|Dͻͻ
|D ^0Diskussion |D ^1On The Editor's Desk |Dͺ ^0Diskussion |D
|Dͼͼ
^Cby
^CBob Napp

     This is take-charge month at Big Blue Disk!  For those who need some help 
with their writing, ^1Grammatik III^0 may provide the solution.  Are you frustrated 
with DOS?  Well, ^1Norton Commander^0 puts all the power of DOS right at your 
fingertips.  


^1Improve Your Writing Skills with Grammatik III^0

     Utilizing artificial intelligence techniques, ^1Grammatik III^0 by Reference 
Software, Inc. (330 Townsend Street, Suite 123, San Francisco, CA 94107), can 
evaluate your written documents and suggest improvements.  Grammatik III is a 
powerful tool that can help people from editors to students improve their 
writing skills.  Reference Software is so confident of this product they offer 
a money-back guarantee if it doesn't (for more details contact Reference 
Software, Inc.) 

     Grammatik III is an easy program to work with.  The environment employs a
simple pull-down menu scheme and an extensive Help system.  Everything from 
loading to analyzing a document is presented in a straightforward manner.  If 
you have any questions, just press <F1> and a help screen specific to the task 
you are currently performing is displayed.  

     Analysis of a document can be handled in an active or passive manner.  If 
you specify a Full Check, Grammatik III will stop at each suspected error 
and display information about that error.  You can decide to ignore the prompt, 
mark the text for later evaluation, or correct the problem right there.  The 
Mark Only option allows you to sit back as the program proofreads your 
document.  When errors are detected, they are marked and the entire text is 
output to a file. 

     Grammatik III provides many configurable options.  This extended 
flexibility allows you to specify both operational parameters (the type 
of marking character, the type of spelling checking to perform, etc.) and 
style checking parameters (to look for passive voice, long-winded or wordy 
sentences, etc.)  Once you have established the configuration, you can save 
it to use again. 
     
     Grammatik III is available in both 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" versions and includes
documentation that is straight forward and well-written.  To use this system 
you will need to have an IBM PC/XT/AT or PS/2, 512K RAM, and PC/MS-DOS 2.0 or 
greater.  Although the program will work on a floppy disk drive system, a hard 
drive is strongly recommended.  At a cost of $99, Grammatik III can help you 
become a much more effective writer.

     
^1Take Command of DOS with Norton Commander version 2.0^0

     When you work around DOS as much as I do, you are always grateful when a 
product comes along that makes your job easier.  ^1Norton Commander^0 by Peter 
Norton Computing, Inc. (2210 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA 90403), is a 
perfect example.  Not only does this software package provide an improved DOS 
user interface, but it also contains many features needed to manage a hard disk 
drive.

     Everything from moving files to changing the current directory is just a 
few simple keystrokes away.  The unique screen structure, employed by Norton 
Commander, allows you to view one or two directories at a time.  They don't 
even have to be on the same disk.  Have you ever wondered what the directory 
structure on your hard disk looks like?  Just convert one of the screen panels 
into a tree view of those directories.  Once this is accomplished,  changing, 
removing, or creating directories is a breeze.  What about the DOS functions 
not provided by Norton Commander?  The beauty of this system is that the DOS 
prompt is still available to let you type any command you might wish to use. 

     Norton Commander provides several useful features not available through 
DOS.  The View command allows you to examine text, Lotus spreadsheet, and dBASE 
files.  With the Find command, you can search for a file in all the directories 
of the disk.  Provided with the system is an ASCII text editor that can be used 
to edit text and batch files.
     
     Designed for the IBM PC-AT and DOS compatibles, Norton Commander costs 
$89 and comes with both 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" disk versions.  Norton Commander 
includes full support for EGA and VGA display monitors.  The documentation 
contains all the information necessary to get the system up and running in no 
time.  If you are looking for a tool that will improve upon the DOS user 
interface, Norton Commander could be just the thing.

