garye@microsoft.UUCP (Gary ERICSON) (05/01/90)
>Best of all, the BOSS fits easily in a shirt or pants pocket. Admittedly, >the keyboard is a little tight, but you get used to it quickly. > >Chuck Musciano That's the question for me. What's the interface like in real use? Not counting for the moment the many advantages to an electronic system, I see two advantages to paper notebook systems: 1) You can go directly to different sections of your notebook by just flipping to them with your fingers. I can find an address by going straight to the P's in the address section. I can get to my expense reports by grabbing that index tab - flip and I'm there. 2) You can enter information quickly with a pencil. You don't have to squeeze your fingers onto a tiny keyboard, and you don't have to navigate through forms using tab or arrow keys - you plunk your pencil on the spot you want and write. How is the BOSS (or Wizard or Portfolio) in these areas? How do you flip from your calendar section to names/address section (what keystrokes)? How do you search for the address for John Williams (scroll through list or jump straight to W's)? Is there a form for entering an appointment? Can you jump to different fields in that form randomly (or are you forced to enter the information serially)? My limited contact with devices like this has gotten me frustrated with the keyboard-driven interface. Admittedly, this is from a quick perusal, and the good/bad-ness of the interface probably isn't clear until you've used it consistently in real situations. Despite the obvious advantages of the electronic version, a pencil-and- fingertip-driven interface is enough of an advantage that I still prefer it (not to mention the up-front price difference). But I love techie devices, so if you can convince me that it has as easy an interface as pencil and notebook (in real use), I'd love to get one. Gary Ericson - Microsoft - Work Group Apps
kessler%cons.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Robert R. Kessler) (05/04/90)
I recently purchased an Atari Portfolio. So far, I really like it. I'll answer your query in the context of the Portfolio. >How is the BOSS (or Wizard or Portfolio) in these areas? How do you flip >from your calendar section to names/address section (what keystrokes)? How It is one key stroke (like the control key, you use the Atari Key and a character to select the appropriate application: Spread-Sheet, Editor, Address Book, Diary/Calendar, Calculator, Setup. If you are in one application and switch to another, it takes one additional key stroke (return) if you have changed the file you are working with and desire to save it. The PF is also menu driven, so you can navigate around with a very few one character commands. >do you search for the address for John Williams (scroll through list or jump >straight to W's)? In the address book, you can search using the search menu (two button push) or control-S. Then you can type whatever string that you wish to search for and go directly to the entry. The address book has a header line with the name and telephone number of the person/place/thing, and then n-other lines that give more detailed information. You select the header and then go to the additional data. BTW -- there is also a menu command to use the telephone number and automatically dial that number for you (by placing the handset up to the PF speaker). It is smart enough to know about prefixes and gives you a menu of choices of which telephone number to dial (for instance, you may already be in the area code, so you don't need to select that one). Once again, very few keystrokes gives you this capability. > Is there a form for entering an appointment? Can you No form. Just fill in the time of the appointment and any data that you want to put there to remind you of the appointment. You can also specify that items are daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, etc. You can also tag them with alarms, which will beep at you and show you the data when the time comes. It also includes a calendar that goes are far into the future as you need. >jump to different fields in that form randomly (or are you forced to enter >the information serially)? You could create forms if you want them in the text editor, or in the spread sheet. You can then be creative about moving around either of them. > >My limited contact with devices like this has gotten me frustrated with >the keyboard-driven interface. Admittedly, this is from a quick perusal, >and the good/bad-ness of the interface probably isn't clear until you've >used it consistently in real situations. The keyboard is a little small. I have fairly long fingers, but they are kind of skinny. I can touch type on it, but am not sure that I would want to do it for a long time. The one real misfeature is that the case edge is higher than the space bar and thus you tend to hit that instead of the space bar. As I use it more, I might be able to train my fingers to touch type on it without problems. The keys have a good feel to them. I