I came across this listing for an integrated office suite at Freeware World
Team. The description from the home site:

"Budgie is MoDESoft's Budget Office, now free to use. It comprises Contacts
manager, database manager, email manager, schedule, spreadsheet, word
processor, zip file manager, an image tool, fax controller and manager, CAB
file extractor, backup helper, memo pad, RPN calculator, TVM calculator,
metric measures converter, all in one application or via "plugins".

"Moreover, you won't have trouble importing your data from other
applications. The word processor has extensive file import and export
converters so you can read and save in many formats. The spreadsheet reads
Microsoft Excel files, files in text-delimited format and dBase files and
saves in these formats as well as its own special format. Contacts natively
reads QuickBooks export lists and has a simple-to-use importer for dBase
files (which you can create in the spreadsheet from other formats, or export
to from your existing software). You can use the spreadsheet to query your
user-created databases and save the result in several formats. The Schedule
and Contacts can synchronise with a Pocket PC."

Does anyone have experience with this program? The site is short on
screenshots so I can't get a sense of how sophisticated this program is.

URL is: http://www.modesoft.com/

"ML" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I came across this listing for an integrated office suite at Freeware
World
> Team. The description from the home site:
> Does anyone have experience with this program? The site is short on
> screenshots so I can't get a sense of how sophisticated this program is.
>
> URL is: http://www.modesoft.com/
>
>
>

Well at just under 6MB, I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly
surprised
Only had a quick look, but the word processor seems to contain
most of the common WP tools like tables, mail merge and spell check
The spreadsheet ditto, replicate cell formulas and a reasonable amount of
functions
The database has only a limited set of field types, and looks fairly
restricted in only
offering tables and reports. - but it was just a quick scan through

They've crammed a lot in the 6MB - well worth a look

"Mikk" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:qikub.2038$(E-Mail Removed)...

> They've crammed a lot in the 6MB - well worth a look

I decided to have a look at it and I have to say that I concur, though I
only spent about 10 minutes playing around with it. I will experiment more
later this week and report in to the group. It might be a nice alternative
to low-end office suites like Easy Office or commercial products like MS
Works.




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On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 07:58:19 -0000, "Mikk" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>
>"ML" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I came across this listing for an integrated office suite at Freeware
>World
>> Team. The description from the home site:
>> Does anyone have experience with this program? The site is short on
>> screenshots so I can't get a sense of how sophisticated this program is.
>>
>> URL is: http://www.modesoft.com/
>>
>>
>>
>
>Well at just under 6MB, I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly
>surprised
>Only had a quick look, but the word processor seems to contain
> most of the common WP tools like tables, mail merge and spell check
>The spreadsheet ditto, replicate cell formulas and a reasonable amount of
>functions
>The database has only a limited set of field types, and looks fairly
>restricted in only
>offering tables and reports. - but it was just a quick scan through
>
>They've crammed a lot in the 6MB - well worth a look

Thanks for that info. At 1/10 the size of other free
Office Suites, I 'will' take a look. Open Office came
with my computer but I've had no desire to install it.

BoB
For the duration of Swen, my address is inoperative.

> > They've crammed a lot in the 6MB - well worth a look
> I decided to have a look at it and I have to say that I concur, though I
> only spent about 10 minutes playing around with it. I will experiment more
> later this week and report in to the group. It might be a nice alternative
> to low-end office suites like Easy Office or commercial products like MS
> Works.

I had a quick look this afternoon. It doesn't look too bad overall.

I particularly wanted to try out the Pocket PC Synch. It looks a little
primitive. Synching with appointments on the Pocket PC has an option to
delete all appointments before today. I unticked this setting - I didn't
want any appointments deleted! However, Budgie didn't remember the change in
setting, and deleted all of my previous appointments anyway. To make things
worse, if I had created a repeating appointment before today, all occurances
(including future occurances) were also deleted. No matter how many times I
ticked the option that didn't delete previous appointments, Budgie would be
set to delete them anyway. Sounds like something that needs to be fixed!

With all of this, I still think the program has potential. I'm always
hopeful about options that don't tie my to Activesynch. It will be
interesting to see how the program goes as bugs are fixed up and future
features are developed.

Adrian Try

"Adrian Try" <(E-Mail Removed)>:

> I had a quick look this afternoon. It doesn't look too bad overall.
>
> I particularly wanted to try out the Pocket PC Synch. It looks a little
> primitive. Synching with appointments on the Pocket PC has an option to
> delete all appointments before today. I unticked this setting - I didn't
> want any appointments deleted! However, Budgie didn't remember the change in
> setting, and deleted all of my previous appointments anyway. To make things
> worse, if I had created a repeating appointment before today, all occurances
> (including future occurances) were also deleted. No matter how many times I
> ticked the option that didn't delete previous appointments, Budgie would be
> set to delete them anyway. Sounds like something that needs to be fixed!

