by Olaf Winkelhake

1.4 Importing and Exporting

askSam recognizes an impressive number of formats on import, including HTML, Word, Word Perfect, Compuserve CIS files, Dbase, RTF and many others. The program will automatically recognize the format of the imported file, and is better than Word or WordPerfect at doing so. Files are processed very quickly during the import process. You can select several files or whole directories to be imported at one time into one file. askSam allows for the designation of delimiters, to automatically divide the resulting file into separate documents at a specified text string or within a specified number of lines of text.

Unfortunately, importing does not work flawlessly. I got various error messages telling me that graphics could not be read. If you have word processing files with a structure more complex than plain text, you may encounter problems. The program never crashed but simply skipped the more sophisticated items. It is wise not to expect a result that resembles the original if you are attempting to convert something other than plain text.

A nice feature of askSam is that it can be set to automatically stamp the file name of the source document when importing. Unfortunately, this capability is not obvious. Stamping the file name works only when importing structured text using the "import into entry form" option. Being someone who prefers to read manuals only in case of emergency, I did not discover this ability early. This is a vital function of the program that should be more obvious to the novice user. I would even recommend a very detailed warning message, to display if the user wants to import a file without this option turned on.

The program imports only the contents of a file; it does not do anything to recall that the file has been imported. If you import a file a second time, you will simply get a duplicate document in your askSam file. As the program does not recognize that it had previously imported the file, it can not give you a warning like "errr... I have a previous version of this file... should I update the old issue or create a second, new one?". This makes it cumbersome to import and add only the newly-created documents in a particular directory and actually limits the ability to use askSam as document management system. askSam would ideally have the capability to import only documents which are newer than those already contained in the askSam file.

A workaround is available, and would require you to import the files using an entry form which is set to automatically include the date that the files were added. The source directory would then have to be checked manually for newer files, and any duplicated/superseded documents would then have to be manually deleted. In my opinion, this should be done automatically by the software, rather than manually by the user.

Importing HTML files works very well, although it requires that the HTML document be stored on the hard disk. A page has to be saved to disk, using the browser's Save As... function, before the import can be done. Graphic images are properly processed, if they have been saved with the HTML document. The URLs in the page are properly translated to askSam hypertext links.

As HTML is a moving target and browsers invent new non-standard commands with every new release, you may get a result which is different from your browser's display. askSam covers only the basics and cannot be expected to recognize the latest Netscape/Explorer bells and whistles. For instance, as noted above, it cannot display data in tables. HTML links are stored as askSam hypertext links to URLs. If you click on a link, you are asked if you want to copy the link to the clipboard. You would then have to switch to your browser and paste in the URL to use it. It would be nice if askSam would instead switch to the WWW browser automatically and link to the target site, as is done by other programs such as Zoot or the Adobe Acrobat reader.

You may export a document as well, but the conversion process is not foolproof. I tried importing a Word file and immediately exporting it again. Some information and formatting was lost during this process. Thus you will always want to keep your original file if you are not certain you will never need it again. This again limits the usefulness of askSam as document manager. If you have two copies of a particular document (one in the original format and one in your askSam file), you need to manually check to determine whether the source document has been updated since it was added to the askSam file.

askSam can export documents to HTML format. The result is not very attractive though and rather poorly presented. If you want to translate a word processor document to HTML, you would probably prefer to use a different conversion program or the word processor's built-in features. If your document is a "homegrown" askSam document, the HTML filter may be satisfactory as a starting point, though the resulting document will still need some cleanup.

1.5 Structured and Unstructured Data

askSam uses both structured and unstructured data. Structured data is what you think of when you think of a standard database: a set of records in fields with an identical structure, like a telephone list with a family name, name, phone number, fax, city, state, zip and so forth. Importing text files from your word processor on the other hand means importing unstructured data. Of course each document has an internal structure, but the structure is unique for each document. askSam can create and keep both kinds of data together in one file.

You can create a database mask for structured data very easily. Creating a database file with askSam and entering structured data is described on five pages in the "getting started" manual and works! You just place the cursor somewhere at your entry form page, type in a field name and a square bracket and you have defined a field. You may optionally use a closing square bracket to limit the size of the field. The field length is not restricted. This is a significant advantage over other programs which impose a maximum lengh on an alphanumeric field, such as 256 characters.

