Timex Sinclair Survival Column

As we know, the Sinclair community in this country never obtained the status of a Commodore, for instance, and the “professional” software which is abundant for other micros is not as available for us. However, the situation today is not quite what it was when the Sinclair computer first made its debut. At that time almost everybody who owned one of these computers was writing and trying to market software. Many of us did manage to accomplish this, and some of us still keep at it. For the most part, though, the handful of publishing houses whose names are well known (Quicksilva, Psion, etc.) account for largest quantities of software sold. It is not unusual that these publishing houses are in England, where the Sinclair has a better reputation and following. But it seems that the small individual programmers have not all disap- peared into the woodwork. Jim Clatfelter is such an individual.

I became aware of Mr. Clatfelter’s offerings right here in Computer Shopper’s classified section. Recently I noticed a new program listed which would make banners on my full size printer through my AERCO interface. Since I had a use for banners of this type, I ordered it from him. This is just one of five programs which he offers. Jim got started marketing software with a program named VIEWord which is one part of a three program package. (Actually, a fourth program is included, but it does not interact with the other three.) When used with MAIList and FORMail, you have mailmerge ability on your Timex/Sinclair 2068. VIEWord is a line editor type program, which is not hard to learn how to use. It comes ready to utilize either the T/S 2040 printer (or the Alphacom 32 of course) or a full size printer through the AERCO parallel interface. It can be formatted to either 32 or 64 characters per line depending on which printer you will be using. The main menu will always show you what line length you have chosen, and how many lines (total) you may utilize. There is a HELP screen available which will show you at a glance the specially defined keystrokes. These defined keystrokes give you the ability to utilize the TAB functions, center the line, print in double wide characters on a full size printer, erase a line, or send printer control codes.

You do your initial composing in TYPE mode, and can access any of the menu options directly from this mode simply by typing the one character menu selection code. If you need to simply type that same code as one character line in your text, just enter an additional space and the program will understand that is not a command. You may read your document in VIEW mode. In this mode you can navigate back and forth through your text. As with TYPE mode, all menu options are also available here. In addition, you can set your page length to the desired setting, and the page breaks will be displayed as you view your text.

The EDIT mode has seven commands available (EDIT, WRAP, SPLIT, RECALL, INSERT, DELETE, and COPY) which you use one line at a time. Unlike more sophisticated word processors, such as MSCRIPT, VIEWord operates on one line at a time, and that is the key to using the program. Like any new software it takes a little time to learn to fully utilize the commands, but once learned they work well.

In PRINT mode you may set a number of different options if you are using a full size printer. (These do not have any meaning if a T/S 2040 printer is to be used.) You have the ability to automatically set page length and have the document automatically paginated, or you may have the program pause at designated places if, for instance, you are manually feeding cut sheets to your printer. In addition you may indicate your desire to automatically number your pages, and/or have a header printed on each page.

VIEWord comes with a seven page user’s manual, including a page describing how to send printer control codes, and one listing the command keys. The second program in this suite is a mailing list/address book program named MAIList. Like VIEWord, MAIList is made to work with either a T/S 2040 printer or a full size printer connected via an AERCO parallel interface. The program works in a manner very similar to VIEWord. There are four main operative modes (five if you include the SAVE/LOAD mode) similar to those in the previous program. The data is entered in the TYPE mode, and can be changed in the EDIT mode. You may use VIEW mode to read through your list. Labels or a master list can be produced using the PRINT mode.

As with the VIEWord menu, the MAIList menu tells you the current status of your list. Before typing in any names, you will see 0/200. This shows you that you have entered 0 names and still have 200 (the maximum) available. As with VIEWord, all menu commands may be accessed from the menu, TYPE mode or VIEW mode.

Aside from the usual fields allowed (first name, last name, address, city, state, zip code and telephone number), MAIList also allows a three character category code and a comment. This comment may be printed or not printed on our labels depending on how it is entered. Using this comment as part of the address to be printed, you are able to use a four line address on some labels while maintaining a three line address on the others.

The category code allows you to selectively print labels based upon the codes entered. This may denote anything you could possibly think of. This allows you the flexibility of creating unlimited sublists within your master list.

The PRINT mode gives you the choice of either printing a master list for reference. This master list will print with all the data and label numbers. One across labels may be printed on either the T/S 2068 printer or on 3 1/2″ x 15/16″ labels on an 80 column printer.

While neither of these two programs is extraordinary in or of itself, the third part of the package makes them special. FORMail codes in your VIEWord text to personalize your correspondence. These codes will permit you to enter the date when using FORMail and have it printed on each form letter; permit you to have each form letter printed with the proper inside name and ad- dress; allow you to choose from a number of different salutations. You may use the forms– To: First and last name–Dear first and last name–Dear first name. You set the margin, form length, pagination information, date and category (as with MAIList) and then the letters get printed until the entire list is done. Two features I particularly like are 1) the program tells you how many letters will be printed, and how long your VIEWord file is; and 2) the program informs you at all times how many letters have already been printed.

While I am not tempted to give up MSCRIPT as my word processor in favor of VIEWord, it is a well thought out package and has performed well once I learned how to use it properly. I did have a bit of a problem at first due to a little ambiguity in one of FORMail’s prompts. When loading a VIEWord file, you are requested the size of the file. I interpreted this as being the number of lines contained in the file. This caused loading errors until I figured out that what was required was the size of the line in the VIEWord file. One problem solved! A second problem arose when I started printing the letters. I have my printer set to send an automatic linefeed after each carriage return, as is required by my MSCRIPT software. When printing my letter, I was getting double spaced documents until I loaded my personalized driver and made a slight modification in the program. This solved most of the double spacing, except in the inside address portion. This was now being printed on one line. After examining the program, I found where the inside address was printed and made some more modifications. It works fine now, except that there must be one linefeed that I missed, as I have to declare my documents to be one line shorter than the 66 lines I know to be the correct setting. In all fairness, however, it should be mentioned that this will only occur if you have your printer set to send this extra linefeed. The vast majority of you will not have this problem.

I mentioned a fourth program as being part of this package. It is named JOURNAL and will provide a weekly appointment calendar for as many weeks as you desire. This is the only program which will not work on the T/S 2040 printer and does not interface with the other three.

I have seen more sophisticated programs, with more frills, but at $25.00 for the package, this is a good buy for those requiring mailmerge capabilities. All of the programs (including BANNERS) transferred easily to the A&J micro- drive system, including the SAVEing and LOADing of the respective files.

What about the BANNERS program? It was exactly what I had wanted and more. It does indeed produce full size banners on an 80 column printer, but the flexibility included was more than I expected. The program is in two parts. The first part allows you to send control codes to adjust the size of your banner. I was able to create half size banners and narrower characters by sending the proper codes to my printer. This truly enabled me to match the size of the banner with the needs of the location it was going to be displayed in.

Like with the VIEWord package, my linefeed setup caused the expected double-spacing, so I substituted my own driver for the one included. I found that the double-spacing returned when I sent the control codes, so I set up my microdrive wafer with the print driver recorded twice. After the control codes are sent, I reload my own driver and all is fine. Perhaps it is because I started in a like manner, I am glad to see that folks like Jim Clatfelter are still with us. You may contact Jim at 3361 Sand Ridge Road; Placerville, CA 95667. Also don’t forget to check out the Sinclair section in the classified section. Perhaps you will be the one to discover another goodie.

For those who asked about the next installment in the Sound on the Sinclair series–it is on the way. I am now putting the final touches on the tutorial and hope to have it herein shortly. Also in the works are (at least) two columns relating solely to T/S 1000 related products.