Product Reviews

As Microsoft and Lotus continue to do battle for the office applications market the latest version of SmartSuite has just been released. Following the current trend of applying a 'vintage' to product names, this new version is called SmartSuite 97 and it is designed to compete directly with Microsoft Office 97. So, how do the two compare?

Word Processors

Both Word and WordPro have easy-to-use interfaces with a range of Toolbars or Iconbars for specific tasks. In WordPro the icons change more comprehensibly as you move about the document. Basic text entry and formatting is pretty much the same in both but Word has much better zoom controls and it is easier to split and adjust the sizes of the document windows. Lotus have sensibly provided support in SmartSuite for the new Microsoft IntelliMouse so you can easily scroll and zoom documents.

WordPro offers several formatting icons that allow you to 'cycle' through options such as font colours, attributes and alignment options. This is quicker than doing the equivalent in Word. In Word formatting is speeded up with a painter that allows you to pickup an existing format and then apply it to other areas of the document.

When it comes to drawing graphics, Word is easier to use and more flexible than WordPro. In Word you can simply draw lines, boxes and circles anywhere on the page but in WordPro these elements have to be contained within a drawing frame. This makes Word far more suitable for desktop publishing tasks. Word is also capable of importing a wider variety of graphics image formats than WordPro.

If you misspell or mistype a word then both packages will highlight the mistake. In Word you can right-click on a misspelled word and a list of alternatives will pop up automatically. In WordPro you have to invoke the Spelling Checker option. Office 97 comes with Bookshelf Basics and this means that you can look up words in The Chambers Dictionary or Roget's Thesaurus. In addition, Bookshelf provides access to the Bloomsbury Treasury of Quotations. Both word processors feature auto correction. With WordPro there is an extensive list of predefined words that are commonly mistyped and it is simple to add new ones.

Creating tables is relatively simple in both packages. You just select the number of rows and columns you need from the drop-down table icon. Word allows you to apply Autoformats to your tables which can give you documents a really professional look. In a table cell within WordPro the text can be oriented in four ways including upside down, whereas in Word you are restricted to three text orientations. Word and WordPro are equally good at dealing with long documents. There are facilities for creating tables of contents, indexes and cross references.

Both Word and WordPro allow you to create and modify your own web pages, either starting entirely from scratch or by basing them on existing documents.

As far as new users are concerned Word is the easier package to learn thanks to a pop-up assistant that analyses what you do and offers suggestions as to better or simpler ways of doing it. Although it has been improved considerably, WordPro still doesn't quite match Word for ease of use and flexibility.

Spreadsheet

Once the undisputed world leader in spreadsheet technology Lotus 1-2-3 has been surpassed by Microsoft Excel. Microsoft have made Excel as easy to use as possible and now Lotus 1-2-3 is struggling to catch up.

As with the word processor modules the tool/icon bars are ever-present in Excel and Lotus 1-2-3. Entering formulae in both can be achieved by navigating dialog boxes with the mouse. However, Excel has a formula wizard that provides extra assistance with the more complex formula options. If you have problems with a complex formula then Excel has some superb auditing functions that can help you identify possible errors.

Creating graphs is easy in both packages and you can choose from a wide variety of different styles and formats. With 3D charts you can adjust the viewing angle in both packages but Excel only displays a preview of the rotated view compared with Lotus 1-2-3 which shows the adjustments to the chart as you make them. Adding and modifying comments to cells in the spreadsheet is far easier and convenient in Excel as you only need to click the right mouse button.

If you need to analyse geographical data then Lotus 1-2-3 provides the best set of maps and associated functions. It can even give you the latitude and longitude co-ordinates for any position on a particular map. However, Excel is much better at handling graphics than Lotus 1-2-3. Although Lotus 1-2-3 has a spelling checker it doesn't feature auto correction like Excel. Both feature automatic

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totalling but only Excel shows the running total as you expand a selection of cells. Similarly, Excel has a much better AutoFill feature that lets you automatically complete a range of cells depending on the contents of previous cells in the range.

