by Olaf Winkelhake

1.1 Introduction

A major reason for many software success stories is the fact that the new software often improves on a device or technique familiar to users. We moved our typewriter to the basement when word processing programs emerged; we used our old drawing tables to play ping pong when the CAD systems arrived; and so on. It is probably easier to sell a new package if you can tell your customer: "This xxx is just like your old xxx, only easier, better and faster". Thus there are very few things we do with a computer today which we haven't done before in a similar way. Not as fast, slick, or easy. . . but basically we do most of the basic functions -- word processing, spreadsheets -- the same way that we have since the dawn of the personal computer age, about twenty years ago.

askSam by askSam Systems (sold in Europe by North American Systems) is a good example of the fact that it is hard to describe and market a program that does not have an obvious, established program to replace. askSam sells its program as "the easy way to manage information" which is true but not very informative. This slogan could apply to every type of computer program except games. It may be the best description one can make in one sentence though.

If you've never heard of askSam, think of it as a word processor and a database combined in one program, one which is very easy to use by the ordinary person. The word processor and database functions in askSam are fairly rudimentary but satisfactory for most basic purposes. It does not provide the "bells and whistles" of a standalone word processor like WordPerfect or Microsoft Word or of a database like Microsoft Access or Borland's Paradox.

1.2 . The "Look and Feel"

The user interface of the word processor side of an askSam file is familiar. It uses standard Rich Text Format style, much like Microsoft Word or the WordPad application which comes with Windows 95; you will feel at home quickly if you use either one. A number of different fonts and font sizes are supported, as are bold, italic, and underlined text. You can execute most commands with an icon from the toolbar, and the toolbar can be customized, although not with as much flexibility as there is with other programs. askSam does not have a macro function to record a sequence of commands, and not all menu commands are available as buttons to be inserted in the iconbar. askSam is an OLE-compliant but not DDE-complitant product -- objects such as graphics images may be copied into askSam, but will not be dynamically linked.

1.3 Creating an askSam file

The primary difference between an askSam file and a word processing file, from the perspective of its word processing features alone, is that an askSam file can be comprised of many separate "documents", all bound together in one file for ease of reference and searching. All word processors create separately named and tracked files on the hard disk for each document. By contrast, a group of five, fifty, or five hundred different word processing documents, all dealing with one topic, can be collected and stored in one single askSam file. Storage in a single file means that all of the documents can be processed at one time using askSam's powerful search and reporting functions. Further, askSam allows you to create bookmarks and hypertext links using those bookmarks, to allow you to annotate and cross-reference the documents in a coherent manner. The hypertext links may be to bookmarks in the same file, bookmarks in another askSam file, executable programs, or URLs.

As mentioned, the built-in editing features of askSam Pro are limited. Getting a satisfactory layout with the program is a lot of work. askSam does not allow for user-defined styles. You cannot define a set of different paragraph styles to be selected and applied with a single mouseclick. You need to manually change each item you want to change which is a lot if you want to switch from Arial, 14 point, bold and italic to Times New Roman, 12, normal with an indent. This is not much of a problem if the layout of every item in the file is identical, as is the case of such things as personal or business letters. Creating more complex designs, with headers, subheadings, etc., is more demanding. If the items in your file do not have unusual formatting, importing and conversion is not particularly difficult. For instance, askSam totally lacks even basic table functions. If your texts contain information in tables, you need to use tabs and indents. This is awkward and certainly not state of the art in word processing. If your source documents contain tables, formulae and graphics, you may find it more efficient to create these documents with a different program and then import them into askSam Pro.

The most significant advantage of askSam's text formatting over other document management programs using the RTF presentation (such as Lotus Notes) is the ability to change the color of both foreground and background text. With this feature, you can choose to highlight a certain block of text and present emphasized text in blue or red, or apply a yellow background to simulate "highlighting" the text on a typed or printed page.

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German version distributed by
North American Software
askSam Information Systems GmbH
Goldbergstrasse 6
D-81479 Munich
Phone: (+49) 89-790-9797
Fax: (+49) 89-7900-258
E-mail: info@asksam.de

System Requirements:
IBM-compatible PC,
4MB RAM,
7.0 MB free hard disk space
Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2

Version:
3.0

Availability:
solely from the publisher

Demo:
A free demonstration version can be downloaded from the Web site.

Quick Summary:
askSam is a unique program in many ways. It combines the free-form storage of text of all kinds with structured database capabilities similar to those found in full-featured databases. It has a few quirks, and a number of bugs which have yet to be ironed out, and the pricing is a bit unrealistic. Its strengths, though, make it an excellent program for document and text management in the Windows environment.

Discussion Group:
There is an active mailing list, well-monitored by askSam personnel.
See the web site for details.

Screen Capture:
(Click for larger image)