September 95 First Impressions

At first, you'll probably just want to wander around Microsoft's spacious new Office 95. But once you get comfortable with your surroundings, you'll likely spend more time with Word than any other app.

There aren't a lot of new features in Microsoft Word for Windows 95, but there are plenty of changes. Most modifications were made to bring Word into compliance with Office 95 and Windows 95 standards, such as long filenames, the new File dialog box and more extensive screen tips. On the other hand, some Windows 95 features aren't fully exploited. For example, Word 95 uses multithreading only to improve background printing.

Some changes are designed to fill in gaps in your feature set. If your touch typing trips up and you press the Caps Lock key instead of the Shift key, Word will sense the error in the next sentence when your typed text has the upper- and lowercase letters reversed. Word will correct the mistakes and turn off Caps Lock. This feature does have a significant limitation: It doesn't work on a paragraph's first sentence.

Word 6.0's AutoCorrect has gotten smarter in Word 95. Instead of assuming that two capital letters in a row is a mistake, it now keeps it hands off legitimate occurrences such as pluralized acronyms like PCs. AutoCorrect can expand user-defined abbreviations, including possessives. So it could, for example, substitute WM's readers with WINDOWS Magazine's readers. If you backspace over an AutoCorrect correction to refuse Word's suggestion, Word will add it to its exception list. AutoCorrect has added a few more tricks to its repertoire. It's smart enough to turn a series of equal signs into a double solid line across the page and it can change 1st into 1st.

Word 95 analyzes what you type and makes intelligent substitutions. If you type a number followed by a period and some text, Word 95 automatically switches into numbering mode and neatly formats your typing as a numbered list. Similarly, it switches into bulleted list format when you type a few dashes followed by some text. It's now also easier to exit either list format --just press backspace.

The new spell checker is a little more aggressive, too. It scrutinizes spelling as you type and underlines mistakes with a squiggly red line. Right-click on the word and a list of suggested replacements pops up, along with menu options to add the word to your dictionary or to open the regular spell check dialog. You can turn this feature off, but if you let it do its thing, when you run the standard spell checker, it'll rocket through your text because it already knows where the errors are. One caveat about Word 95's spell checking: It won't spot errors as you type if the words are all uppercase.

If your Word 95 work goes to colleagues who use other word processors, you'll appreciate the new filters for exporting to Ami Pro (through version 3.0) and WordPerfect 6.x. And like the latest version of WordPerfect, Word 95's find-and- replace feature now handles word forms, so if you're replacing "view" with "see," the word "viewed" will change to "saw." In the print dialog box, you can select a printer for the current document without changing Windows 95's default printer. Word 95 also supports the Answer Wizard and has proportional scroll bars with page number prompts.

You won't have to spend much time learning these new Word 95 features. They're logical enhancements that take good advantage of the Windows 95 environment.

Microsoft Excel never wore a dunce cap in our book, but its Windows 95 version is packed with improvements that push the program's IQ well into genius territory.

Our hands-down favorite new feature in Microsoft Excel for Windows 95 is AutoCalculate. You can highlight cells anywhere on your spreadsheet--they don't have to be in the same row or column--and AutoCalculate will display the average, count, minimum, maximum, numeric selection or sum of those numbers in a box at the bottom of the screen. It may not be the most revolutionary feature to appear in a spreadsheet program, but it's certainly handy and will definitely put our desktop calculator out to pasture for good.

The AutoComplete feature speeds up data entry by keeping track of the cell entries you make and, based on those entries, makes a well-educated guess at what you want to enter next in the column. For example, if the word "Sales" has already appeared a few times in a column, the next time you type an "s" in a blank cell in the column, AutoComplete will anticipate "Sales" and finish the entry for you. If you don't like AutoComplete's suggestion, you can easily override it by continuing to type the preferred entry. You can also fill cells by right-clicking on an empty cell and picking one of the previous column entries from a pop-up pick list.

The program is also more clever about filtering data. AutoFilter let us filter by any entry, and also provided a "Top Ten" filtering option. The Top Ten filter will automatically list the top 10 values in a list. Top Ten can be customized to filter the top or bottom elements in the list and to filter by items or percent. In addition, there's a spin box where you can raise or lower the number of elements in the filtering criteria.

