<html><head><title>Review of Schema 2</title></head>
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<center><h3>Review of Schema 2</h3></center>
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<h4>First impressions...</h4>
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 Whilst removing it from its packaging, I was impressed by the quality of the design and presentation of this product. Books should not, perhaps, be judged by their covers, but that is not necessarily the case for software packages. Generally speaking, if the producer has taken the time and effort to present such a well-laid out, well documented product as Clares evidently have, the product itself is going to be good.
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<h4>Documentation...</h4>
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  This is really excellent. Clares have provided both a comprehensive manual and a guide to Schema 2's macros (more about those later). The main manual is very well laid out, being as it is divided into three sections - Examples, Techniquies and Appendices. The Examples section contains an Introduction to Spreadsheets and a series of ten graded tutorials, which introduce the reader to spreadsheets in general and Schema 2 in particular. They are well written, well laid out, comprehensible, comprehensive, and assume no prior knowledge of spreadsheets. They are also subdivided into sections in the contents pages, so you can skip to the section you need to be tutorialed on even more easily. If you want to skim read them, the essential sections are printed in italics. Clares is the first software house I know of which is not so arrogant as to assume that the buyers of its products have time to read hundreds of pages of tutorial, but, having bought the program because they need it, want to be able to use it as soon as possible.
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  The Techniques section provides a clearly laid out guide to the various functions of Schema 2, and is useful as a reference once you know the basics, as outlined in the Examples section. It includes sections like Custom formats, Editing tools, Importing and Exporting spreadsheet data, Changing the sheet layout etc. It can be used (as I used it) by someone who knows about spreadsheets (I had been using Colton's Pipedream before) but doesn't know about Schema 2, and needs to know how a certain operation is performed in Clares' spreadsheet. Again, this is well thought out and intelligent.
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  The Appendices section covers such things as installing Schema 2, Keyboard shortcuts and Definition of Standard Functions (this takes over 50 pages!) in Schema 2. Again, very useful.
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<h4>Initialising...</h4>
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  When I open the disc Schema 2 is on, the usual window pops up, asking for my name and address. After that, my floppy drive chugs for a long time, and I am left with Schema 2 loaded. Why? Don't these people realise I am far more likely to want to put the thing on my hard disc before I begin to use it?
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  Once installed on by hard disc (though it can be run from a floppy), I load up Schema 2. And wait for slightly longer than a spreadsheet should really need to load, even on my ARM 2. Finally, having grabbed nearly 1 Mb of RAM, a Clares banner pops up, and stays there for rather longer than I think it should (banners should go away when the user does something else - this one waits for a set length of time). Finally I am able to click on Schema's icon bar icon (a rather nice abacus), and my spreadsheet window pops up.
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  By the way, Schema 2 can load, in addition to its own files, spreadsheets from Lotus 1:2:3, Schema 1, Acorn Advance, SID, as well as the ubiquitous CSV format, which any decent spreadsheet will be able to export, so there's no need to worry about whether you can transfer files from your existing spreadsheet to Schema 2.
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<h4>The Spreadsheet window...</h4>
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  The first thing that I can't help but noticing is the proliferation of outline fonts. The whole spreadsheet uses them. Now this certainly looks very nice, but it can slow down redrawing times, especially if there isn't much free RAM. Spreadsheets don't (normally) sacrifice speed to look pretty, and I don't think Clares should have done so here. The best thing would probably have been to allow outline fonts to be turned on and off so that those with slower processors don't have to wait an overly long time on large spreadsheets.
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<img src="../../images/schema2"><i>The main display window</i>
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  The input area contains, supposedly, icons for all the main commands in Schema. These are rather cryptic, but, since the program supports interactive help via !Help, this is not too much of a problem. What is is that they have missed out several essential icons (eg. replicate down/across) and some of the ones they have put in (eg. sum of...) seem rather superflous.
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<h4>Spreadsheet operation...</h4>
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  The 'language' Schema 2 uses is not that different from most spreadsheets, nor is the method of operation. Specifics obviously vary from spreadsheet to spreadsheet, but the underlying idea is as simple for all. You will have no trouble mastering Schema's way of doing things - remember, the whole point of these things is to make calculations easier, not harder!
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  The user interface makes small use of keyboard shortcuts, which I like, and instead demands that the novice user select all items from menus (though that can, of course, be changed). Schema's way of working seems pretty sane and logical, and you can accomplish what you need to do, eventually, and after some reference to the manual.
