Lotus SmartSuite

I am still using an IBM Aptiva 2140 bought in 1998. It came with Win95 but I have upgraded to Win98 and increased Memory to 128. It came with Lotus SmartSuite and I've been able to use the WordPro '97 but nothing else. I've never heard of anyone who uses this program nor of a class that is given through a local school or college. I "ve heard MS Office is very expensive so I'm not sure whether it is worth it to uninstall Lotus to install the other. Any comments would be appreciated.

 

cutiepie,

Welcome to the board! My Aptiva also came with a version of Lotus that I have been using, even after an upgrade to Win98. I would suggest uninstalling and reinstalling the program to see if that happens. You could also try a selective install and just install the components that aren't working to see if you can get them going.

Mike

 

Yeah MS office will cost you a few bucks but if you don't need a full version office suite then why get it? What I'm trying to say is that unless you need some special tool or feature offered only by MS office then Lotus SmartSuite should be ok. I agree with Mike try to uninstall it & reinstall it hopefully this will work but if not or if you are not satisfied with Lotus then you may want to try Open Office http://www.openoffice.org/ It's a free download about 51Mb for Windows platform. I currently use it on my old Win 98SE box the only problem I have is there are no templates like under MS Word 2000 (I was typing my Resume) but I compromised after all it's free to download but definitely try to use what you already have first.

Bubba169

 

cutiepie--Not sure I understand your question. Are you saying you want to use other parts of the Lotus Smart Suite but cannot access them? Like which parts?
If you want the spread sheet program 1-2-3, run a Find for 123w.exe. If you have 123w.exe on your PC, you have the Lotus 1-2-3 spread sheet. Install and/or open it by clicking on 123w.exe.
Your Lotus programs are in C:\lotus, not in Program Files (nor in C:\Windows).
There is a Lotus Smart Suite support site, but I am not sure how much applies to the version we got back in 1998.
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/lotus/support
And Google offers the following list of references when I asked for "lotus smart suite" + tutorial
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...otus+smart+suite"+tutorial&btnG=Google+Search

 

All of the posts are helpful and I thank you all. I think I didn't make myself very clear. The Lotus is installed OK but I can't figure how to use anything other than WordPro to type a letter. I'd like to be able to make labels and do other things and also use the spreadsheet. Maybe I should uninstall the whole thing and reinstall just the portions I know how to use.
I used MS Word where I volunteer and it has some features that I liked and hoped to find on Lotus but haven't so far.

 

Been a long time ago when I used Smartsuite. The version that came with my Aptiva came with tutorial on each program it has. You may want to checkout your local library as mine had video tapes on how to use it along with some books.

 

Sounds like a good idea to check the library. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

cutiepie--If you click Help on a WordPro window, you will find all sorts of information on how to run it. For Labels, for example, click Help|Help Topics|Index tab|type in "label "|click Display.
For the spreadsheet, did you follow my earlier suggestion about locating 123w.exe? Or look at the two sites I suggested?

 

I added both of those sites to my favorite places and hope to review them asap. Thanks. Will also try the help page.