Because my mother made me read and reread the passage in the Bible about how you can’t serve two masters (“God and mammon”), I always have been suspicious of Swiss Army knives-and of “works” software packages.
My skepticism about these collections, which purport to supply at stripped-down prices stripped-down versions of all the major categories of computer programs (spreadsheets, databases, word processors, paintboxes, etc.), also stems from several years as a reporter covering the Pentagon.
There, weaponry experts like Pierre Sprey and F. Ernest Fitzgerald convinced me that the miltary was trying to make war machines that tried to do too many things and thus did none of them well.
Such out-to-please-everybody systems, said Sprey with disdain, are fighter-bomber-cargo planes, feckless hybrids that do everything, but do everything poorly.
Nevertheless, almost everybody who buys a computer these days finds an integrated works package bundled with the computer that promises to do almost everything a computer can do. But when you fire them up, each typically has some major flaw. It’s not always the same flaw, but there’s always something.
For example, most of the word processors boast spelling checkers, but usually the spell checks can be conducted only on the entire document, not on individual words.
Take it from somebody who writes a lot of words and misspells an alarming percentage of them on first attempt. The lack of a one-word spell check is a grievous flaw. (Editor’s note: “Grievous” arrived via Coates’ modem spelled “grievious.”)
Some of the slickest works packages, notably Microsoft Works for Windows, offer the word-by-word spell checker, but then fall down when you want to display your text in columns instead of across the whole page, typewriter-style.
So Microsoft recommends that you buy Microsoft Publish for Windows if you want columns. And, if you want a really fast spelling checker and other features, Microsoft urges Works owners to upgrade to Miscosoft Word. Spreadsheets? Upgrade to Microsoft Excel. Databases? Upgrade to Microsoft FoxPro or Access, says the world’s richest software company.
In addition to missing features and making you crave something more expensive, the other irritating thing about most works programs in the DOS and Windows world is that each of the functions operates as a module rather than as an integrated program.
Thus, while using the word processor in Microsoft Works for Windows, a user clicks the mouse to order up a spreadsheet but must wait while the word processor module is removed from memory and the spreadsheet module is loaded, a time-consuming irritation that can be avoided if you have Word running in one Window and Excel in another one.
Clearly, what works programs work best at is giving new computer owners a taste of what they might accomplish if they would just upgrade to some really expensive stand-alone software.
But at the Comdex show late last month, Bob Lisbonne of Claris Corp. drew the curtains in an elegant suite overlooking Atlanta’s Peachtree Plaza, fired up a Macintosh and an IBM compatible side by side and showed me a fighter-bomber-cargo plane of a program that can shoot, blast and haul with the best of them.
We’re talking about ClarisWorks 2.0 for the Macintosh and ClarisWorks 1.0 for Windows, an intriguing duo of works packages that actually work. To produce these packages, Claris Corp., a subsidiary of Apple Computer Inc., hearkened back to AppleWorks for the Apple II series, a wonder of programming that packed word processing, spreadsheet and database capabilities into a seamless package without the stand-alone modules that plagued competing works programs for the IBM compatible machines of the time.
As a result, not only do the new-generation Claris Mac and PC packages work-for the most part, anyway-but they work almost identically whether running on a Macintosh or on any IBM-compatible machine, a particular godsend for those of us who use both.
Unlike Microsoft Works for Windows, which makes each function available one at a time, ClarisWorks has the word processor, database, spreadsheet and drawing program running simultaneously. A toolbar on the side of the screen lets you call up what you want instantly instead of waiting for modules to load and unload.
As a result, using the Claris product is so intuitive that even a tyro can quickly import a text file, click a button and convert it into a three- or four-column multipage document. Headlines, subheads and other typographical glitz can be produced on the fly by changing fonts, styles and sizes.
The spreadsheet, which you reach with the click of a toolbox button, will produce tables of data, or you can input numbers into rows and cells and have them reduced to any number of graphs-pie, bar, line-which come up as pictures you can put anywhere in your document.
Many formulas, like adding up rows and columns, can be called by “painting” selected entries with the mouse and clicking a “formula” button. Thanks to this one feature, I’ve forgotten most of my Lotus 1-2-3 formula syntax, and I rarely miss it.
Likewise, you can import clip art or do your own drawing using the “draw” tool and stick whatever you come up with anywhere you want. The word processor is all any newspaper reporter or book writer could want, and the database makes keeping a running bibliography a snap.
But there are perils aplenty flying fighter-bomber-cargo planes, and Claris hasn’t cleared them all.
ClarisWorks for Macintosh 2.0, issued in April, is markedly better than is Claris 1.0 for Mac, and the Windows version, issued just last month, is virtually identical with 1.0, not 2.0.
Thus, while you can do word-by-word spelling checks on 2.0 with a Macintosh, you have to spell-check the whole document on Clarisworks for Windows. All told, estimated product manager Lisbonne, there are 300 features in version 2.0 still lacking in 1.0.
He said to look for the Windows 2.0 version later this year and said that once the two versions are “synched up,” future upgrades will be in tandem.
Any clear-headed, adult, right-thinking computerist familiar with the works program situation obviously would simply wait until Claris 2.0 for Windows ships and then buy a copy on the spot. But I couldn’t.
So I’m delighted to have Claris 1.0 running on my IBM-compatible and 2.0 on my Mac. After all, I can always upgrade, and get the power I really need, later.
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Tribune computer writer James Coates can be reached on the Internet at jcoates1@aol.com.
