COPYRIGHT MICRO COMPUTER MART MicroMart (UK) Limited 24 Richmond Road Olton Solihull West Midlands PCW GOES PROFESSIONAL "Mini Office Professional, available for many popular micros as well as the Amstrad PCW, has been hailed as the answer to all our serious software needs. Gerry Austin finds out" Just a few short years ago the bill for one computer application would have set you back hundreds of pounds. Now, for a total of œ29.95 you can buy Mini Office Professional with five applications rolled into one package. What price for an application program now? Well, œ5.99 to be precise. Database Software came under heavy fire with the first version of their PCW Mini Office Professional - it was riddled with bugs - but now that most of the gremlins have been exorcised, this package represents excellent value for all needing a suite of programs that are able to 'talk' to each other. The people's micro runs the people's software! One of the main criticisms is that Mini Office Professional can not import or export data to/from other industry standard databases or spreadsheets. It can, however, import/export data between its own modules: database records can be used by the word processor and spreadsheet data can be used by the graphics program, and so on. The word processor is able to create and import ASCII files as well. So it isn't completely stand alone. To start Mini Office Professional load your PCW with CP/M and insert the Mini Office Professional program disk into drive A: (or B: if you have one) and type "OFFICE" and press return. You will be quickly presented with the main menu which is the universal loader for the five applications and a disc utilities module (see menu), common to all the modules. WORD PROCESSOR Once you have settled down with your new PCW and begin word processing in earnest, you will quickly find that LocoScript tends to have a few shortcomings: slow, especially with long documents. No word count facility. No mail merge ability without buying additional software and a few more as well in LocoScript's basic form as supplied with the PCW 8000's. Mini Office Professional is a cost effective way of adding most of the shortcomings of LocoScript, and a lot more. Mini Office Professional's word processor will immediately please all that like to move around their documents - especially long ones - with a bit of gusto. You will delight at being able to dart from top to bottom of a document in less than a second and the generally superior manoeverability that this word processor offers. The PCW's dedicated keyboard is utilised so the Page, Doc, Paste keys, and the like, work as you would expect, but for those used to WordStar-like control sequences will be pleased to find these available as an alternative method of obtaining the same results. They all make use of the ALT key and another letter. The screen displays very good WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get - including Italics, super and subscripts, double width/height and condensed script. To make life easier there is a very useful page preview facility that can help prevent users, especially while learning the ropes, wasting what must seem like reams of paper. Many will be content with just the improved speed, but that is not all. Mini Office's word processor has a useful find/exchange function, though not accessible directly from within edit mode, you can search for a string regardless of its case. While LocoScript 1 would fail to find "LONDON" when the FIND string is "London" this word processor will find both and any other occurrences of the given string regardless of case. You may decide whether you wish to ignore or include control codes in the search too. Other enhancements over LocoScript are also very welcome, like the ability to change lower case to upper case very quickly, and vice versa and the ability to merge database module data into word processed documents to produce a mail shot. Press F1 and your document is automatically saved, and another useful feature is an automatic save prompt, timed to inform you at regular intervals. Pressing F3 toggles page mode on and off. The lower half of the screen shows what will be printed out while the upper screen displays control codes and text as it was typed in. The visually handicapped will benefit from the wide mode obtained by pressing F4, you are given a double size display of the screen. This shows text in a window at a time, scrolled automatically as you type across the screen. There are many new keypresses to learn before you will feel at home with this word processor. For example to centre text, you will be used to LocoScript's "+CE" method, wich as you would expect, will not work here. To achieve centred text you must press "ALT" and "M" together. If you have files created with LocoScript that you would need to access with a new word processor, Mini Office can handle this too. You will have to edit and save the relevant files in ASCII format with LocoScript before loading. Printouts can be done on the PCW printer or any other Epson compatible attached to the parallel interface but do not expect to be able to access all the characters that LocoScript can. Printing justified text is painfully slow as the printer is forced to double print each word, in turn. The only function I missed with this program was a spelling checker. But at œ5.99 you can't have everything. SPREADSHEET The spreadsheet provides users with a powerful module to perform complex repetitive calculations and manipulate their numeric data. If you are new to spreadsheets you will find that time spent at the planning stage will be invaluable. Using a good old fashioned pencil and paper helps to clarify exactly what it is you want the spreadsheet to do. Once the spreadsheet structure has been designed load the Spreadsheet and select the "EDIT DATA" option from the main menu and away you go. There is a comprehensive range of calculations and formulae to choose from when defining your spreadsheet structure and commands may be nested and decisions may be taken by the program depending on the outcome of "IF THEN ELSE" statements. This gives users a powerful ability to preprogram the spreadsheet to give a warning if certain conditions are met - expenses over budget, for example - or continue as normal if they are not. Individual cells are referenced by their co-ordinates: Columns are referenced by a letter A - Z and rows are numbered. Movement around the speadsheet is quick