Design Considerations for the COMPETITIVE PC WORKSTATION ENVIRONMENT by Robert J. Dunn WHAT'S AT STAKE? AN OVERVIEW The purpose of this document is to help you formulate a cohesive, multimedia oriented, PC Workstation development plan so that you may maximize your PC results in the electronic marketplace, regardless of your particular field of endeavor. If doing your job, whatever it is, requires that you be in contact with lots of people, customers, clients, suppliers, vendors, sources, agencies, etc., and you need to keep track of your affairs with them as well as be able to communicate with them by phone, letter, FAX, printed material, desktop presentation, or computer file transfer, then a broader view of the whole PC Workstation environment needs to be taken, just to remain competitive today. This broader view then becomes the basis for enlarging the scope of your 'communication media' to include multimedia - the combination of real time video images with graphics, text, and full digital stereo sound into an interactive desktop presentation. Having access to interactive multimedia resources provides an enrichment in communication and education beyond description. Being able to also produce a multimedia presentation, using software tools already available, can provide decisive competitive advantages. Every way you look at it, it's safe to say that business isn't going to be conducted, as usual, in the years just ahead. The PC is going to play a very central role in this change, propelled not only by the powerful machines and software already available, but also by the need to utilize computer networking in order to reduce or avoid commuting to work because of it's wasteful impact on time, resources, and the environment. Being able to compete effectively, indeed, being able to 'engage' effectively in the evolving world marketplace will require a certain level of skill at operating a PC and applying it's great power to manage your affairs and communications with the 'outside' world. -2- BEING COMPETITIVE and PRODUCTIVE Being competitive and productive today in business, commerce, and related personal pursuits requires that you make substantial use of a PC's ability to: 1. Manage and keep records about all your contacts, your activities with them, and even being able to dial their phone for an actual conversation, a FAX transfer, or a data file transfer. 2. Manage and highly automate your ability to produce quality hard copy printed materials such as business letters, proposals, contracts, invoices, etc. 3. Provide instant access to each contacts entire computer record, from name and address on down to financial details and previous correspondence. This not only facilitates your out-going communications of all kinds, but is also especially useful in handling incoming phone calls. Within a few seconds of answering the phone, the caller's records can be up on the PC screen by doing a hot key search on a few characters of their name. This enriches your connection with your contact, making it possible to be doing business in 'the moment', with the full details of past activity before your eyes, or only a keystroke or two away. 4. Perform network communications with national information services, BBS's, and other computers operated by businesses and government for the purpose of conducting business or information interchange from computer to computer. 5. Allow you to benefit from the dynamic informational resource and educational experience of multimedia CD-ROM. While all this may seem like a lot, if you are already using a PC for just one or two tasks like word processing or spreadsheets, don't worry. You're on the right track and there is plenty of headroom to expand and grow as fast as you're comfortable with. Maybe this is a good time to get back to the subject of a 'certain level of skill' at using a PC mentioned above, in light of the broad range of ways the PC is being applied in the electronic marketplace. The elements of this skill level are: 1. Basic PC Literacy - An understanding of how a computer is internally organized, how data is represented, etc. 2. File Management - The ability to organize files -3- and directory structures, keep track of the files you create, provide for their periodic backup, etc. 3. Software Utilization- The utilization of a high proportion of all the features and functions of your software resources. 4. Interrelate Applications - Finding ways for passing text, graphics, and objects from one application to another, and for having one application drive another, or be a slave to another, depending upon the results being sought. Your success at improving your proficiency in each of these areas will be directly proportional to the amount of time you spend each day working with your computer. With PC's, learning is accomplished best by doing. This in turn will extrapolate into how well you are able to compete for the attention and response of people, businesses, and governments as you conduct your affairs in the developing global electronic marketplace. It doesn't matter if you're a CEO or an independent operator, a salesman or a small business owner, to be successful and competitive in the years just ahead, you must be as good at using a PC as you are at driving a car or using a telephone. You can't have someone else do it for you without drastically watering down the potential results. Richard Petersen, founder and publisher of ShareWare Magazine, summed it up this way, "It strikes me that we are evolving into a world of the computer literate and illiterate. The computer literate are those that have learned to use computers to greatly increase their personal productivity, and the productivity of the businesses they work for. Those that are not computer literate are left with low paid service jobs.". METHODOLOGY It's a fact of life that effectively applying a PC in the electronic marketplace can be a complex endeavor. But, just because it's complex doesn't mean that it can't be simplified and structured into easy to grasp concepts and relationships. By using the powerful interactive media of hypertext, along with a carefully structured array of "hot links" within the text itself, the process of really gaining a deep understanding of the concepts can be greatly expedited. Educators have long known that the most rapid learning is associated with the students ability to venture into the subject matter along the lines of thought that are most interesting or which seem to be providing a series of -4- 'answers' to the student's inquiry into the subject. The ability to probe deeper and deeper into one area and then to be able to instantly switch to a completely different section of the subject matter for related information makes learning progress at a blinding speed. The result, of course, is that the subject matter which at first seemed almost