#Titel Hard- & Software / Software / TurboCalc 2.0 #Logo gadget16:Pinsel/AG.Hard&Soft #Font Losse 16 #C31 Turbo Calc 2.0 #Font topaz 8 #C10 PRODUCT NAME #C21 TurboCalc version 2.0 #C10 BRIEF DESCRIPTION #C21 TurboCalc V2.0 (referred to as TC2) is a spreadsheet program similar to the MSDOS/Windows programs Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel. For those that are familiar with Excel, you will find TC2 very easy to use. #Seitenende #C10 AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION #C21 Author: Michael Friedrich Dist. Name: Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe Address: Gesellschaft fur Software mbH Veronikastrabe 33 45131 Essen GERMANY Telephone: 49-201-78-8778 FAX: 49-201-79-8447 E-mail: stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de (Stefan Ossowski) #C10 LIST PRICE #C21 I paid $115 (US) for this product. The only place to find it in the USA, as far as I know, is from Amiga Library Services. #Seitenende #C10 SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE #C21 512K RAM is required. 1 MB RAM is recommended. Space required on hard disk can be 1 MB or less, depending on whether you copy over all the example spreadsheets and the help file. It works very well on my 68030 50MHz CPU and 50MHz FPU. An accelerator or FPU is not required nor even mentioned as a recommendation. #C10 SOFTWARE #C21 Will work on AmigaDOS 1.2 and higher. I have had absolutely no problems with it on my AmigaDOS 3.0 Amiga 1200. #Seitenende #C10 COPY PROTECTION #C21 None as far as I know. It does ask you for your serial number from the diskette label, however, and appears to save it somewhere on the disk, but you are never bothered by it again. Can be installed on a hard disk just by dragging and dropping the drawer from the diskette onto the hard disk. #Seitenende #C10 MACHINES USED FOR TESTING #C21 Amiga 1200, 4 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM 465 MB hard disk (120 MB internal, 345 XDS IDE external) Paravision 1230XA 50/50 accelerator Commodore 1084 monitor AmigaDOS 3.0 Amiga 500, 1 MB Chip RAM, 4 MB Fast RAM 46 MB TrumpCard 500 hard disk Commodore 1084 monitor AmigaDOS 1.3 #C10 INSTALLATION #C21 The installation is EXTREMELY simple. If you have a floppy-only system, just make a backup copy and a blank disk for your spreadsheets. For hard disk owners, just double click on the TurboCalc disk icon, then drag and drop the TurboCalc drawer onto your hard disk. That's all there is to it! #C10 THE BASICS #C21 For those who are not familiar with what a spreadsheet is, here is a simple explanation. A spreadsheet program is just like a word processing program, EXCEPT that instead of manipulating letters and words, you will manipulate numeric information. You can also enter text, but it is usually limited to labeling what a column or row of numbers or formulas are. A spreadsheet looks like a grid or table with columns labeled by letters and rows labeled by numbers. You can pinpoint a specific spot in the spreadsheet, termed a "cell," using the row and column labels as coordinates. For example, cell A5 is found in the first column (A) and the fifth (5) row. #Seitenende #C10 REVIEW #C21 The TC2 user interface is very intuitive and includes a toolbar for the most commonly used commands. I have heard from users of the demo version, available on Aminet, that it does not follow the Commodore guidelines. I do not really know if this is true as I have not read the Style Guide. All I know is that it is very similar to Microsoft Excel and it is very easy to use. TC2 provides well over 100 functions that provide mathematical, boolean, text, financial, and other commands. Some of the math functions supported are ABS, ARC COS, ARC SIN, COS, SIN, and others. The financial functions let you calculate things such as interest rate, loan payments, and others. The look of the sheet is entirely formattable. You can change the look of a cell so it looks 3D-like, change fonts, colors, and row and column dimensions. What would a spreadsheet be without graphs? The common types are supported (bar, histogram, line, piechart). Once you make a graph, you can output it as an IFF file or print it on any printer that supports graphics. Database functionality is also supported. A database, in spreadsheet terms, allows you to manipulate numeric data that can be sorted, searched, deleted, and copied. In addition, you can query this data using the above mentioned formulas. The database is kept in the spreadsheet and is just a selection of cells that you define as being a Database Range. This is useful, for instance, for keeping company data (profit margins, FEE, G&A, etc.) in one section of the spreadsheet while your formulas are in another and they reference the information in the defined range. Finally, one of the nicest features is the support of macros and ARexx. Fortunately, you can record your macros so you can make repetitive operations easy to do. It has an ARexx port and gives some example scripts to help you out. I have not fully examined the ARexx capabilities, but all of the examples worked fine. Another great feature of the TC2 package is that example spreadsheets are included. These sheets cover the basics, formulas, databases, charts, etc. So, if you ever have questions about how certain things work, you have actual working examples at your fingertips. #Seitenende #C10 DOCUMENTATION #C21 The manual is very well written and consists only of 191 pages, which includes contents, index, and several helpful appendices. As it was originally written in German, the English translation is very proper-sounding, but it causes no problems in understanding. Also, you will sometimes see decimal numbers written in the European style with a comma instead of a decimal point, "130,00". The manual begins with a tutorial and is very easy to follow. Even if you are a beginner in spreadsheets, this tutorial will bring you up to speed on the basics. As a matter of fact, the manual is designed linearly so that you can start from the beginning of the manual and learn all of the program's capabilities as you go through each chapter. The chapters are separated into areas of functionality. After the tutorial, inputting of data and formulas is explained. This is then followed by how charts are created, the macro/ARexx commands, menus and toolbars, and it is finished by a listing and explanation of all the built-in functions that can be used in formulas. The appendices cover error messages and provide tips on improving printouts. #Seitenende #C10 LIKES #C21 I love this program because it is so much like Excel which I use at work. It also imports SYLK very nicely and almost perfectly. Most importantly, though, is that I faxed them with the question "Do you still support TC2?" A couple of days later, I received a reply saying yes and that they were interested in hearing about my suggestions for the next version. Their email address will be used for support, too. #C10 DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS #C21 The only real problem is that not all of the formats of a cell's borders are imported. I am not sure if it is caused by TurboCalc or if it is a limitation of the SYLK format. The only suggestion that I would have to improve this program is to abandon AmigaDOS 1.3 and go to 2.0+ only. #Seitenende #C10 BUGS #C21 None showed their faces to me! #C10 VENDOR SUPPORT #C21 As I said above, they are supporting their product and are looking for suggestions on improving it for TurboCalc V3.0. Fax or email them with any requests. #C10 CONCLUSIONS #C21 This is an excellent product. It is being supported, which is a very important factor these days. If you need a spreadsheet program to balance your checkbook or track your results in the office football pool, this is the one to get! #Seitenende #C10 COPYRIGHT NOTICE #C21 Copyright 1994 Michael David Cox. All rights reserved. #C10 --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews