.~ . THE MAGAZINfE FOR ep1M & MS-DOS COMPUTER USERS o @[8£l0G: WQ~~@[?,~g WC0~®'0'Q[jU[j~~ [b@G'~ ITVo'20 0 ~DG©'2[ju© @[(O©uG o (WSO[iu[J g)C0GOO~j)D[ju@JG[[ 0 @~~'~OD[juO[{il~ ~nJD'~uu ®Q.OGG'~QIrH "Nala in Council with Poets and Scholars" is from the Nala-Damayanti Series, Pahari-Kangra, ca. 1810-1814. Adapted for modern poets and scholars by Sahnta Pannutti. The Comple~ Line of Small Business Comp ters This small business computer provides: •Adisk drive capable of storing 392K •A9" green screen • Familiar typewriter-style keyboard with numeric pad • Connections for printer, modem, etc. • Software: wordStar,® M-Basic,T. CPI Mr. 2.2, and Games • optional Kaypro New 2Upgrade Kit ($495) includes: Asecond disk drive and acomplete software package. The Kaypro 2X, the professional business computer, comes with: • Dual disk drives providing 784K (400 pages) of storage • An easy-to-read, green screen • Familiar typewriter-style keyboard with numeric pad ·A 300 baud modem'. Real time clock I calendar •Acomplete bundle of business and personal software including: WordStar,® The Word Plus,'· DataStar,'· ReportStar,'· Mailmerge,® CalcStar,'· Microplan,'· M-Basic," C-Basic,'·S-Basic,'· CP/M'· 2.2, and Mite.'· . The Kaypro 10, the hard disk business computer, is complete with: • 10 megabyte hard disk capable of storing an astounding 5000 pages of data • Plus a392K (floppy) for extra storage and hard disk back-up •Alarge, non·glare monitor • Familiar typewriter-style keyboard with numeric pad • .Built-in modem • Real time clock I calendar • The same powerful package of ready-to-run software as the Kaypro 2X, plus dBASE II'· data base management already installed on the hard disk. The Robie takes up less than half the space of astandard desk-top computer, but it's worth its weight in performance: • Two disk drives providing 5.2 megabytes of storage • Non-glare monitor. Built-in modem • Typewriter-style keyboard • And the same powerful package of software that'S included with the Kaypro 10. Ask about the Kaypro Quick Credit Plan. You can finance aKaypro computer for as little as $38 per month. CORPOI<ATION FOr your nearest I(AYPRO dealer, call TOLL FREE 1·800-41(AYPRO 0 In California, 1·800-9ICAYPRO Trademarks: CP/M, C-Baslc, Digital ResearCh, uic.; The Word Plus, Oasis Systems; Mite, Mlcroft Labs; S·Baslc, Kaypro corporation; Mlcroplan,chang Labs, Inc.; M-Baslc, Microsoft, Inc.; WordStar, Mallmerge, ReportStar, DataStar, calcStar, MlcroPro International; dBASE II, Ashton-rate. Circle number 12 on the reader service card. .The Osborne VIXen: Official Computer ofTeamTennis and the Association. .. of Professional Triathletes I YES, I want ~ know I I about the VIXen, I newest computer. I I Name Osborne Computer I I Corporation Address 42680 Christy Street -----I I Fremont, CA 94538 City State Zip Phone number () IL ~I . Citizen MSP-IO printer has been chosen as the official printer of TeamTennis. ~SBORNE Circle number 16 on the reader service card. CONTENTS... User~ Guide Number 16 (Volume 3.4) August 1985 Tony Bove & Cheryl Rhodes PUBLISHERS & EDITORS Steve Rosenthal, Kelly Smith, CONTRIBUTING EDITORS John Barry, Dana Blankenhorn, Benjamin Cohen, Thomas Howe, Miriam Liskin, Byron McKay, Bruce Morgen, Arthur Naiman, Jonathan Sachs, Bob Wolff WRITERS Sahnta Pannutti DESIGNER April Kepler ART & PRODUCTION EDITORIAL 4 Annie Warren ADVERTISING SALES FREE SOFTWARE Julie Swanson, Kathy Slusser PC-FILE: a Filing CIRCULATION System For Keeping Data Records 6 by Ben Cohen Jennifer Oppenheimer ADMINISTRATION An in-depth tutorial on this user-supported (free) data base management system for CP1M as well as PC us­ Hugh Daniel, Dorothy Hays ers. RESEARCH ELECTRIC ORACLE Martha Bowling, Shannon Essa, Dan Shoemaker, Dan Rosset Selected and Sought- OFFICE after Software Solutions 16 by Byron McKay User's Guide, ISSN 0747-8534, is published six times a year by TUG Inc., Box 5245, Redwood City, CA 94063, (415) 364-0108. Second-class A new column of questions answered by the Delphic postage paid at Redwood City, CA 94063 (USPS 689-550). Dealer himself, a founder of PicoNet and FOG, and Entire contents Copyright © 1985 by TUG, Inc. All rights reserved. Re­ the Bard of the BBSs. production of material appearing in User's Guide is forbidden without explicit permission. Send all reprint requests to Reprints, User's Guide, Box 5245, Redwood City, CA 94063. dBASE REPORT SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: Losing Data? 46 Single copy price $4.50 ($6.00 foreign or U.S. first-class). Subscription by Miriam Liskin for six issues (one year) is: U.S. - $21 if payment accompanies order, $25 if subscription is billed If you have a file with missing data, or problems with (second class). Add $10 for first-class delivery. closing two files properly, use these techniques to re­ CANADA & MEXICO - $27 in U.S. currency