Cell Notes, which were added in Excel 2.0, have been enhanced. Notes, which can be comments, old values or even sounds, now will pop up in the same manner as Screen Tips.

The program has also been greatly enhanced in terms of usability. This version has animated screen actions to give precise visual feedback illustrating what action has been taken. For example, when we deleted a column, we could see the column beside it slide into its new position. Scroll Tips show the topmost row that will appear on the display whenever you slide the proportional scroll bar.

Formatting numbers on your spreadsheet is easier, too. Excel has done away with the sometimes cryptic formatting codes, such as ,0.00, and replaced them with simple examples that use real numbers, like "1,200.00." All the choices in the new Format Cell dialog are displayed as real-world examples.

Individually, Excel's new features aren't earthshaking, but together they make Excel more intelligent and user-friendly than ever.

Although a popular presentation package, PowerPoint has never been known for exciting slides. But the jazzed-up Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 95 may turn a few heads.

Now you can pep up presentations with animation, for effects like words flying in from several different directions with associated sound effects. There's no way to control the timing and you can't set exact paths for objects, but the animation effects should be adequate for most presentations.

PowerPoint 95 is more colorful, too. You can pick from multiple color schemes and add textured fills and backgrounds. Twelve textures are built in and you can define your own. There are also multicolored gradient fills, semitransparent fills, more arrowhead connectors and easier incorporation of multimedia objects, such as .AVI movies.

The new Meeting Minder feature adds a degree of interactivity. You can add notes during your presentation and add Action Items in a small text window. At the end of your presentation, PowerPoint converts your Action Items into slides with each item shown on a bulleted list.

If you've ever rushed out the door only to leave behind part of your presentation, you'll appreciate the Pack and Go Wizard. It examines your presentation, figures out what files it uses and then assembles a package of compressed files. It lets you copy the presentation across multiple diskettes, including all linked and multimedia files.

The AutoClipArt feature aids the artistically challenged by scanning a presentation and suggesting places where adding clip art may be appropriate according to the way your clip art has been categorized.

A new style checker peruses presentations for grammar, the number of fonts used and the number of bullets per slide. A slide view presents miniature color and black-and-white versions simultaneously, although this feature wasn't fully implemented in the beta.

PowerPoint 95 supports AutoCorrect, Multiple Undo, the Answer Wizard and OLE automation.

PowerPoint 95 has a new file format, but a filter for PowerPoint 4.0 is promised.

Version 1.0 of Schedule+ was a comparatively puny organizer that still managed to outmuscle much of its competition by dint of its integration with Microsoft Mail and its networking features. Microsoft Schedule+ for Windows 95 packs more punch--so much that it may even persuade you to put away your PIM.

Schedule+ 95 has a tabbed interface to help you navigate the program's modules, a monthly calendar and a to-do list. It offers enough customizability for you to adapt it to your style in minutes. You can drag and resize any of the screen elements and display several days simultaneously, something version 1.0 couldn't do.

The Custom Tabs dialog box let me add, subtract and arrange Schedule+ tabs. There are 14 tabs to choose from, including various types of calendars, contact views and to-do lists.

Manipulating appointments is a lot easier, too. You can drag and drop appointments between days, and right-mouse click to edit, move or delete appointments.

The Task list is also noticeably richer. You can check off finished projects, assign priorities and due dates to items, indicate the percent of completion for a project and designate durations. A drop-down menu lets you associate a contact with a particular task. If a task isn't checked off during the course of the day, it's carried over to the following day.

Schedule+ 95's final piece is its contact manager. In this view, the left portion of the screen lists your contacts, with the information you choose to include (company, phone number and so forth). You can store up to eight phone numbers and two addresses for each contact. A "business card" view shows the details for the highlighted contact. As you type a name in the Go To field, it takes you to the closest match in the database.

Schedule+ 95 still isn't as full-featured as similar standalone products, but it remedies many of version 1.0's shortcomings and is an effective complement to the rest of the Office 95 suite.

