September/Octoberl985 RAIN Page 31 SOFTWARE REVIEWS Filevision, $195 (for Apple Macintosh), from: Telos Software Products 1420 Ocean Park Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90405 It took me awhile to understand Filevision. Not because of poor documentation, but because the left side of my brain refused to cooperate with my right. Filevision is a database management system. You store information in records with different pieces in the records (sometimes called fields), and then you can retrieve the information in a variety of ways (all entries with the word “peace" in them, for example). Filevision does many of the things an average medium- level database management system can do, but with Filevision you create a database using a picture that you draw on the screen. If, for example, you put together a database of organizations working in your field around the country, you might start with a map of the USA. Every place there was a group you would stick a symbol (from an existing menu or symbols of your own). Inspired by who knows what, one of my first Filevision creations was a version of the classic "The Universe in 40 Leaps." Starting with a picture of the solar system, you can link (bring to the screen) maps of smaller and smaller areas, until one screen asks if you would like to see inside the author's brain. If the answer is yes, you are miracuously and ironically brought back to the original map of the universe. Filevision isn't good for all database management needs, but it is an excellent tool when it is important to share the data in a communicative format. In Chicago, for example, the city's Affirmative Information Program and Northwestern University's Urban Affairs School have constructed several Filevision maps to show the size of federal funding for housing development in different parts of the city. The support from Telos, the manufacturer, is inspiring. They publish a good newsletter, have a technical assistance hotline, and most importantly are hot on the trail of any users of Filevision who have developed interesting applications. They publish a public domain software library catalog, and make the applications available on ^sks at $3 each (plus $1.50 handling per order). The applications are wide-ranging, to say the least. Examples include: A self-paced instructional guide to the medieval English poem Beowolf; a flood control map; a warehouse flow diagram; a periodic table; an Oregon fishing safari; a store catalog; and an inventory of a personal wine cellar. Thinktank, (Apple II version) $150, (IBM PC/XT version) $195, (Macintosh 128K version) $145, (Macintosh 512K version) $245, from; Living Videotext 2432 Charleston Road Mountain View, CA 94043 Thinktank calls itself the first idea processor. The basic idea of the software is very simple, so simple in fact that I almost chose to ignore it. Most of the reviews and promotional literature seemed to describe it as a way to make outlines. Being someone who rarely gained much from working with outlines (preferring to call my creative process note-taking, assimilation, or meditation), I couldn't see enough practical value in what Thinktank had to offer. Nevertheless, I wrote to Telos, the software manufacturer, telling them about the Information Technology Institute, and requesting a copy for demonstration to the institute's clients. They donated a copy, and since then I have become a regular Thinktank user. A t)rpical interaction with Thinktank starts with opening a file. You are presented with a small box at the top of the screen. Whatever word or phrase you put here becomes the lead topic, with other words/phrases becoming subtopics. There are several features that make outlining, or "idea processing," easy. You can attach accompanying text to any idea (phrase or word). The text is normally hidden but can be called forth with a simple command (or in the case of a Macintosh, with a click of the mouse). You can sort items alphabetically, or easily move items from one place to another in the outline. Thinktank is not limited to text, you can also integrate text and pictures, pictures drawn with Mac- paint, or other graphic design applications. In fact, you can construct outlines with a series of pictures and then create a slideshow or animation that can be run manually or automatically. You can think of Thinktank as an idea processor (its byline) or as a new type of word processor. I tend to think of it as a database management system for ideas. You get an idea, or, thinking poetically, an image or fragment. You can add related or complementary ideas in the outline, or you can expand the window on the screen and add several pages of text related to that idea. I've used Thinktank now to outline a workshop, construct a keyword list for a directory to special information resources in the Northwest, write a proposal, and put together the copy for this issue of RAIN. In all the cases, I found qualities of Thinktank that helped my creative process. With the keyword list development, it was easy to group and regroup words under various larger and smaller categories. Librarians and the society of indexers should love it. For the workshop, it performed well; and in fact I would say my workshop was more organized than usual. Curiously, I seldom used the printed outline during the workshop. It was the working with Thinktank to think about the workshop beforehand that seemed to help organize it. Putting together copy for RAIN was also a different experience. I kept an outline that was broken up into book reviews, softwarexeviews, short articles and news items. I also kept several categories for miscellaneous notes (such as, don't forget to call so-and-so). (Dne of the most convenient features of Thinktank is the ability to move from one item to another quickly. While writing this review, if I suddenly thought of an idea for another review, I quickly collapsed this text, zoOmed in on the title of another reveiw, added text, and zoomed back to this piece. Just as now I can't imagine writing without a word processor, I can see. Thinktank becoming another dependency. It may also inspire imitations and complementary programs^—software that facilitates the creative process. FROM: Becoming a MacArtist
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