drawn on a U.S. bank, cover the data. or international postal money order; payment must accompany order (second class). $35 for first-class delivery. FOREIGN - $40 for air mail subscription. Payment (U.S. currency drawn on a U.s. bank, or international postal money order) must accom­ pany foreign orders. Inquiries about bulk, retail sale, and group rates are encouraged. Ad­ dress inquiries to Circulation Dept., User's Guide, Box 5245, Redwood City, CA 94063. Allow 6-8 weeks for processing of order. POSTMASTER: Please serid address changes (Form 3579) to User's Guide, Box 5245, Redwood City, CA 94063. CP1M and CPIM-86 are registered trademarks of Digital Researcb, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines. MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft. WordStar and MailMerge are trademarks of MicroPro, IntI. Spellbinder is a trademark of Lexisoft. Turbo Pascal is a trademark of Borland International. User's Guide and Impatient User's Guide are trademarks of TUG Inc. User's Guide (TUG Inc.) is not affiliated with Digital Research, Microsoft, or any hardware or software manufacturer or distributor. 2 © 1985 TUG Inc., User's Guide Vol. 3.4 No: 16 Issue 16 (Vol. 3.4) ADVANCED USER TUTORIAL Enhancing Your System ESP: Surviving BASIC and Managing User Areas 62 Without Program Listings 48 by Bruce Morgen by Roy J. Lipscomb For ZCPR-like performance, check out the no-instal­ Being a programmer and getting along without paper lation-required XCCP, and the SETDRU, PUBlic listings, or how to get your BASIC program to re­ and DateStamper user area tools. member itself. SLEAZE PATROL REVIEW Naiman Gets Down To Cases 68 Questext III 58 by Arthur Naiman by Dana Blankenhorn If you use outlines for any reason, even to sell used BOOKS cars, check out this inexpensive outlining program and The Inventors ofthe Chjp 73 template package. by John Barry B< ente.r > <esc> (rgt)(rgt)(ctrlk) APPLICATION Make WordStara Superstar With Prokey 40 by Gary Nored A set of Prokey assignments turn WordStar into a su­ per performer. ANNOUNCEMENTS New Products 54 OVERVIEW MICRO USER'S MARKET 76 Welcome to Spellbinder 24 by Thomas Howe ADVERTISER INDEX 25 A powerful word processing program that resembles dedicated word processing equipment, with extra macro-programmability. Typefaces We use this Typeface to show commands and TUTORIAL & REVIEW expressions you type at your keyboard, and this A Quick Tour ofSpellbinder 26 typeface to show displayed messages. by Thomas Howe In summaries we use italics along with this Typeface An impatient user's guide to Lexisoft's Spellbinder ­ to show optional parts of commands and expressions. hands-on instructions spiced with review comments. Keywords are·usually in UPPER case·letters, with your words and data in Upperflower case. TUTORIAL We also use the symbol i:) torepresent the Spellbinder File Conversions 34 standard Return· key (CR or ENTER on some keyboards), and the caret symbol A to represent the by Thomas Howe Control key (CNTL, CTRL or ALT on some Converting WordStar files to Spellbinder and back keyboards). again. © 1985 TUG Inc.. User's Guide Vol. 3.4 No. 16 3 EDITORIAL Legislating Support · he only sign of trouble for this large showcase San advertising and product packaging. Retailers and manufac­ T Francisco store of a well-known computer retail turers are required to be more specific about a product's ca­ chain, was when it closed down for a weekend when sales are pabilities and to warrant most oral communication~for up usually high. A shorttime later the store ownerIfranchisee to a year after the purchase. The bill has not cleared the disappeared,and the store closed. Chased out by angry cus­ State Senate, but it seemed likely that it would. tomers, IBM grey:-market untouchables, or .the DEA? The A spokesperson for the Association of Better Computer only clues were the lack of sufficient inventory to stock the Dealers said "this is what happens when the industry shelves" and a rumor about IBM finding something wrong doesn't pay attention," and conceded that he wouldn't want in the store's operations (IBM has been cracking down on to be a computer retailer in California right now. The retailers who sell excess inventory to "grey market" ABCD predict that such legislation will be drawn up in oth­ resellers who sell at outrageous discounts). er states very soon, particularly in Minnesota and New An isolated tale of woe, or a pattern of declining sales York. and stores going out of business? More to the point: can you From the perspective of someone who recently bought a expect after-sales support from a store that may go out of PC or CP1M computer with little more documentation than business tomorrow? an operating system reference manual, this bill sounds like There is no doubt that sales have slowed down drastically it might do some good.