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  One of the many good things about Schema is that it supports, in addition to the standard 'move' command, data transfer via a clipboard to other applications which conform to Acorn's Advance standard, such as Impression Style. Of course such data transfer can work both ways - documents from Impression can be pasted into Schema, and visa versa. 
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  Another good thing is the ability to define 'big' cells, capable of holding multi-line text in non-standard font sizes, illustrations, or even graphs. 
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  As I mentioned the fact that the 'replicate' command isn't on the toolbar/input area, I will mention another problem with this. Cells you want to replicate have first to be copied to the clipboard, and then and only then may the replicate command be used. This is rather clunky, and grossly slows down what should be a simple spreadsheet operation.
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  By the way, don't worry about running out of space on your spreadsheet. Schema 2 can create spreadsheets of up to 30,000 by 30,000 cells.
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<h4>Graphs...</h4>
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  There are a few problems with the user interface used to create graphs that really let the program down in this respect. Try as I might, I found it impossible to select individual parts of a graph when there was more than one graph in the window. Also, still on that theme, I couldn't select (and apply an effect to - 'exploding' a pie chart, for example) an entire chart, but had to do each section.
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<img src="../../images/schema"><i>A standard 3D pie chart</i>
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  Having said this, graphs are one of Schema 2's strengths, and when you consider what a brilliant program it is in almost all respects, this is quite a compliment. It can produce:
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<ul>
<li>Line graphs
<li>Vertical bar charts
<li>Horizontal bar charts
<li>Stacked horizontal bar charts
<li>Stacked vertical bar charts
<li>Line bar charts
<li>Line plots
<li>Marked lines
<li>Pictograms
<li>Pie charts
<li>Scattergrams
</ul>
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  The pictograms, by the way, can be produced from a library of 50 Draw files. More can be added if required, in a consummatley simple process.
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  I can't guarantee you'll like Schema 2's graphs - everyone has their own idea of what a spreadsheet graph should look like, and often it's not like the idea of the person who wrote the software. However, I'm pretty sure that you will not find this package wanting in terms of functions.
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<h4>Configurability...</h4>
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  This is where Schema 2 really shines. Almost anything, from the icons on the input area to the menu commands, can be set up quite easily. Since the uses a spreadsheet like this will be put to will vary enormously, allowing massive reconfiguring is common sense, and this is exactly what Clares allows here. One thing that would be nice, though, is a purpose-built configuration program, which allows the menu choices, toolbar icons etc. to be set by the inexperienced user, without delving into the depths of the manual.Not that the process is complicated - the toolbar icons can easily be redefined in ten minutes.
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  Not only that, Schema 2 offers something which, to the best of my knowledge, is unique among Acorn spreadsheets. It is possible to write 'macros', containing commands or sets of commands, using a seperate macro editor, in a language similar to BBC BASIC. The editor will then compile them, and they can be double clicked on when required. Clares will, if asked, supply, along with the program, an 'Introduction to Schema 2 Macros' in the form of a 166 page book and a disc containing large numbers of example macros. This is an excellent idea. I can't commend it enough.
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  When working on a large spreadsheet, it can become irritating if you have to keep on applying the same effects to large numbers of different cells. Schema 2 uses a feature called <i>styles</i> to automate this. Similar to the methods used by word processors and DTP packages, this allows the user to set:
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<li>Font name
<li>Boldness
<li>Italicisation
<li>Font size
<li>Foreground colour
<li>Background colour
<li>Alignment
<li>Vertical alignment
<li>Number format (eg. number of decimal places used)
</ul><p>
  This can then be saved to a file, which can be reloaded as required, or set as the default. Again, a very good idea on Clares' part.
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<h4>Conclusions...</h4>
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  In terms of features, Schema 2 is brilliant. It has everything you are likely to need, and if you have such an advanced requirement that you need more features, you can easily (OK, relatively easily) add them through the macro system. The documentation is excellent - I can't fault it in any respect. The user interface is sometimes clunky, and rarely downright stupid. Schema 2 is a great package, sometimes held back by the faults of its interface. It is, without doubt, well worth your money.
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Authors: Andrew Colin and Robert Hawking<br>
Status: Commercial, price 135<br>
Availability: Clares Micro Supplies<br>
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