Claris Resolve is an elegant spreadsheet program that provides depth and versatility enclosed in a superbly crafted interface. Experienced users may find Resolve lacking in some sophisticated features found in Excel 3.0, but most firstlime and casual spreadsheet-program users will find Resolve’s interface less imposing than Excel's, especially when it comes to charting functions. Another noteworthy feature is Resolve’s scripting language, which offers developers a smoother and more conventional route to customizing applications than Excel 3.0's macros do.
It's All in the Presentation
Claris gained a leg up on the development of Resolve by using the ready-made powerful spreadsheet engine from another Mac program, Informix's WingZ. However. Resolve's look and feel is uniquely its own. To a large extent, the program's strength lies in its presentation quality: Resolve presents users with a well-designed interface that allows them to create attractive worksheets and charts with a modicum of hassle.
With this in mind, it's not surprising to find a MacDraw-like palette of drawing tools at the left edge of each Resolve worksheet. The primary palette provides fast access to a selection pointer and line, are, and polygon tools. Beneath it, there's a paint bucket for controlling the fiII color and pattern of cells, and pen tools for defining the color and thickness of cell-division lines. In the bottom left corner of the program's window are zoom controls that allow you to magnify and reduce the worksheet view. You can also opt to hide Resolve's palettes if you want to enlarge your work area.
The palette creates easy access to many of Resolve's most commonly- used functions, making it a more or less one-step process to add elements such as text fields, buttons, and chans to worksheets. The text and button tools are especially useful. With the text tool, you can place a block of text anywhere in a Resolve worksheet and then give it a title and scroll bars, using menu selections. You can also assign format settings and a variety of text characteristics, such as fonts, sizes, and colors. Unfortunately, Resolve lacks the style sheets that make formatting Excel 3.0 worksheets such a breeze.
Once you've drawn a button on a worksheet, you can make it transparent and change its color and pattern. You use buttons to execute Resolve scripts, which are a distinguishing feature of Claris' new package.
3-D Charting
WingZ was the first Mac spreadsheet program to offer 3-D charting, so Resolve's robust charting features, which rival anything in Excel 3.0, are no surprise. What sets them apart from those of Excel is their relative ease of use.
Once you've created a default chart, you simply double-click on it to bring up the program's well-designed Gallery' dialog box. From there, you can choose from among 25 different chans and apply the selection to your chart. Resolve supplies a wide variety of chan types, including standard bar, line, area, and pie charts. Its 3-D chart types include contour, surface, and wire frame. You can even create combination charts and set up multiple axis scales, including linear, percentage, and logarithmic.
Double-clicking on the legend box in the default chart is one of several shortcuts to the Chart Options dialog box. which lets you specify chart ranges, legends, and titles. If you've ever struggled with the series labels in Excel, you'll appreciate how simple it is to set the series and division labels in Resolve.
In addition. Resolve's 3-D Options dialog box makes relatively short work of adjusting the rotation and elevation of 3-D chans. An Apply button lets you experiment with perspective settings before you finalize them.
A Set Chart Template command lets you tweak complex 3-D-chart settings and then create charts from several blocks of data, using the same settings. You can also copy one chart's settings and paste them into another. Ideally, we wish it was possible to name chart settings and apply them as style sheets.
Resolve Script
Resolve Script, Resolve's comprehensive programming language, lets you create scripts that attach specific operations to buttons, text areas, and worksheets. You can also create stand-alone scripts that can be loaded and used by multiple worksheets. Resolve's scripting language also applies to the creation of functions that are capable of performing calculations.
To take some of the drudgery out of creating scripts. Resolve's Learn mode can automatically record your actions and then make the resulting code available for editing.
For more ambitious scripted applications, Resolve Script provides commands for creating sophisticated graphical elements such as dialog boxes, menus, number wheels, and slide bars. Unfortunately, Resolve doesn't provide a graphical editor, as Excel 3.0 docs. You’re forced to slug it out using code, and you have to set up every menu item procedurally.
Nevertheless, Resolve’s attached seripts are much less clumsy to use than Excel's attached macros. Moreover, Resolve's line-oriented scripting language and scripting editor will feel a lot more comfortable to developers used to conventional programming languages, such as C and Pascal, as well as to developers familiar with HyperCard scripting.
Despite its elegant interface and powerful scripting language, however. Resolve doesn't offer the same fine-tuned functionality you get with Excel. Excel provides split screens, for example, whereas Resolve is limited to locked titles. Excel's Calculate Now command allows users to convert a cell formula to a value before accepting it: Resolve lacks this feature altogether.
In addition, Resolve's Insert command pushes celIs only to the right. To shift celIs down, you must insert entire rows, which can be problematic if you're working with complex worksheets.
Worksheet linking is also more refined in Excel. Excel lets you create external references to cells in other worksheets by simply selecting the worksheet and pointing at the cell. With Resolve, however, you must explicitly type the reference. Moreover, to use a range name from another worksheet, you'd better have a crib sheet ready. Resolve doesn't provide feedback on the number of rows and columns in selected ranges, which Excel does.
On the other hand, Resolve liberates users from some Excel tyrannies. The Cut and Copy commands in Resolve are real Cut and Copy commands: You don't see any marching ants surrounding a selected range on a worksheet. So when you copy or cut a selection and then decide that you want to insert a few rows, you can do so without losing the Clipboard selection.
Although Resolve takes special care to address the needs of novice users, even more-experienced users will appreciate small touches such us the Auto-Save option: To protect users from themselves. Resolve can back up worksheets automatically. You need only specify a name for each backup file and an interval for how often files are to be saved.
Resolve supports a wide variety of file formats, including Excel 2.2, WingZ 1.0, WKS, WKI, DIF, and SYLK for importing and exporting data. However, it doesn't do an adequate job of accepting Excel 3.0 files.
Resolve is a System 7-savvy application, and as such, it supports publish-and-subscribe, Apple events, and Balloon Help. The program requires System 6.0.2 or later and runs on any Mac equipped withal least 1 megabyte of RAM. Installing the full set of Resolve files requires 5 megabytes of disk space.
The documentation is well organized and clearly written, and the program's onIine, context-sensitive help is excellent.
The Bottom Line
Resolve reflects the Claris commitment to uncluttered and nonintimidating software. But that's not to say that Resolve lacks power and sophistication. Although it may not of offer the same polish and depth of the Mac's more established spreadsheet program, Excel 3.0, Resolve’s charting features and its scripting language add up to a formidable challenge to Excel's domination of the Macintosh-spreadsheet market.
Resolve's interface will feel like an old friend to users of other Claris programs. Its use of a MacDraw-like palette of tools to the left of each worksheet is a particularly nice touch that makes fast work of adding graphics and text to worksheets. However, Resolve's palette can't compete with Excel's tooIbar for convenient access to common spreadsheet functions.
If you’re a first-time user looking for a spreadsheet program that will suit your needs both now and in the future, Resolve is well worth considering. It's more accessible than Excel for entry-level users, but it's guaranteed to hold up when you're ready to make full use of more-advanced spreadsheet functions.
Moreover, if you're a developer still unwedded to the ways of Excel, you'll do well to take Resolve for a spin. Resolve Script is a robust yet comfortable development environment that offers an attractive alternative to Excel 3.0‘s cumbersome macros.
Benjamin, Louis E. (December 1991). Resolve. MacUser. (pgs. 52-53).
Claris Corporation
Applications
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claris_resolve_1.1_d_1991.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Basilisk II
