         	Now, sit back and enjoy our special Rotunda event!
CSC Bob	And... with that... lets go right to Seve... As we have LOTS of news tonight, I think
CSC Bob	Er... Steve... LOL..
GW Steve	Howdy, folks!
GW Steve	It's an exciting night for us!
GW Steve	As you all know, we announced our GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0 upgrade
GW Steve	product last week.
GW Steve	Tonight we're here to answer your questions about the upgrade
GW Steve	and as our  special guests, we have
GW Steve	GWMichelle from our marketing department...
GW Steve	Michelle Schubnel
GW Steve	and 
GW Steve	Brian Dougherty, himself, our CEO!
GW Steve	Michelle primarily works in marketing research
GW Steve	but she's authored many of the words you've been reading in 
GW Steve	the News area of our Support Center recently about the upgrade.
GW Brian	Hi all, thanks for the patience in waiting for our new upgrade!!
GWMichelle	For complete product info on the 2.0 upgrade
GWMichelle	you can check out the gw support center,
GWMichelle	But in the meantime, I'll try to run through some of the highlights.
GWMichelle	The 2.0 upgrade features the latest version of the GEOS OS,
GWMichelle	A brand new spreadsheet and database (graphical & easy to use!)
GWMichelle	Plus lots and lots of enhancements to the existing apps -- such
GWMichelle	as search and replace, thesaurus, color printing support, 
GWMichelle	import/export capabilities
GWMichelle	4 user levels in all of the major apps
GWMichelle	online help, painting tools in GeoDraw, bitmap editing...
GWMichelle	The list does go on and on!

GW Brian	It will be hard to appreciate all of these things until you actually see the software ;-)
GW Brian	For example, as Michelle said, there are 4 levels to each app.
GW Brian	In the 4th level of the new GeoWrite program, you have an entire draw package that far 			exceeds...
GW Brian	the original 1.2 draw package.  You can wrap text around graphics, you can even  do a "wrap 		tightly"...
GW Brian	where the software will form fit the text to the image (e.g. if you draw a curvy spline, the test 	will
GW Brian	wrap to the spline shape).  You can turn on auto-hyphenation, set the hyphenation rules, do 		widow and 
GW Brian	orphan control, turn on grids, do arbitrary column layout, you name it.
GW Brian	There are some features in the new GeoWrite that are not rivaled in the best desktop publishing...
GW Brian	programs.
GW Brian	Of course, the upgrade has entirely new applications like the spreadsheet and database.
GW Brian	The data base also has 4 levels of ease of use.  It is a graphically oriented flat file database where
GW Brian	you can design forms on screen, have several layouts of data, do full spreadsheet 	like ...
GW Brian	calculations between data cells and much more.
CSC Bob	Sounds pretty interesting to me.
CSC Bob	As a matter of fact, I'm rather anxious to see this package myself.
GW Brian	Rather than go babbling on, perhaps we should take some questions
CSC Bob	You got it!
CSC Bob	RayKop has a question on everyone's mind, I'm sure...
Question  	When will the RETAIL product be available and how much will it cost?
GW Brian	The summer is not a good time to launch a new retail product...
GWMichelle	Ensemble 2.0 is an upgrade for our installed base. 
GW Brian	So we are upgrading our users first and will probably start shipping to retail in early September.
CSC Bob	Illini197 has a question on GeoCalc:
Question  	Does GeoCalc support macros?
GW Brian	No, unfortunately the first release of GeoCalc does not support macros.
CSC Bob	CMYank is curious....
Question  	I read in a features listing that Geos has sound support, could you clarify?
GW Brian	We have added to the OS API general sound support including FM sound and digitized voice...
GW Brian	The current PC applications do not really exploit this added sound very extensively yet.
GW Brian	However, as many of you know, the OS is going into a PDA product from Tandy and Casio
GW Brian	where this sound capability will be more extensively used in the near future.
GW Brian	We expect to see sound used more and more in the environment.
CSC Bob	Slade L asks:
Question  	It seems that with the release of 2.0, emphasis is now on DTP, what about emphasis of
Question  	Office Management?
GW Brian	You might get that impression because GeoWrite and GeoDraw are in their second major 		releases...
GW Brian	and therefore reflect lots of user feedback and more experience with those applications.
GW Brian	GeoCalc and GeoFile are major new office productivity applications, which we will continue to 	evolve.
GW Brian	You can expect their next releases to show similar improvement the way 'Write and 'Draw have.
GW Brian	Additionally, it won't take as long to iterate those apps, because we won't be making as many 	major OS
GW Brian	changes in the future.  Part of the reason 2.0 took so long, was the extensive internal work on 		the...
