In many ways, the spreadsheet document type/tool is the best part of the ClarisWorks package.
The spreadsheet is a fully functional - and fairly friendly - number crunching and presentation tool
The database document type/tool, although not fully integrated into the other modules, is a real treat. It's another seeming retread - basically FileMaker Plus
The communications document type is only barely integrated with the rest of ClarisWorks, but it's also the closest to a state of the art application. Based on the Communications Toolbox, the communications module provides basic terminal connections and file transfer
ClarisWorks has a fantastic and easy-to-use overall feel. However, the basic frames and links concepts and a number of details require study before you can use them effectively
ClarisWorks has a most disappointing lack of System 7-savvy features - no Publish & Subscribe, no use of AppleEvents, no nothing that's not in System 6 except for balloon help
The line between different types of applications has begun to gray. Word processors such as Nisus, WordPerfect, and Word now have graphics layers or modules, spreadsheets have presentation and text tools, and databases have object-oriented layouts - in the next five years we'll see more and more features added to programs so they effectively become integrated high-end works programs.
In the meantime, ClarisWorks isn't a perfect product, but it comes pretty close for a first effort
ClarisWorks 1.0v2
Claris Corporation
5201 Patrick Henry Drive
Santa Clara CA 95052-8168
408/987-7000
[email protected]
Price and Availability: -- ClarisWorks lists for $299, and is available for under $200 from mail order companies
Early apologies if you see this a little late - we've been married exactly one year now and the champagne might get in the way of uploading this issue everywhere
QuicKeys ElectroOops -- I completely forgot to mention in TidBITS-127 what CE Software included in the QuicKeys upgrade, and I can't expect everyone to remember TidBITS-123, which talked about what would be in the upgrade
Super Boomerang Tip -- Alberto Ricci writes, "Wow - here is an incredibly useful feature that Hiroaki Yamamoto put in Super Boomerang. If you are using any application, and you have the Open or Save standard file dialog in front, and you've got Super Boomerang installed, clicking on a window that belongs to the Finder (one of the windows in the background - just click a part of it if it's partially covered by other windows) will bring you to that level of the hierarchy in the standard file dialog
New Apple Campaign -- We've heard from the estimable Pythaeus that Apple has begun a completely new advertising campaign that may address some of the complaints Mac users have had with Apple's advertising
In Howard Hansen's EXCELlent review of Excel 4 in TidBITS-127, he makes the following comment about the pop-up menus feature:
When you hold down the command and option keys and click the mouse, Excel brings up a pop-up shortcut menu right next to your mouse pointer
Much has happened recently in the word processing world, so much in fact, that it's starting to become hard to track. For those of you who haven't been watching as closely as we have (we're word processor junkies, and word processing is probably the most common task for which people use computers), here's the news, labeled for your convenience by weasels (apologies to Dave Barry).
New PIMs for Word -- Very good news: Word 5.0's modularity has started to pay off, and Microsoft has made new Grammar and Spelling plug-in modules (PIMs - and you thought PIM stood for personal information manager)
Claris has given notice that it intends to pull no punches in the Windows market. At PC Expo in a few weeks, Claris will show a pre-release version of FileMaker Pro 2.0 for Windows, along with its almost identical twin for the Mac
Last week I talked briefly about what the Newton technology entails, setting myself up for this week's analysis. If you haven't seen last week's issue, I recommend you take a look.
Underneath all of Apple's hurrah over Newton being a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), I see Apple attempting a paradigm shift