intimidating suddenly becomes simple and intuitively obvious! The measure of success for a hypertext presentation rests in just how quickly you can reach the point where continued perusal of the information becomes boring! At that point, all of the once seemingly complex information will be "yours", and your whole Personal Computer outlook will be enriched and suddenly operating from a new vantage point. The potential dividends then become enormous, as you re-evaluate your PC position relative to the new information, and formulate a clearer path for yourself to migrate from where your PC situation is today to where you want it to be in say, a year or so. The hypertext presentation for the Competitive PC Workstation Environment provides three major ways of approaching the presentation material itself: 1. Table of Contents - Select a chapter or section, go to it, and begin following your own thread of interest using the "hot links" imbedded in the text. 2. MasterLinks - Select a subject from a list of carefully chosen "key words", and jump to the text where the key word is used. 5. Traditional - Start at the beginning and read the text straight through like a conventional book. Once you have entered the presentation materials by any of the above methods, you can proceed along a given train of thought while taking 'side trips' into other portions of the materials at will, and then easily return to your original track by setting 'bookmarks'. After several sessions with the seminar materials, and after using a variety of the methods of entering and stepping through the text, your intuitive powers will really begin to 'kick in' and you'll find yourself quickly scooping up any last points of clarity or understanding needed to completely grasp all that is presented. Most importantly, at this point you'll be able to visualize a clear path for yourself to improve your PC's ability to allow you to freely and fluidly interact with the electronic marketplace. -5- THE COMPETITIVE PC WORKSTATION ENVIRONMENT The word, "workstation", has traditionally implied a fairly powerful desktop or mini computer, or mainframe terminal, generally used by engineers, capable of high resolution color graphics, etc. Like most everything else, the PC or Personal Computer has changed all this. Because of the tremendous growth in the power of PC's over the past decade, and an equally significant advancement in software, an ordinary, garden variety PC can be very effectively used to competitively engage in the electronic marketplace. Today, to be able to apply this technology to your endeavors gives you a tremendous competitive edge. By the end of the decade, it may well be just another requisite for business survival. In this setting, a PC is indeed a "workstation". It becomes a vital link between you and your contact with the world at large. Now, with multimedia, PC's are able to display real time video images in a window in addition to text and animated graphics, and accompany it all with full digital stereo sound, and all in CD quality! Thus, a Competitive PC Workstation provides all the static text and graphical representations of information associated with PC's plus the real time display of moving video and accompanying full-digital stereo sound! The key element in all that is presented here is that the overall environment of the PC is, itself, an entity or object which when seen as a whole, has a great impact on the quantity and quality of overall results obtained. From the broadest of possible views, a PC Workstation is a "transducer" for transforming your thinking, creativity, desires and intentions into physical reality. Your level of success is be determined by your efficiency at being able to produce the greatest amount of result with the least amount of effort (time). In today's developing global economy and international competition for the limited world supplies of goods and services, higher levels of productivity will be required to acquire them regardless of where you happen to live on the planet. Considering the rapidly expanding world population concurrent with this, there will also be more competitors to reckon with than ever before. Conceptually speaking, this PC Workstation "transducer" actually involves five thresholds or windows through which your will and thoughts must pass through on their journey to being manifest in physical reality. These windows between you and your intended results are the five primary attributes of the Competitive PC Workstation environment. -6- They are: The Physical Environment The Machine Environment The Operating Environment The User Interface Method The Application Software Like successive hoops to jump through, your overall effectiveness as a Workstation user is regulated by your ability to pass through ALL these attribute windows as transparently and fluidly as possible. If one or more attributes are misaligned compared to the rest, or provide only narrow passage ways, then the efficiency of the entire Workstation tends to be adjusted down to the performance level of the poorest attribute. As steps are taken to optimize each of these attributes, the overall results produced by the PC Workstation will steadily grow. The Primary Workstation Attributes 1. The Physical Environment The physical environment includes the desk, chair, pencil, paper, books, and other physical characteristics of the surroundings in which a PC is put to use as a tool between you and the results you expect. Also included in this category is the availability and adequacy of electric power outlets and telephone connections. Of the five primary Workstation attributes, the physical environment probably receives the least attention. Although everything outside the PC's cabinet falls into this category, it's mundane nature causes people to either ignore or gloss over it. This is very unfortunate, because this easy to provide for attribute can have a very dramatic impact on the quality and quantity of the results you obtain from your PC Workstation. The Desk and Chair - First and foremost, you will want to be physically comfortable as you sit in front of your keyboard and screen. Anything less than 'very satisfactory' in this regard will seriously detract from your overall results. This means that the keyboard needs to be at a good height and location for you, the monitor needs to be positioned so it comfortable for you to look at it, and any other resources need to be easily accessible such as space for making notes, opening a book, etc. Optimally, your operating position will offer equally easy access to: -7- a) the keyboard and monitor, b) the diskette and CD-ROM drive slot(s) in the PC, c) some clear desktop space, d) some bookshelf space, e) the printer and the various different papers used in it, f) the telephone instrument and a desk lamp, g) some traditional letter size filing