.IF DSK1.C3 .CE 2 *IMPACT/99* by Jack Sughrue BLUE RIBBON II .IF DSK1.C2  Last time in our IMPACT column we presented Asgard Software with the 1988 Blue Ribbon Award for outstanding commercial support of our 99 and for the upgraded Geneve 9640 from Myarc. We wrote about some of the games (LEGENDS, HIGH GRAVITY, BALLOON WARS, etc.) that would satisfy most game enthusiasts (like myself) and promised to complete an overview of the company's excellent products produced by some of the most prominent programmers and artists in the TI community. However, most grownups prefer the utility software to games these days. In a way, that's too bad: we don't want to take the FUN out of computing because people might mistake us for IBM owners. There is a way out of this dilemma. Asgard. Some of the utilities are so much fun you feel you are playing games or solving puzzles instead of working at tasks. Let's peek at a few. TOTAL FILER, for example, is my favorite data base. It's free form and written entirely in extremely fast c99 (though it can load and run through XB, TIW, or E/A). I also like and use CREATIVE FILING SYSTEM and PR BASE, two extraordinary Fairware data bases. But I use TOTAL FILER more often for more reasons. It is quick. Nothing difficult to load and be forced to figure out peculiar keyboard patterns for a pile of menus. TF is designed for the user. It is simple, easy, quick, clean. Though it has been promoted as a way of putting all your TI Writer files into easily-accessed electronic index cards (the kind of program writers dream of and is done better by TF than by ANY data base for ANY computer, believe me), I still prefer it for those normal kinds of files one uses about the home or work. I use it for all the filing I need to do with my 5th-grade class. I use it for my collection of P.G.^Wodehouse books and all my audio and video tapes. I have used it for collections of these IMPACT articles, as well as for poems and essays I wrote when I needed to pull them together for books. This makes my FUNNELWEB (or whatever TIW you use) a lot more potent, too. There is no limit to the number of files serviced by TF. You don't have to worry about sorts. In seconds, TF'll find anything you've key-worded when creating your file. Let's say I created a Wodehouse file and listed JEEVES AND THE TIE THAT BINDS. I keyworded the following: Jeeves, Bertie, Madeline, Dahlia, Runkle, politics. I also had a small write-up on the book with publication dates, etc. I can call it all up with the title. Or I can (if I forgot the title) remember that Madeline was in it or it was about politics or that Bertie was staying at his Aunt Dahlia's. If I type any of those words above, the DISK would be IMMEDIATELY read for all instances of, say, Dahlia. I could then key through all the Dahlia books until the right one popped up. Runkle, however, is only in this book. If I keyed that in, the stuff would be standing before me on the screen. There are so many things you can do with TF (including printing out the individual entries or a master listing) that I don't wish to take up this somewhat generic overview review with all the ways one could use it. There are little specialty programs put out by Asgard, too: STAMP MANAGER (for stamp collectors); RECIPE WRITER (now updated for serious cooks) with volumes of recipes in the ELECTRONIC GOURMET package; PRE-SCAN IT! (to speed up and reduce XB programs even if you aren't a programmer); MUSIC SYNTHESIZER (for the novice to create music on the TI); TUNNEL OF DOOM EDITOR (which lets you create your own TOD games, including weapons, monsters, graphics, text); SCREEN SCROLL PACKAGE (for adding all kinds of assembly items to XB even without knowing assembly); and so on. Two outstandingly versatile and useful programs are the old (but updated with all kinds of new features and speed) SCHEDULE MANAGER and the new EZ-KEYS. The former, an integrated appointment book, is filled with so many easy, instant features that you'll wonder how you ever existed without it before. This is a lot like using a typewriter and discovering wordprocessing. You can have up to a full screen of appointments or comments on each day of a 4-month calendar (which updates). The famous Asgard pull-down menus let you access any part of the program. SM also features a 30-page notebook for names, addresses, phones, and so much more. Probably the utility blockbuster for XB programmers and novices this year will be EZ-KEYS. It's simply an astounding piece of software. When I first heard the name I thought it was another program to make command macrokeys. And that was it. Lots of hype, little value. Was I wrong! Although this program makes macrokeys of EVERYTHING, it is just one of the unusual things it does. It does, however, bring macro-ing to the State of the Art by being able to define 55 keys to contain the commands you use that kind of program for, but you, the user, can put up to 671 characters of utilities, keystroke combos, program code, WHATEVER, on every single one of these keys and - get this -chain themtogether for further combinations! EZ gives you full cursor control. The secret word is FULL! You can also change screen colors while programming and more and more and more. EZ will sit behind most programs (I've found none that it doesn't, including hybrids with assembly.) so you can pull into that program any of the EZ features for direct use or permanent customizing. Imagine what this can do for your most- often used programs! Excellent documentation, the hallmark of Asgard, is hardly necessary because of the ease of use and clarity of intent. Remarkable! Asgard has become the unquestioned leader in graphics and electronic publishing in the TI world. If you combine the Public Domain MAX-RLE and the latest Fairware FUNNELWEB with the stuff from Asgard, you can practically create a complete standard of all the TI industry's graphic design out there. Desktop publishing has come of age for us all. The big program from Asgard in this area is FONTWRITER II. With it you can do flyers and signs and reports and letterheads and anything your imagination will let you do. You can combine text with pictures (even on the same line) right out of a TI Writer file. There are almost 200 typefaces available in TI-Artist and CSGD format (some with this disk) and FONTWRITER can use them all! The image-creation flexibility is enormous. Asgard alo puts out volumes of ARTIST FONTS (for TI-Artist or FONTWRITER); ARTIST INSTANCES (by subject matter - Hooray!) featuring animals, holidays, home, people, computer, etc.; ARTIST ENLARGER which lets you enlarge or reduce or stretch or squeeze in any direction any font or instance to use with FONTRWRITER or TI-Artist. Asgard also has four packages of GRAPHX COMPANIONS. Hundreds of fonts, cliparts, borders, pictures, animation sequences, and so on for people with GRAPHX (or to a more limited degree MAX-RLE, but preferably both for easy conversions) to become part of this electronic publishing. GRAPHX SLIDESHOW by Paul Charlton will display a full disk of RLE or GRAPHX pictures in manual or automatic settings. Whew! What has happened is that Asgard produces and distributes software faster that it can be reviewed in a column like this. This is not a complaint. The programs continue to get A ratings fromMICROpendiumand many newsletters. It's a company worth investigating. Mr. Bobbitt promises some really exciting new software "that'll knock your socks off" coming up soon. I, for one, can't wait. For free catalog and price list, write to Asgard Software, PO Box 10306, Rockville, MD 20850. Tell 'em Impact sent you. Enjoy! [Jack Sughrue, Box 459, E.Douglas MA 01516] If any newsletter editor prints any of these articles, please put me on your mailing list. Thanks - JS Հ