Fireworkz and Fireworkz Pro updates

Dynamite!

Back in late 2011, RISC OS users saw the welcome return of Fireworkz and Fireworkz Pro, an integrated word processor, spreadsheet and – in the case of the Pro version – database package. The software, originally from Colton Software, had been resurrected by Stuart Swales, and has seen a number of releases since.

Fireworkz (and the file compatible Fireworkz for Windows) are now free to download from Gerald Fitton’s Abacus Training website, and are both now up to version 1.34/10. Updates to Fireworkz Pro, which remains commercial and is now sold by R-Comp, are sent out to users by email, and the latest version received at the RISCOSitory desk appears to be 1.34/9.

Changes to the RISC OS versions of the software since version 1.34/5 – the last release RISCOSitory reported on – to bring it up to version 1.34/9 include a number of bug fixes and improvements. Many of these affect the importation of Excel files, and some involve the way certain types of windows and menus are handled. One notable addition was a new toolbar button that performs a “snapshot” command, a shortcut to the Edit => Make = Make constant menu sequence, which replaces cell contents that may be calculated with the results of those calculations.

The biggest change between 1.34/9 and 1.34/10 involve making Fireworkz use the standard RISC OS location and system variables for saving user choices, along with user dictionaries and templates, with instructions for copying existing choices, etc., contained in the ReadMe file that accompanies the application inside its zip file. Other changes include a handy shortcut for opening the templates directory by shift-clicking on the Fireworkz icon on the icon bar, improvements to importing PipeDream files, changes to the HLOOKUP and VLOOKUP functions, and more.

Stuart notes in the ReadMe file that he couldn’t resist completing the build for version 1.34/10 of Fireworkz for RISC OS at 12:12:12 on 12/12/12, because that was a unique opportunity. Shame it wasn’t version 1.34/12, then!

 

Related posts