GW Brian	OS API.  We have that solidly in hand now.
CSC Bob	Amag wants to know...
Question  	Just ordered my 2.0 upgrade.  1. How will the upgrade handle existing data? 2. Will my new
Question  	AOL 1.5 and Escapeon my PRO still be good?
GWMichelle	Glad you asked those!
GWMichelle	The upgrade allows you to bring all of your existing 1.X data
GWMichelle	with you during installation. 
GWMichelle	Escape works with 2.0, you'll need to contact us to get an 
GWMichelle	ugrade disk --info will be in the box.
GWMichelle	In regard to AOL, they are working on the GEOS 2.0 version of AOL...
GWMichelle	It will be sent, free, to all upgraders who request it.
CSC Bob	Great.. thanks!
CSC Bob	Our next question...
CSC Bob	Comes from Illini197, who wants to know...
Question  	Now that 2.0 is out when can we expect the SDK?
GW Brian	Good news on the SDK front.  We have a PC version of the SDK in beta and it is being used by 	...
GW Brian	companies like Intuit to make versions of thier software for our platform.
GW Brian	We are currently running monthly developer training classes for special developers who are 		working....
GW Brian	some of our new hardware partners as we work the kinks out of the beta SDK.  We expect to 		make the SDK
GW Brian	available to all comers on CD by the end of the summer.
CSC Bob	IMJerry asks....
Question  	Are there any telecom products from 3rd parties in development?
GW Brian	There are a number of interesting telecom things being explored for the GEOS environment, but 	nothing 
GW Brian	I can give you concrete details on right now.  In a recent press release about our 1st ...
GW Brian	developers conference, one of the companies was Pacific Telesis (that's the local bell
GW Brian	telephone company in this part of the world. )  However, if you are looking for a better 			GeoComm from 
GW Brian	a third party, that's still a great developer opportunity ;-)
CSC Bob	SpikeIt1 has a rather specific question:
Question  	I noticed on the list of printers supported by geos 2 Panasonic kx 2124 is not listed what
Question  	would I use in it's place if I were to update?
GW Steve	I suspect that we support the
GW Steve	Panasonic 2124 since it's a pretty standard 24 pin printer. 
GW Steve	The list we posted includes all the printers we've physically tested and know to work.
GW Steve	Many other printers will also work, because they emulate those on the list.
CSC Bob	JimR43036 has an interesting question:
Question  	Is the new Ensemble 2.0 compatible with OS2
GWMichelle	Sure is!
GW Brian	Yes, at least the last time I tried it, it did ;-)
CSC Bob	GeoScott asks...
Question  	Why didn't the owners of previous Geoworks products get a break on the price of G2?
GW Brian	I am not sure I understand the question, 2.0 is only available to existing owners
GW Brian	and we think the value for the price is outstanding.  This is not your ordinary upgrade!
CSC Bob	Gap123 asks...
Question  	Do you still support Quattro Pro SE now that you have a new spreadsheet?
GW Brian	I know this is going to seem strange, but GeoCalc imports only 123 files right now...
GW Brian	we will probably add quattro files eventually, but the rationale was...
GW Brian	all spreadsheets (including quattro) include the ability to read and write 123 files so it made 		sense 
GW Brian	to support that impex format first.
CSC Bob	You just answered the first part of KeithL785's question.. how about the second part?
Question  	Will any of the features or apps we have now be capable?  ex. Quattro pro, screen savers,
Question  	etc.
GW Brian	Obviously GeoCalc is a different, "GeoCentric" graphical spreadsheet.
GW Brian	You can continue to run Quattro from the file manager, etc.  but GeoCalc is its own product.
GW Brian	Screen saver support is built into the OS in 2.0 and a number of screen savers are included in 		the...
GW Brian	upgrade offer.  You don't need, nor can you use the old screen savers with 2.0.
GW Brian	This actually brings up a point about 2.0 that I should make clear.
GW Brian	2.0 is an entirely new OS and is not backwardly compatible with 1.X from an
GW Brian	application software point of view.  One of the reasons we did not pursue 3rd party support for 	1.X
GW Brian	was a technical decision to not be backwardly compatible.  In order to take the OS technology in 	some 
GW Brian	new directions, we needed to forego backward compatibility.
GW Brian	We support all of the old data file formats, so the new 2.0 apps will read in and update anything 	you
GW Brian	have created, and we are supplying new versions of all of the applications.
GW Brian	However, we are now actively recruiting (and succeeding) in getting 3rd party support for 2.0 	and we..
GW Brian	will be backwardly compatible going into the future with this version.
