Product Reviews
Calc Magic, Spell Magic, RAMbrandt, reviewed by Stephen RoquemoreSPELL MAGIC
Spell Magic (AP0144) is a spelling checker that was originally
designed by Blue Collar Software to work with their Word Magic (AP0130)
word processor. However, it will work just fine with files created in AtariWriter
Plus, PaperClip, or the word processor in HomePack. Spell Magic has a 34,000-word
dictionary and you can add any number of personal dictionaries that each
contain up to 10,000 words. With online help screens and simple menus,
you can begin using Spell Magic right away
Spell Magic displays your file in the upper half of the screen while it's doing its thing, so you can check spelling "in context." It will update your personal dictionary automatically while checking. It works with one or two drives and provides word count statistics when done.
I highly recommend Spell Magic to those with the original AtariWriter
(which didn't have a spell checker) and HomePak. Owners of early versions
of PaperClip who didn't upgrade to the new version with its own spelling
checker could also benefit from this little dandy.
RAMBRANDT
RAMbrandt (AP0157), by Bard Ermentrout of the Pittsburgh users
group, is a paint program that has been popular for some time. It is subtitled
"The Atari Design Studio," and well it should be-with so many features
that I can't even list them all. You can use a joystick, KoalaPad or Atari
Touch Tablet to create your own works of art. You can even use the joystick
with either touch tablet.
can use
up to 128
colors in any
mode and animate
up to 32 frames
at any
speed.
RAMbrandt supports the best Atari graphics modes (7, 7+, 9, 10, and 11) except for Graphics 8. Boxes, circles, ellipses, "rubber-band" lines, freehand plotting, zoom and mirror (vertical, horizontal or both) are all available, as are fills in solid, pattern, random, and user-defined patterns. You can define your own brushes, plot text with user-defined fonts, define Quilts and Tiles-and paint or fill with any of these.
You can use as many as 128 colors in any mode, generate colors in several different ways, animate your pictures up to 32 frames at any speed. In Window Mode, you can rotate, flip, wipe, animate, scale, cut-and-paste, or rubber-stamp all or any part of your picture.
The program provides printer support for Epson, Star/Gemini, NEC, C. Itoh and compatible printers, plus the Okimate 10 color printer. It will load picture files from Computereyes, Micro Illustrator, Micro-Painter and Movie Maker files. It can even use the 130XE RAMdisk.
If you are at all interested in computer art or graphics, you really
can't pass up this little jewel. It even exceeds the capabilities of some
similar programs for the ST. I highly recommend it.
CALC MAGIC
Calc Magic (AP0177), by Metamorphosis Development, is well-known
as a nice little spreadsheet program for 8-bit Atari computers. It requires
an Atari XL or XE computer and 64K of memory. It offers the usual capabilities
of any spreadsheet, but is quite easy to learn and use. It uses multiple
menus like SynCalc, but has a built-in English set of commands that make
it a bit easier to work with.
Calc Magic scrolls very quickly and seems to be programmed for quick response to user requests like recalculations. With the built-in "programming language," you can quickly build templates to reduce the amount of typing required. Commands can be selected from pop-up menus. Spreadsheet files can be saved in DIF format for transfer to other spreadsheet or database programs which support DIF files. This program offers a lot of power for a small price. I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't need a full-power business-level spreadsheet.
$19.95 each. The Catalog, 544 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107. (415) 957-0886.