Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Path: menudo.uh.edu!usenet From: dingebre@imp.sim.es.COM (David Ingebretsen) Subject: REVIEW: NoteBook version 1.08 Message-ID: <1992Oct9.144941.20017@menudo.uh.edu> Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.applications Keywords: text editing, ideas, sketchpad, graphics, commercial Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Nntp-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Reply-To: dingebre@imp.sim.es.COM (David Ingebretsen) Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 14:49:41 GMT PRODUCT NAME NoteBook version 1.08 BRIEF DESCRIPTION This application mimics a standard three ring binder. One can insert lined, blank, or graph pages, enter and import text, draw "doodles" or import any standard native mode Amiga Graphics. The resulting project can be printed and/or saved to disk. [MODERATOR'S NOTE: Some non-native English speakers might not know the word "doodle" used in this review. It means a little drawing or sketch usually done for fun or out of boredom. For example, students will often doodle in their notebooks during a boring class. :-) -- Dan] AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Black Belt Systems Address: 398 Johnson Road Glasgow, MT 59230 Telephone: (800) 852-6442 FAX: (406) 367-AFAX E-mail: ? LIST PRICE List Price: $39.95 US I paid: $29.95 SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE The only special hardware may be a deinterlacer ("flicker fixer") board, since the program runs in interlace mode only. Minimum RAM: 512k Can run from a floppy Works on all CPU's SOFTWARE None. It runs under DOS 1.3 and 2.0, although Black Belt says that future versions may not run under 1.3. COPY PROTECTION None. The program installs easily on a hard disk. REVIEW NoteBook is an application that mimics a real live 3 ring notebook. One can add pages of different kinds, put "paper clips" on pages to mark them, and add tabs to divide sections. One can enter text and/or doodle using the supplied "structured" drawing tools. It is small and does what it claims to (rare these days). The whole idea of NoteBook is to replace the stereotypical 3 ring binder. It is an idea-catcher, doodle pad, and organizer. I found it to be clever in conception and execution. STARTUP! When started, the notebook is empty, so add some pages. The page type can be lined, blank, or graph, all with the option of "hole" markers and the typical red line for a left margin. These are present to inform the user where not to type if the notebook is to be printed, punched, and put into a real notebook. Enter some text. Pick the text gadget and you can type anywhere on the page. A font is supplied that fits the line spacing or a different proportional font can be used. Text is treated as an object and, as such, can be picked and moved as a whole or joined to another object. There is a complete, albeit very basic, set of "structured" drawing tools to doodle with. The line color and fill color are specified by the user. I put the word "structured" in quotes because the output is not really in a structured drawing format: it's just a bitmap image as far as I can tell, BUT the lines and objects can be manipulated and edited like any structured object. The objects can be resized, joined to other objects, and saved individually. NoteBook has the ability to import native mode (IFF ILBM) Amiga graphics (well, native to the 1000, 500, 2000, and 3000). The image is converted to a 4-shade, dithered, greyscale image. Again, it is an object that can be moved, resized, etc. PRINT! The printing is where NoteBook is really weak. The printout is a scaled bitmap of what you see on the screen. Because NoteBook only operates in hi-res interlaced mode, the lines/text look very good on screen. HOWEVER, when you scale the small notebook page up to full size (8.5 x 11 inches), the nice thin lines get big and fat, and the text is very lo-res and pixelized (jagged). This was very disappointing. On screen, it looks great. Printed, it looks... well, it looks bad. INTERFACE! This has the typical Black Belt interface. There are no menus nor a menu bar with the standard gadgets. It opens a custom hi-res interlaced screen and places two columns of gadgets on the right hand side of the monitor. The notebook page is on the left hand side of the monitor and fills about 3/4 of the screen vertically. When a gadget is selected, a third column of gadgets appropriate to the selected function appears just to the right of the page. Although the interface only very loosely follows Commodore's User Interface Style Guide, it is reasonably useful and intuitive. MISC! NoteBook will import text from an ASCII file. This is nice if you want to edit your text in a different word processor with more features. As I stated above, NoteBook will also import bitmaps. It will save and load single pages, tab sections, or whole notebooks. This facilitates transferring information from one notebook or another. You can even save the current notebook page as an IFF/ILBM image. There's a "clipboard" where one can store objects then copy, cut, and paste the objects somewhere else. As far as I can tell, however, this clipboard is not the Amiga standard clipboard. One other cute thing is the ability to highlight any graphic object or text with a background color just like a highlighter pen. DOCUMENTATION: The book that come with NoteBook is well written, contains few typos, and explains the features reasonably well. There is a short introduction to the product and a complete reference section. The disk holds a sample notebook that is very nice and really demonstrates what the product can do. LIKES AND DISLIKES LIKES: I like the concept. It is easy to use and fun. It seems to be a very flexible tool that can be used for several things. For example, I am using it as a diary and a notebook to organize different tasks for my job, my involvement in my church, the business I'm trying to get going, and household chores and tasks. My daughter and I are using it to write the stories that we make up. We can mix text and graphics in a fun way without the complication of a word processor or DTP package. DISLIKES: I don't like the blockiness of the printout. I also dislike the absence of the more standard screen structure and pull down menus, although the gadgets in this application are very well done and easy for even my daughter to use. SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS: I would like to see higher resolution printing. I would like to see support for the compugraphic fonts that are available in DOS 2.0. I'd like better scaling on the printouts. The ruled lines are too big and ugly and any diagonal lines in objects alias big time. I would like to be able to edit the fill color and outline color of existing objects. I would like to be able to iconify NoteBook from within the application, not just at start time. I would like automatic word wrapping of the text. I would like to be able to import/export the books, sections, pages, and objects as DR2D standard files. I can envision circumstances where I would like to import NoteBooks into a dtp. I would like the standard Front/Back gadgets on a menu bar. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I have not used any similar products and am not sure if any exist. BUGS I found only a couple of bugs. a. In version 1.08 (waiting for 1.10), I always get an extra page when I print anything. b. The text appears a little high on each line making the tops of tall letters touch the line above. SUPPORT I have always been happy with Black Belt's support. I have found that they listen to the customers and try to incorporate the users' ideas into future revisions. WARRANTY There is the standard warranty to cover a bad disk. It lasts 30 days including shipping time. After 30 days, a small service charge is levied as well as shipping to replace bad media. CONCLUSIONS I like NoteBook. It's a clever idea and is fun to use. My big wish is to have better looking, higher resolution printouts. I would recommend its purchase if only because the price is reasonable and it is fun to use. I actually use this application on a day to day basis! If you can stand to have the lo-res printing (hopefully to be improved), it's a useful utility. Now, if we could only get a cheap laptop, I'd use it for my "Day Timer". COPYRIGHT NOTICE No copyright. This file may be copied, transmitted, archived, read, or burned, so long as nothing is added or removed. Day Timer is probably copyright by the Day Timer people. --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu General discussion: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu