Software
Publication-quality chromatograms be a bit on the low side, because running Windows 95 comfortably requires at least 16 MB of RAM, ,nd Windows NT doesn't perform at its peak until 24 MB or more RAM is installed. Installation, support, and documentation
ChromKeeper SoftShell, Bio-Rad Laboratories 1600 Ute Ave. Grand Junction, CO 81501-4614 970-242-7502; fax 970-242-6469; www. softshell. com Version 1.0; $99
ChromKeeper is istended to simplify the handling and insertion of chromatograms and/or peak report tables into document files. It is an OLE-compliant application, which means that a link exists between the inserted chromatogram/table and ChromKeeper. By double-clicling on the inserted chromatogram/table while working in one's favorite word-processing or database application (such as Access), tth chromatogram or table can be edited from within its primary application (in this case, ChromKeeper). The idea seems to be to reduce the work necessary to present a chromatogram/peak report table; who has worked with raw data files in ASCII format knows all too well how much time can be spent preparing publicationquality chromatograms using common graphing packages
When I opened the package, I found a thin 24-page users' guide and two 3 1/2-in. high-density floppy disks. I thought that the help file would cover the use of ChromKeeper in more depth than the printed manual, but the coverage in the help file is also sparse. Installation was easy. After having made a safety copy of the disks, I simply inserted the copy of the first floppy disk in the drive, ran the setup.exe file from the program shell, and followed the instructions on the screen. Technical support, which is free fexceot for ohone or connec-
tion charges), is available in several ways, via SoftShell's Web site, e-mail, telephone, and fax. I called technical support late on a Friday afternoon and found all representatives busy. I was asked to leave my name and number and a short description of my problem and was told that they would call me back. I did not expect (or receive) a reply the same day, but my call was returned early the following Monday morning. I called again a week later, on Monday afternoon, and immediately got through to the tech support staff. The support staff seemed knowledgeable; in response to the reported bug (described below), they promised to send me a free upgrade to version 1.01, which would fix the problem. If they could not give an immediate answer to my other questions the staff said they would follow up with a reply by e-mail or phone
System requirements
According to the ChromKeeper users' guide, the minimum system requirements are a 486 CPU (or faster), 8 MB RAM (for Windows 95) or 12 MB RAM ((or Windows NT), and an OLE 1 or OLE 2 compliant application such as Word or WordPerfect. The memory requirements seem to 362 A
ChromKeeper allows insertion of chromatograms into laboratory reports.
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, June 1, 1997
ChromKeeper comes with an Unlnstall tion programs and Dionex PeakNet soft- terminated smoothly under Windows 95, but I got the same error message under program, which seems to remove most of ware that do not support the ANDI file the components, but it does not remove format; it would be helpful to see support NT. the Insert/Object/ChromKeeper Documentfor morefileformats, or at least have the ChromKeeper is available es a standoption in Word, which hfindannoying. ANDIfileformat documented in a place alone application or as part of SoftShell's The SoftShell tech support staff said that so that a capable programmer could ChemWindow Suite, which includes this default will be fixed in a future write conversion utilities between other ChemWindow 5.0, SymApps, Chromrelease. commonfiletypes. Keeper, ,nd IRKeeper. I had only ChromAlthough ChromKeeper is easy to use, Keeper, ,nd ii tertainly ii sasy enough to use. Based on its current capabilities it allows only adjustment of legends, laUsing the software alone, however, I would consider other I tested ChromKeeper on two computers: a bels, retention time tags, font and color solutions. Because most chromatosettings, and so on. You cannot change Pentium 133 with 32 MB RAM running graphic systems are shipped with data Windows NT 3.51 wiih service pack 3, and the integration parameters for a specific acquisition software of some kind, which peak to see what effect it might have, and a Pentium 90 with 8 MB RAM running is usually OLE-compliant, it would seem the program cannot calculate capacity Windows 95. just