space, and h) some wall space for posting frequently referenced information such as font samples, telephone service area codes, time zones, etc. It does take some careful planning to arrange all these factors so that they are very close at hand, but it can be done. The resulting operational efficiency is well worth the time and effort it will take to optimize these factors for yourself. The routine elements which make up the physical characteristics, when taken together, begin to form the workstations physical environment space or cubicle, which in turn is structured so as to maximize the overall results to be obtained from the computer itself. Everything you can possibly need for your next keystroke or mouse click can be placed within an arm's length of reach from where you sit facing your screen. As these routine but highly related physical environmental attributes begin to define a finite area of floor space, it is well to begin thinking about the ways to protect the Workstation space itself from occasional and innocent intrusion by other people in the general area. Intrusions lead to interruptions which lead to errors which lead to reductions in the results to be obtained and it's as simple as that. Make the space and facilities that are dedicated to the Workstation rigorously enforced. Conflicts will inevitably arise from trying to use or occupy the same space or resources for non-workstation tasks. 1. Keyboard and Monitor The keyboard, monitor, and mouse are the only direct physical connections between YOU and all the resources of your computer. Make these vital physical reality connections as ergonomically comfortable for you as possible. Locate the keyboard at a position and height that you regard as perfect even if it involves some expense and effort to do so. Dedicate an ample amount of equally desirable desk-top real estate for the operation of a mouse or track-ball. Position the monitor so that it is as comfortable as possible for you to look at it. Eliminate any sources of glare. The keyboard, screen, mouse, and your physical body are -8- the only linkages to be transcended between you and the computer as a tool for your mind. These linkages should be as transparent to the overall process as possible. You don't want to be continually interrupted with mental messages such as, I'm uncomfortable, or there's a bad glare, or it's uncomfortable typing like this, or I can't move the mouse far enough this way. Interruptions at this level, of course, degrade your PC Workstation operations immediately and eventually lead to a premature halt just as surely as if the power went off. 2. Disk Drive Slots - Generally speaking, you'll want to make it as convenient as possible to insert a diskette or CD-ROM into an appropriate drive slot. Disk and CD-ROM based media and publications are on the rise, and you'll want to be able to introduce them into your system with ease. Since the drive slots are in the PC computer cabinet itself (which is usually located adjacent to the monitor anyway), easy access to them is generally not a problem. Don't be tempted, however, to compromise the location of the cabinet containing the drives because of the lack of adequate desk space. 3. Desk-Top Space - Provide enough desk space adjacent to the keyboard and screen for you to open a book, review printed results, and have access to the usual collection of pencils, paper, stapler, paper clips, and related desk-top items. This can be seen as sort of a general purpose space - where you prepare materials for entry into the computer as well as manage the printed output materials that result from using the Workstation. 4. Bookshelf Space - Of the various physical environment attributes, perhaps the skillful use of the available bookshelf space is the next most important aspect after simply being comfortable at your keyboard and screen. Ever since the earliest days of computing, it's been a well known fact that it's impossible to learn and memorize all the information you may need to know in the course of using a computer. The important thing is to be able to expeditiously look up what you need to know in a manual or book when the occasion to do so arises. Thus, the bookshelf space for the Workstation, and especially the portion within an arm's reach from your operating position, should be judiciously used to put four categories of vital reference materials at your fingertips: 1. Books - Reference manuals for all your actively used software and hardware. 2. Notebooks - Three ring notebooks containing -9- reference manuals or other descriptive information for your software that you have printed out on your own printer. 3. Magazines - Recent issues of magazines and trade journals that are relevant for you. 4. Diskette Library - All of your diskettes, including CD-ROM's, organized and filed so that you may easily retrieve any single disk. Depending upon your level of involvement, you may have great physical quantities of all four of these informational resources as well as others that are relevant to your purposes. If this is true, some care will be required to determine which portions of your total available information resource to put on the 'within arm's reach' portion of the bookshelf space. In terms of your productivity and efficiency at using a PC Workstation, this quick-access bookshelf space is incredibly valuable desk-top 'real- estate'. 5. Printer - Ideally, you should be able to simply swivel in your chair and be facing the printer, with the most recently printed lines clearly visible, and the control panel buttons should be within arm's reach. These are the attributes of your 'in real time' connection with the printer and what it is doing at the present moment, and are usually associated with the first few moments following the issuance of a print command. Once printing has started, a lot of automatic paper feeding and stacking starts taking place, and if you have print spooling capability, you can return to doing other things on the computer. Printing is very reliably self- managing provided the proper printer accessories have been provided for as well as the somewhat demanding space requirements for them. Do whatever is necessary to make unattended printing a very reliable function of your Workstation. Printing and paper handling problems can be not only very frustrating, but very time consuming as well, easily wasting the extra time you may have been counting on during a particular session at the Workstation. 6. Phone and Lamp - The telephone for the Workstation should be within easy reach from your position at the keyboard and screen. The desk lamp should be easily adjustable to not only provide good lighting for the desk-top but to also eliminate the glare which results from some forms of printed materials and magazines. 