(C) MicroMart (UK) Ltd, 1989. NO MATERIAL MAY BE REPRODUCED IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION THE ORGANISERS ORGANISER Kempston Data's computer based personal organiser, called DAATAfax, is available for the Amstrad PCW, IBM PC and its many compatibles and clones, and soon for the Atari ST. Gerry Austin has been getting himself organised with the Amstrad PCW version. HOW WELL ORGANISED ARE YOU? Do you make do with bits of paper and notes pinned to the door to remind yourself of those important events? I used to, and quite often came unstuck, missing that important meeting or, horror of horrors, my wife's birthday or our wedding anniversary. People like me really will benefit from Kempston Data's DAATAfax. It takes a bit of getting used to and some would say that diary keeping is too regimental for them, but if you want to be Professional at what you are doing then chances are there will be information, times, places and events that must be remembered. Not to mention the need to remember when to buy that bouquet of flowers. DAATAfax provides, from within CP/M, a Diary, Phone book, Notepad and Calendar all linked with a handy clipboard feature for transferring data between the four modules. Being Icon driven, the program is ideal for use with Kempston's Mouse to quickly click your choice directly from the display. When all is done print it out on continuous paper - 50 sheets are provided, additional packs of 250 sheets are available, hole punched and perforated - ready for inserting into your Filofax or compatible Personal Organiser. But why use DAATAfax? There are plenty of programs around that printout calendars. Quite simply DAATAfax does the lot, quickly, efficiently and neatly: No Fuss, No Bother. All your data is stored on disc as a backup, ready for updating or just in case you loose your organiser. DAATAfax is copy protected, so you would be wise to follow Kempston's advice and register your purchase, each disc comes with its own serial number for quick identification. If you don't have a Filofax personal diary you may consider going the whole hog. I started off with the DAATAfax software at #39.95 but soon bought myself a compatible vinyl binder from my local stationers for #6.95. GETTING STARTED On the Amstrad PCW boot up with CP/M plus. At the A> prompt, with the DAATAfax master disc in drive A: type 'DAATAFAX' which quickly loads the program and asks for the date. You are now presented with a display of a closed Filofax Personal Organiser and a set of ICONS which can be selected with a mouse or via the function keys from the keyboard. All the modules, with the exception of the calendar, require a datafile to work on. DAATAfax will ask for its name before continuing with the selected module. DIARY The diary module offers a method of formalising your business or personal activities ready for insertion into your own Filofax binder. The potential for professionals to have their monthly schedules typed up and printed out by the office Secretary in a Filofax compatible format must provide a very real advantage. The DIARY has six lines per day, with four days fitting onto a page. The screen editor is very basic but offers CUT and PASTE facilities as well as the ability to move blocks of text to another part of the DIARY, via a clipboard facility. PHONEBOOK The PHONEBOOK module provides a useful, integral program to gather together in the Filofax framework all your personal and business names, addresses and telephone numbers. Although entering the data can be very time consuming - this could have been made less tiresome by reducing the number of keystrokes involved when entering large amounts of data initially - I liked the format and visual screen display which made this module very lifelike. The search facility provides what would be expected but more selective, conditional searches associated with database software are not supported. But you can find any record by entering a string or sequence of numbers which will find all occurrences. Handy if you want to match a phone number with the rest of its data. NOTEPAD This module has a more powerful text editing ability than the DIARY module and is ideal for entering tabulated data such as timetables or sales targets etc. GRAPHICS With the Amstrad PCW version a conversion program - compatible with Database Software's Desktop Publisher - is provided for importing graphics images into the NOTEPAD module. Likewise, a LocoScript conversion program is provided for importing ASCII files created with LocoScript. CALENDAR The mainstay of any diary is the calendar. This module allows you to print three months per page for any year you choose to have displayed. PRINTING This can be in NLQ or draft and one or double sided printing is provided for. Having never used the tractor feed attachment with continuous paper I approached the printing out of my data with some apprehension. By following the instructions in the manual I managed to get it right first time round without wasting any paper. MANUAL The small - 12cm by 14 cm - DAATAfax manual is very brief and to the point and covers all of 20 pages. Fortunately the program is straight forward and easy to use so the manual is adequate and meets its objective. People, like me, that enjoy reading software manuals to savour the abilities and intricacies of their new purchase are sure to be disappointed. STATIONERY Filofax compatible continuous stationery is available direct from Kempston Data, ready punched to suit the unique six ring organiser. The paper is perforated ready to separate into page lengths after printing. This stationery is supplied in packs of 250 in either white at #8.95 or pastel shades at #9.95 each. DAATAfax is available for the PCW8256 and 8512, IBM PC and compatibles - including Amstrad PC's - and shortly to be available for the Atari ST. CONCLUSION Although many would consider software such as DAATAfax to be a luxury, when the benefits are compared with the price you could recoup the initial outlay very quickly. Not to mention the potential increase in productivity of the organised Professional and the resulting financial improvements this would bring. For those who like everything to be neat and tidy DAATAfax will go a very long way in satisfying their needs too. An ideal gift for the person who has everything!