Looking Back to 1991

Secretary’s Report
TAMPA IBM PC USERS GROUP
MINUTES OF 11/13/91 MEETING

(I did not join the meeting until the DOS class ended at 6:30 PM; what happened at the meeting prior to that time is unknown.)

In his typically thorough fashion, our President brought to the meeting much information relating to developments in the PC world that he had come across since the last meeting. Among those items were:

· A brief discussion of EXPOTECH recently conducted at the new convention center in Tampa. One could see some of the latest developments in PC hardware there, as well as find some very good buys. Harvey cautioned, however, that some of the vendors at such as EXPOTECH may not be from the local area and you might be hard pressed to get follow-on support in such instances.

· A new book store, "Book Shop", had opened across from University Square Mall. It is apparently a warehouse kind of store with a very good selection in the computer field, as well as discount pricing. Harvey reported that there appeared to be no organization in shelving the books and he therefore had some difficulty in locating selections. A good place to buy from a price standpoint.

· Harvey reported that the long awaited Comp USA computer store should be opened before the end of the year. It is being set up on Hillsborough between Himes and Dale Mabry. Visitors to their other store locations in Miami and Atlanta, among others, have made glowing remarks about these stores - especially low pricing. It will be a welcome addition to our sources. A word of caution: This is strictly a discount operation in a warehouse environment where you pretty much have to know what you want when you go in. It has rock bottom prices and service is commensurate.

· A new upgrade to Laplink is now available.

· The Far Side has come out with a personal information manager (PIM) program. One "advantage?" of this program over other PIMs is that it adds Far Side humor. On the other hand, some report utility shortcomings in this program compared to other PIMs. Look it over to be sure it does what you want before you put your money on the line.

· Harvey reported that Intel and IBM have joined together in a collaborative effort in computer chip development. Some discussion followed as to why, with a wide range of whys expressed. We will just have to wait and see. One thing for sure, though, is that both firms believe it in their best interest.

Our club has grown to about 160 members now. Though this is some short of the 200 goal Harvey had set for 1991, we have grown a great deal. The workload had also grown a great deal and more member support and help are needed. The elected officers cannot continue to carry the entire load by themselves. Some very good improvements have been made to date in serving the needs of our members and we want to continue to improve and expand. Here are some of the things YOU can do to help:

· Make yourself available to serve as an officer with the club - and it is not to late to do so for the coming year; elections are at the December meeting. If you can’t do that, make yourself available to assist.

· Provide articles for the Newsletter. If you come across information of general interest to the membership, submit it for the newsletter. Write a review of one of the programs you have and submit it. If you hear of or have developed some useful utility or technique which has been beneficial to you, submit an input to the newsletter. You know, our newsletter is a bit like a computer - no input, no output. Please help.

· We would like to expand areas of instruction to include word processing, data base, spreadsheet, communications, DTP, etc. BUT, we need people willing to conduct classes on these subjects. To date we have held two classes on DOS (the second in progress now), both of which have been conducted by Ed Buzza, our workhorse who also provides newsletter articles, program review presentations at our meetings, etc., etc.; he is doing far more than his share now. Come on people, share your expertise with your fellow club members. Contact Ed Buzza or Harvey Bruneau.

· We would like to get involved, as a club, in community service - give something back to the community. We need your thoughts on how we might do that.

NOMINATIONS: The President opened the floor to nominations for the elected positions in the club to serve during 1992. The following nominations were made:

President Harvey Bruneau
Vice President Steve Speairs
Treasurer Bill Fuller
Education Ed Buzza
Member At Large Roger Waters
Secretary
(Co-secretary) Jim Clark
(Co-secretary) Charles Howe

Elections will be held at the December meeting. Nominations will be open until the time of the elections.

Come on now, be prepared to make your nominations at the December meeting, or better still, volunteer yourself for one of these positions.

COMING PRESENTATIONS: The President reported that the following lineup had been completed for guest presentations:

DECEMBER - Microsoft Visual Basic, MS Works, MS Money, MS Publisher.

JANUARY - Word Perfect for Windows FEBRUARY - Corel Draw

PROGRAM REVIEW: Following a break, our own Ed Buzza gave a review of Soft Key’s Key Publisher. This is a DTP program which is identical to Timeworks’ Publish It 1.2. DAK (a California based electronics mail order firm with which most of us are familiar) made a deal with Timeworks for a license to sell Publish It 1.2 under a different name and with different documentation; Timeworks had developed version 2.0, which is now on the market.

Key Publisher (KP) is a very flexible low-end DTP program. It has a lot to offer, especially for the price, and makes an excellent entry level DTP program. I say entry level recognizing that this program could well serve all of your DTP needs. On the other hand, the low end programs cannot compare in power and flexibility with the high end DTP programs like PageMaker.

KP is not word a processor, but it has a word processor capability so that text can be entered from the keyboard into the program without difficulty. You are out of luck on spell check and thesaurus, though. Similarly, KP is not a graphics draw program, but it does have a limited draw capability. Among the features of Key Publisher are:

· Imports ASCII text files as well as files in the format of several of the major word processing programs.

· Imports graphics in several formats, including TIFF, PCX, GEM, 1MG and EPS.

· Ability to create and retain "style" (master) sheets which saves much time on repeat publications.

· All low end DTPs are memory hogs in that they handle both graphics and text as bit maps. But KP makes better use of conventional memory than some other low enders. The program does not use extended memory.

· The program will handle about 30 pages at one time, but I think you would run out of memory before that time if you use many graphics.

· The program is slow on the slower computers if you edit text or alter pages toward the beginning of a multiple page document because of the redraw time. However, redraw time can be reduced by hiding all graphics.

· Hands [Handles] pages from 3.75 X 6.5" to 8.5 X 14", with several sizes in between, landscape or portrait.

· Flexible column guides, with up to six columns allowed.

· Has six fonts, two of which can be sized in increments from 7 to 60 points; the other four offer only two sizes 15 (or 16) or 30 points. All of the standard styles are available, but only light is available in text effects.

· Graphics and text frames can be moved anywhere on a page, but cannot be rotated, flipped or distorted in any way.

· The "Help" available in the program is fairly good, but it is not location sensitive; that is, when you ask for help you are offered a help index from which you choose the area of help you want. And you cannot obtain help when you are in a dialog box.

And so on. Ed gave an excellent presentation of Key Publisher, but space here precludes giving further detail. Though limited compared to the high enders, it is a nice program and fairly easy to learn. He clearly showed that you get a lot of bang for the buck with this package which can be had from DAK for a mere $9.90, plus $4.50 S&H. If you are interested, here’s the contact:

DAK Industriçs
8200 Remmet Ave
Canoga Park, CA 91304-4182
1-800-325-0800 with credit card number.
Order item 5919S for 5 1/4" floppy, 5920S for 3 1/2" floppy.u