7. Letter File - Conventional letter size filing space is needed to accommodate the collections of letters, documents, statements, receipts, and other paper items that are -10- invariably associated with establishing and operating a PC in an environment as described here. 8. Wall Space - Even a small amount of blank wall space for posting frequently referenced information can make a valuable contribution to the Workstation facilities. This can be anything from sample fonts and sizes to time zone information. 2. The Machine Environment The machine environment refers to what your operating platform is. The operating platform is determined by the CPU chip of the personal computer you are using, the number of bits your computer's CPU can handle at once, how fast your computer's clock is running, etc. Fortunately, this very technical view of the workings of a computer can be easily simplified into a few progressively more powerful operating platform steps. For the IBM PC and compatibles, the range of operating platforms includes the familiar PC/XT, PC/AT or 80286, various models of the PS/2, 80386, and 80486. During the 12 years or so that the IBM PC has existed as a desktop personal computer, it has undergone tremendous change in terms of it's computing power. The original IBM PC operated at a tiny fraction of the speed of today's machines, and had very limited memory and disk capacity by comparison. The original IBM PC was followed next by the PC/XT and then by the PC/AT. The PC/AT utilized the Intel 80286 CPU chip which, with it's faster clock speeds and wider data path, provided a big boost in overall productivity. Many manufacturers began to clone the functionality of the IBM PC/XT and PC/AT, and the "industry standard" PC was born. Continuing improvements in the CPU chip brought the 80386 and the 80486 based machines into being, along with even higher clock speeds, extending the range of PC's to where they are today. Although this evolving nature of the PC is generally seen as simply faster and faster machines with larger and larger memories, the 80286 CPU chip - the basis of the IBM PC/AT - ushered in a new facility that was to substantially change the nature of PC computing. That facility was "multitasking", the ability to have more than one program active at a time. Thus, programs such as Microsoft's, "Windows" began to be developed to take advantage of this powerful new PC capability. As multimedia has developed into a practical reality, the Multimedia PC Marketing Council, which strives for a -11- coordinated and compatible development of multimedia on PC's, has recently redefined the minimum machine environment for Microsoft Windows based multimedia as an Intel 80386SX CPU chip running at 10 Mhz. Prior to this change, the Council had defined the minimum requirements for a multimedia machine environment as an Intel 80286 running at 10 Mhz. A framework thus emerges for establishing some reference points on the continuum of speed and power of possible machine environments. These primary reference points establish the minimum recommended environment according to your expected computing results. 1. IBM PC, PC/XT and compatibles - These are comparatively slow machines by today's standards. While these machines can be used for networking and engaging in the electronic marketplace, the total results obtained per unit of time may be less than satisfactory. 2. IBM PC/AT and compatibles (80286 based machines) - This machine is very effective for engaging in the electronic marketplace and is capable of producing an array of satisfactory multimedia results. 3. 80386SX and up - Optimum environment for engaging in the electronic marketplace and multimedia. The important thing is that regardless of which of these 3 groups the PC you are using today falls into, you do have the facility for engaging in the electronic marketplace to at least some degree. Group 1 will yield less than satisfactory results, Group 2 will yield satisfactory results, and Group 3 will yield more than satisfactory results, given today's level of technology. As a constraint, the machine environment attribute can be mitigated somewhat by careful selection of the software used for the remaining three primary attributes: operating environment, user interface, and application software. Notwithstanding this, the machine environment constraint is probably the single most important variable for determining the overall flow of results. Fortunately, the competitiveness in the marketplace for hardware - the machine environment - is such that a machine capable of yielding satisfactory results (Group 2 or Group 3 machine) is readily affordable. 3. THE OPERATING ENVIRONMENT The Operating Environment refers to what operating -12- system is being used to perform the basic level of control for your personal computer. For PC's, this has traditionally been the Disk Operating System or DOS, although other options have existed such as IBM's OS/2. The first level of intellectual encounter with a PC is concerned with the operating system. The operating system is the basic or most primitive link between you and what you want your computer to do for you. DOS can be seen as a 'supervisor' program which not only provides for a lot of housekeeping chores such as copying files or formatting disks, but also provides the means for launching and using application software. DOS takes care of getting the PC started up when power is first turned on, and regardless of the additional programs that may be subsequently started or stopped, DOS remains as the program of last resort. When no other programs are active in a PC, control reverts back to DOS and the familiar "C:>" prompt where DOS awaits the user's next command. Three vendors offer DOS software: IBM (PC-DOS), Microsoft (MS-DOS), and Digital Research (DR-DOS). While all three of these DOS operating systems respond to essentially the same standard set of DOS commands, the speed with which they carry out the commands, regardless of what machine environment is involved, differs. In addition, the ease with which a user is able to interact with the operating system via a 'shell' differs among the various vendors of DOS software. Many user's believe, myself included, that DR-DOS offers a greatly superior performance compared to either the IBM or Microsoft versions of DOS. This is especially true with regard to the time required for, and convenience of, task switching, where a clipboard can even be used for transferring screen loads of data from one task to another. In addition, DR-DOS is also bundled with SuperStor which will double the capacity of a hard disk, and Super PC-Kwik which establishes a disk cache to speed up disk reads and writes. The superior handling of task switching would alone justify DR-DOS, and the doubling of the hard disk capacity is just a little extra dividend. For Group 3 machines (80386SX, 25 Mhz. or better), another operating system