Display article   Subject:  Tandy 1000 RLX:  Another Home Run
   04/30/97   18:01:13


ANOTHER HOME RUN!! -- THE TANDY 1000 RLX

The Home Team Does It Again!

If you like the Tandy 1000 RL, you'll love the Tandy 1000 RLX.
This fine new example of Tandy technology adds power and features
that make this home computer ready for business.

The Tandy 1000 RLX retains DeskMate and the Home Organizer
solutions that have made the Tandy 1000 RL a household name.  We
have highlighted these solutions below and provided details on
some of the new software features in the Tandy 1000 RLX version
of DeskMate and the Home Organizer solutions.

The hardware specifications and features are described fully in
"The New Tandy 1000 RLX" article.


DeskMate and the Home Organizer:  Take A Look at the RLX Version

The most visible change in the Tandy 1000 RLX version of the Home
Organizer solutions is the most visible aspect of the programs:
the graphics.  All graphics in the Home Organizer solutions have
been updated to take full advantage of the Tandy 1000 RLX's VGA
graphics.  The improvements are dramatic.

One audible change is the addition of a spoken greeting every
time DeskMate is run on hard drive-equipped units.  A pleasant
voice says, "Welcome to DeskMate.  For help at any time, press
the key labeled <F1>."  This message can be turned on and off by
pressing <F10><S> to select the Setup accessory, then pressing
<F2> to select options, and selecting "Desktop sound" to toggle
this message on or off.  (When a check mark appears next to the
words "Desktop sound" the greeting will be spoken each time
DeskMate is loaded.)

The Home Organizer solutions offer home users specific answers to
specific household needs.  For example, instead of a database
manager that requires the user to set it up for keeping a home
inventory program, we have included a usable, attractive Home
Inventory solution.

From the DeskMate Desktop, choosing the Home Organizer brings up
the Home Organizer menu.  This menu displays the names of all the
Home Organizer solutions along with a brief description of each
one.  As you move the cursor bar from solution to solution, the
description of each appears in the box at the bottom.

The menu organizes the solutions into three categories: Personal,
Kitchen, and Financial.

Personal Solutions

The Collections solution lets you keep your collections
organized.  It has several collections (books, videotapes,
antiques, etc.) predefined.  It also allows you to define your
own by answering a few straightforward questions.

The Diary solution keeps personal diaries.  Each diary has a
"page" of text on the screen associated with each day.  The
diaries are password protected for privacy.

The Home Inventory solution lets you keep a record of your
possessions.  This can be especially useful for insurance
purposes -- be sure to keep a copy of the diskette or printout in
your safe deposit box!  This solution requires no setup: you just
start typing in the information for each item in your home.

You will probably leave the Information Center on the screen when
you're not using the computer.  It shows the calendar for the
month with today's date highlighted.  It has a "page" for each
day to let you keep track of each day's appointments and
activities.  The emergency phone numbers are useful for family
members and for babysitters.  The corkboard area keeps notes that
will remain from day to day until they are erased.  The message
center allows family members to leave messages for one another in
an organized way, so you don't have to worry about whether the
family members will see them!

New Feature! -- The Information Center now includes voice
messaging that takes advantage of the digital sound capabilities
of the Tandy 1000 RLX!  Simply select the Voice option in the
"Leave A Message" dialog box and use an inexpensive microphone to
speak your message.  No extra equipment is needed to play back
the message: it plays through the built-in speaker.

The Itemized List lets you keep a detailed list of anything in
your Home Inventory.  For example, if you have a jewelry box in
your inventory, the itemized list can contain a list of all the
jewelry in the box.  You can also keep itemized lists of other
things such as a "to do" list, home improvements and car
maintenance records.

Travel Planner lets you create a daily itinerary for your trips
and helps you organize your packing lists.  It also contains
toll-free phone numbers for major airlines, hotels, bus and rail
companies and car rental companies.

Kitchen Solutions

The Cookbook solution lets you browse through recipes stored by
category.  It comes with dozens of recipes from The New Good
Housekeeping Cookbook and also lets you type in your own recipes.
One of its nicest features is, as you change the number of
servings in a recipe, it will automatically recalculate the
required amount of each ingredient!

Please note that the recipes included with the Cookbook solution
are only the start of a complete cookbook.  This program makes it
easy for you to add your own recipes and is not intended to be a
complete cookbook by itself!

