^C^1BLUE REVIEW:  IT FIGURES
^Cby Jon Barnes


IT FIGURES..........$39.95
(MS-DOS)
SimplSoft Products Inc.
5330 Sterling Dr., Suite C
Boulder, CO 80301
(303) 444-8772


^CREVIEWER, REVIEW THYSELF...

Before I discuss IT FIGURES, SimplSoft's mini-spreadsheet program, I have a 
confession to make -- I am a computer neophyte.  Unlike the rest of the BIG 
BLUE DISK staff, I have not spent a sizable chunk of my adult life staring at a 
computer monitor.  I am not familiar with 15 different database programs or 32 
different business applications.  I could not make a list of my Top Twenty 
utilities.  Me, I still suffer from an uncontrollable dread of disaster 
whenever I format a disk.  


^CTHE ELECTRONIC WORKSHEET

But seriously folks...  I am reviewing IT FIGURES precisely because simplicity 
is one of its major selling points.  SimplSoft bills it as an "electronic work 
sheet" that has much more power than a simple pop-up calculator, but that is 
also easier to use and to learn than a full-fledged, multi-cell spreadsheet.  
If IT FIGURES' operation had been difficult to learn or its documentation hard 
to understand, I, like most other inexperienced computer users, would have been 
as helpless as an armadillo trying to cross a busy interstate.  Happily, I'm 
able to report that IT FIGURES had me up and running in less than hour.  

And just what will IT FIGURES figure?  I figure about anything you want it to.  
While not many Fortune 500 companies will entrust IT FIGURES with their 
business data, the program is quite capable of showing most people's net 
worth.  Or projecting the value of IRAs or other investments.  Or calculating 
loan payments.  Or figuring your small business' "breakeven" point, helping 
navigators find the shortest distance between two landmarks, or showing a 
biker the best gears and shift sequences to use on a bicycle.  

Get the picture?  IT FIGURES can be used to solve many different kinds of 
problems.  Not only can you design your own templates, IT FIGURES puts over 40 
additional templates at your disposal.  Most importantly, IT FIGURES is set up 
so that you can ask "what if" questions easily.  With a few key presses, you 
can change a template's variables, then recalculate to show the new outcome.  


^CA CLOSER LOOK...

The single IT FIGURES work screen has three columns and 20 rows, or lines.  The 
first column holds formulas; the second column shows the results of 
calculations.  The third column is reserved for comments.  Variables, their 
values, and commands that allow you to swap lines or change values are all 
entered on a single command line.  Function keys are used, among other things, 
to load and save work sheets or display help screens.  

IT FIGURES lets you save often used variables into a "Global Variable" file -- 
a real time saver if you often use many specialized formulas in your work 
sheets.  Another feature that technical people should like is IT FIGURES' 
ability to handle many trigometric and statistics functions.  In addition, the 
program lets you use "IF-THEN" and "GOTO" commands within a work sheet.  And, 
if you need more than 20 lines for a work sheet, you can "chain" work sheets 
together.  


^CFIGURING IT OUT...

The documentation for IT FIGURES comes in the form of a well-illustrated 80-
page manual -- a quite thorough job for a "simple" program.  (The length of the 
manual should also tell you that IT FIGURES is full of features I can only 
outline in this short review.)  Generally, I was pleasantly surprised by the 
amount of help I received from both the manual and the on-screen help messages.

How well other users like the manual probably depends on whether they are 
experienced computer users or not.  Almost half of the manual is taken up by 
four step-by-step examples of work sheet construction.  While I appreciated the 
step-by-step approach, other users who like to explore programs without the 
benefit of much reading might have become impatient.  

...Which brings me to the only major road block I found while exploring IT
FIGURES.  Even the most timid computer users like to explore on their own.  But 
when I left the instructions to try loading some of the existing templates, try 
as I might, I could not figure out how to clear one work sheet from memory so 
that I could load another.  I had to skim the manual carefully to find out 
about the NEW command that I needed.  

Of course, my momentary inability to clear the screen was only a minor 
irritation in the exploration of what I feel to be a fine program.  Even if you 
own and are comfortable using powerful spread sheets like Lotus 1-2-3 or 
SuperCalc, in some situations, IT FIGURES could save you a great deal of time 
and effort.  For the rest of us who would never need a full-fledged spread 
sheet, IT FIGURES is a good buy.