alternative exists in IBM's OS/2 Release 2.0. The 386-specific design of OS/2 makes it the most advanced PC operating system on the market. OS/2 version 2.0 can multitask DOS and Windows applications in dozens of windows and takes full advantage of the 32-bit architecture of 386 and 486 processors to run applications faster, give them access to more memory, and reduce system crashes. -13- In the computer business traditionally, there has been a tendency to stick with the tried and the true, especially where either the computer hardware or operating systems were concerned. As for the hardware, this meant "IBM" hardware up until the mid-1980's or so when many manufacturers began to offer reliable and cost effective PC compatibles. A similar attachment to Microsoft's version of the Disk Operating System, because of it's deep roots in the development of it, will keep some user's from venturing into the newer alternatives offered by DR-DOS and IBM-OS/2. In doing so, however, one must clearly evaluate the resultant loss of opportunity for potential results being given up in favor of the security benefits realized by sticking with the tried and true. As a variable, the operating environment is like having a choice of performance levels and primary interfaces within the PC itself, which can be changed without necessarily changing the hardware or the application software. The impact on the results you are able to obtain from your PC by the choice of an operating environment is dramatic. At one end of the range of possible results would be the ability to instantly switch between two or more active applications, cut and paste information between them, fluidly cruise from application to application with a few mouse clicks, and with the operating system being virtually 'transparent'. At the other end of the range, a user would only expect one application to be running at a time, and would evoke each of them by typing commands at the DOS command prompt. 4. USER INTERFACE While all operating systems offer a basic shell or user environment intended to facilitate the launching of programs and management of files, most PC users have also implemented some form of menu system or primary navigational interface between themselves and the operating system within the PC itself. These user interfaces are either character oriented, meaning the monitor is displaying ASCII text information only in a fixed character space format, or they are graphics oriented. Since graphical interfaces are comparatively new to computing and their wide spread use is only now evolving, most users today still have a character oriented method of choosing programs to be run from a menu list displayed in text mode, or they are executing programs by typing at the DOS command line. If all a PC is used for is to write an occasional -14- letter or put some numbers in a spreadsheet, then a character oriented user interface may be entirely adequate. However as attempts are made to make a character oriented user interface serve in the stepped up electronic marketplace environment, much less a multimedia environment, it will become an obstacle. Graphical User Interfaces (GUI's) offer the distinct advantage of being able to not only put far more text on the screen at one time, in a variety of fonts, but to also include graphical images, bars, buttons, and icons, all of which can be responsive to a mouse. One of the most powerful features of a GUI is the speed with which a succession of things can be accomplished with just a few mouse clicks. One of the most powerful side effects of a GUI and a mouse is the tremendous increase in the intuitive ease with which new software can be learned and mastered. There are many software and shareware products available to create text mode menus for launching programs and performing other PC tasks. Of these, perhaps the user interface provided by DesqView (Quarterdeck Office Systems) provides the ultimate degree of control of the PC, via DOS, and including a high degree of control over task switching. Microsoft's, "Windows", is probably the most widely used GUI for a PC. A distinct disadvantage of relying on Windows for the benefits of having a GUI is that the application software must be a Windows 'version' in order to run under Windows. Otherwise, to run a non-Windows DOS application, Windows must be exited. Another approach to gaining the benefits of operating with a GUI without using Windows is to use GeoWorks Pro, a graphical user interface bundled with an array of desktop applications such as a file manager, a word processor, communications handler, telephone index and dialer, personal planner, notepad, a drawing tool, scrapbook of clip-art, and more. All these graphical applications are, of course, under the control of GeoWorks. They can be minimized, maximized, and iconized and otherwise fluidly used by pointing and clicking with a mouse. Icons may also be set up so that your regular DOS applications may be run as well. Like Windows, GeoWorks shuts down it's graphical user interface when switching to an ordinary DOS application which may or may not use a graphical screen representation. Interestingly, when it comes to multitasking, GeoWorks Pro and DR DOS's TaskMAX mesh with each other very seamlessly. When the active task is GeoWorks, the Express pull down menu lists all other tasks that have been started, both GeoWorks tasks and DOS tasks, and any of them can be -15- immediately made the active task by just clicking on their name. When the active task is a DOS program, a hot key combination is used to pop open the TaskMAX control menu where a different task may be chosen, tasks may be stopped and started, and screen text may be copied to a clipboard for pasting into a different task. The advantages of using a Graphical User Interface along with a mouse as a pointing device as the principal means for operating your PC cannot be emphasized enough. The speed with which you can go from function to function, task to task, etc. not only gives you a new level of control over your PC, but also makes it inviting to 'go exploring'. The ease with which various features and functions can be experimented with greatly expedites the learning process. Since the Multimedia user interface is itself, graphical, and has massive data accessibility, the ability to 'go exploring' is the main point of this interactive software. 