A Manager's Guide To Integrated Software;

 

Still, good performance can be achieved without one. Aura's file output is not limited by a computer's memory, as in some systems, but rather to the larger storage capacity of a disk. It can link any number of spreadsheets and/or databases -- performing calculations on database fields that are tied to spreadsheet formulas, for instance. That is outstanding performance, yet Aura is the only one of these systems that has no windowing facility, even on a spreadsheet. Although material can be interchanged among the various components through a central menu, you have to close up one environment before entering the next -- a chore that involves more swapping than a Hollywood party. To get a spreadsheet running entails at least three disk changes.

Even with a hard disk, the result is disappointing. Aura identifies cell locations by their special relation to each other, rather than the accepted letter/number "threater-seat" method. So reading a formula is like decoding an enemy message, and to add insult to injury, formula editing is the most cumbersome of the systems. You can't describe a range by "pointing" with the cursor, either. Spreadsheet entry and formatting is also the poorest of the lot. File management is primitive, on-screen menus and help screens are thin, and cutting-and-pasting in text is more laborious than with real scissors.

Aura is the only system that allows freehand drawing in graphics. Creating your own designs ought to be fun, but in practice it is just frustrating.

INTEGRATED 7

Mosaic Software Inc., 1972 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140, (800) 446-4620, Min. memory: 320K, Price: $695

As empirically unlikely as it may seem, a beginner actually can get rolling in Integrated 7 merely through its colorkeyed manual. Showing that instruction for the layperson can be well organized, well illustrated, and well written, Mosaic puts the rest of the companies to shame, as well it should. And the learning process is internally served by orderly command structures -- the closest of any of the systems to what practitioners call "intuitive." Integrated 7's on-screen prompts uncannily anticipate confusion and lead you through such complicated procedures as macro composition or telecommunications set-ups a step at a time.

But Integrated 7 doesn't have user-controlled windows. That means you can't visaully work with multiple files -- an inexplicable shortcoming compared with other modular systems. A file retrieved from a data disk replaces the one on the screen. And to copy part of one file into another necessitates storing the extract in its own temporary file; there is no direct crossover. In something of a compromise, when material is moved from one active file to another, such as a putting database extract into a spreadsheet, the system opens its own window, so that you can make sure the right stuff ends up in the right place. But at least a given spreadsheet can be split into windows -- an important feature in any number-crunching layout.

Integrated 7 is among the few systems that can create a third database file by joining two separate files. And its fairly complete graphics component (it can execute a double-Y-axis chart) is among the easiest to manipulate. Printing what are termed presentation-quality graphs (to impress your banker), the system takes over the drafting process, telling you when to change plotter pens. Integrated 7 is the only system that includes an on-line dictionary in its word-processing component, and the only one that can print a color graph within a black-and-white document.

In case you are wondering why the "7" in the program's name, the publisher has promotionally spun off two applications -- mail merge and terminal emulation.

OPEN ACCESS

Software Products International Inc., 10240 Sorrento Valley Rd., San Diego, CA 92121, (800) 321-1047; (800) 621-7490 (in California), Min. memory: 192K (256K recommended), Retail: $695

Open Access is the only entrant that can execute a true three-dimensional graph. (The others simply "shade" an area, as in a cartoon.) Twirling and spinning them on command, its outstanding graphics component can present four different types of graphs from the same data on the screen at the same time -- a tour de force of technology, if not a particularly revealing fiscal exercise. This component also can produce a pie chart of 30 pieces; that, too, is slicing it a bit fine.

Overall, accessing commands is quirky. For example, in text, simply to change from insert mode to type-over mode -- a common routine that should be done with a single keystroke -- requires going through a menu at the top of the screen. On a search-and-replace, the cursor disappears from the screen; it falls to the text-writer to recall where he or she left off.

Open Access doesn't offer user-designed windows in word processing. Without this option, moving material is clumsy and error-prone -- for example, in cutting and pasting, the smooth operation of which is the sine qua non of a word processor. Material can be copied (but not moved) between files in two system-created windows -- a cumbersome procedure, although at least you can see what you are doing.

The program's spreadsheet, though, vies with the best. In up to six windows, you can work among separate documents, or among different areas of a spreadsheet. A unique "edge" command brings a range of cells to the upper-left-hand corner of the screen, where they are readily accessible. Another nice touch is the error-in-the-formula message, which spells out how and where you have gone off the track.

Open Access has a disappointingly round-Robin-Hood's-barn integrating procedure, by which several spreadsheets or databases can be combined. To transport material from one component to another, you first have to set up an intermediate file so that the components can share computer talk -- a laborious chore that is more for the convenience of the programmer than the end-user.

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