OS/2 eZine

16 April 2001

Robert Basler is the president of Aurora Systems, Inc. and a dedicated OS/2 user since he tired of rebooting Windows 3.1 twenty times a day.

Pete Grubbs is a self-described OS/2 wonk, a former doctoral candidate in English literature at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a former part-time faculty member at Penn State and is still mucking about with a copy editing/creation service, The Document Doctor, which tailors documents for small businesses. He has also been a professional musician for 20 years and is working on his next album, scheduled for release in early 2001.

If you have a comment about the content of this article, please feel free to vent in the OS/2 eZine discussion forums.

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Lotus SmartSuite 1.6 for OS/2 Wrapup

Pete:

Summary

If I were looking for a full-blown office suite, SmartSuite would certainly be one of the possibilities I'd check out. The tight integration between components and the focus on team writing tools are certainly in its favor and the enhanced support for MS Office 2000 files argues for it as well. I've always liked the way WordPro works, and can look back at quite a number of documents created with it which attest to the way it's enhanced my productivity. However, the fact that you can get at least as much connectivity along with PalmPilot support from StarOffice for free would make me look that product over before I'd drop the bucks on SmartSuite. In this instance, perhaps the best buy is eCS which has both suites bundled in for the same price.

Rob:

The Difficulty in Buying SmartSuite

Probably my biggest problem with SmartSuite, was trying to buy it. Shortly after it was released I called Lotus and asked to buy a copy. I live in Canada and Lotus doesn't sell direct here so they gave me a list of resellers. I tried 3 or four of the most likely candidates only to be told things like "they still make that?" and "our distributor doesn't carry that." The particularly ironic thing about all this is that the person I talked to at Lotus was in Toronto - she couldn't even buy the product she is supposed to be selling.

I also looked through ShopIBM which is listed as one place to buy SmartSuite online, unfortunately I couldn't find SmartSuite for OS/2 anywhere in the many packages offered there.

Fortunately, a call to the folks at Indelible Blue produced results, they would sell SmartSuite to me and they ship to Canada.

SmartSuite only seems to be available in an upgrade package, but it is a competitive upgrade version, so pretty much any office suite will do, including IBM Works that is bundled with Warp 4.

Summary

If you are in need of a modern office suite, and haven't already obtained a copy of Lotus SmartSuite, there is a lot to recommend it. The applications are comprehensive, quick, and modern, and a definite improvement over earlier versions of Lotus SmartSuite for OS/2. Although I ran into a few little buglets during my exploration of SmartSuite, none of them were heart-stoppers and with a little persistence, I was always able to get things to work as I needed. If you already have SmartSuite 1.5, the biggest reason to get this upgrade is if you need to work with Microsoft Office documents generated by your co-workers. The improved import filters alone will probably justify the cost of the upgrade.

What really struck me after spending some time with SmartSuite was the feeling that I wanted more. Not necessarily more SmartSuite applications, just more OS/2 software like this. Everything is designed to be easy to use. Dialogs have lots of help in them so you don't always need to dig into the online help. There are tooltips everywhere and nice finishing features like print preview and online help that really helps, and isn't just a feature reference. Everything in SmartSuite just feels slick and well thought out. I have spent some time with StarOffice, but it never gave me the same feeling. As someone who uses quite a few older OS/2 applications which certainly get the job done, it was very refreshing to work on a package that goes beyond just getting the job done.

Lotus SmartSuite 1.6 for OS/2 Warp 4
Price: Competitive Upgrade U.S. $152 (Indelible Blue) Also available bundled with eComStation.
Manufacturer: Lotus Development Corporation
Website: http://www.lotus.com/smartsuiteos2/
Support: Online self-service, or premium pay support.
Operating System Requirements: OS/2 Warp 4 with at least Fixpack 5.
Disk Space Requirements: 168M (Default installation.)

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