5. THE APPLICATION SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT The choice of your application software itself is a factor in how easily you can obtain results from your PC. "Standardized" methods for accessing menus and making choices have evolved greatly as application software has been steadily improved over the years. The result is that there are many very good packages available today that are both incredibly powerful and easy to learn to use because of their intuitive design features. Having the right application software and having it active is where the tire hits the road and some useful work finally gets done. Assuming an appropriate Physical Environment, Machine Environment, Operating Environment, and User Interface let you access the application software with ease, you are then ready to exploit the functionality of the application software itself to it's max. Most quality software today has a wide range of functionality and a wise user takes the time to become familiar with all the functional options. It becomes more probable that a wider range of functionality will be used if less time is devoted to overcoming and obstacles presented by the Physical, Machine, Operating, and User Interface environments each time the software is loaded up. The importance of having these interface thresholds between you and your application software as clear and transparent as possible, and not encumbering access to the application program itself, cannot be overemphasized. -16- Don't get into the trap of falling in love with one particular word processor, spreadsheet, database, etc. only because it is the one you are familiar with and can get around best in, and then ignore all other prospects of alternative software. If you do feel strongly about sticking tight with a particular software package, then by all means keep yourself updated with the most current release or version of it. Then, in addition, it is wise to have and be familiar with alternative software packages for accomplishing the same general results. This is important for those instances when your favorite package turns out to be cumbersome with some seldom needed capability and which an alternative package does well. SUMMARY OF THE PRIMARY ATTRIBUTES. Given that your objective is obtaining computing results from your software, and that there are only 24 hours in every day, all time spent negotiating and passing through the Workstation environment attributes leading up to the application software is pure overhead. If the physical environment produces obstacles because of poor organization and inadequate space, if the machine environment causes you to wait unnecessarily for screen changes or other results, if the operating environment offers constraints or is less responsive to your wishes than it may be, or the user interface is an obstacle to be overcome, by the time you get down to executing your application software, a lot of time has been lost just getting up to the point where you are going to do useful work with the software. On the other hand, the five Workstation attributes can be adjusted to an optimal state considering the overall objectives and expected results from your PC, and the resultant increase in the production of results will be very evident. The Competitive PC Workstation must be viewed as a whole, with the five major attributes being parts of that whole. When each of these parts has been adjusted so as to make the maximum contribution to the whole, then the results from the Workstation will be maximized. THE ANTICIPATED WORKSTATION RESULTS Continual refinement of the Workstation attributes will result in ever higher performance levels of the expected results from this strategy: 1 - ORIGINAL DATA ENTRY - Type (or import) notes, letters, ideas, documents, names and address, etc. only once -17- and establish a permanent record in your computer. This information may then be used repeatedly in all further processing of the same information. Type in numbers only once and establish a permanent and continuing record of money matters through time that can be displayed or graphed at will as well as be combined with other text and image files. Type in information about groups of related things like customers or disk libraries only once and establish databases of information that can be scanned with precision search tools. All these records should be in standard file formats that your computer, as well as other computers, can understand and process. At first glance, the idea of typing or importing information only once and then using it repeatedly across multiple applications may seem to be either impractical or impossible, given the software you are now using. If this is true, it is a clear indication that you need to begin investigating the rich array of alternative software choices available today, and especially the software for establishing the User Interface. Both Microsoft's Windows and GeoWorks' GeoWorks Pro allow for information to be copied and pasted from one application to another, such as name and address data from a contact management database to the word processor, so you can write a letter or print an envelope for the letter without having to re-key the detailed name and address information. The copy/paste facility goes much further, of course, by allowing numerical details, graphic images, and entire segments of text to be lifted from one place and then pasted in at another. The ability to export files containing information created by one application and then to import the information in these files into another application is, of course, a common way of making multiple use of the same information. Today, text files, database files, spreadsheet files, etc. can be easily passed from one application to another. 2 - CONTROL OVER HARD COPY - Visual impressions are extremely important, and control whether anybody bothers to read what you've printed out on paper or not, and sets the priority for their attention if they do decide to read it. Thus, the Workstation must be able to assemble text, numbers, and graphics and then print them on paper, using suitable fonts, so as to attract the intended reader's attention. As the electronic marketplace develops, there is a decreasing reliance on printed materials and an increasing reliance on communicating the same information electronically. The reason for this, of course, is that -18- every aspect of communicating information on paper is expensive. The paper itself is expensive as is the time needed to print it out. Next, physically transporting the paper to the intended reader is expensive and time consuming regardless of how fast and efficient the courier is. Finally, when the printed paper reaches it's destination, it is expensive for the recipient to use if the information or a portion of it must be keyed into a computer. There will always be instances when information must be physically presented as printing on paper. Letters, contracts, proposals, etc. are a few of the most obvious examples. Common among these examples is the probability that a lot is at stake concerning the information being communicated. Hence, every effort must be made to make the information printed on paper as inviting as possible to the prospective reader. If the printed materials aren't inviting or otherwise appear mundane, the person receiving the printed information is simply less likely to read it and digest it fully. When this happens, the unusual cost of having prepared the information on paper in the first place is partially wasted. Given the capability of today's PC's, printers, and software, it is extremely easy to combine text with graphics, using a variety of possible fonts, to produce extremely inviting printed materials. Remember that your intended reader is also receiving printed materials from a variety of other sources, and that they are limited to having 24 hours a day available to them just like everyone else. If your printed materials are to receive the focus and attention you want, they must be both appealing and inviting. 