Scary! It's good you posted this.

> With all of this, I still think the program has potential. I'm always
> hopeful about options that don't tie my to Activesynch. It will be
> interesting to see how the program goes as bugs are fixed up and future
> features are developed.

There's another thread going on about Budgie, too.[*] As far as new
features or development, it might be that this v1.6 will be the only
freeware, and the next v1.7 up, payware. It's not clear for sure, how to
interpret. Yet just to keep in mind.

* Starts at <(E-Mail Removed)>, under
Subject: Re: [PL] 2004 Discussion: BUSINESS-HOME


--
Karen S.

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 14:28:27 -0800, "ML" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I came across this listing for an integrated office suite at Freeware World
>Team. The description from the home site:
>
>"Budgie is MoDESoft's Budget Office, now free to use. It comprises Contacts
>manager, database manager, email manager, schedule, spreadsheet, word
>processor, zip file manager, an image tool, fax controller and manager, CAB
>file extractor, backup helper, memo pad, RPN calculator, TVM calculator,
>metric measures converter, all in one application or via "plugins".
>
>"Moreover, you won't have trouble importing your data from other
>applications. The word processor has extensive file import and export
>converters so you can read and save in many formats. The spreadsheet reads
>Microsoft Excel files, files in text-delimited format and dBase files and
>saves in these formats as well as its own special format. Contacts natively
>reads QuickBooks export lists and has a simple-to-use importer for dBase
>files (which you can create in the spreadsheet from other formats, or export
>to from your existing software). You can use the spreadsheet to query your
>user-created databases and save the result in several formats. The Schedule
>and Contacts can synchronise with a Pocket PC."
>
>Does anyone have experience with this program? The site is short on
>screenshots so I can't get a sense of how sophisticated this program is.
>
>URL is: http://www.modesoft.com/
>
>
I tried it out, mainly to see how the spreadsheet program compares to
the freeware Sphygmic Spreadsheet I've been using. I think Sphygmic
works better and is easier to use, even though it is "obsolete". The
other sub-programs I tried didn't work all that well either. Couldn't
get the email manager to work. Nifty idea, but I think they've tried
to cram too much into 6Mb.

Randy Bard <(E-Mail Removed)>:
>
> >URL is: http://www.modesoft.com/
> >
> I tried it out, mainly to see how the spreadsheet program compares to
> the freeware Sphygmic Spreadsheet I've been using. I think Sphygmic
> works better and is easier to use, even though it is "obsolete". The
> other sub-programs I tried didn't work all that well either. Couldn't
> get the email manager to work. Nifty idea, but I think they've tried
> to cram too much into 6Mb.

Your review, plus a couple of other comments, makes me think that the
author /ought to/ extend plans to use us as "beta testers," develop
freeware releases for a while, postpone his payware idea for a couple
of yrs at least, and focus on getting some functionality worked in.


--
Karen S.

On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 08:16:34 -0800, omega <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Randy Bard <(E-Mail Removed)>:
>>
>> >URL is: http://www.modesoft.com/
>> >
>> I tried it out, mainly to see how the spreadsheet program compares to
>> the freeware Sphygmic Spreadsheet I've been using. I think Sphygmic
>> works better and is easier to use, even though it is "obsolete". The
>> other sub-programs I tried didn't work all that well either. Couldn't
>> get the email manager to work. Nifty idea, but I think they've tried
>> to cram too much into 6Mb.
>
>Your review, plus a couple of other comments, makes me think that the
>author /ought to/ extend plans to use us as "beta testers," develop
>freeware releases for a while, postpone his payware idea for a couple
>of yrs at least, and focus on getting some functionality worked in.

Now there you have it! If anyone ever wants a prompt and enthusiastic
but brutally honest group of beta testers for their hot new program,
here we are.

"omega" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> Your review, plus a couple of other comments, makes me think that the
> author /ought to/ extend plans to use us as "beta testers," develop
> freeware releases for a while, postpone his payware idea for a couple
> of yrs at least, and focus on getting some functionality worked in.

Think you may be right. I played around with it in more detail the past few
days and am bumping into all sorts of bugs.

In his help file, the author states that the next incarnarnation (due this
month) will continue to be freeware, but that future plugins will be
available on a pay basis.

I may keep tabs on this periodically, but at this point I plan on keeping
this one.


-M-


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