail mergers, or just to enter an address into your document." Trouble Shooting:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The manual presents 4 pages of logical questions with logical solutions. Saving Changes:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here we strike the flexibility we would expect from any data base these days, be it dedicated or not:- >>> More than one data file can be maintained <<< Therefore, OTB is very much a multi-purpose &/or multi-user application. This means 1 or more people can have 1 or more separate files, though, with the "Tag" files facility I would imagine that it would be rare for an individual to need more than 1 file. As an example, an individuals "personal", "customers", "overseas addresses" divisions, (by the way the names of these "divisions" are arbitrary,) could all be "Tagged" in the 1 data file unless any or all of these files were huge. Bob's appointments, Carol's appointments, Ted's To-Do List & Alice's Notes, should all be in private files! OTB offers no form of password protection or file encryption for people with secrets. Redundant Data:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All data entered into OTB is at some stage saved to disk, it is easy to selectively remove redundant data, which is always advisable, for efficiency's sake. As is always the case, the bigger the file the harder it is to process. The average home user with a couple of hundred addresses, really shouldn't notice much of a time lag handling the data. Of course faster Amigas will handle larger files with ease. Conclusion:- ~~~~~~~~~~ My first impressions of OTB were wow! Haven't they done a good job. On closer inspection I've found that behind OTB's slick front end lurks a personal organising powerhouse! Implemented with exemplary attention to detail in most every aspect, including the manual. Wish List:- A text editor which will handle text files in non OTB format. Perhaps I'm expecting too much from a personal organiser, now that I've been spoiled by OTB? Password protection & file encryption for data files may be desired/required by some users. A spiral bound manual would be a big improvement on the stapled version supplied. One would expect an increase in the purchase price of OTB for this luxury. As a personal organiser "On The Ball" is hard to fault. I think that "On The Ball" is exceptionally good value for money, deserving of a 9/10 rating. Do yourself a favour & get the demo. 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43