and easy and there is a GOTO command to land in any desired location. When entering data you may select the automatic cursor mode. This allows you to choose which direction the cursor should move when the return key is pressed. This saves lots of time when entering data across (or down) in one direction and saves the user having to manually move the cursor to the next cell. Other features include an instant save facility, error checking when entering formulae, cell locks to bar entry to a single cell or a whole row or column. The Window function allows you to divide the sheet up into as many as seven separate windows. This is used to highlight parts of a spreadsheet on your printout and store parts of your data ready to be loaded by the Graphics module of Mini Office Professional. Being able to graphically display your numerical data is one of the strengths of the spreadsheet. The printing options are many and varied: Condensed, sideways, draft or NLQ print styles are selectable as well as Headings, Printer type, Paper type, Printer width, highlight window and print window. The sideways printing option is useful when large spreadsheets will not fit on your paper in standard portrait fashion but would do so in a landscape format. GRAPHICS This module has been designed to accept data from the spreadsheet and display it visually although you could enter the data manually into the graphics edit data section if you wish. The diagrams show a fictitious sales volume for the PCW's over the past quarter, as a proportion to total PCW sales. The three types of graphs are pictured: Bar Chart, Line Graph and Pie Chart. There are plenty of options available when displaying the three types of graphs, enough to satisfy most situations most of the time. The drawing routines are quick too, considering the amount of data and calculations required to position the screen display. All in all the graphics module is easy and quick to use. DATABASE The Mini Office Professional Database is a box-file type that allows customised screen layouts, search/sort on any field - with the ability to ignore UPPER/lower case letters and FIND the string using any combination of those letters - and mark or subdivide the database. It is able to carry out calculations on certain fields/data and flexible enough to permit changes to the record structure once the database has been created and is in use. Setting up the Database is very straight forward but a little forethought and planning beforehand will enable you to get the most out of the many varied facilities offered. The data for each field can be classified as alpha/numeric; numbers only; date or formula which allows all number fields to be linked by quite detailed formulae and displays the result. Some nice touches are being able to choose the typeface you desire and also have the choice of four different type sizes for field text. The ability to insert a field between two existing fields and an on-screen reminder of the number of records available to you at the current size of your layout are also very useful features. A real boon when you are creating a Database requiring a large number of records. For a simple database with just five fields of 20 characters in each field will allow you a maximum of 3407 records (using a PCW8256 with an expanded RAM Disc.) Once you have defined the database structure and entered all your available data you can browse through your records, amend, delete, mark and sort on as many fields as required in ascending or descending order. You may search any field and mark records, perform calculations on number fields. Whole databases can be manipulated by creating a new database of marked records or deleting marked records from an existing database and two databases may be joined together. You can also SAVE your records in a format usable by the Word processing module for mail merging. The PRINT DATA option offers a comprehensive array of choices including Draft, NLQ or Graphic modes; separate records by a line, page or no separation; print with or without field names; print all or only selected marked records and there is also a Label/Report printing facility. COMMUNICATIONS COMMS is the jargon used to describe communicating with your computer via a modem and along the telephone lines to another computer. To use this module you will need a modem connected to the PCW - via an RS232 interface on the PCW8000's - and a telephone line in reach of your computer. Once you are set up you can access massive databases, use your PCW as a telex machine and send electronic mail. You can conduct an ever growing range of transactions whilst on line: Mail order shopping and home banking to name but two. The Mini Office Professional Comms program has been set up ready to communicate with Microlink Gold and Prestel at the most common baud rates. You are able to configure the RS232 port to suit your own preferences or bulletin board that you are about to communicate with. The PCW function keys may also be configured to allow easy entry of complex and lengthy passwords that are required when logging on to the various systems. File transfer protocols supported include Kermit and XModem and the screen will display both ordinary text and Prestel's block graphics. CONCLUSION Mini Office Professional's suite of five programs offers PCW owners a low cost entry into the five main activities they are likely to use. My grumbles must be seen in context with the benefits that this software package offers. At the price of œ29.95 - and even cheaper if you shop around, sometimes as low as œ19.95 - Mini Office Professional should be one of the first items of software that new owners buy. Database Software has taken a risk of inferring that because Mini Office Professional is cheap, it must be inadequate. Nothing could be further from the truth! The ringbound MANUAL supplied is brief but concise with a good index and tutorials. Examples files are found on the two disks that are supplied with the program. The manual is unlikely to be a substitute for real practice using this suite of programs, so be prepared for an element of head scratching and a few teething problems until you get to grips with what is a very powerful suite of programs. Mini Office Professional is available from most PCW mail order dealers or direct from Database Software, Europa House, Adlington Park, Adlington, Macclesfield. SK10 5NP or telephone 0625 879940 ton Park, Adlington, Macclesfield. SK10 5NP or