--Info File--

Microsoft Office for Windows 95

Price: $499; Professional (includes Access), $599; upgrade, through Dec. 31, $249; Professional upgrade, through Dec. 31, $349.

In Brief: All the Office 95 applications take advantage of Windows 95's new features, and each adds its own usability enhancements.

Microsoft Corp.
800-426-9400, 206-882-8080

Slick, Smart Slide Shows

by: James E. Powell

Easygoing, yet sophisticated, Freelance Graphics for Windows 95 is the Fred Astaire of presentation software. The new version epitomizes ease of use and exceptional power. Help, tips and advice are there at every step--even in the beta I tested-- from selecting a template to culling clip art from the gallery.

To create a new presentation with Freelance, choose a presentation type--Financial Review or Brainstorming, for example--from the list of over 30. Most of these alternatives are designed for serious business presentations. You can also select styles for your presentation slides, such as a one-chart slide, bulleted list or organization chart. The quality and variety of the templates is extremely rich.

After you determine the type of presentation you'll pitch, Freelance suggests a look that fits your message. The program did such a good job of matching the medium to the message that I couldn't argue with any of its design choices.

But if your taste differs from the program's, simply pick another look. Your next step is to settle on the content--an overview, title page, agenda and so on. Freelance creates the slides with the familiar "Click here" to add text placeholders that you replace with your own words. That's all it takes to build a good- looking, professional presentation. But if you want to make changes, there are tools for making global changes to the templates--called SmartMaster layouts--such as adding your logo to each slide. If you must create a logo, Freelance's new toolbar pops up to help you add lines andshapes that hold text, connectors and clip art.

Preview slides in other presentations and "borrow" them for inclusion in your current work by clicking or dragging and dropping the slides from a browser window. A new diagramming tool includes over 100 ready-made business diagrams, such as pyramids, Gantt charts, branching diagrams and network models. It took only a couple of mouse clicks to create a hub-and-spoke diagram and a few more to add my text to the spokes.

Because Freelance is a Windows 95 app, you can right-click on any object to get a pop-up menu that includes the option to set the selected item's properties. For text, you can control the color, font, size, alignment and style. You can also choose bullet attributes from the 42 predefined types and add animation effects. The property window offers tips, and the online help is equally accessible and well done. If Freelance doesn't hear from your keyboard for a while, it assumes you're puzzled and suggests clicking the Guide Me button that offers help for the tasks you're likely to want, depending on the selected object.

Freelance's standard presentation features are offered in tabbed dialog boxes. There's a slide sorter and an outliner--de rigueur for presentation programs--and you can add speaker notes by just clicking on a button.

Using a simple process to set timing and sequence, you can add animation to bullets and clip art. While you can't control the path text takes to get to its final position, there are enough animation options to satisfy most users. To add more action, you can include movie clips in your presentation.

The program has a spell checker and a macro recorder/player, and it supports LotusScript, the company's somewhat complex scripting language. You can flip and rotate objects, and group or ungroup them. Most of your choices are shown in preview windows. Rulers and snap-to grids make it easier to get everything in place. Freelance supports OLE 2.0 and comes with a slide show packager for distributing runtime versions of your presentations.

This version also adds team computing features. It's easy to add comments that look like sticky notes using your own text or predefined phrases. Freelance frames the text with your name and the date. Distribute presentations via e-mail with your comments or post them to a Notes database. When reviewing a presentation, you can use tools like straight-line orfor highlighting areas. As the author, you can pick the reviewers whose comments you want to see or hide all comments. Whether you send separate copies of your presentation to each reviewer or choose instead to route a single copy, Freelance will consolidate the comments or store them all in a single file on the network.

Remote users can dial up and view your presentation using Microsoft's Remote Access Services (RAS). As the presenter, you control the sequencing of the presentation while simultaneously viewing your speaker notes, which the audience can't see.

When you print your Freelance presentation, you're prompted to adjust settings--such as shrinking screen images--to fit a printed page. Output is outstanding, and Freelance does an excellent job converting color slides to black-and-white output. Before printing, you can view monochrome versions of your slides or use the print preview feature.

