From the February 1994 Bits of Blue

By: Jim Clark

The meeting, our last general meeting in the IBM Lake Pointe facilities, began on time at 6 PM, with our President, Harvey Bruneau, presiding. There were fewer members present than normal, probably because most had not yet received the newsletter which serves as a reminder, and perhaps because this was the last meeting at the lovely Lake Pointe building. A simultaneous meeting of the OS/2 Users group undoubtedly also drew some of our members. Unfortunate for them because they missed some very good info and an excellent presentation.

New Meeting Location In February: Harvey reminded all that this was the last meeting in the Lake Pointe building and that the February meeting would be held at the regular time at the Ybor City campus of Hillsborough Community College. A map is included on the back page of the current newsletter and will be in the next newsletter as well. Harvey also reported that while he does not yet have a computer for the group in his possession, he does have a promise of a donor computer. Arrangements have also been made to borrow from his employer Dun & Bradstreet a projector on a very temporary basis; that is, we cannot make such an imposition for very long and we must obtain our own projector in the not very distant future.

Student Memberships: Harvey informed the membership of a BOD decision to create a new membership category Students & Staff (of the HCC only). Annual membership fee is $15. The good rapport established already in our relationship with the HCC has led to them making available space for use by our SIGs.

Meet Your BBS: All were advised that Kevan, our SYSOP, was holding another Meet Your BBS Nite on the third Wednesday of this month. If good participation continues at this excellent learning opportunity, it may well become a regularly scheduled event.

Word Perfect Presentation Rescheduled: Word Perfect has rescheduled their planned presentation at our February meeting to the April meeting. Harvey is working with Microsoft to come in for a presentation at the February meeting. CorelDraw is still scheduled for the March meeting.

100 MHz 486: Word in the industry is that these machines will be available this year. They will be only slightly slower than present Pentiums and will cost considerably less, like in the $2500 range.

MS Excel: For those looking for the 5.0 version of Excel, Microsoft has announced that it will ship next month.

Windows For Work Groups: Version 3.11 of this program will be widely available soon. Be aware that while OS/2 is compatible with Windows for Work Groups 3.1, it is not compatible with Windows For Work Groups 3.11.

CA Simply Money & Simply Tax Computer Associates (CA) graciously made available for our benefit one of their Product Consultants, Marty Steiner, to give us a rundown on two of their products, Simply Money and Simply Tax. Since very few of those present knew much about CA, Marty gave us a little info about the company. It was surprising for most of us to learn that CA is the second largest software company in the business and has been around from the start. In fact, many years ago they produced the second spreadsheet program to be marketed, Super Calc. They have been big in the mainframe area all this time and are now working to improve their recognition in the PC world; hence, the Simply Money and Simply Tax programs they have been making available for only a S & H charge. CA has software covering just about the full spectrum of computer applications: word processing, data base, spreadsheet, etc.; some 13 major applications in all. Marty then gave a brief review of Simply Money and Simply Tax.

As a user of Simply Money I can tell you that it is simple, flexible and easy to use, though I will admit that I have not even scratched the surface of its capabilities. Requirements to load and use Simply Money are: A 286 or better machine, with at least 2 Mb of Ram (4 recommended), mouse, 5 Mb of hard disk space, DOS 3.1 or later, and Windows 3.1 or later. At the present time, it is available only as a Windows program.

Simply Tax is a comprehensive personal and small business tax preparation program. It, too, appears to be very customizable, comprehensive and easy to use. It allows entry of data for the tax returns via interview, questions and answer, or direct entry, all of which appear easy, direct and straight forward. Included are some 90 forms, schedules and worksheets; it is very comprehensive. Its many features include: Use of data from Simply Money, Quicken, Lotus Dollars & Sense and Managing Money, and uses Tax Exchange Format (.TXF) which allows import of data from other accounting programs; automatic overflow statements to accommodate more entries than IRS forms provide; a quick tour to familiarize the user with the program; a tax forecasting capability; data validation; tax preparation checklist; cross reference help; comprehensive context sensitive online help; depreciation history and reference tables; automatic links to appropriate form & line; averages of itemized deductions with an audit alert to notify of entries which exceed substantially the averages; tax tips to help identify ways of reducing tax liabilities; and a “what if” capability, to name just a few.

Simply Tax will print out all of the return forms ready to file. We are told that when printed on a good laser printer the forms will appear identical to the IRS forms. Alternatively, it has the capability and includes instructions to file the tax return electronically.

Simply Tax is available for Windows or DOS. Requirements for the Windows version of Simply Tax are: A 336 or better machine with 2 Mb of RAM (4 Mb recommended), 5.5 Mb of hard disk space, Windows 3.1. A mouse is recommended. Requirements for the DOS version are: Any IBM compatible PC with 640 K of RAM (500K available), 3.5 Mb of hard disk space, and DOS 3.0 or later. Mouse is optional. Just about any Epson/IBM/HP compatible printer can be used with either version.

Simply money can be obtained by calling 1800FREEMONEY. Cost is $6.95 to cover S & H. Simply Tax can be obtained by calling I8007FREE TAX. Cost is $9.95, again for S & H. If ordering both programs, call the Simply Tax number.

Marty and Computer Associates, we THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your visit, for familiarizing us with your company, for a great presentation of two of your programs, and for the copies of Simply Money you donated. You have a couple of great looking programs in Simply Money and Simply Tax. We hope you will favor us with presentations in the future on upgrades to these programs, as well as introduce us to your other programs.

AND THE WINNER IS

Thanks to the generosity of Computer Associates, who donated several copies of Simply Money, and collections obtained by Harvey and Marylee at Comdex, there were some very nice door prizes. Those among us to have the good fortune to win are:

• Larry T. Brooks Simply Money
• Cheryl Petty Simply Money
• Doug Rapphun Simply Money
• Dan Whitman Simply Money
• M. N. Martenez Carrying case
• W. F. LaMartin 2 cups

In addition, 2 people won monitor borders and at least 9 people won psychedelic sunglasses.