Previous Next

An ideal program for use in schools, business training or those dreaded sales meetings. Projector 1 enables you to build and present graphs, histograms and pie charts easily and quickly.

It is treated very much like a projector but instead of making up slides you now use a TV screen and store your screens in memory to make up a presentation.

On loading the program you are asked for information on the type of interface and printer you are intending to use and from a menu you choose the option to match.

There is a comprehensive demo program already implanted to show you its capabilities as well as a fifteen-page instruction book to help you.

After running through the demo you have to clear all the data and start to build up your own presentation.

You start a a main menu and select 'New data'. This gives you a range of formats to choose from i.e.: Years, months, days, etc. Following screen prompts, you are asked to enter your values. I entered sales on a monthly basis for one year. Once all your data has been entered, you have to then give it a name, say 'sales'. This is then stored and is listed in a directory for use later.

Now returning to the main menu you can start to build up your presentation. From the data entered you can choose one of the options to either produce a pie graph, histogram or graph.

I started by pressing the graph option which brings you to a sub-menu. All you have to do here is choose what calibrations, colour, titles you want by a series of yes (Y) or no (N) answers. You have the option to connect up your points, have a background grid or put in a fit line or curve.

Once completed, the grid is automatically given a reference number and, as it's the first graph it's called G1. This is also stored in the directory.

Building the histogram and pie chart is done in much the same way as the graph and once done these are also given a reference number, i.e.: H1 & P1.

With the histogram you can have an overlay, say overlaying last year's sales figures with this year's. Another feature is the program's ability to forecast or project up to another six places. Now all these graphs, etc, can be linked with text, this is limited to headings and sub-headings but should be adequate for most needs. All the text is written out in enlarged characters so it can be easily read. Each page of text is also given a reference number (K1) and is also stored in the directory.

Going back to the main menu, you now choose the directory and you can view all the graphs, etc, listed.

Now it's "fun time" as you now press the 'build/modify-presentation' option from the menu. You then go to a sub-menu and choosing 'build' you can put the presentation together.

This is done by listing the reference numbers in the sequence you would like them to appear. So, first you would probably start with text, so you enter K1. Then maybe a graph to follow, so enter G1. After the graph perhaps a couple more pages of text, enter K2 and K3, and to follow that a histogram, enter H1 and maybe a pie chart, P1.

All the entries can be put into any order you wish and each page can be used several times.

Once the presentation is complete, you have the option of letting it run automatically or manually so to fit in with speech. If you choose the automatic option you can set the speed you want each slide to appear. If done manually yu have control via three keys to replay the slide that has been shown or to return to the previous slide or to make a hard copy if needed.

Once the presentation is running, you can also break and stop it which takes you back to the menu.

With the presentation complete, you are then asked to give it a name and that too is stored in the directory. It's possible to link presentations together to form a larger program.

One of the things this program lacks is the ability to draw graphics. However, all is not lost as it does give you the ability to load a pre-defined screen image which could have been drawn on one of the painting programs now available. This could be a logo for your company which will give your presentation a more professional finish.

The only gripe I had was in the graphs. The calibrations that are written inside the area which the histogram is printed. This makes them unreadable when the histogram is quite full.

Overall, I think this is a useful tool to have for any company or training school.