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Panorama Sheets for Mac: A first look
Back in the first days of the Mac (in the days when I still had a full head of hair) a developer by the name of Jim Rea created one of the first database apps for the platform, Overvue. That application became Panorama (US$299), which is still around and has evolved through the years to remain a powerful and incredibly fast relational database for Mac. Sometimes, though, Mac owners need a database management system that isn't as powerful as Panorama but can handle operations that would choke Excel or Numbers. On January 6, Jim Rea's company -- ProVUE Development -- released a new product into the wild via the Mac App Store. That product is called Panorama Sheets (US$39.99) and it uses a spreadsheet-like interface for all data entry, searching, sorting, and data analysis and manipulation. The app has a feature called Total Recall that can protect your data through system crashes and power outages, and uses the same RAM-based database engine as Panorama for blinding speed in sorts and other operations. One feature that's sure to be popular with Mac users who need to manipulate large address list databases is support for many Avery mailing labels. If a database has standard address fields (first name, last name, street address, etc...), Panorama Sheets will automatically configure the fields on a label. If a field is missing (like the ever-popular "address2" field), the app automatically slides label fields up and to the left so there are no blank areas on the mailing label. Panorama Sheets also converts raw data into an interactive summary outline with subtotals, averages, and other calculations. Searches can be done phonetically with a "soundslike" operator, combined, and saved for future reference. If you're interested in trying Panorama Sheets to see if it's right for you, ProVUE has a 15-day free trial version available for download.
Macworld Expo: Jim Rea talks about the early days of Mac development
When Apple first introduced the Macintosh, there weren't many authorized third-party developers around... even fewer unauthorized ones, when you think about it. One guy did manage to sneak in the back door and ship his app for the original Mac on an accelerated schedule: Jim Rea, the founder of ProVUE Development. The company's original database for the Mac, OverVUE, was the 2nd commercial app to ship for the platform (Microsoft's Multiplan was #1). The DB application later evolved into Panorama, which continues to run on the Macs of today. Jim was kind enough to share some of his memories from the early years, and update us on the soon-to-ship Panorama version 6. Both videos are in the continuation of this post.
