ECCO 3.0 and XyWIN

[Allan Needell NASSH100@xxxxxxxx]

Jack Shafer, Ken Frank, et. al.,

I have just given ECCO 3.0 a test run with XyWIN. I have very
good news and a disappointment to report.

The new user interface took 10 minutes to get used to. I like it
a lot.
The new features I've tried are all rock solid and great. (Auto
assign items typed or inserted into specific folders based on
assigned key words and phrases, split and join outline items,
etc. etc.). Most relevant to XyWIN, the shooter is enhanced and
works flawlessly. Best improvement, now from within a xywin
document you can click the shooter icon and choose "Get address."
You can then search you phonebook and select a name. The full
address (business or home, with or without telephone and fax
numbers appears as a perfect address block). Just as important, I
can still enter filenames (files with an extension associated
with xywin in the file manager) into any view. Simply by double
clicking the filename xywin loads itself and opens the selected
document. This worked before and still does.

Here's the disappointment. There's a new module in ECCO 3.0
called
Correspondence Manager. Jack, its WAY COOL. It allows for the
creation within ECCO of a wp mailmerge templates. You can select
any number of people from your phone book, call CorrMangr to
compose a letter. With one click, get this, ECCO will as directed
1) Print out letters addressed to each person selected (and
envelopes) 2) Fax a copy of the letter to any of those people who
have a fax number in their record 3) email a copy to anyone who
has an email address in their record. You can instruct it which
mode to prefer. After the letters/faxes/emails are sent, the
actions taken are permanently logged in the ECCO phone book.

Here's the disappointment. Correspondence Manager works with
WINWORD,
WORDPERFECT WINDOWS and AMIPRO, not XYWIN. I contacted Phil
Seeman's the author of the CM module to ask what it would take to
write the mailmerge templates and interface for XyWIN. He said
"time and $$$." He also indicated that market realities mean that
this simply will not happen by HIM/NETMANAGE.

Ken, this is too bad. It seems just like the kind of thing you
indicated you were trying to do with XYWIN and General Counsel. I
sure could use a little more encouragement from you that the good
things from xywin are still coming. It sure is tempting to get
one of the big three WPS loaded on my work machine to let ECCO
take care of managing and logging correspondence.

Allan Needell, Dept. of Space History, Nat'l Air & Space Museum
   Smithsonian Institution, MRC 311, Washington, DC 20560 i:
nassh100@xxxxxxxx; b: nassh100@sivm; CServe: 71461,1115
      tel 202/357-2828; fax 202/786-2947