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Great Graphs
and Charts
Reviewed
by: Songmuh
Jong,
send e-mail
Published
by: JASCA
Corp, go
to the web site
Requires:
MS Windows
MSRP:
US$79.95 (for Graphically Internet Intelligent); US$39.95
(for Graphically Light)
Great
Graphs and Charts is a Windows application specifically designed
to assist in the creation of charts and graphs from numerical
information. The same capability has been available in any
of the standard spreadsheet programs such as Lotus 1-2-3,
Borland Quattro Pro and MS Excel. The question is whether
this new package does a better job than the existing programs.
After reviewing it, I can tell you that the answer is a definitive
"yes".
Installation
of the package is very straightforward. The CD has only two
files called setup.exe and worldnet.exe. That's surprising
because other professional packages always come with lots
of files on the same CD. The file setup.exe is a standard
InstallShield program that installs the program files and
establish its program manager entries in your Start/Programs
hierarchy. It also offers to install AT&T WorldNet program,
which is the other file on the CD. I responded with a "NO"
because I don't need AT&T Internet service. When I started
the program, a Startup window shows various choices available
for the program. Since it is not clear what I need to do to
use the program, I had to start with the Help option. The
help screen starts with a content list. From there, you can
select one of the topics. I chose the INTRODUCTION because
I knew nothing about the program. A gigantic help screen is
displayed with many paragraphs of text. Instead of reading
through the text, I decided to play with other options myself.
After all, windows applications are supposed to be user-friendly.
One bug
in the application kept me from using it initially. When I
tried to load certain styles, the application aborted without
even a chance to save my data. If I did not have the duty
of reviewing this product, I'd have quitted using it. After
several attempts to use the program, I found that it has some
merits in terms of drawing graphs--especially 3D graphs. It
is solely designed to work with graphs, so the interface is
deceptively simple. Underneath the interface, however, there
is a great power in manipulating the graphs. I am getting
more comfortable with the product once I learn to stay away
from some styles that do not exist but displayed as options.
Simply provides some data on its spreadsheet module, one can
create a graph with stunning colors and shape.
Comparing
with MS Excel, for example, Great Graphs and Charts make all
the options available to users instead of hiding under some
obscure menu options. In MS Excel, there is nowhere in the
menu says GRAPH. You need to block select data in Excel, then
select menu INSERT/CHART. Another difference between Excel
and the Great Graphs and Charts is that the interface in Excel
looks more professional once you learn how to create a chart
whereas the Great Graphs and Charts looks like a toy. Users
with different tastes will choose one proudct over the other.
A few
questions are obvious: (1) Can we use existing spreadsheet
files for creating graphs? The answer is yes, although it
supports only earlier versions of Excel (4.0). (2) Can it
recognize long file names? The answer is no, although it does
create the program directory as a long file name. However,
it accepts clipboard data and thus overcomes its limitation
in file recognition to some extent.
Great
Graphs and Charts is part of the package called "Graphically!"
If you have a need to create graphs or charts constantly,
you might find the package attractive. Instead of launching
a big spreadsheet application, use Great Graphs and Charts
to do the job quickly and easily.
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to the Editor are welcome and occasionally abused in public.
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