GEOWORKS PRO An Alternative To Windows by Vito Michelozzi PC Computing magazine in their July 1992 issue, page 154, stated: "If you were challenged to prove before a judge that Microsoft is fallible, and that MicroSoft products aren't always the best in their class, what programs would you choose as Exhibit A? Desqview is tempting, so are Norton Desktop for Windows and DRDOS 6.0. But there's one even one more remarkable piece of evidence; GeoWorks Pro." After more that two years of hands-on experience with GeoWorks Pro and its predecessor, I can't agree more with PC Computing. Although I also use Windows 3.1, my GUI program of first choice is GeoWorks Pro. I began using Geoworks Pro, a graphical user interface, in 1989 on a Commodore 64. I then successively advanced to a 80286, 80386, and now a 80486SX 25 MHZ with 4 MB of RAM and a 169MB hard disk. I have nothing but praise for its many easy-to-use features. While GeoWorks Pro may lack some sophistication of Windows, it nevertheless makes up for these shortcomings with some real strengths. Such as: high quality laser-like printing with a 9-dot matrix printer. The ability to pin complete menus on the screen for quick access. Overall ease of use. GeoWorks Pro's major drawback now is the almost total lack of third-party applications although it does come bundled with Borland's Quatro Pro SE (an excellent entry level spreadsheet program) and America Online (a communication program). If you're looking for an efficient and easy to use program for home or office, GeoWorks Pro is a satisfactory choice. Over the years I have created numerous newsletters, pamphlets, booklets, signs, banners, flyers, and advertising circulars. I don't claim to be a consummate expert on GeoWorks Pro because it seems to me that no one can fully master a computer program. Otherwise there wouldn't be a need for such books as "DOS for Dummies" (over 1,000,000 copies sold). Most programs contain some little feature that always elude us. Even so, I have found Geoworks with its built-in applications and accessories is more efficient and easier to learn. It's less intimidating than other similar programs I've used including Windows, Dosshell, and Nortons Desktop. Choose Your Level There are three levels of use in GeoWorks Pro: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Geoworks builds from the beginner level of simple concepts, to the most advanced operations. When you first boot the program the first thing that appears is an attractive Welcome screen. It displays three large illustrated buttons, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced plus a smaller button for access to the DOS screen. The DOS screen creates attractive buttons for each DOS application and can launch DOS programs. Buttons are included for many popular programs or you can design one to suit your taste. GeoWorks Pro uses the same type of menu bar, window movement, sizing and scrolling controls as Windows. Only it's organized differently. The File Cabinet The file cabinet is the centerpiece of GeoWorks Pro. From the File Cabinet you can open documents as well as manage files, directories, and disks. This is all done with a point and click actions of the mouse. Files and directories may be created, copied, moved and renamed without using a single cryptic DOS command. A directory icon can be selected with the mouse and dragged to a wastebasket icon to quickly delete the directory and all its contents in one simple easy swoop. You can't do this from Windows. Files and directories can be moved to a new location or copied by dragging it with the mouse or by using Copy and Move buttons. GEOWRITE GEOWRITE is a full featured word processor. It includes nine fonts from 4 points to 792 (at any angle). It features a wide selection of sizes and fonts for bold, italic, underline, strike-thru, superscript, subscript.. You can create multi-column documents with graphics. Importing and exporting text files is easy. Color can be added to text as well as to graphics. You can type letters, sales reports, memos, job resumes, and many other documents using built-in templates. GeoWrite uses outline fonts that result is smooth crisp printed text and graphics, on the screen and on paper. You can use it to create a multi-column newsletter, with pictures and clipart copied from GeoDraw. There's a built-in spell checker with a 100,000 word American English dictionary. There are three printer options: High - Laser-like or jet ink quality. Medium - Near letter quality. Low - Fast draft mode. In addition it offers margin settings, spell checker, header, footer, alignment, and tab settings. You can work with multiple documents and switch between the open document through the Window menu. Multiple documents can be overlapped so the title bars for each is visible. Or you can go to a full-size window mode with the main document on the top and the rest underneath it. GeoWorks Pro provides a wide selection of templates: * Cards -Birthday, Anniversary, Card Borders, Invitations, Thank You. * Business Forms - Purchase Order, Memos, Invoice, Bulletin, Credit Memo, Expense report, Fax * Templates - Letterheads, Newsletters, term papers, posters * Signs and Award Certificates. Templates are preformatted. All you have to do to create a professional looking document is to open a template and add your text and even graphics. GEODRAW GEODRAW is a powerful and easy-to-use drawing application for producing full-color graphics with integrated text. You draw full-color charts, graphs and any other picture you want, using an array of eight drawing tools. The addition of an erase tool would be a big help in editing graphics. The program can rotate, fuse, scale, expand, shrink and color any element of your design. It can import clipart and pictures from other directories. Images and graphics can be instantly sized, rotated, copied, color-filled, pasted and flipped horizontally or vertically. Quattro Pro Viewer The Quattro Pro Viewer can either launch Quattro Pro SE or it can open an existing spreadsheet to look at it. With a double-click of the mouse a spreadsheet file can be merged into a report or presentation prepared in GeoWrite. The Viewer is used only for viewing spreadsheets. To work on an existing spreadsheet or create a new one you must launch Quattro Pro SE. GEOCOMM is used with a modem to communicate with other computers over the telephone lines. It can send and receive files, access information services, and log into bulletin board systems. You Also can download files, programs and information. GEODEX GEODEX keeps an address and phone record of friends, relatives, businesses and can print lists of names and phone numbers, or mailing labels. With a modem, GeoDex dials the phone for you. Searching for a name and making changes in the directory is easy to accomplish. NOTEPAD The NOTEPAD is a simple text editor for working with DOS text files SCRAPBOOK The SCRAPBOOK stores images and blocks of text. It will import graphics from other DOS programs as well. For the game-minded, Geoworks has added the solitaire card game, Klondike and the fascinating Tetris game. A big plus for GeoWorks Pro is its ability to pin down menus and sub menus to the workspace while making changes to text and images. You can make a series of selections from a menu without having to pull it down each time. Once a menu is pinned on the workspace, it can be moved around and placed wherever it is needed the most. This feature is lacking in Windows. Another plus for GeoWorks Pro is its ability to save files using 32 characters in the file name, rather than the limitation of 8 characters allowed by DOS and Windows. GEOPLANNER GEOPLANNER contains a yearly calendar and an appointment book. You can schedule appointments and meetings and have GeoPlanner automatically remind you. Recurring events like birthdays, anniversary, and weekly meeting also can be scheduled. I have found DOS applications that I use frequently, Quattro Pro and Quicken for example, run significantly faster under GeoWorks Pro than do their Windows' counterparts. All-in-all GeoWorks Pro is a well designed and worthwhile program to have. It compares quite favorably with any of its competitors. I highly recommend QuatroPro especially to new users where they have a choice. GeoWorks Pro runs on a 512K XT, 286, or 386SX and it's as fast as Windows on a 486DX. A hard disk is needed with at least 6MB of memory, significantly less than required for Windows. GeoWorks Pro is produced by: GeoWorks 2150 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, CA 94704 Phone: (510)644-0883 Suggested List Price: $199.99 Street Price: $139.99