Tips, tricks, tools, and techniques for Microsoft Office

If there’s a file-related task you have to get done, chances are PentaSuite 7.1 ($99.95) can handle it. PentaWare’s collection of file management utilities has just been released, and while it doesn’t offer all the integration we’d like to see, it is a well-rounded set of tools.

PentaWare Manager (similar to the Outlook navigation bar to the left of your work area) keeps everything in one place. From here you can launch each of the utilities, some of which also have toolbar buttons to launch other aspects of the suite.

Among the new features in this version is PentaRename, which lets you add prefixes or suffixes (including automatic numbering) to one or a group of file names, change the name to all upper- or lower-case letters, change file dates and attributes, and more.

PentaZip lets you manipulate .ZIP files -- add and remove files in an archives, work with comments, or create a self-extracting archive, and it can break your archive across multiple physical files, too. A step-by-step wizard is available, though I would have appreciated additional options, such as the ability to create a destination folder on the fly when extracting files from a ZIP file. If you have repetitive compression or extraction chores to do (such as a weekly backup of your C:\reports folder), there’s a script feature that lets you create self-running programs that perform a routine series of commands automatically -- a kind of super macro. You can run a script on demand or on a regular schedule (using PentaWare’s included scheduler).

PentaDVD is meant for backups, storing digital photos, and the like, not for handling music files. It lets you drag and drop files to a list, then burn the files (or an ISO image) to a CD or DVD (it supports Burn Proof technology to prevent buffer underruns). It’s nothing exceptional, but nice to have.

For all the standard file management features (such as copy, rename, and delete files and folders, move files around -- all the basics), there’s the PentaBrowser, with a preview mode for graphic and multimedia files (MPEG files show the first frame, for example). From here you can call some of the other utilities (such as PentaZip and PentaCollector). The latter is a slick way to collect groups of files. For example, I use the same set of files when preparing each week’s issue of The Office Letter. I group those files into a Collection called TOL. Every week I go to that collection and with a single click have all the files -- no matter what folder they’re from -- at my fingertips.

PentaConverter lets you select one or more graphics files, then convert it/them from one file format to another, and resize them (by percent or actual dimensions) in the process. When I’m assembling an issue of The Office Letter, I use the Collector to group all the screen images into a folder of their own, then switch to Converter to resize them or change their file type. This Collector/Converter pair is just one example of how you can get more done by combining suite components.

Speaking of graphics, PentaAlbum accepts a list of graphics files, then creates HTML or PDF files that display the graphics in a photo album. It can create one long page or multiple pages (it will also create an index page). PentaWhiteBoard lets you grab one or more frames from AVI, MPG, and QuickTime (MOV) files, save them as common graphics files, then use them as input to PentaAlbum.

For digital photo enthusiasts, PentaExif lets you view Exif information and search for images containing data in the Exif information section of digital images. Exif (Exchangeable Image File Format),is used for a variety of formats, including (according to PentaSuite's help system) “those using JPEG compression. Most digital cameras as well as image scanners now use the EXIF format.” We didn’t test this feature.

Completing the file management feature set are PentaSuite’s encryption wizard (it lets you manage files and encrypt them using PGP -- the wizard is also available from PentaBrowser) and PentaFTP (for getting your files to and from a Web site with ease).

The frustrating part of PentaSuite lies in its inconsistencies -- some of the utilities are shared between the tools while others aren’t. For example, you can feed graphic images from PentaWhiteBoard to PentaAlbum but you can’t create an album from graphic files in a Collector group. Aargh.

If, however, you’re looking for a nicely rounded set of file management utilities – for anything from burning files to CD or moving them to a folder on the Web to compressing them and sending them via e-mail, PentaSuite has a component to get it done. To see the complete list of features, visit

   http://www.pentazip.com/PS1/PentaSuite_introduction.htm

-- James E. Powell

^ Top of page ^

If you like this newsletter, share the free edition with your friends and co-workers. Just point them to:

^ Top of page ^