Freelance is a pleasure. It's easy to use, with excellent diagramming tools, clip-art handling and SmartMaster templates. And when it comes to team-effort presentations, it simply overshadows its competition.

--Info File--

Freelance Graphics for Windows 95

Price: Not available at press time.

In Brief: Freelance is a comprehensive, yet easy-to-use, presentation package. Its excellent SmartMaster templates make creating new presentations a breeze.

Lotus Development Corp.
800-343-5414, 617-577-8500

High-End Look at Bottom Line

by: Joel T. Patz

Macola offers an accounting solution so easy to use and feature packed that it's certain to please every bean-counter. This outstanding new high-end system includes the Macola Accounting Software Version 7.0 Progression Series (General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Bank Book and Currency Manager) and Macola's Version 7.0 WindowsPlus (Version 7.0 Designer, Version 3.0 EnVision Series Enterprise Reporting System [ERS], EnVision Report Scripts and F9-The Financial Reporter). All are seamlessly integrated into a flexible, functional package.

The WindowsPlus System Manager controls installation, setup and module integration. You enter company information, user access and data tax code information and schedules in this module. System accounts--more familiarly known as the chart of accounts--are organized and maintained in the System Manager. You can search this information in various ways, such as by name, zip code or phone number, for example. Expenses and billings can be tracked by specific project, if you enter job codes and descriptions. Transaction amounts will be distributed accordingly when entered in other modules. You can also set up a schedule to print reports at convenient times.

The Progression Series General Ledger's extensive financial reporting options will help you maintain control of operating budgets and expenses. Create custom financial statement templates to ensure management control to the smallest level of detail. In the General Journal Transaction application, you view entries in a list format, which reduces the time spent locating a particular transaction. Posting by batch ID identifies the responsible user and creates a useful audit trail. Being able to accommodate billion-dollar transactions greatly assists companies that track many subsidiaries as well as larger transaction and dollar amounts. With the tab key and a few mouse clicks, you can set up Source and Application of Funds (SAF) reports to illustrate financial status for a specified fiscal period.

In Accounts Receivable, tracking customer account activity, including sales, credit balances and payment history, also requires only a few mouse clicks. Macola 7.0's well-organized screens facilitate filling out invoices by grouping items such as tax codes, aging periods, discounts, credit limits and finance charges. Sales commissions are calculated when transactions are entered and sales activity by person, region, department or other designation can be retrieved quickly. It's also easy to add customers on the fly and deal with cash receipts and service invoices in this module.

You maintain vendor files and the audit trail for purchases, discounts applied and payments made in Accounts Payable. Expense distributions, recurring vouchers and open item adjustments are handled by entering the data on clearly defined screens. You can schedule deferred, partial and recurring payments, as well as aging reports and check writing, for effective cash-flow management.

Currency Manager accommodates an unlimited number of foreign currencies for companies with international vendors, suppliers, customers or subsidiaries. With this powerful module's assistance, date-sensitive rate scheduling assures that the latest and most accurate exchange rates are applied to transactions. You can maintain transaction details in A/R and A/P in a native currency and use home currency in the General Ledger. This allows you to collect funds and make payments in foreign currencies, while assuring an accurate and stable financial picture in the home office.

All modules interface with Bank Book to centralize cash-management functions. Reconciliation between accounts and bank statements provides an immediate overview of cash flow and permits transfers and adjustments as necessary.

Using WindowsPlus' F9-The Financial Reporter, a DDE link between the General Ledger and a Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 or Quattro Pro spreadsheet gives instant access to desired data and provides drill-down detail of any transaction. Budget Write-Back in F9 lets you develop budgets on a spreadsheet and then carry the data back to the General Ledger budget file.

Macola's EnVision Enterprise Reporting System is one of the best data manipulation tools you'll find. This SQL-based report builder extracts information from a variety of data sources and produces text-based or graphical reports. You can use your own SQL code for designing reports, customize already prepared report formats, or simply use the templates that come with the program.

Macola 7.0's interface is consistent across all modules, so its learning curve isn't very steep. You can quickly customize fields, field defaults, entry forms and reports without having to get down to the source code. For companies migrating from a DOS version, Macola offers a Windows/DOS version where customization in Windows is reflected in the DOS application.