Unlike any other program, askSam allows for the free and unfettered mixture of structured and unstructured data in all documents. If fields are added to free-form text, the contents of the fields will be recognized and processed, regardless of where they are in the document. Text may be added between fields without creating any problem for askSam. It is even possible to add fields to text documents "on the fly". If you have created an askSam file comprised of multiple documents containing nothing but unstructured word processor text, all you need to do to add one or more database fields is to type them in. You can add a couple of lines that say:

	Author[John Barth
	Title[Giles Goat-Boy

and they will be properly processed as fields when an askSam report is created. Even better, the program allows you to change the field delimiter to, say, a colon, so that the following format would be recognized and properly handled:

	Author:		John Barth
	Title:		Giles Goat-Boy

In this example, askSam simply ignores the tabs and properly reports "John Barth" as the contents of the "Author" field for the document.

In my opinion, the very easy creation and handling of structured database information is the strongest asset of askSam Pro. Since the field length is not restricted, you can design a file which ultimately ends up somewhere in between a "traditional" database and a collection of totally free-form text. A traditional database approach may force you to tear a dataset into very small chunks to fit in the size restricted fields; this is unnecessary in askSam. In addition you don't have to pay for the unlimited field length with a decrease in search speed.

Unfortunately it is not possible to use more than one structured database mask (called an "entry form") in an askSam file When you add a new document, you can do so in a free form (unstructured) way or using a user-designed entry form. You can edit the entry mask, but you cannot create a second one. Thus, if you want to present the same data using different structures, you can only do so by creating two separate files. This is a severe restriction in a program which offers to "manage unstructured information". The most powerful search features are only available for structured text. Searching in entirely free text is definitely less productive. Thus it would be preferable to give your unstructured information at least a very basic structure.

askSam uses only a flat-file database structure; it is not a relational database. I do not consider this a flaw, since most people don't care or know about the difference. If you really are in need of a full-fledged relational database system, it is a good idea to let a database guru do the programming for you anyway, since these systems can be difficult for any but the database specialist.

1.6 Searching

There are two basic ways to search your askSam file. If you want to search in structured data only, you can define a search job an report and get a formatted output of all matches in a list. askSam offers a step-by-step dialog to guide the user, and it can be done rather easily.

If you want to search in unstructured data as well, the output is not as user friendly. You can define very complex and detailed search jobs, but askSam does not provide an overall summary of the results. It will tell you, for each document it presents, how many "hits" are found in that document, but it will not provide a number of hits in the entire file. This greatly reduces the usability of searching unstructured text. All askSam does is to take you to the document with the next match. In very small databases this may be acceptable, if you expect to have a few matches only - but you wouldn't use a database in this case, would you? With larger databases this is very cumbersome. You are clicking your way through a bunch of not-very-relevant matches and ask youself after the 10th "junk" match, how many more of them there may be. A possible solution to this problem is to redefine your free text as structured text. Just put your whole document into one database field and you have access to the much superior search functions there. This is a bit of a twisted logic, but it works. Unfortunately (as mentioned above) this solution takes away your option to define another database mask.

1.7 Portability and Exporting

If your market share is large enough, you don't need to care about portability and export formats. You are setting the standards. Even if you should go bankrupt today, your competitors left over will love to write tools to make migration for your users to their program as easy as possible. The case is different if your market share is small and you have your own standard. In this regard, it pays to be a lemming.

A major concern for an askSam user thus should be how he can get his data out of the system again. If your department decides that the future belongs to the new BLURB 2000 system and puts one at your desk, you may have a problem. If your askSam database contains only structured information, you can export it as comma delimited file. The program can import data stored in Dbase format, but does not export it to Dbase or any other true database format.

The only choice allowed for exporting the unstructured information is plain ASCII text. If your file consists of brilliant (but unstructured) ideas, scratch notes etc., the best solution might be to export your text to one big text file. The data is not lost but this perspective may make you reconsider how much effort to put into the creation of an "extended brain" via askSam.

1 Hypertext, Intra- and Internet

A feature of askSam Pro that deserves attention is the ability to create hypertext links in a database. This means that you can attach commands to a word or graphic in a text that are executed if you click at them. A prominent example are the help files in Windows. For instance if you click on an item, you jump to the referenced text.

