XplanaZine

There was a time I was grateful enough for Word Perfect for DOS but it always felt awkward. Everything - from the commands to the impression that I was looking at the negative of a film - was far from my usual perception of a document and my familiar sequential rationality I was accustomed to. I can’t describe how thrilled I was when I found Ami Pro for windows 3.1. It ran fast and light and totally unaffected by the sluggishness of my computer. But above all, it delivered everything I wanted and more. I had a lot of fun discovering what it could do and customizing it to match my own perception of the world. It was working with me and for me and not the other way around. When Lotus released WordPro I was happy to go along. The usual worrisome feeling that accompanies big upgrades was totally absent. In its place there was faith and excitement. I knew it would be easy to learn and a delight to use, and I was right.

And I am far from being an exception. 91% of Lotus users recommend it, as the c/net user reviews reveal. It is interesting to note that only 48% of users recommend Office XP. This comparison, although not being perfectly fair (766 Office users versus 137 Lotus users ), is still indicative of a serious variance.

Word Pro is part of IBM Lotus SmartSuite which costs less than MS Office, or Corel Word Perfect Office, takes up less hard disk space and needs less memory to run well. In addition, IBM’s voice recognition software (Via Voice) integrates with WordPro with more accuracy than it does in Word.

SmartSuite contains eight applications:

1. Word Pro word processor,
2. Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet,
3. Approach database,
4. Lotus Organizer R5 time, contact and information manager,
5. Freelance Graphics presentation graphics,
6. Lotus FastSite intranet publisher,
7. ScreenCam multimedia software,
8. SmartCenter Internet information manager.

Many Lotus SmartSuite users appreciate the fact that they are able to avoid the ‘intrusiveness’ of Office, as most of them call it. Well, Office users can avoid this ‘intrusiveness’, for the most part, but users must know how to change or disable the default settings. I’ve learned from experience that many users not only don’t know how, but it never even occured to them they could. Many tend to think that the default settings are the cutting-edge of technology and therefore they have to live with them because they must be ‘good.’ WordPro is not intrusive, it doesn’t anticipate your next move and yet it is ready to assist you if you ask it to.

WordPro has all the features the average user may need in a word processor. One of the nicest things found in WordPro, as well as in Lotus 1-2-3, is the Properties Box. On the top of this box you select which aspect of your document you want to control, (i.e., text , or page layout , or table or table cell) . Once this is selected, several tabs appear that mark intuitive folders from where you can control the properties of the chosen aspect. The two greatest advantages of this box are: a) the ability to control all the properties from the same place, b) the box stays constantly open for as many changes and while they are being applied to the document. For example, you see what the document looks like as you are making multiple, consecutive changes to the margins. There is no need to reopen the menu after each unsatisfying change.

Do I recommend WordPro? Yes, absolutely. I don’t mean to suggest that Word users who are using it comfortably and fully should switch. But I definitely recommend it to those who need to buy a cost effect, attractive, reasonably powerful and very easy to use word processor.
In addition, I highly recommend Approach because it is very easy to learn and use (unlike Access). It also integrates with enterprise databases and applications including Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft and Lotus Notes and Domino.

Lotus 1-2-3 has always been around and it still creates nice spreadsheets. I found it particularly handy when I was teaching a large class. I had grades for many quizzes, exams, make-ups, projects and various extra credit assignments for over 100 students. Needless to say it wasn’t very easy to locate a particular entry right when I needed it. I realized that the best way to find something at a glance was to color coordinate similar items. For example, I made the background for all quiz columns light yellow and that of the weighted averages a darkerer shade of yellow, and so on. In order to do this, I needed to have several shades of the same color available and that Lotus 1-2-3 allowed me to use (but not Excel).

Smart Center is a nice little application that has captured many people’s fancy, if not their hearts. Smart Center is a thin bar that looks like a set of closed desk drawers. It sits on the desktop like the windows task bar and allows for easy access to everything an average productivity collection user needs. Click on any tray, or as many trays as you like, to open them and reveal their contents. One drawer contains folders with all the Lotus applications and documents nicely laid out. There is a dedicated drawer that opens your calendar and another to reveal important reminders you may have created. There is a separate drawer with a handy dictionary/thesaurus and even another drawer for a quick glance at the weather, or the stock market, or the headline news on the internet without opening your browser.

Personally, I love Lotus Organizer which is an excellent PIM and which looks like a real calendar. I also synchronize it with my Palm-based PDA in seconds.

SmartSuite includes FastSite which allows the user to create and publish a basic website. As is the case with the rest of the SmartSuite applications, it is very attractive and very easy to use.

Professional reviewers extol many of the SmartSuite great features but they also rate it somehow lower than MS Office because it lacks features as “smart tags”, “tags that anticipate and guide your work”. But these are precisely what most users don’t want and not without a good reason. More is not always better…

I thought I should include some comment ‘excerpts’ that Lotus SmartSuite users have posted at Amazon.com and that I agree with from personal experience.A software user from Ashburn, VA USA
“Faster, Cheaper and more intuitive to use than the largest seller. There are differences in how tasks are accomplished from one suite to the next but that would be case with any different office suite. Just about any task is less difficult to achieve with Smart Suite. From picking the right font to Creating a data base. Try Lotus Smart Suite for a month and you’ll never go back.”

A software user from Alexandria, VA United States
“… Late last year, I prepared a lengthy consulting report with numerous tables and footnotes. Using WordPro it was a snap to assemble the final document from the separate files in which I had written the various chapters. WordPro properly indexed cross-references and placed all endnotes where they belonged and in proper format.
One more thing: SmartSuite is highly stable, and it doesn’t crash my system. …”

Reviewer: ebraynz (see more about me) from Cleveland, Oh United States
” At first, being used to MS Office, I did not like Lotus SmartSuite when forced to use it at work. … Shortcomings aside, however, now I love the programs, especially Approach. Building an Approach database is 100% easier than MS Access. In a week, I built a complex database. I loved the intuitive tab format for navigating between forms (I hate having to define subforms and macros to link data in Access). Further, OLE linking is much easier in SmartSuite than Office. … In short, SmartSuite is a pleasure to use. It offers full functionality at a fraction of the price of Office Professional. Now I know why my company uses it: It makes sound financial sense without sacrificing functionality. … ”
SmartSuite went rather unnoticed as the c/net editor wrote for version 9.6: “There’s no question that this suite has slipped below the radar.” Well, it didn’t slip under mine and since I’ve been using it for years I thought I should share the experience with all those who could benefit from it.