Lotus articles from October 1988

Lotus archives from October 1988

To all the Mr. Davises. (editorial)
October 1, 1988... TO ALL THE MR. DAVISES "Perhaps I am a special case in that I am a new entry into the field of personal computing, yet I have a pretty fair idea of what it is that I really need," wrote John E. Davis of Salem, Oreg., in a recent letter....

Lotus announces 1-2-3 Release 3 upgrade policies. (Lotus Development Corp.)
October 1, 1988... LOTUS ANNOUNCES 1-2-3 RELEASE 3 UPGRADE POLICIES Lotus Development Corp. is offering a free upgrade to 1-2-3 Release 3, its new spreadsheet for DOS and OS/2, to anyone who purchases 1-2-3 Release 2.01 between September 6 and 30 days after...

IBM's Micro Channel: a better bus design or marketing hype?
October 1, 1988... IBM'S MICRO CHANNEL: A BETTER BUS DESIGN OR MARKETING HYPE? To hear IBM tell it, the new Micro Channel architecture (MCA) bus that is in Models 50 and above of its Personal System/2 computers is the greatest advance in computers since the...

Hook up your computer to your VCR; that's the next big trend, says Trip Hawkins. (interview)
October 1, 1988... HOOK UP YOUR COMPUTER TO YOUR VCR Hooking up computers to a VCR to create snappy sales and training videos seems like a natural extension of the desktop-presentation movement that is sweeping through American corporate offices. The...

Microsoft and IBM enhance DOS; version 4.0 is easier to use and supports expanded memory. (product announcement)
October 1, 1988... MICROSOFT AND IBM ENHANCE DOS Just when it seems that the PC world is shifting toward OS/2, along comes a greatly enhanced version of DOS. Microsoft and IBM recently released identical versions of DOS 4.0,a major upgrade that can...

New chips for page printers; they boost printing speeds and lower costs.
October 1, 1988... NEW CHIPS FOR PAGE PRINTERS This year at least a half-dozen manufacturers will introduce processor chips designed specifically to control the operation of page printes, those printers that produce one page at a time. These new chips will...

Beyond bifocals; help for tired eyes.
October 1, 1988... BEYOND BIFOCALS Help for tired eyes For people with eye trouble or for those nearing middle age, spending long hours in front of a computer screen can be debilitating. What affects most people as they approach 40 is a condition called...

Where to get eye help. (sources of helpful information for visually-impaired computer users) (directory)
October 1, 1988... WHERE TO GET EYE HELP Many helpful products for the visually impaired are produced by small companies and are not easy to find. Contact the following organizations for more information. The IBM National Support Center for Persons with...

Is your business data safe from intruders? How to protect your system.
October 1, 1988... IS YOUR BUSINESS DATA SAFE FROM INTRUDERS? American business loses at least $3 billion a year to computer fraud. Yet, according to a Congressional subcommittee report, an estimated 85% of all computer crime is unreported. And that big...

Passwords: a system's first line of defense.
October 1, 1988... PASSWORDS: A SYSTEM'S FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE Studying high-tech crime in England and the United States, the British Insurance brokers Hogg Robinson determined that most cases apparently require the assistance of someone inside the...

A specialized laptop. (Linus Write-Top fro Linus Technologies) (product announcement)
October 1, 1988... A SPECIALIZED LAPTOP If you need to take notes while you're on your feet--at a convention, for example, or on a job site--there's new laptop computer that lets you write directly on its display. The Linus Write-Top, from Linus...

Spreadsheet users' likes and dislikes. (Infoworld survey)
October 1, 1988... SPREADSHEET USERS' LIKES AND DISLIKES InforWorld, a newsweekly that reports on the personal-computer industry, recently asked 1,000 of its readers to rate the importance of various spreadsheet features. Three percent of those who were...

What's it worth? (Sybex Computer Blue Book, with prices for new and used computers and software)
October 1, 1988... WHAT'S IT WORTH? If you'r thinking of trading in your personal computer for a new model, one of the best places to find out what your old clunker is worth in the Sybex Computer Blue Book, published by Sybex (Alameda, Calif.). Like the...

Pop-up spreadsheet. (Numbers Up from Mindscape) (product announcement)
October 1, 1988... POP-UP SPREADSHEET Numbers Up is a new RAM-resident spreadsheet program ($79.95, from Mindscape, Northbrook, Ill.) that can read and write 1-2-3 and Symphony files. According to Mindscape, this pop-up spreadsheet contains about 40 of the...

Macros and menus; menus let you decide which tasks your macros should perform. (technical)
October 1, 1988... MACROS AND MENUS Menus let you decide which tasks your macros should perform. You may have written macros to enter data, write summary text, generate graphs, print reports, query a database, consolidate information from other worksheets,...

Use range input for data entry; the Range Input add-in is a simple alternative to Symphony's FORM windows. (Symphony macros) (includes related information on Range names) (technical)
October 1, 1988... USE RANGE INPUT FOR DATA ENTRY Entering data is an unavoidable annoyance when you work with Symphony. Sometimes it's easiest to work in a SHEET window and enter data directly into the worksheet. For bigger jobs you might generate a...

A recalculation macro; this discussion provides a brief introduction to the command keywords.
October 1, 1988... A RECALCULATION MACRO The formulas in your worksheet occupy more than 100 rows, and the supporting data stretch past the thousandth row. Your worksheet recalculation is set to manual, so you'll have several minutes to worry about matters...

The return-on-equity calculator. (creating easy-to-read flowcharts to test forecasting scenarios) (technical)
October 1, 1988... THE RETURN-ON-EQUITY CALCULATOR Many companies evaluate their business plans by forecasting their return on equity (ROE). This is tedious work because it requires tracing projected changes in sales, expenses, assets, and liabilities...

Performance analysis. (using spreadsheet data tables) (technical)
October 1, 1988... PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS The sales figures for the most recent month are in, and the bottom line looks good. Sales and profits are up, and the profit margin is a healthy 54%. Nevertheless, this is no time to let down your guard. You must...

Batch files...not just for experts.
October 1, 1988... Batch Files... Not Just for Experts For many people, the term batch file belongs in that category of occult techie concpets that only the initiated--advanced-level programmers, at least--can understand. In fact, a batch file is simply a...

Answers to your questions about Lotus products. (Q&A )
October 1, 1988... ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT LOTUS PRODUCTS CREATING DELIMITED ASCII FILES Q. I want to translate my 1-2-3 address database into a comma-delimited ASCII file that I can retrieve with my word processor to produce form...

More tips on using Lotus products. (reader tips)
October 1, 1988... MORE TIPS ON USING LOTUS PRODUCTS 1-2-3/SYMPHONY SELECTING RANDOM SAMPLES FROM A DATABASE I developed a method of generating random labels from a database. For example, if you have a 600-record database and want to...

Graphwriter II: automatically update your graphs and charts with this graphics program. (from Lotus Development Corp.) (Software Review) (evaluation)
October 1, 1988... GRAPHWRITER II If you regularly chart the progress of your business, consider one of the programs tht can automatically update your graphs from your worksheet. We covered one program that can do that, Harvard Graphics, in July's Graphics...

The income statement. (part 6)
October 1, 1988... THE INCOME STATEMENT If you've been following this series, you're already well acquainted with Today's Bouquets--the imaginary small flower shop you own and operate. Over the past year you've succeeded at providing the exotic bouquets...

Software: Pixie; presentation graphics made easy. (from Zenographics Inc.) (Software Review) (evaluation)
October 1, 1988... SOFTWARE: PIXIE This past spring, Zenographics' Pixie won first place at the National Computer Graphics Association's competition for personal-computer graphics software. What separates this package from the rest of the business-graphics...

Solve problems with frequency distribution. (Lotus 1-2-3 Data Distribution command)
October 1, 1988... Solve Problems with FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION An excess of data often confounds rather than clarifies problem solving. When scanning a huge array of values fails to proffer a clue, use the Data Distribution command in 1-2-3 (the Range...

Software: Flash-In and (at)WSLink. (Software Review) (overview of two Lotus 1-2-3 add-in software evaluations) (evaluation)
October 1, 1988... SOFTWARE: FLASH-IN AND @WSLINK No worksheet is an island, or at least it shouldn't be. Links among worksheets reflect links among an organization's fiscal activities, which may span different departments, different companies, even...

Flash-In. (Software Review) (one of two 1-2-3 add-in software evaluations in 'Software: Flash-In and WSlink') (evaluation)
October 1, 1988... FLASH-IN Flash-In's essential purpose is to make it easier for you to transfer data from one worksheet to another. In a window that pops up over the current worksheet, the program can display any other worksheet stored on the disk. In that...

(at)WSlink. (Software Review) (one of two 1-2-3 add-in software evaluations in 'Software: Flash-In and WSlink') (evaluation)
October 1, 1988... @WSLINK If you want to reference cells in a worksheet stored on disk and thereby create a dynamic link between it and the active worksheet, @WSlink will interest you. @WSlink is a single @function that you can use to reference a value stored...

Software: R:Base for DOS and R:BASE for OS-2. (relational DBMS's from Microrim Inc.) (Software Review) (includes related article on organizing data into tables) (evaluation)
October 1, 1988... SOFTWARE: R:BASE FOR DOS AND R:BASE FOR OS/2 If you're in the market for a stand-alone relational database, chances are pretty good that market-leading dBase is the product against which you'll compare all others. If you primarily create...

Lotus Agenda helps you create to-do lists, monitor projects, and organize information for easy reference. (product announcement)
October 1, 1988... Lotus Agenda Helps You Create To-Do Lists, Monitor Projects, and Organize Information for Easy Reference THE MOST VISIBLE AMONG THE ENTRANTS IN THE NASCENT, hard-to-define software category of personal-information managers is Lotus Agenda from...

The day-of-the-week problem. (using Toshiba T1100 Plus laptop to calculate day of the week for any date in history)
October 1, 1988... THE DAY-OF-THE-WEEK PROBLEM I procrastinated for several weeks before addressing the registration paperwork that came with my new Toshiba laptop. The marketing tigers at Toshiba America wanted details about my working environment, my...

(at)Err.
October 1, 1988... @ERR $95 is the correct price of Trans for 1-2-3 from Intex Solutions, Needham, MA 02194, 617-449-6222. It was listed incorrectly in the July New Products section. Like many readers, we have recently been unable to contract The Mt....