Excel comes with some very good add-ons such as the Pivot Table which lets you spot correlations between different sets of data easily. In general, Excel is more powerful and flexible than Lotus 1-2-3 and yet easy to use. Like Word, Excel has an assistant who offers suitable alternative approaches to what you're doing.

One area where Lotus 1-2-3 does score over Excel is in the formatting of sheets within a workbook. Each sheet has its own set of properties and you can change things like the colour of the tabs or the font used on a particular sheet.

Database

There is no doubt that Microsoft Access is more powerful and flexible than Lotus Approach when it comes to processing database information. Access has become well established as a serious development environment that is ideal for building small to medium-scale applications. It is very sophisticated and for building databases with complex relations it is excellent. On the other hand only developers are likely to feel that Approach is under-powered by comparison.

Each package has powerful record processing and reporting options. Records are easily sorted or filtered and can be extracted for use within other software to perform things like mail merges. Access has a selection of wizards which make creating new databases relatively straightforward. Approach has a rather more limited set of standard formats from which to choose. Both Access and Approach can be used to record a variety of different types of data including graphics images.

By concentrating on common or garden tasks Approach is definitely more beginner friendly and many people find it easier to use. What Approach lacks in terms of sophistication is more than made up for in speed. Both the creation and modification of databases is quick and simple. The package also performs well with large volumes of data.

Other modules

There is not a great deal to choose from when it comes to business graphics. Both Freelance and PowerPoint are good at what they do, although PowerPoint is more sophisticated and easier to use. PowerPoint has good features for producing accompanying handouts and thumbnail copies of slides. Freelance is good for designing slides but tends to lack flexibility when it comes to combining them into shows. Presentation software is not as popular as the other components of office suites and indeed Microsoft have dropped PowerPoint from their Small Business Edition of Office 97.

Not surprisingly, for communications support such as e-mail, SmartSuite is geared towards the Lotus Notes user while Office is ideal for anybody using Microsoft Exchange. However, both suites make it relatively easy to share information across a network and either can be used effectively for groups of users working on common projects.

Comparing Microsoft's Outlook to Lotus's Organiser is like comparing chalk and cheese. The way that Organiser mimics a real Filofax makes it very easy to use and understand. Most users like the way it replicates their physical organiser. While Outlook is undoubtedly powerful it is more difficult to come to terms with. It lacks the simple interface that Organiser has and consequently it is less user-friendly.

The only thing that SmartSuite has that Office doesn't is ScreenCam which can be used to record a sequence of screen images like a movie. ScreenCam is handy for training but pretty specialist, so Microsoft Office users are unlikely to miss not having something similar.

Conclusion

Over the years integrated suites such as Office and SmartSuite have grown in sophistication and power. The downside is that each new release is larger and more resource hungry than the last. We are now at the stage were you really need at least a Pentium 100 processor, 16Mb RAM (more if you want to do anything serious) and over 150Mb hard disk space just to get started. Those with lesser hardware should conisder a works-type integrated package which will be capable enough for most.

Both Microsoft and Lotus have worked hard to produce a standardised interface across their ranges and this makes using the software much more intuitive. Office 97 and SmartSuite 97 have blended their individual modules very well and the level of integration is extremely high. The use of Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) means that sharing data between modules is simple and painless.

In terms of market share, Lotus has a great deal of catching up to do. But SmartSuite 97 shows a distinct improvement over earlier versions, being 32-bit throughout, and WordPro in particular has closed the gap on Word. Excel is considerably better than earlier versions, though, as well as beating 1-2-3 on most counts.

Overall, then, Office 97 is the more powerful product. However, SmartSuite is considerably cheaper, and both suites are more than capable of handling most tasks. If you buy a new PC that comes with either product, or you take advantage of either companies' upgrade schemes, you'll be getting plenty of power for your money whichever you choose.