GW Brian	(I don't think the 1.0 versions of many operating systems end up being backwardly supported ;-)
CSC Bob	BruceB23 asks...
Question  	Please tell us about curve tools and rounded corners!
GW Brian	Boy, its tough to describe graphical features in a text only format, but here goes...
GW Brian	Several of the new applications let you easily create arbitrary curved shapes and lines.
GW Brian	There are two ways of controlling the curves.  The easiest way is to select the curve line tool 		and...
GW Brian	click to start drawing a line, each time you click, you create a new point the line\
GW Brian	starts to curve around, to end the curved line you simply click twice.
GW Brian	Technically, the curved line is drawn using a bezier curve algorithm (this is the same technique 	that
GW Brian	is used in postscript).  Without getting to technical, the curve 
GW Brian	is created using certain control point and we also have a tool that lets you
GW Brian	edit the curve using the control point.
GW Steve	Rounded corner rectangles are also supported (along with a bunch of other automatic
GW Steve	shapes) and using the group/ungroup functions along with the 
GW Steve	convert to/from bitmap/vector features, you even have full control over the radius
GW Steve	of the corners.
GW Brian	It is also possible to create curved shapes (like a Picasso drawing)
GW Brian	this works similar to the line tool, but when you enter the last point, it closes
GW Brian	with a smooth curve back to the first point.
CSC Bob	BEEMAN638 is looking for some promotion.. (grin)
Question  	Please mention the GeoUsers Roundups.  Washington on May 22 and the Orlando Florida
Question  	roundup on July 3.  ThanksTest = TEST I Hope
GW Steve	Indeed, there are "GeoRoundups" happening on both coasts this 
GW Steve	summer. These are customer sponsored picnics, gatherings of enthusiastic 
GW Steve	users who know each other here online, and wish to meet in person.
GW Steve	Keep an eye on the message boards and libraries in the GeoWorks Support Center for 
GW Steve	information about these events.
CSC Bob	James1188 wants to know
Question  	Does 2.0 support SVGA. Meaning will I be able to use 256 colour and or 1024X780?
GW Brian	Technically, the answer is yes, and some of the early beta disk sets..
GW Brian	had drivers for 256 color VESA 1024X780 cards.  However, we were having a great...
GW Brian	deal of difficulty debugging the drivers on different manufacturers cards...
GW Brian	so we decided to take these drivers out of the 2.0 upgrade package...
GW Brian	until we could nail down all of the compatibility problems.  This was a real shame
GW Brian	because things like gradient fills look really cool on a 256 color card.
GW Brian	As I said, the OS internally supports that resolution and color depth, we just didn't get...
GW Brian	the drivers debugged in time.  Rest assured we will complete that work...
GW Brian	and make the drivers available here on AOL.  (Sorry, no date yet)
GW Brian	Well, folks, I am sorry to say that I have to drop out.  My wife is expecting our first baby, and I...
GW Brian	have to go to baby class tonight.  Thanks for the enthusiastic response to the upgrade and I'll 		see...
GW Brian	you all in a future forum!
CSC Bob	Thanks for joining us, Brian. And good luck at your class!! :)
GW Brian	Steve and Michelle will be happy to continue answering questions.
CSC Bob	Ok... on with some more questions
CSC Bob	Sandy42 is curious
Question  	What kind of reporting features does Geofile have?
GW Steve	GeoFile doesn't have a "report" feature as you may think of that 
GW Steve	from having used other database software...
GW Steve	but it has a very flexible "multi-form" function that fills most of the 
GW Steve	same needs and provides some additional capababilities that other database programs
GW Steve	don't have. 
GW Steve	Also, you can easily port your data over to GeoCalc, where you can gain additional "report-like" 
GW Steve	capabilities.
CSC Bob	MazdaLove and several others ask...
Question  	What is the estimated delivery time of V2.0 from date of order?
GWMichelle	You can expect your upgrade the first week of June.
Question  	Is it possible that the retail release will have added features not included in the
Question  	installed-base upgrade? If so, what?
GWMichelle	Details about a retail product have not been disclosed yet.
GWMichelle	But it's planned that the retail product will have the same apps and features
GWMichelle	as the upgrade.
GWMichelle	Some work will be done on the interface in the retail product
GWMichelle	to better target it towards first time users.
CSC Bob	Diego Boy asks:
Question  	How does 2.0 work with DOS 6 vs Dos 5 and the GwPro?
GW Steve	Ensemble 2.0 is fully compatible with both MS-DOS 5 and MS-DOS 6...
GW Steve	and also with DR DOS 6.
