16 April 2001
Robert Basler is the president of Aurora Systems, Inc. and a dedicated OS/2 user since he tired of rebooting Windows 3.1 twenty times a day.
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Lotus SmartSuite 1.6 for OS/2 in Depth
When Lotus SmartSuite was released a couple of months ago, I was pretty excited about it. First because I have been
using Lotus SmartSuite since Version 4 for Windows, and second because it is very encouraging to see a major software
product like this continuing to be developed for OS/2.
In this feature story, Pete Grubbs and myself will review all of the SmartSuite 1.6 applications.
SmartSuite for OS/2 Warp 4 Release 1.6 contains the 5 primary suite applications:
- Word Pro for OS/2 Warp 4
- 1-2-3 for OS/2 Warp 4
- Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Warp 4
- Approach for OS/2 Warp 4
- Organizer for OS/2 Warp 4
What's New in Release 1.6
- Upgraded Chart in Freelance Graphics, including support for importing .123 files.
- Upgraded InfoBox, SmartIcons, Status Bar, and TeamMail in Freelance Graphics -- this functionality is now at the same level as the other SmartSuite applications.
- Improved Microsoft Excel and Word filters in 1-2-3 and Word Pro, including support for Office 2000 files.
- Fixes for customer-reported issues in all of the SmartSuite applications.
- Enhanced support for customizing SmartSuite in the IBM WorkSpace On-Demand 2.0 environment.
What's in the Box
In these days of online documentation, and cardboard inserts so that the boxes don't flatten, Lotus SmartSuite comes with a surprising amount of paper in the box. In addition to the CD-ROM there are 6 books and one booklet:- Installing and Using SmartSuite Products
- Exploring Freelance Graphics
- Exploring Word Pro
- Exploring 1-2-3
- Exploring Approach
- Exploring Organizer
- Organizer Print Layout Guide
Each book gives you a whirlwind tour of its respective application with an eye to producing your first document, presentation or report from that program. The examples are easy to follow and everything is layed out nicely in traditional IBM format complete with table of contents, index, and copious pictures. The book on Lotus Approach is by far the thickest, but that is to be expected with a database product. The Organizer Print Layout Guide offers sample prints of all the reports that Organizer can produce so you can quickly see which ones you need.
These books are also available online in PDF format in the Lotus Assistance Center folder Online Books if you choose to install them. Two additional books included there that are not available in hardcopy are the LotusScript V3.1 Language Reference and the LotusScript Programmer's Guide.
Installation
Installation of Lotus SmartSuite is relatively painless. The installer is modern and straightforward. One thing I would strongly recommend is to look through the options in the Custom Install. There are a lot of extra things that you can install that you might well want. I found a number of word processor and graphic format filters and document templates that would be useful for me that weren't installed with the Default Install. I also added all the tutorials to my installation.Get to Know SmartSuite with the Online Tours
For a new SmartSuite user, the best place to start is the online tours. These short, 2-10 minute animated lessons teach you about many of the capabilities of the software and how best to use them. To access the tour for any SmartSuite application start the SmartSuite application you are interested in, then click on Help, then Tour... The only problem I encountered when using the tours is that when I exit them, occasionally they leave the mouse pointer turned off.
User Interface
One of the things I really like in SmartSuite is the user interface. Most dialogs have little notes to help you figure out what to do, all the menus show tooltips in the title bar, icons have their own tooltips, and tabbed dialogs are used throughout. It is thoroughly modern and extremely user-friendly and retains a strong native OS/2 feel.Online Help
The online help for SmartSuite is standard OS/2 View format. One extra feature that you will find under the help menu is a link to Lotus Internet Support, this opens your web browser and takes you directly to Lotus Customer Support where you can search their support database or sign up for additional premium services.The help overall is well organized and includes handy sections such as "What's New?" "Top 10 Tasks" and "How Do I?" in addition to the standard reference sections you'd expect.
LotusScript
LotusScript is a structured programming language that allows you to automate tasks in any of the SmartSuite applications. This is a must for the power user. LotusScript is based on BASIC so it should be easy to learn, but it also looks to have been influenced a bit by C. If you are going to start using LotusScript yourself, I strongly recommend spending a bit of time with the online LotusScript Programmer's Guide.The Applications Reviewed
You can either just click to the next article to proceed through all the reviews, or select a review from the list below.Word Pro for OS/2 Warp 4
1-2-3 for OS/2 Warp 4
Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Warp 4
Approach for OS/2 Warp 4
Organizer for OS/2 Warp 4
Summary
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