============================================================================= = - USA REPORT ------------------------------------------------------------ = ============================================================================= >>DATABASES Mail-O-Dex Professional ($49.95), by KarmaSoft, combines a rolodex, phone dialer, label printer, mail-merge manager into one friendly package for home or small business uses. Improvements made since the preceding version include greater memory efficiency, a zoom/iconify gadget, a var- iety of printing styles, envelope printing, an improved filter, a record count and separate windows for easy access to the desired functions. Those already owning an earlier version of Mail-O-Dex may upgrade to this newest version for only $10. Recipe-Fax V2 ($44.95), by Meggido, is a serious upgrade of its pre- decessor, including the addition of WorkBench 2.0 compatibility. The program now contains a friendlier interface laid out for easy recipe creation, editing and retrieval. The editor allows easy adjustment of procedures and ingredients, while the list processor makes the creation of shopping lists, conversions from US to metric (and vice versa), and serving size calculations fast and easy. Video Escort 1.0 ($300), by Mr. Hardware, is a Superbase-related database for professional videographers or photographers to facilitate the organization of their business. Its forms generator allows the user to create fields and categories, make entries, index and file them. For the sake of convenience, the program is structured so that information is entered only once. Among the special forms or templates included are those for scheduling, information, maintenance, the crew manager, accounting, and contracts. The program requires "Superbase Professional 3.02" and WorkBench 1.3. >>DESKTOP PUBLISHING 600 Amiga Fonts ($30.00), by Allied Studios, is a six disk col- lection of bit-mapped fonts 'ported' from MacIntosh PD software, redone in "The Calligrapher" (font editor) to insure correct operation and spa- cing on the Amiga, and then sorted and stored in this collection. There are over 600 font sizes with more than 250 type faces offered, from fami- liar styles such as "Avante Garde" to more obscure types as "Cirth" or "Abu Dhabi". The set also contains several sets of graphics icons, and all fonts and icons are easily used in such Amiga programs as "Deluxe- Paint III" or "ProWrite". Construction Sets ($39.95), by Digital Designs, is a set of images akin to clip art for use in creating things such as flowcharts, borders, characters or charts. Mifont 1.1 ($105.00), by Mirror Image, is a program for convert- ing the thousands of Mac PostScript typefaces (either bit-mapped or metric files) -- or PC or Mac printer fonts -- for use in the "Profes- sional Page" desktop publishing program by Gold Disk. Also included is a vast array of already converted typefaces. SaxonScript Professional ($130), by Saxon Industries, is a pro- gram for the conversion of files created in the "Saxon Publisher" DTP program for use by Preferences printers. Alternately, it also offers itself as a means for converting files created by other wordprocessors or Desktop Publishing programs into something printable on PostScript prin- ters (it contains a set of fonts equivalent to most of those found on PostScript printers). It supports color and color conversions and is able to combine 4-color separations into one file for printing on color printers. What is more, it also permits one to convert any part of the screen into an IFF or EPS image. The Scannery ($250), by Concise Logic, is an upgraded Amiga hardware/software interface for the (monochrome) Hewlett-Packard ScanJet scanner and, now, the HP ScanJet Scanner Plus. It now supports WorkBench 2.0, ARexx, four dither patterns, and 256 greyscales. Images may be saved in IFF, IFF24, TIFF, FAX, HP PCL, EPS, and Viewable EPS formats; with a final scan resolution range of 38 - 600 dpi for the simple ScanJet and 12 - 1500 for the ScanJet Plus. The program allows one to adjust not only the final resolution, but also the scales, clipping and brightness - - all while allowing the user to check his or her decisions in a full- page preview. The Scannery is compatible with all models of Amiga, though owners of the A1000 will have to order a special connector cable from Concise. >>SPREADSHEETS DataPlot 2.1 ($21.00; $15.00 for students), by Bytes and Bullets, is a program for plotting 2-dimensional data and functions. A menu-driven program it is capable of graphing ASCII file data from other programs, can map up to 100 sets of data or functions at the same time on the same screen, and can draw curves described by standard algebraic expressions. These graphs may be dumped to an HP or Epson-compatible printer. >>TEXT AND WORD PROCESSORS Amiga Tex ($300.00; base price $200 with printer drivers $75 -$100), by Radical Eye, is an upgraded version of the VERY well-regarded typeset- ting program. AmigaTex is now fully PostScript compatible for both fonts (hinted Type 1 and Type 3) and graphics, rendering them automatically for screen or printer. The program is compatible not only with AmigaDOS 2.0, but also with "Tex 3.1" and "Metafont 2.7". AmigaTex has always been extremely flexible; now, with complete PostScript compatibility, there should be nothing that cannot be published with it. TransWrite 2.0 ($69.95), by Gold Disk, is an upgraded version of the "TransWrite 1.0" program described in issue 19 of "NewsFlash". There it was described as "an improved version of the company's lightning-fast "Transcript" word processor (which was used to write this article). New features now include an improved interface with custom screens and screen colors, multiple search-and-replace, file encryption, Workbench 2.0 com- patibility, the ability to save printer settings with a file, and the capacity to load or save files in WordPerfect format. Transcript was a word processor designed by writers for writers; TransWrite appears to continue in the same vein. Unfortunately Gold Disk's usually strong cus- tomer support has not been extended to "Transcript" owners: In order for them to obtain "TransWrite", they must pay full price; there is no upgrade route. Alas." This newest version has additional fea- tures and capabilities, among them being greater control over widows and orphans; full formatting; mark-and-type text editing for quicker, easier changes; a utility called "RecoverTW" for recovering documents lost because of system crashes or the like; and perhaps best of all, document analysis to improve the user's writing. What is more, the program no longer uses more RAM than it needs, though it can still handle any docu- ment size up to the limits of available memory. And, users of Gold Disk's "Professional Page" desktop publishing program can link it dir- ectly to TransWrite , instead of having to use its Article Editor (previously, the relationship was one-way: TransWrite could export to ProPage, but ProPage could not make use of TransWrite). ============================================================================= = - USA REPORT ------------------------------------------------------------ = =============================================================================