Of course this requires some work, since you need to define these hypertext links manually. askSam allows you to define a bookmark simply by hitting F2, and then to create a hypertext link by highlighting text and then hitting F4 and then selecting the bookmark as a "target" for the link. The major application in which these functions could be used probably is Computer Aided Learning (CAL). It must be said though, that askSam does not have the built-in hypermedia features that are highly valued in software packages specially tailored for CAL, like Asymetrix Toolbook or Macromedia Director.

askSam is available in a so called "Electronic Publisher Version", which basically is a "read only" version of the program. This runtime version can be distributed royalty-free with an askSam file. While this version is free to the user, unfortunately it costs the distributor US $2.995.

askSam Systems overall does not have a sensible pricing structure. While its standard askSam for Windows costs a semi-reasonable $150, the cost of the Pro version is $350, despite the fact that the only real difference is the Pro version's full-text indexing feature. The older version of the program, which runs on the DOS platform, still sells for $395.

Another new feature of askSam is the integration of an askSam file with the Internet. With the askSam Web Publisher (US $1,495) other users can view an askSam file through the Intra/Internet with their standard WWW browser. The askSam WWW site -- http://www.asksam.com -- is a good place to look for these features and play with them. The askSam documents published with the Web Publisher are straight ASK (askSam formatted) documents, so they can be created with no use of HTML at all. They are translated to variants HTML/CGI documents on the fly. The Web Publisher, however, must be run on a Windows NT internet server. This is a severe limitation on the Web, where Unix still reigns supreme.

2 Personal Information Manager (PIM) Functions

A potential application for askSam could be the management of personal informations. This term is not very well defined and used for a lot of different kinds of programs. If you are looking for a smart substitute of your FiloFax/Success Planner, askSam will not be your choice. You probably could create something looking like a time schedule, but this would be very awkward and cumbersome. Microsoft Schedule +, coming with NT or Windows for Workgroups or any of its competitors, would be much easier to use for this purpose. Another use you could want a PIM for, is to manage your brilliant ideas that you used to scribble on a sheet of paper and put on top of the heap of your other brilliant ideas to be used, combined or just marked for later consideration. Using askSam this way as some kind of "mind mapper", feeding it very unstructured data, was my original idea of how askSam might be of use to me. After some trial and error I was able to create something that grossly resembled this idea, but frankly, I abandoned it.

3 Different Program Versions

askSam Systems offers 2 versions of askSam Pro. The "plain" askSam is sufficient if your files are relatively small. The "Pro" version is recommended if the size of your file exceeds 5 MB. The major difference between the versions is that the "Pro" version (US$ 395) adds a full text indexing function not included with the "plain" version (US$ 149).

3.1 Overall Assessment and Recommendation

askSam scores best as a flat file database for the average user. If you have no or little familiarity with database programming and don't have very complex database structures to handle, askSam Pro is a very good choice. Designing a database, entering data and retrieving it is very easy and can be undertaken by a novice.

It is definitely less impressive for the handling of unstructured information. Some aspects of its use are definitely user-unfriendly and can use some rather simple improvements.

The ideal task for askSam is importing text that doesn't demand a lot of particularized or sophisticated formatting and that has a common basic structure, like letters, e-mail messages, telephone messages, recipes, qualitative interviews and so forth. If the basic word processor functions of askSam suffice for these documents, askSam is a winner. In this case you can simply avoid the importing, that is less than perfect with highly complex documents and inflexibe with respect to later changes of the documents. If your original document already is an askSam document, the usability and power of askSam dramatically increases

Furthermore, askSam is a powerful tool to manage "finished" documents with a simple internal structure. If you are sure that there will be no future changes to the documents and the contents of the documents is limited to plain text, askSam can be a powerful document managing system. If one of the two conditions does not hold, I would think twice before using askSam for this task. The critical question should be: "Can I throw away the original file after importing?" If you would prefer to keep the original file, because there may be later changes or because the output of askSam is too weak, you will probably not want to rely on askSam for this purpose.

With its word-processor interface, report generator, and hypertext capability, askSam can also serve very well as an "intranet-like" group reference product in many network environments. (Editor's Note: Some comments on this capability are found at the Superior Information Services site.)