3 - CONTROL OVER COMMUNICATIONS - Since the trend is to rely less on printed communications in favor of the faster and more economical electronic communication methods, a PC Workstation performs a vital role. Using the PC Workstation to handle all telephone dialing (voice - FAX - and computer modem calls), for example, is an enormous time saver compared to doing it by hand. First, there is the time savings from not having to look-up a number or otherwise scratch around to find it. Second, since the telephone number kept in the computer is the correct phone number, there is a reduced chance of using an inappropriate but correct number, and no chance of mis-dialing a number. Thus, the possibility of dialing a wrong number is all but eliminated. Many modem communication software packages today include the facility for script files which produce automated log-on keying for computer communications. This is obviously a big time saver for connecting with information services such as CompuServe, Genie, etc. Since -19- E-Mail and either uploaded or downloaded files are apt to be a rapidly growing part of your overall communications, the PC's ability to smoothly handle these functions is a must. After the connection is established for a voice communication, for either incoming or out going calls, the PC Workstation fills an even more vital role by providing reference information to support the conversation. Phone call log notes of previous conversations with the same person add a tone of certainty to your voice as you talk with your contact about what happened in the past, as does the certainty that you have the correct address or other details about the contact. Clear communications with high levels of certainty tighten your connection with the people you are dealing with and impart a feeling of confidence for them. The ability to automatically send FAX's to selected people in your contact management database adds a powerful feature to your overall communication facilities. The visual information being Faxed can be anywhere from generalized promotional information to monthly statements. 4 - TIME MANAGEMENT - An array of software is available today for scheduling your appointments and activities. These software packages fall into the category of Personal Information Managers (PIM's) and generally focus on a daily calendar which breaks each day up into time segments. A desktop tool such as this provides a means for planning your work day, making space for appointments, avoiding conflicts, and keeping track of deadlines and various periodic events. Of all the possible things you could use your PC Workstation for, this small and simple application has a high possibility of having a greater impact than any other single use. Sales professionals have long known of the benefits to be realized from the saying, "plan your work and work your plan". Personal scheduling software makes it possible to structure the available time you have each day so that there is enough time to accomplish all your objectives for the day. Things which cannot be accomplished can be rolled forward to the next or another day. Using software such as this has a number of advantages beyond simply showing you your schedule. First, it provides a very clear objective of the first thing to be done upon turning on your computer in the morning, since the first thing on your agenda should be to check and perhaps modify your schedule (plan) for the day. The very act of mulling over your plan for the day, perhaps switching some times or tasks, gives you the -20- opportunity to fine tune your intended efforts for the day. Sometimes, last minute ideas emerge that prove to be quite valuable. This quick overall review of the way you intend to spend the day and the things you intend to accomplish tends to have a positive impact in the overall outcome. A subtle result from using a scheduler is the reduction of personal stress. Some people have a tendency to commit to doing more things than a given interval of time will allow. This leads to hyper activity in order to fulfill all the commitments, detracts from the satisfactions normally obtained, and sometimes forces a juggling of tasks, often resulting in negative impacts. Other people tend to waste extra time that crops up during the day because they can't think of the 'back-burner' projects which invariably exist. A personal scheduler helps you develop realistic time estimates for your daily work, travel, errands, and chores. It provides a way to structure the work for a given day so that YOU are performing at your best throughout the day, without the pressure of over commitment. It provides a way for being reminded of and activating back-burner projects when unexpected spare time develops during the day. The clear overall net result is personal stress reduction, and a resultant positive impact on all your activities. 5 - IDEA INCUBATOR - Using a simple text editor as a 'notepad' and a basic drawing program (both having a limited but speedy command set), you can jot down new ideas and images, and begin the process of manipulating your creative thoughts into a more cohesive form. This collection of text and graphical image files provides a place to copy and paste text and images gathered from other applications and CD-ROM presentations. These files become a personal resource for developing new materials. When new ideas become well enough defined, they can then be passed on to more powerful word processors, drawing programs, paint boxes, and desktop publishing software to transform them into print on paper, FAX's, or files ready to be transmitted by modem to other computers. Interestingly, this 'doodle space' also provides an excellent diversion activity for those times in-between tasks when you simply need to think of something different for a few minutes. 6 - MULTIMEDIA - With multimedia, the promise of the information age is finally realized. Stunning animation graphics, along with full digital stereo sound and massive data accessibility produce a new way of experiencing a rich one-on-one interactive environment. -21- The massive data accessibility on a typical CD-ROM is difficult to describe in terms of previous PC experience with 'large' amounts of data available on disk. For example, the typical CD-ROM disk has roughly 600 megabytes of information on it. It would take over 1,600 of the popular 5 1/4" low density diskettes used in PC's to contain this much information! 