From the October 1992 Bits of Blue

Secretary’s Report
TAMPA IBM USERS GROUP
MINUTES OF 9/9/92

As I sat waiting for the “starting gavel”, I noted the gathering of the clan in the very nice facilities IBM makes available to our group and thought how fortunate we are. In addition to these super facilities, we always have a professional presentation of current software by industry reps and/or one of our own, we have a willing source of help with any computer problems we might have, we have access to some excellent training and education in SIGs, we can keep up to date on the most important industry developments. etc., etc., and we get to meet and mingle with some very nice people. And there are always several valuable raffle prizes given away to some lucky members. We always have a nice turnout for our meetings, yet there are many who are members of our group that never attend the meetings. I wonder if they know what they are missing.

CLUB NEWS:

Our Prez informed us of the current SIG on Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS, which was holding one of its classes at the time, and announced that the SIG on Modems & Using the BBS would be held next month -- time and date to be announced. All interested in this group were asked to put their name and phone number on a list — these folks would be contacted by Don Patzsch with the time and place for the SIG. Don Patzsch, a Co-SYSOP for the large Sunshine BBS and an expert in this area, will head up this SIG. Judging from the line of folks waiting to put their name on the list, it is going to be a nice group.

Kevan Sheridan, our BOB SYSOP announced that he had ordered our new 14,400 baud modem for the BBS. A 6-8 week delivery is involved, so Kevan is looking toward a Nov/Dec operational date. Club objectives downstream are to add another phone line to the BBS, upgrade the computer to 386 level, and add storage capacity. •We have come a long way, baby—with Kevan’s able efforts—and we are going a lot further in the future.

INDUSTRY NEWS:

Harvey informed us of a number of developments in the industry, on only a few of which I was able to get notes.

IBM will be coming out with their new gaggle of PCs next month, including a couple with ISA. A significant part of the announcement is that they will be marketed through national retail outlets, such as Work Place.

New/relocated computer stores: CompuAdd has relocated from its former Fowler location to one on west Hillsborough, west of Dale Mabry, in the same complex as the Sports Authority. A new computer superstore, Computer City, will be going in on Dale Mabry between Kennedy and Cypress.

It appears that at least one company is coming out with a laptop computer that will have a bubble jet printer as an integral part. Harvey observed that that could be a problem -- if you have to have the printer repaired, you would also lose use of the computer. Looks as if that could be handy for the traveler, though.

Software Upgrades:

• MS Money 2.0 will be out next month.
• A new upgrade for Quicken for DOS is on the way. A free upgrade for the Windows version is also out, but you have to ask for it -- so, if you own Quicken for Windows, best get on the phone and make a call to the Quicken folks.
• FoxPro for DOS and a Windows BETA version should be released in October.
• The second interim release (2.0b) for MS Word for Windows will be coming out soon

Still in the software area, the Aldus Corp is perhaps the first major software producer to announce that it will not develop a 32-bit version of PageMaker for IBM’s OS2/2.0.

It has been reported that the new Xtree for Windows has some problems. I did not catch all the info, but did hear mention of SuperStor. Check it out before you buy.

Harvey noted that in one of the publications he reviews it had been reported that Windows software now outsells software for DOS. (Think about that just a little bit.)

Speaking of Windows, Harvey observed what could be a very risky situation. In the interest of conserving $$$$ in a multi-computer situation to network and install Windows on the central computer. That’s fine, BUT -- what if the central computer goes down? If you are using Windows programs, what do you do???

PROGRAM PRESENTATION

We were again blessed with the expertise and talents of John Johanasmeyer of WordPerfect Corporation, this time to

give us a rundown on WP’s Presentation program, version 2.0. This was the second Beta version for DOS. A Windows version will be forthcoming later. Its direct competitors are other upper end graphics and presentation programs -- CorelDraw, Applause, Harvard Graphics, to name a few. WP believes that their Presentation package is superior to those of all of their competitors.

It appears to be a super program, but I am not into that kind of software and am not in a position to judge one way or another. I do know that I would like to have some of the capabilities I observed. It seemed capable of doing just about anything I could think that anyone would want to do in the way of preparing a computer presentation -- and do it easily and well. Some of the features I noted are:

• Will produce and handle (import and export) both bitmapped and vector based graphics, and the listing of supported graphics formats is extensive.
• Includes a bitmap editor that allows editing of bitmapped graphics in fine detail.
• Allows manipulating both text and graphics in just about any manner one could imagine.
• Includes a WP 5.1 spell checker.
• Includes a “John Madden” draw capability — you know, redraw the play on a rerun of the play
• Supports .WAV and .MID, and includes hundreds of .MID files and the capability to create .WAV. While it will use the computer sound system, a sound card is certainly desirable to take advantage of this feature.
• Automated or manual presentation of slide shows, and one can quickly and easily reorganize a presentation.
• The output of the program can be transported to and used from another computer via floppy. The other computer need not have Presentation loaded, for the runtime program Presentation will load onto the floppy along with the output will allow presentation with the other computer. Interestingly, the file size per slide seems very small indeed, and the runtime package is only about 75K. So, a single 1.4 Mb floppy would hold a very large presentation. Runtime does not give the capability to modify the presentation, however, so the presentation you take in this manner is the only presentation you can give.
• Includes over 1000 pieces of clip art.

I don’t recall any mention of supported text formats, but I did note that Presentation 2.0 would accept directly text input from any version on \VP 5.1.

I don’t recall any mention of equipment requirements beyond needing about 15 Mb of hard disk space. Just as with any graphics package, the faster your computer, the better off you are. While Presentation may run on a 286, I would guess that you would want a 386 or better, or you may be twiddling your thumbs a good bit. I believe John was using a 386/40 laptop on which the program ran very well. The retail price is set at $495, and no clues were available about expected street price.

John did a great job of presenting what appears a super program, and I haven’t done justice to either. Many thanks, John, (and Word Perfect) for an entertaining and informative presentation (and all the goodies, of course) -- another WordPerfect job VERY WELL DONE!!

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

With the generosity of WP Corp and GeoWorks, there were quite a few raffle prizes this meeting, and the lucky winners are:

WP Cap--William Coleman, Martin Miller, Kevan Sheridan, Roger Waters
WP Shirt --Larry Anders, Susan Atwood
Box 3.5 disks--Larry Anders
WP Graphics Lib--Cheryl Pett
Money Matters--Larry Anders
50/50 ($36)--Chuck Himes u