Display article   Subject:  Retail DeskMate:  Better than Ever
   04/30/97   19:45:26


RETAIL DESKMATE: BETTER THAN EVER!

DeskMate 3.5 (25-1351) has arrived, and it delivers even more
value than ever!  Tandy designers and engineers have added useful
new features that bring even more functionality to DeskMate.

Reviewing DeskMate Basics

As a program that is bundled with many Tandy computers, DeskMate
gives the user all the software needed to get started.  This new
stand-alone version of DeskMate brings this set of basic software
(including the new features described below) to users of other
PCs and allows owners of previous versions of DeskMate receive
our latest offering.

The DeskMate Text word processor, Address Book, Worksheet, and
Filer programs have the capabilities needed for basic computing.
PC-Link and Telecom bring communications power to modem-equipped
computers.  Draw and Hangman add the potential for fun and
creativity.  The DeskMate Desktop ties these programs together by
providing a convenient menuing system and an easy way to perform
common file commands.

All these programs share the familiar "look and feel" of DeskMate
(the "DeskMate Graphical User Interface").  Once you become
familiar with one DeskMate program, you've essentially learned to
use all of them!  This ease of use based on familiarity insures
positive experiences with the programs and encourages new users
to experiment.  Let's look at the major new features of DeskMate
3.5.

Fonts in Draw

Previous versions of DeskMate Draw have a system font and two
"stroke fonts" that allow you to place rudimentary text on the
drawing.  DeskMate 3.5 adds true scalable fonts that dramatically
improve the appearance of printed font output.  With these fonts,
DeskMate Draw can be used as a low-end desktop publishing system
suitable for printing signs, overhead transparency masters, etc.

To view your font options, select the Options <F6> menu and the
Text option.  The dialog box that appears displays the available
fonts and your options in working with them.  You select the
font, the point size, the width and any desired attributes.
These attributes include bold, underlined, italic, hollow and
grayed.  Press <ENTER> to complete the selection process.

At the "canvas" screen, select the Tools <F7> Text option (or its
accelerator, CTRL-T) to enter the text mode.  Position the cursor
at the desired start location, and start typing.  When you reach
the end of a text line, review it carefully then press <ENTER> to
proceed to the next line.

The magic of these fonts lies in their quality and scalability.
The print output of these fonts has been optimized for each
printer, and their quality may surprise you!  Furthermore, if you
resize the text on the screen (using Edit <F3> Resize), the fonts
automatically optimize to the new size.  Each line and curve is
recalculated to present the best screen and printer output
possible at each size.

Of course, you can add lines, rectangles, polygons, patterns,
etc. to the Draw graphic to enhance and highlight the graphic.

The default Draw fonts -- Cobb, Dixon, and Marin -- approximate
Courier, Helvetica and Times-Roman respectively.  Additional
low-cost font packages for DeskMate will be available soon.

As always, you can copy all or part of your graphic to the Text
word processor using the DeskMate Clipboard.  This handy feature
allows you to create letterheads or other enhanced text and
graphic images in Draw for use in word-processed documents.

One more thing:  DeskMate supports the graphic modes of many
older models of Tandy printers.  This means that owners of these
printers (who may have difficulty finding desktop publishing
software that supports their printers) can reap the benefits of
the high-quality print output that Draw produces.

Save That Screen!

The Tandy 1000 RL sports a Screen Saver function that blackens
the display screen after a user-determined duration of time with
no keyboard or mouse activity.  This prevents the monitor from
"burning in" the image of the program on the screen.

DeskMate 3.5 now delivers this popular Screen Saver to any PC
running DeskMate.  You turn on the Screen Saver by selecting the
amount of delay before the screen goes blank at the Screen Saver
option of the Accessories <F10> menu.  This Screen Saver "times
out" DeskMate applications that are run from version 3.5 of the
Desktop.

Out on a LIMM

When you load DeskMate into a computer with LIMM 4.0 memory and
drivers installed, the core of DeskMate will automatically load
into the LIMM memory.  This frees up approximately 90K of the
basic 640K system memory for other uses.  This benefit is similar
to having DeskMate in ROM -- in fact, the DeskMate modules loaded
into LIMM memory are the same ones that are stored in ROM on
Tandy's ROM-based computers.

Save That Clipboard!

DeskMate's Clipboard is an in-memory buffer that allows you to
copy information within a DeskMate application and from one
DeskMate application to another.  Up to now, you could store only
one piece of Clipboard data at a time, and that piece of data
could be stored only in memory.  When you exited DeskMate or
turned off the computer, the Clipboard data was lost.

DeskMate 3.5 features a new Clipboard accessory under the
Accessories <F10> menu that allows you to save your Clipboard
information to disk and maintain multiple Clipboards on disk for
later use.

One example of the use of this feature is with letterhead text
and graphics mentioned above.  You could create your letterhead
in Draw, copy it to the Clipboard, then pull down the Clipboard
accessory to save it to disk.  Then, at any later time, from the
Text word processor you could use the Clipboard accessory to
reload it from disk and paste it into your document.  This is one
example of how these seemingly small features can add up to big
increases in productivity!

Benefits of DeskMate 3.5

The user benefits of DeskMate have not changed -- useful
productivity applications with a consistent Graphical User
Interface, launched from an easy-to-use Desktop.  These benefits
continue as Tandy's added value to many of our computers, and now
as a stand-alone software package.  The overall value of DeskMate
lies in its features and consistency at a reasonable price.

For owners of previous versions of DeskMate, our half-price offer
continues.  Bring in the front cover from the manual of any
previous version of DeskMate, and receive DeskMate 3.5 for
$49.95.  Now that's value!