have always hated keyboards with key click, but this one works well, can be turned off, but gives good feedback on the little keyboard. > >Despite the obvious advantages of the electronic version, a pencil-and- >fingertip-driven interface is enough of an advantage that I still prefer it >(not to mention the up-front price difference). But I love techie devices, >so if you can convince me that it has as easy an interface as pencil and >notebook (in real use), I'd love to get one. > >Gary Ericson - Microsoft - Work Group Apps Other comments. The book diagrams for the serial interface wiring seem to be wrong. We ended up reversing transmit and receive and got the interface to work just fine. It also can't keep up very well at 9600 baud, losing characters. 4800 seems to be just fine. I now keep my calendar file on my unix system, shared by myself and my secretary. When she makes a change, I simply run a batch command which retrieves the file from my Unix workstation. The calendar file is just a text file (so is the phone address book), so is easy to edit and deal with. With the serial line, I can also use it as a terminal. There is only 40 columns by 8 lines, but in Tracked-Terminal mode, it emulates an 80x25 line display and allows you to scroll around on it. It would be sufficient for reading email while on a trip without hauling around a 6 pound laptop. One point -- you HAVE to buy one of the RAM memory cards. I have blown away the operating system a number of times and have had to restore all my files. I simply leave the write protect on the RAM card, only taking it off to update a file. They are outrageously expensive, but necessary (only other option would be to upload all of your files). So far, I would say that it is exactly what I want. It is small, convenient, replaces my day timer, and has other things like the editor and spread sheet. Thus traveling with it should be fun. The batteries should last 4 to 6 weeks of reasonable use (I leave it plugged into an AC adaptor while it sits on my desk). I hope that this gives you a better idea of the features. B.
chuck@melmac.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano) (05/08/90)
In article <54374@microsoft.UUCP> garye@microsoft.UUCP (Gary ERICSON) writes: >How is the BOSS (or Wizard or Portfolio) in these areas? How do you flip >from your calendar section to names/address section (what keystrokes)? The BOSS has dedicated keys for Telephone, Business Cards, Memos, Schedule, and Calendar. Just hit the button and you jump to that data. Very easy, and you're never in a mode where this won't work. >How >do you search for the address for John Williams (scroll through list or jump >straight to W's)? You type that string to find (or just a letter, or whatever) and hit the Search button. What is really nice is that you can build multiple search strings using the Combine key. On each telephone and business card entry, I added a "Keys" field (the BOSS lets you define six additional fields for each object you enter, so I defined things like "E-mail Address" and "Alternate Phone". The BOSS already knows about things like "Title", "Fax Number", "Telex" and the like) I put keywords like "Sales" or "Engineering" in the keys field. So, if I need the number of a Sun field engineer, I type "Sun<combine>Engineer<search>" and up pop the right people! Even better, shift-Search finds records with either of the fields (<combine> == <or>), while regular Search finds records with both of the fields (<combine> == <and>). You can have any number of combined strings for searching. The BOSS also has two display modes: just name and number, or full data. The arrow keys let you jump through six names at a time in name and number mode, so sometimes it is easier to just hold down the arrow key until the right name appears on the screen. >Is there a form for entering an appointment? Can you >jump to different fields in that form randomly (or are you forced to enter >the information serially)? The BOSS prompts you for each field in turn, along with your predefined fields. You use the Next and arrow keys to move from field to field. You can enter and edit any field at any time. You press Set to record the data. >Despite the obvious advantages of the electronic version, a pencil-and- >fingertip-driven interface is enough of an advantage that I still prefer it >(not to mention the up-front price difference). But I love techie devices, >so if you can convince me that it has as easy an interface as pencil and >notebook (in real use), I'd love to get one. Most places that sell these will let you play with one all you want. Go to your local electronics discount place and ask to see a BOSS. Get the manual and play around. I'll bet you like it! Chuck Musciano ARPA : chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com Harris Corporation Usenet: ...!uunet!x102a!trantor!chuck PO Box 37, MS 3A/1912 AT&T : (407) 727-6131 Melbourne, FL 32902 FAX : (407) 729-2537 I'm glad you asked, son. Being popular is the most important thing in the world. -- Homer Simpson