Panorama is a direct descendent of OverVUE, a very fast and intelligent flat-file database. OverVUE, whose data-entry screens looked a lot like spreadsheets, was a popular list manager, thanks to its ease of use and blazing speed. Panorama keeps the spreadsheet-like basic data-entry screens and adds a set of such enormously versatile and powerful features that it can compete with any flat-file database available. And it does all that without slowing down.
The spreadsheet metaphor makes data entry fast and intuitive. Panorama handles text, number, date, and graphic data types. You can create special fields that allow only limited values, which appear as radio buttons and require only a click for entry. Equations (with a huge range of possible operators) can link columns in the basic structure, thus creating calculated number, text, or date fields.
Data-entry speed and accuracy are enhanced by a feature aptly called Clairvoyance. Clairvoyance matches the data you are entering with already entered data — as you enter it and finishes entries automatically when it finds a unique match. It never misses. If you don't want the match, keep typing and the guess will be erased and, if necessary, replaced. Overall, Panorama almost succeeds in making data entry a pleasure.
Database design in Panorama is a bit unusual and takes some getting used to. The basic screen is literally full of icons and has many columns to fill in. You have to learn the meaning of most of the icons; they’re not at all intuitive. The reason that the design form is so complex is that most of the power features need enabling in this phase.
Database design is never easy, but the Panorama method seems overly complex. The best way to design a Panorama database is to find an example (the program provides many sample databases) or use one of your own already finished designs and done the Design Sheet, which holds the basic structure of the database. Then use the database-design tools to modify the Design Sheet to meet your current needs. Even if a great deal of modification is necessary, this approach is easier and faster than building from scratch. The first few databases I designed took far longer to create than I had anticipated, but building databases from templates soon became relatively quick, if not painless.
Among the data-entry power features arc Input Pattern, which simplifies entry of fixed-formal data such as dates and phone numbers; Range, which limits the kinds of data that can be entered; Caps, which automatically capitalizes words (or sentences or all text) as they arc entered; and Tabs, which lets you use the space bar to advance to the next field or cell.
Fields can contain up to 32,767 characters each. Although only the beginning of a long field appears onscreen, you can view any field in its entirely by double-clicking on it.
You’ll usually want to work with only a portion of your data. Panorama has numerous options for extracting just the data you want. You can, at the same time that you're sorting data, add subtotals (both regular and nested) and running totals to the screen reports.
You can collapse databases to any level desired and use cross tabs to analyze any column in your database against any other column. No other flat-file database offers that ability.
Reports were a major OverVUE weakness, and forms were something that other programs could do better.
Panorama changes all that. Forms and reports can now be enhanced with an exceptionally full-featured graphics editor. You have access to seven basic colors in any field, and graphics from outside sources can be pasted into any field. If they were full-color to begin with, they’ll be full-color in Panorama. The Flash Art feature lets you tie data to pictures, which can be a real time-saver when you’re creating reports.
Printing reports was another area in which OverVUE was somewhat limited and in which Panorama shines. The Print Preview feature shows you exactly what your output will look like — particularly useful for printing labels, which require expensive stock.
Printed reports can mimic forms, or they can be custom-built. Custom-building reports is easy, thanks to a well-designed set of dialog boxes, and all reports can contain graphics.
The built-in charting module is powerful and easy to use, much like a power charting module you'd expect in a spreadsheet program. You can use your data to create bar, line, pie, and area charts, as well as scatter diagrams. Any chart can be enhanced to presentation quality with Flash Art and Panorama's built-in tools.
Power users can link multiple files (and work with up to 25 open files at once), although Panorama isn't a relational database. One good reason to link files is so that Clairvoyance can use existing data, thus becoming even more powerful. The Lookup function lets you find and use data from any open File.
Users can also create and use powerful macros, recording and building them automatically or in more traditional ways in a decent macro editor. The manual covers macros in great detail and provides many good examples to get you started. If you expect to get the most out of Panorama, you'll have to master macros.
Panorama-created files are exceptionally compact, mostly because of the basic structure of the program. You can elect to compress specific columns of data. Using the compression function correctly can save up to 90 percent of the space you'd normally use.
You can import data from and export it to most other databases and word processors. Some of the procedures can get involved, but they're all well explained in the manual.
Performance is outstanding. Panorama outraces every other fiat-file database I’ve used, including FileMaker II. It s particularly good at sorting on a single field, but it doesn’t allow you to son directly on multiple fields (or criteria). Sorts do take into account the results of previous sorts, however, so you can search for multiple criteria or do multiple sorts. If you use the same set of multiple sorts repeatedly, it’s easy to set up macros to automate the operation.
Panorama gets its great speed by keeping the entire database it's working on in RAM, which penalizes users with only 1 megabyte. They get the speed, but they can’t work with very large databases. Since Panorama is fairly small, however, and since the files it creates are relatively small, you can use Panorama on small machines.
The large number of small and unique icons throughout the program slows down new users, who often have to take the time to find the icons in the manual or help file. Fortunately, the help file (which is bigger than the program!) is very good, and once you’ve mastered the icons, Panorama is easy to learn.
The large manual is packed with everything you need to know about Panorama. It’s well written but a bit disorganized. Some material that should be in the manual, such as System requirements and installation information, isn’t. You can learn Panorama by using this manual — and it is a decent reference, mostly thanks to an excellent index — but it makes Panorama seem harder than necessary.
I experienced some operating problems, and the program crashed several times during evaluation. The data-entry portion seemed perfectly stable, though, and I never lost data because of a crash. The publisher is aware of the bugs, and a new version should be available by the time you read this.
Panorama is a power user’s delight. It’s also easy enough for first-time database users. Even at its high price, Panorama would be the hands-down best flat-file database if it were just a little cleaner and a bit more thoroughly debugged. And that manual could use a bit of polishing. But even with those complaints, I prefer Panorama to any other flat-file database now available for the Macintosh.
Bobker, Steve. (June 1989). Panorama. MacUser. (pgs. 47, 50).
ProVUE Development
Applications
out of 10 (0 vote)
18 / 
2021-12-03 / 
aed7b8dfd4a1cf91fee934cc0f9ab79a2d0bef56 / 
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Panorama1_5.zip
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Mini vMac
