Ragtime 4.2.1
Company: B & E Software GGmbH;
US Distributor: Comgrafix
Estimated Price: $495
http://www.comgrafix.com
http://www.besoftware.com

Overview
RagTime 4 is an integrated office suite for professional document processing. It provides an electronic "container" that can hold: text objects with excellent layout features; drawings or graphics; true three-dimensional spreadsheets; pictures; sounds; movies; and even buttons. RagTime's components are not stand-alone pieces; they are all part of the same document. There is no need to connect documents, reimport files, or cut and paste data.

The support of AppleScript permits automated processing of repetitive tasks. The recording capabilities make it easy to script with RagTime.

Master layouts facilitate the maintenance of page layouts. The word processor supports multiple columns, and text intelligently "flows" around irregular shapes. It is WorldScript II compatible and uses Unicode for worldwide document exchange. Automatic generation of index, table of contents and footnotes are included. The three-dimensional spreadsheet cells can serve as containers for all data types, as can all containers.

An inventory gives an ordered overview of all the components in a document, easing the administration of large documents.

MS Office Killer?
Ragtime uses a container/object paradigm similar to the no-longer-supported Apple OpenDoc technology. This SHOULD be the future of document formats, since it greatly simplifies the task of organizing different types of data and different document types into one overall container, simplifying the user's tasks. Functionality can be extended by the use of modular extensions (plug-ins).

Ragtime's features are extensive, and include full word processing capabilities, flexible document layout features (which appear to be capable of professional print document creation), stationery, master documents, style sheets (not just for text but also for drawing objects such as lines), a more than full-featured spreadsheet, a large set of drawing tools, buttons and drop-down menus which can be included in any component, dictionaries, and extensions for document import/export, etc.

You can add components to a Ragtime layout using familiar tools, menus, or by using drag and drop. B&E includes an extension to allow the use of OpenDoc Live Objects. Ragtime has toolbars that change to match the context of the task in progress.

Each component of Ragtime (text container, spreadsheet container, etc.) has all the capabilities of all the components, since any component can be included in each other one. All components have access to formatting, style, layout, and template options, making this a very powerful package. For example, spell check not only checks the text in text containers, it also checks the words in spreadsheets, axis labels in graphs, and labels for drawings and graphics. Number formats work in spreadsheets, text, graphs, etc.

The broad range of components are well integrated. You can start with a layout and incorporate any mix of component types, or you can start with a text component and add spreadsheets, drawings, graphs, etc. as desired.

Ragtime includes extensions for import and export of data with AppleWorks, Word 97/6, Excel 4, and fax, RFT, SLYK, and XTND formats. However, I could not import data from either Word 98 or Excel 5. A check of the Comgrafix website turned up no new converter extensions. Ragtime comes with a GIS mapping extension, which I did not attempt to use. This extension is documented on both the Comgrafix and B&E Software websites. Several foreign language dictionaries are available for purchase.

Exchanging data between RagTime and other applications is easy. RagTime can import from and export to many popular formats, including most word processors, drawing programs and spreadsheets. RagTime also supports Publish and Subscribe and drag-and-drop editing.

Of interest to those of us who push other spreadsheet programs to or beyond their functionality limits, Ragtime has a true three-dimensional spreadsheet. This means that a single spreadsheet can be made up of planes, and formulas can address the set of planes in one range statement, e.g., Sum([1]A1:[8]D8). This gives the user the capability to easily model complex real-world systems, such as the three-dimensional concentrations of hazardous material in a dispersing vapor plume. Microsoft Excel, for all its bloating in recent years, still does not have this capability, which is severely restrictive to users such as myself (I specialize in hazardous and energetic material predictive accident analyses).

Steep slopes to climb
Since Ragtime is such a big leap from current office suites, the learning curve is a bit steep. And the interface is unique at times, which also makes the learning process a little more involved. Some options are only available when certain objects are selected, which can be a bit confusing when you try to locate that particular option again.

The documentation, while extensive, does not explain everything. I had to experiment to find the correct way to address 3-D spreadsheet layer ranges, since the reference manual does not explain how to do this. However, this explanation is in the online help. The documentation is rather sparse on examples, so it sometimes takes a little experimentation to make the instructions work.

One feature that I had trouble with was the inability to select a range of spreadsheet cells when the desired starting cell was already selected. The program insisted on moving the selected cell instead of extending the selection. An easy work-around is the use the "shift" key and click in the final cell of the desired range to extend the selection.

Printing of the new Euro symbol requires a patch, according to the B&E Software website. However, no patch was available for the English version of Ragtime. The website includes several small FAQs, including one with AppleScript scripts for creating and exporting email with Ragtime as well as the announcement that Ragtime is fully Y2K compliant (which is to be expected of Macintosh software).

Summary
Ragtime 4.2.1's impressive capabilities make the learning effort well worthwhile. The convenience of having multiple data/program file types in one layout is a considerable benefit. That, and its three-dimensional spreadsheet capabilities, are compelling reasons to buy and use this application.

Until next time, ciao!

MacMice Rating: 2.5

David E. Price
GCSPhotoBug@WWBChat.com