This is outstanding accounting software with few, if any, limitations. Its design and functionality qualify it as a flagship accounting system for the most demanding users.

--Info File--

Macola Accounting

Price: WindowsPlus, $4,995; G/L, A/R, A/P and B/B, $995 each; Currency Manager, $2,195

In Brief: This is a high-end, fully customizable and extremely well-designed accounting package for domestic and international use.

Disk Space: 40MB (WindowsPlus)

System Resources: Varies with number of open modules

RAM: 8MB (WindowsPlus)

Macola Software
800-468-0834, 614-382-5999

Corel's Big Bundle for Win95

by: James Bell

In the Windows graphics world, Corel is the proverbial 900-pound gorilla. When it wants to sit down, you'd better pay attention. A new version of CorelDRAW is about to take a seat, and this one commands even more attention because of its sweeping changes and because it's a Windows 95 app.

Corel has established and maintained a leadership role as the result of a savvy combination of technical innovation, generous software bundling and aggressive pricing. With CorelDRAW 6, which I looked at in early beta, the list of bundled applications has changed significantly. CorelDRAW 6 adds 3D modeling, rendering and animation tools with Corel Dream 3D (based on Ray Dream Designer), Corel Depth and Corel Motion 3D. These new modules fill a spot in Corel's suite previously occupied by Corel Ventura, which will now be sold only as a standalone product. The other big change in the CorelDRAW lineup is Corel Presents, a powerful business presentation program that replaces the troika of CorelShow, CorelMove and CorelChart.

All CorelDRAW modules have been rewritten for Windows 95. They offer increased precision (down to 0.1 micron accuracy) and larger virtual workspaces (up to 150 by 150 feet in CorelDRAW). Improved performance is also anticipated, thanks to better memory management, multitasking and multithreading.

CorelDRAW 6 supports key Windows 95 features such as long filenames, right-button menus, wizards, property sheets, OLE 2.0 in-place editing and automation, and direct links to e-mail and fax. And CorelDRAW 6 finally lets you open multiple documents or multiple views of the same document.

CorelDRAW has been a constant throughout the bundle's iterations. In CorelDRAW 6, the program manages to maintain its familiar look and feel, while adding new features and improving on others. The toolbar has added customizable polygons, stars, spirals and grid tools, and a knife tool for cutting objects apart. Wireframe and fish-eye special-effect lenses are also new.

Other drawing enhancements include improved positioning options such as diagonal guidelines and a new Distribute feature. Technical illustrators will appreciate more flexible dimensioning, automatic callouts and "smart" connector lines. You can now preview PostScript textures, automatically simplify Powerlines, edit text bound to a path and search an illustration for objects with specific characteristics.

CorelDRAW's typographic controls have been improved with better basic text formatting and easy access via a new text ribbon bar. Artistic and paragraph text can now handle up to 32,000 characters per text object. You can link up to 32,000 paragraphs, specify text wrapping around graphics, force line breaks without creating a new paragraph and force-justify text. CorelDRAW can meet the challenges of most text layout tasks with its extensive character, paragraph, column and frame controls.

Printing--especially color printing--has been enhanced with better PostScript Level 2 support, additional prepress controls and improved proofing options.

The other components of CorelDRAW 6 offer extensive interface customization with floating toolboxes, ribbon bars, fly-away menus and color palettes.

Corel Photo-Paint adds special-effects filters, natural media brushes and lighting controls. This suite member now lets you edit frames in multimedia files and process multimegabyte bitmaps.

Corel Presents is a great improvement over CorelShow. Its outline/ slide/slide sorter features are comparable to other high-end presentation packages. New wizards help create slide shows quickly and help you through animation and charting options.

CorelDRAW 6 was a suite deal for Windows 3.x, and it's bound to have the same appeal in the 32-bit world of Windows 95.

--Info File--

CorelDRAW 6

Price: $695

In Brief: CorelDRAW 6 for Windows 95 bundles 32-bit drawing, painting, 3-D modeling and presentation graphics, along with utilities, and thousands of fonts, clip-art images, digital photos and multimedia files.