7 - HOUSEKEEPING AND EDUCATIONAL - The Workstation should have a collection of the appropriate tools for managing the computer's files, their organization, and backup, as well as on-line manuals, tutorials, and other educational resources. As these broad Workstation results are established and the facilities for producing them are mastered, the overall results and productivity to be experienced from the Workstation increases at a geometric, perhaps even exponential rate. The technology, both hardware and software, is here today for the Competitive PC Workstation environment. Many people are using it daily to expedite their work and speed their accomplishments. Your access to and mastery of a suitable PC Workstation sets your level of competitiveness for the attention and response of the marketplace in general. SAMPLE CONFIGURATIONS As mentioned above, the machine environment is probably the single most important variable for determining the overall flow of results from a PC Workstation. Of the various models of PC's already in existence, there are three suitable machines for a Competitive PC Workstation, depending upon what CPU chip is used in the PC itself: the 80286 (PC/AT), the 80386, and the 80486. Each of these three basic machine environments can, in turn, be fine tuned by the choice of the Operating Environment and the User Interface software. Given the range of options available, combinations for the Machine Environment, Operating Environment, and User Interface method are as follows: 1. The 80286 Environment. PC's having the 80286 CPU chip and between 1 and 2 megabytes of memory can provide satisfactory results as a Competitive PC Workstation. By using DR DOS as the Operating environment, both efficient task switching and good memory management can be accomplished. Two other software products which are bundled -22- with DR DOS can virtually double the hard disk's capacity (SuperStor) and speed up disk reads and writes by setting up a disk cache (Super PC-Kwik). GeoWorks Pro would be the natural choice in this environment for a Graphical User Interface. The array of applications and desktop tools bundled with GeoWorks combine well in this Machine and Operating Environment to produce a snappy and responsive PC Workstation. 2. 80386 Environment. PC's having the 80386 CPU chip and between 2 and 4 megabytes of memory conforms as a minimum system for the standards set by the Multimedia PC Marketing Council. In keeping with the Council's standards, Microsoft DOS may be used as the Operating Environment along with Microsoft Windows for the Graphical User Interface. DR DOS, however, could just as well be used for the DOS operating system in order to obtain the advantages of SuperStor and Super PC-Kwik. 3. 80486 Environment. PC's having the 80486 CPU chip and about 6 megabytes of memory, along with IBM's OS/2 Operating System would result in an extremely powerful and versatile Competitive PC Workstation. RECOMMENDATIONS Take a larger view of your PC and it's probable role in a broader range of your day-to-day activities. Take a longer view of how a successful PC strategy will help you consistently achieve your overall information management and communication objectives through time. These two 'pictures' will begin to define the parameters of your future Competitive PC Workstation and are an absolutely vital first step toward bringing it into reality. Your visualization of what your future PC Workstation ought to be compared to what it is today must be done with the cost of the hardware and software not being an object. More about this later. Rather than money being the constraint, realize that the ultimate constraint in getting from where you are today to where you want to be is your own learning curve. It controls the time it will take for you to maximize the results which you are able to obtain from the great body of high powered software involved in your PC Workstation of the future. Your skill at using a PC and the number of hours per day you are able to devote to learning, implementing, and applying the expanded resources of your PC Workstation are the decisively limiting factors. -23- So, modulate the visualization of your future PC Workstation with a realistic assessment of how much new software and hardware you can really put to use within your planned development interval. This should help bring 'pie in the sky' system possibilities into a clearer 'reality' focus, and when it does, you'll have established an important PC Workstation objective for yourself. Your PC hardware and software posture as it is today compared to your PC Workstation objectives begins to clearly define the procurements you'll need to make to accomplish your objectives. With getting from here to there in a clearer step-by-step focus, you can immediately begin to implement the steps needed for it's fulfillment. Now let's consider the cost of hardware and software to get from where you are today to where you want to be. The computer in general and the PC in particular are already being heralded as the machine that changed the world. The successful pursuit of your endeavors and indeed, your livelihood, are apt to become increasingly dependent upon your skillful application of the PC's power to accomplish useful results. Now, with the advent of Multimedia CD-ROM and it's interactive educational and creative capabilities, the importance of being up to speed in all this is going into 'warp drive'. Since the potential cost of hardware and software for even the most elaborate PC Workstation is nominal compared to other 'important' things in life like cars and boats or fancy audio/video systems, there is no reason why it shouldn't have the highest of spending priorities. For many people, the easiest place to get started with making plans for a more serious approach to having a Competitive PC Workstation environment is with the Physical Environment. You should already know which factors concerning your present PC environment are deficient, and cause you to realize less than maximum results. Reevaluate all the factors concerning your PC's Physical Environment and identify the ones that specifically need changes or modifications to bring them to a more ideal situation. Begin taking steps to bring these changes into reality. Next, get settled on what Machine Environment you expect to be using for your Competitive PC Workstation and take the steps needed to establish it. Unless you already have a suitable Machine Environment, you will need to be thinking about either replacing or upgrading the PC you already have.