Product Review:

Ragtime 5
by Mitchell Levine

Those of us old enough to recall probably remember the famous Apple commercial featuring the slogan “Macintosh: why 1984 won’t be like (Orwell’s) 1984.” The spot, aired during the Super Bowl of that year, reflected a belief common at that time: personal computers can empower the individual by offering them capacities once exclusive to the well funded. Unfortunately, it seems that, in some ways, this concept never genuinely came of age.

True, we all use computers these days, and they do allow us to accomplish many things we otherwise wouldn’t. On the other hand, it appears that many of us use them in exactly the same ways. With a few exceptions, for example, the overwhelming majority of people do their word processing with Word; their spreadsheets with Excel; their slideshows with PowerPoint; and their databases with Access.

Of course, a craftsman’s creativity isn’t strictly limited by their choice of tools. Michelangelo and Botticelli both used a chisel, and that didn’t force them into blind uniformity. But it seems strange that the public’s usual demand for novelty hasn’t asserted itself in the applications software market. Microsoft distributes a fine office suite—I use it myself—but at an average market cost of about $500, it’s hard to believe that some viable alternative hasn’t been available.

Thanks to Comgraphix’s Ragtime 5, one now is. The first thing to praise about the package is the price: any registered student with a valid idea, or educator with an institutional purchase order, can purchase the education version of the product for only $95—a deep discount off of even Microsoft’s similar program. The next is that it’s, crucially for IT managers in the schools and unlike MS Office, cross-platform, running equally well in Windows XP and OSX.

The key to the software’s operation is it’s unique distribution form: unlike most suites, it’s not configured in individual stand-alone modules, but rather allows its user to access its components from within a single document. Thus, not only can the end-user take advantage of first-rate word processing for an individual text project, but at the same time add graphics, graphs, forms and multimedia without ever leaving the program. Spreadsheets and animations can be integrated, and at the same time, Applescript macros can be coded to automate various repeated tasks. Certain types of layout functions are available, like scale and rotations, and text can be flowed around multiple columns in a similar (but not quite so intuitive) fashion as Quark or InDesign.

To be fair, it took me a bit longer to feel comfortable with Ragtime than my standard word processing software, and I, of course, used the latter to write this review. However, that learning curve shouldn’t negate the serious advantages, power, and affordability of this well-designed productivity option for education-based applications users. For more information on this product, or to check requirements for education license shares, log on to the company’s site at www.comgraphix.com.#