New Feature! -- To make it easier to add and share recipes, the
Tandy 1000 RLX version of the Home Organizer includes the Recipe
Sharer solution.  It allows you to select recipes and save them
to a separate "export" file, and it allows you to "import"
recipes others have saved.  This feature will encourage the
electronic sharing of recipes among friends, even friends who
communicate electronically using PC-Link!

The Grocery List solution lets you create a grocery list by
checking needed ingredients from a recipe, by selecting items
from categories or by typing them in.  When you print the
shopping list, the items will be grouped by category to help you
find them in the store.

The Meal Planner helps you plan entire meals by courses.  You can
choose from meals you have already used or plan a new meal.

Financial Solutions

The Account Information solution lets you store basic information
about your checking and other accounts, including the name,
address, phone number and account number of each one.  You must
create an account information card for each account with a check
register (see next item).

Checkbook Register lets you keep track of checks, deposits and
other transactions.  Just enter the information in the register,
and it calculates the current balance.  You can place each check
in an expense category for budgeting purposes.

When you receive your bank statement, you can use the Checkbook
Balancer to reconcile your checkbook.  You simply mark each check
and deposit that has cleared the bank, type in any interest and
fees, then type in the balance from the statement.  The
difference (which should be zero!) is displayed automatically,
freeing you from the tedious task of manually adding or
subtracting each item.

The Expense Itemizer displays budget information in several
useful ways.  It lists all the items in one budget category for
the month with a total.  It displays a bar chart of a single
budget category across all the months of the year.  It also
displays a pie chart showing the amounts and percents for all
budget categories within one month.  These graphs can be printed
directly or copied to the DeskMate Clipboard for further
manipulation and printing by other programs.

The Financial Notebook stores information on stocks, other
investments and loans.  This is an easy way to store information
from a variety of sources in one place.  The stock card
calculates profit or loss from the stock quantity, purchase
price, selling price, and fees.

Mathcard performs a variety of commonly needed calculations and
conversions.  It asks you plain English questions, then performs
the calculations instantly.


Other DeskMate Applications

Now let's take a look at the other DeskMate productivity programs
that come with the Tandy 1000 RLX.

Text is our familiar word processor.  It lets you create and edit
letters and other documents.  It even checks your spelling!

Address Book lets you keep track of names and addresses.  You can
organize names and addresses into lists and print the lists or
personalize form letters with them.

Draw helps you create artwork, logos, letterheads and fun
pictures.  You can print these by themselves or merge them into
documents in the word processor.

New Feature! -- The Tandy 1000 RLX version of Draw includes the
powerful scalable font technology included with DeskMate 3.5.
This gives you three default fonts and the option to purchase
additional fonts through the Express Order program.

PC-Link is an online information and communications service that
you use over your telephone line.  It lets you get news, sports,
an encyclopedia, free software, and even answers to your computer
questions directly from Tandy.  PC-Link requires a modem.

Telecom helps you communicate with other information services
such as CompuServe, as well as local bulletin boards.  It also
requires a modem.

The Music program brings out the musician in you while using the
Tandy 1000 RL's unique sound capabilities.  You can play the
songs that come with the program or enter them yourself.

The Sound program lets you record sounds, store them to a disk,
then play them back.  You can also cut, copy and paste within a
sound for interesting effects.

Hangman is a computerized version of the familiar game.  It's fun
and educational for both children and adults.

You can run any of these programs from the DeskMate Desktop.  The
Desktop comes set up with the most popular programs on the
screen, and you can customize it to suit your preferences.  You
can even add non-DeskMate programs to the Desktop.  It also
allows you to work with files and directories without learning
complex file commands.


Tutorials and Help

Each application comes with its own help files and tutorials.
BEFORE running an application, you can go through the tutorial to
learn how to use it.  If you get stuck or have a question WHILE
using the program, pressing the <F1> key brings up
easy-to-understand help.


And They're All DeskMate!

Since these applications all work in the DeskMate Graphical User
Interface they are very easy to learn.  And once you have learned
how to navigate through one program, you can easily use any of
the others.  The same keystrokes and mouse movements are used
throughout all these programs to make it especially easy to move
from one program to another.

The Tandy 1000 RLX represents an important next step in our home
computing strategy.  As the first Tandy 1000 with VGA graphics,
it represents a technology breakthrough in an easy-to-use home
computer at a very attractive price.
