Los Angeles Times Computer File / Lawrence J. Magid
A SideKick Can Be a Handy Helper
This is the season for integration. It’s hard to watch TV or read newspapers without seeing an advertisement for one of the new integrated super programs. Chief among them are Symphony, by Lotus Development Corp., and Framework, from Ashton-Tate. Both companies are spending millions to convince us that theirs is the one product for all our software needs.
Integrated programs allow several tasks to be performed at the same time—including spreadsheets, word processing, data base management, graphing, and telecommunications.
Though I’m not quoting exactly, the integration message goes something like this: “If you like our spreadsheet, you’ll love our word processor . . . and our data base manager . . . and our graphics generator . . . and our communications function. . . .” Both Symphony and Framework do all that, and more. But they come at a price. Each costs $695 and each requires a great deal of learning. They ought to include a weight-lifting class to prepare you to haul around their instruction manuals. And, regardless of their claims, you might not like the way they implement some functions that are built into the programs.
For some users there is a simpler and less expensive route to integration. Borland International, a Scotts Valley, Calif., software firm, has come up with a low-cost and unpretentious product that allows you to integrate a simple word-processing program, telephone dialer, calculator and appointment calendar into whatever other software you are using. Like Symphony and Framework, it runs on the IBM PC and compatible systems.
SideKick, which sells for $49.95, is one of those programs that runs in the background, even while you are using other programs.
After you turn on your computer, you type “SK” and the SideKick is loaded into a portion of your machine’s memory. It remains in memory until the machine has been turned off or reset. Even though you may load in other programs, SideKick is always there, sitting on the “side,” waiting to be invoked. Once it’s running, you can forget it, until you need to use one of its functions.
Let’s say you’re in the middle of using a spreadsheet program and you want to take notes in a word processing environment. Without SideKick, you would have to save your data, exit your spreadsheet program, load your word processing program into memory, and load in a file for your notes. Since SideKick is already running, you can invoke it by holding down the ALT key and the CTRL key at the same time. A window pops up on your screen with a menu of SideKick’s features.
If you want word processing, you select N for Notepad which takes you to the Notepad window. The Notepad doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a full fledged word processing program, but it is fine for quick notes and memos. WordStar users will be pleased to learn that it uses many of the same commands. When you are done with the note or memo, you type the ESC (short for Escape) key and you are immediately returned to the other program you are running.
One real advantage to SideKick is its ability to copy information from the screen to the Notepad. You can use your spreadsheet or any other program to do some numeric projections, and copy the results directly from the screen. Later you can merge your Notepad file into a file you are using with your regular word processing program. This feature is a boon to people who write software instruction manuals. Sometimes it’s necessary to include a “picture” of a program’s menus directly into a manual. With SideKick, you can copy the menus or other information directly from the screen to a file that can later be used by your word processing program. I use SideKick to create my own “help” screen when I am learning new programs. I copy some of the program’s menus and other help information into a SideKick Notepad file and view the file as I’m learning the program.
SideKick’s telephone dialer is quite handy. It’s not the first phone dialer I’ve used, but it’s the first that lets me make a call without interrupting my other work. The dialer can read a phone number from a special directory that you maintain on the disk or it can pick up a number from the screen, even if it is maintained by another program such as a data base manager, spreadsheet or word processor. You highlight the number to call, press a key, and SideKick dials the number.
Selecting the calendar option causes the program to display the current month in a window on your screen. Pressing the ENTER key displays that day’s appointment schedule, in half-hour increments. If you enter or alter an appointment, the data is saved automatically on the disk. You can look up calendars as far back as 1900 and as far ahead as 2099, selecting any date, in a matter of seconds. Again, you don’t have to abort whatever else your computer is doing.
The calculator performs like a hand-held unit. You can use your numeric keypad to enter numbers, which remain in the calculator’s memory even when it is no longer on the screen. Like all SideKick functions, the calculator is displayed in its own window.
You can display any number of SideKick functions simultaneously using the program’s simple window-management techniques. If you’re using the Notepad, for example, you can press ALT-C and the calendar window will appear while the Notepad window remains on the screen.
The program comes copy-protected, which means that you can’t make back-up copies or, just as important, copy it to a hard disk or the disks on which your other programs reside. If you need an unprotected version, Borland will send you one for an additional $29.95 when you send in your product registration form. Borland International is located at 4113 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valley, Calif. 95066 (408) 438-8400.
I started using SideKick at about the same time I got copies of Symphony and Framework. In some ways I prefer using it, in conjunction with my stand-alone programs, over those sophisticated multifunction programs. It is very easy to use and gives me what’s important to me, as a writer—the ability to integrate word processing into my other programs. But SideKick is not a substitute for the sophisticated integrated programs. It does not offer a data-base management function (though you can sort and search a Notepad file), nor does it offer a spreadsheet or the ability to communicate with other computers. Nevertheless, if you already have programs that do those other things (or don’t need such functions), it may be an inexpensive enhancement to your present system.
Computer File welcomes readers’ comments but regrets that the authors cannot respond individually to letters. Write to Lawrence J. Magid, 1 Embarcadero Center, Suite 1970, San Francisco, Calif. 94111.