Corel Corp.
800-772-6735, 613-728-8200

I've Got a New Latitude

by: Jonathan Blackwood

I was never an Apple fan--except when it came to Beatles records. The Cupertino company made only one machine that ever gave me a serious case of Mac envy: the Powerbook. This was a notebook--manufactured for Apple by Sony--so ingeniously designed, so well made, with such great ergonomics, that it defined state-of-the-art portable computing. Now Dell has introduced a 90MHz Pentium notebook that demonstrates the same design and manufacturing finesse. It, too, is manufactured by Sony, this time to Dell's specifications.

The Latitude XPi P90T is a machine that begs to be used. It has the power of the desktop 90MHz boxes we examined last November and last April. It has a sleek black case, a long-lasting lithium ion battery, and a superb, 10.4-inch active-matrix screen.

My huge hands felt right at home on the Latitude XPi P90T. The machine's front forms a large wrist wrest, and the thumb falls naturally into place atop the trackball. The trackball and its silky buttons are the best I've used. The 85-key keyboard has exactly the right feel, and it fit even my hands perfectly.

The built-in floppy disk drive is on the front. There are two PCMCIA slots on the left side, which will accommodate two Type I or two Type II cards, or one Type III. The Latitude XPi P90T ships with SystemSoft card services preinstalled. My test card--a Practical Peripherals 28.8 modem-- was recognized immediately. I simply plugged it in and it worked. This is how PCMCIA always should have been.

There are two flip-up, garage-door type covers in back. One hides the port replicator, the other the external connectors for serial, parallel, PS/2 keyboard/mouse and external VGA.

The Latitude XPi measures 2.1 by 11 by 8.7 inches and weighs 7 pounds, 1 ounce, including the power adapter and cord.

The lithium ion battery packs a lot of punch into a lightweight package. With all power-management settings turned off, I got slightly more than two hours of usage. But with all power management in use, I was able to work for all five hours of a cross- country flight.

The Latitude XPi we tested arrived preloaded with a host of software: Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Microsoft Office 4.3, America Online, Automap Direct, OAG FlightDisk, Reuters Money Network and LapLink. By the time you read this, you'll have a choice of Windows 95 or Windows for Workgroups. Our test unit had 16MB of RAM (expandable to 40MB) and 256KB of Level 2 cache, but only a 340MB hard disk. The local-bus video uses a Cirrus accelerator chip and has 1024MB of RAM.

The Latitude XPi provides true 90MHz performance, as demonstrated by our WINDOWS Magazine Wintune benchmarks: 97.0 MIPS, 19.6 MFLOPS and 21.267MB per second data-transfer rate for RAM. The video and disk performance were impressive as well, at 6904 Kpixels per second and 9.531MBps, respectively. Only minimal tweaking was required to achieve the Wintune "congratulations" message indicating optimal configuration--I got the smiley face greeting on my third try. Best of all, the Latitude XPi was equally outstanding on our WINDOWS Magazine application macros, scoring 24 seconds for Excel 5.0 and 37 seconds for Word 6.0.

The Latitude XPi P90T comes with full documentation and a useful, attractive carrying case. The Dell Accessories software is so complete, however, that you may never find the need to crack open the manual. With the Latitude XPi line, Dell has deliberately chosen not to include stereo speakers or a CD-ROM drive, opting instead to concentrate on the basics. If you need a CD-ROM drive, there are now portable models that attach with a PCMCIA adapter. But if you're buying a notebook for multimedia presentations, you should probably look elsewhere.

Dell stumbled badly three years ago with its first notebook computers. Those early machines were underpowered and had lousy displays. The company reentered the notebook fray with a vengeance last year, determined to challenge the best of the competition. Dell has succeeded. Its new Latitude XPi P90T will give Powerbook owners a serious case of Pentium envy.

--Info File--

Dell Latitude XPi P90T

Price: With 8MB RAM, $4,499; with 16MB RAM, $4,999

In Brief: What's not to like? 90MHz Pentium performance, a great screen, keyboard and trackball, and up to five hours on a charge.

Dell Computer Corp.
800-613-3355, 512-338-4400