GW Steve	All of the documents created with GeoWorks Pro can be upgraded and
GW Steve	used with Ensemble 2.0.
CSC Bob	Chazz3 asks....
Question  	I have had all the upgrades avalible  since ver. 1.0 will the install leave all existing
Question  	files or upgrade certain ones?
GWMichelle	During the install you can choose to update your 1.x files
GW Steve	There are three ways to install Ensemble 2.0.
GW Steve	1. You can install in a separate directory, ignoring your previous versions
GW Steve	and upgrade the old documents individually later.
GW Steve	2. You can install and upgrade you old documents automatically, keeping the older version
GW Steve	of the software on your hard drive.
GW Steve	and last...
GW Steve	3. You can install "over" the older version, deleting it and upgrading all your documents 
GW Steve	automatically.
GW Steve	It's your choice. However, if you wish to continue to use America Online, you'll
GW Steve	need to either keep the older version (choices 1 or 2)  or install the 
GW Steve	stand alone AOL software... that is, until we have the 2.0 version of AOL...
CSC Bob	Scutter and several others have asked.... 
Question  	Does OS API sound support mean Sound Blaster compatable?
GWMichelle	At this time we do not support Sound Blaster.
GWMichelle	But as Brian mentioned...
GWMichelle	it is something the OS can handle, and will most likely be added...
GWMichelle	with the development of future apps that would benefit from...
GWMichelle	sound support.
CSC Bob	Ardi asks.... 
Question  	Is there 600 dpi support for the HP LJ4?
GW Steve	Our current driver (in 2.0) supports the HP LJ4 at 300 dpi in PCL mode...
GW Steve	but at 600 dpi in PostScript mode....
GW Steve	as in GeoWorks Pro, we also  provide a "font downloading" driver for
GW Steve	text only documents, which supports the HP LJ4 at 600 dpi.
CSC Bob	Alope wants to know...
Question  	Oops!  I mean will the notepad be able to handle larger text files?
GW Steve	Yes, the Notepad...
GW Steve	now called the Text File Editor...
GW Steve	will handle basically *any* size file... I believe the limitation is
GW Steve	now related to memory or swap space, I'm not sure...
GW Steve	What I *am* sure about is that I've opened and edited files as large as
GW Steve	1.5 megabytes with no problem. 
GW Steve	Also, the Text File Editor now has search/replace...
GW Steve	and it also handles more extended ASCII characters than before..
GW Steve	like the "bullet" character.
CSC Bob	MazdaLove has a great question... 
Question  	If (and when) minor upgrades to various parts of V2.0 are made, will they be available via
Question  	the GeoWorks Support Center?
GW Steve	I can't answer that specifically, because I don't know
GW Steve	our plans for each and every feature upgrade. 
GW Steve	Brian just promised you that video drivers will be made available that way, 
GW Steve	so it seems a safe bet that other drivers and features might also be...
CSC Bob	GeoClown has an interesting question...
Question  	When is GeoWorks going to become a PC operating system and not have to rely on DOS?  Is
Question  	that in the future?
GW Steve	I wish Brian were still here to answer that. He probably knows more about our plans
GWMichelle	That seems like it would have been a good question for Brian to answer!
GW Steve	in that direction than I do, but currently we pretty
GW Steve	much only use DOS for file management. If we were to run without it right now, it would make 
GW Steve	using your other DOS software impossible... or else we'd have to basically
GW Steve	write our own DOS into the system, which would be redundant.
CSC Bob	CMYank asks...
Question  	Has there been a change in how Fonts are handled?
GW Steve	All the fonts you've been using in our previous 
GW Steve	products can be used directly in Ensemble 2.0... 
GW Steve	We have added a new feature in 2.0, in the Preferences desk tool
GW Steve	to allow you to sort and group your fonts in each application in 
GW Steve	any way you like. 
CSC Bob	Thanks to both of you for joining us tonight..
CSC Bob	And to Brian for being here as well.
GW Steve	Thanks for having us here, Bob!
CSC Bob	Convey our thanks again, if you will.
GWMichelle	Thanks for having us Bob...
GW Steve	I want to invite everyone to visit the GeoWorks Support Center for more
GWMichelle	it's been a pleasure and great to see so many users in the audience.
GW Steve	information about Ensemble 2.0... any time!
GWMichelle	I hope you've all ordered your upgrade -- believe me, once you use...
GW Steve	keyword GEOWORKS.
GWMichelle	2.0, you'll never want to go back to anything else :-)
CSC Bob	We will look forward to seeing you on the first Tuesday of next month, then... 
CSC Bob	And goodnight to all!