Tips for Geos 2.0
 
    The following is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to Berkeley Softworks
regarding some errors in the manual for Geos 2.0.  I have also made suggestions
for making your work disks, which the manual doesn't cover very well.
 
    I think the installation procedure is rather complicated, especially for
the first-time user; be sure to follow the instruction to the letter.  I don't
see the necessity of keying Geos to your applications, and nowhere in the
manual did I find an explanation of how I will key future Geos purchases to my
system disk.
 
    I believe there are a few errors in the procedure regarding the making of
back up copies of the master disk.  On page 10, you are instructed to format
six disks and on page 11 suggested names for the disks are given.  Page 13
then instructs the user to copy the master disks using the Disk Copy program
on the System Disk.  Using this program formats the disks a second time and
removes the disk name I selected previously.  The back up copy then has the
same name as the master disk.
 
    There appears to be another discrepancy between pages 11 and 13.  Page 11,
step 6 d	 ects you to prepare disks for copying all of the master disks but on
page 13, you are informed that the System and Backup System disk cannot be
copied.
 
    I found the section titled Work Disks to be very weak and lacking in
guidance.  This is where experience is a great teacher, and so, I have set up
my work disks for Geos 2.0 the same as I had for the older version.  In this
section, I noticed there is no mention of the Preference Manager file.  I have
this file on each of my work disks to allow me to	 ave different screen colors
for each application, adjustment of the mouse characteristics, and even a
different pointer if I want.
 
    I have my work disks set up in the following manner:
 
 
geoPaint
 
              Desktop
              Preference Manager
              geoPaint
              Photo Manager
              1526
        and 2 fonts
 
 
geoWrite
 
              Desktop
              Preference Manager
              geoWrite
              Text Manager
              Text Grabber
             	 aperClip data
              Speedscript data
              1526
              Calculator
              Notepad
        and 2 fonts
 
 
geoSpell
 
              geoSpell
              Dictionary
 
 
geoMerge
 
              Desktop
              Preference Manager
              geoMerge
              geoLaser
              1526
        and 4 LW fonts
 
 
geoDocuments
 
    This disk is used for document storage after they are completed.
 
 
geoFonts
 
    I put copies of all my fonts onto one disk.  I also	 ake up a printout
sample of all fonts in the different sizes and styles.
 
 
geoDrivers
 
    This disk contains a copy of all the printer drivers and input drivers for
use with Geos.
 
 
    With this arrangement, I have managed to maintain at least 45K of space
for my document work area.
 
    I am very pleased with some of the new features such as: on-screen date and
time, undo for the waste basket, support of the 1581 and ram expansion unit,
mult-file possibilities with page, bitmap scaling, headers a	  footers,
geoSpell, geoMerge, search and replace, and Paint Drivers.  I don't really
see any need for the Pad Color Manager, and I probably will never use it.
 
by John Olynyk
 
President
 
Port Coquitlam Computer Club
 
 
 
