Copyright: Copyright ® 1992-1993 Windows OnLine.
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About Windows OnLine™

Windows OnLine™ is an on-line (modem) service dedicated to supporting Windows users and Windows network professionals. WOL prides itself on having the most complete and up-to-date library of Windows shareware in the world. We have over 9,000 Windows 3.x programs and files to download. With 17 phone lines, (all equipped with US Robotics high speed dual standard modems), operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

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Windows NT (New Technology) is Coming!!

At Comdex and at several conferences in various cities, Microsoft officially announced Windows NT (New Technology) last week. Windows NT is scheduled to be available within 60 days. There will be two versions of this 32-bit operating system, the Desktop version and the Advanced Server version. The Desktop version will require a minimum of 12 Mbytes of Random Access Memory (RAM) and 70 Mbytes of disk space. The retail cost will be $495. You will be able to upgrade from Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroup, or OS/2 for $295. The Advanced Server Edition requires 16 Mbytes of RAM and 80 Mbytes of disk space. For the price of $2,995., the server version will support an unlimited number of users. Upgrading from LAN Manager, it will cost $595.

For all the fathers out there, June 20 is Father's Day.

Happy Father's Day!

Whenever you are in the neighborhood, please drop by and visit us. You may find something you like. Until next time, happy computing!

F O R     S H A R E W A R E     U S E R S

Windows OnLine has created a weekly magazine, the

WinOnLine™ REVIEW™ Shareware Edition,

which is strictly shareware to go. Going on Issue #12, this magazine contains:

Shareware product briefs

A shareware Review or two

What's new in Windows shareware files

and a few interesting words from Wolly. ... "Who's he"?

If you have not read the WinOnLine™ REVIEW™ Shareware Edition magazine, pick up the file WOLRSx.ZIP, it's FREE!

(Select Print Topic from the file menu to print)

Each voter can vote once, for a single bulletin board system. Each ballot must be fully completed, and individually mailed by each voter. There are three ways to vote:

1. Complete this ballot and mail to:

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3. Or, dial the Boardwatch BBS at (303)973-4222 and complete the online ballot provided on the main menu.

Balloting closes at 23:59:59 on June 30,1993, Last year it ended at midnight on July 1 and caused all manner of grief and confusion so we're cutting a second off of this year's contest.

This contest is not limited to Boardwatch Magazine subscribers, and no purchase of anything is required to participate in this contest. Reasonable facsimile's of this ballot are acceptable, so long as all specified information is included.

Please take a moment to vote for your favorite Bulletin Board System. Hopefully, it is Windows OnLine™. No matter what, vote anyway, there is a chance to win one of the several nice products. You have nothing to lose, and certainly something to gain. Good Luck!

Frank J. Mahaney

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Index Page

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(Click all Buttons)

  Shareware Briefs,  by Wolly

Shareware Choices For May!

  Gazing Into The Crystal Ball,  by Steve Peschka

  The Way Windows Ought To Be,  by Rich Young

  HealthDesk For Windows,  by Tami Brydone-Jack

  Microsoft Encarta,  by Randy Wong

  Custom Control Factory 2.0,  by Steve Peschka

  SWFTE Typecase,  by Tami Brydone-Jack

  U-Lead ImagePals 1.2,  by Randy Wong

  BoardWatch Contest Form

  Modem Specials


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Shareware
  Wolly's Shareware Choices for May!

(The following were extracted from several articles contained in the WinOnLine™ Review Shareware Edition)

RUMMAGE

Hard drives eventually look like attics, don't they?

Rummage is a well designed program that accomplishes two missions. Its prime directive is to locate and display duplicate files across your drive, selecting those with identical file names, optionally excluding those with differing sizes. There is even a CRC check which can be performed to determine if the files are precisely the same or not. You may scroll through the window of selected dupes and highlight those you wish to nuke or examine more closely --- Rummage provides two icons to which you may drag the culprits. The toxic waste barrel will burn them, or the little truck will bring you a dialog box to select a new location on your drive to which to move or copy them.

This brings up the second use for Rummage. Using the file find facility you may specify an extension, for instance, to list all those BMP files lurking about your drive. With the select and move facility, you could herd them all into a new subdirectory. I found Rummage instantly understandable and usable, though I wish it would have been able to scan both my drives for dupes. A couple of lines are available to pop up for help in each screen location on demand if any function needs clarification. RUMMGE20.ZIP (92K) is a winner in Wolly's book, nicely and neatly done and for a mere $10.00 can be ethically yours.

CASINO BLACKJACK

You can only lose $10.00

Wolly was taught a valuable lesson by Casino Blackjack. Stay out of the Casinos. He lost his shirt to the dealer time and time again, but enjoyed the ease of betting and speed at which he lost his money by clicking on the chip demoninations below the betting box. Options can be set for the type of game you like, including the "insurance" options offered at many casinos. You can even specify the number of decks to be included in the shoe and even count the cards played and track the odds. Try that at a real casino and get thrown out! CSNO21.ZIP (97K) is a quality game that can be registered for $10.00.

PTOGGLE

The only reason you wouldn't need this is if you don't have a printer

PToggle is one of those programs which may very well endear itself to you and become a permanent part of your desktop. Windows 3.1 does not make it particularly convenient to make changes to your printer or its configuration. PToggle does. It lives as an apparently normal 32x32 icon, but normal it is not. When I right-click on the [image] I switch printer modes from letter, legal to envelope, all which are illustrated within the icon. The [image] click changes the layout from portrait to landscape, which changes the orientation of the [image] to reflect the current standing. The bottom section doesn't apply to Wolly's Hp DeskJet, but if your printer has a top, bottom and auxilliary feed tray, it will switch between them. If you click on the [image] you will be rewarded with the Windows Printer Dialog box so you can change any setting your little heart desires.

Your right mouse button gets a workout with PToggle as well. Right-click on the [image] and select a new default printer in an instant. Access configuration of this little gem through a double click on the icon description, which conveniently reveals the current default printer. You can even describe a printer/configuration and select it from a table you create. Believe it or not, this useful utility is freeware courtesy of Todd Augsburger of Precious Promises, who deserves major kudos for this handy wonder. Wolly will definitely send him a postcard with thanks as he requests. If you have more than one printer, download PTOGGLE2.ZIP (16K). If  you don't, download it anyway. And send the generous and clever author your thanks. He has earned it.

HOME ACCOUNTANT

You have one living with you, too?

No, it's not Quicken on the cheap. It is, however, a respectable piece of software that can help to organize your financial life. Set up accounts representing your bank accounts, credit cards and cash (what cash?). Process payments, deposits, transfers, etc. against those accounts. Track your expenses, keep a budget and be warned when you exceed your goals. Overly complicated it's not. The interface is clean and pretty. The program very understandable. Useful reports can be generated, picturing just how much financial hot water you're in. HOMEAC23.ZIP (242K) is a very reasonable $15.00 shareware product. It's usefulness will depend upon your self discipline and the extent to which you want to keep records and control your spending.

SCHEDULE EMPLOYEES

If you must, this is a great way to do it!

But Mr. Holmes! How can I schedule all these squid-flippers at our 24-hour FastFood SquidBurger Stand? And how much will it cost me if I double-staff during the lunch rush? And who's who? I can't remember if Joe is a server or a busboy, or if Sally is a hostess or a cook? Elementary, my dear Watson. Just download SEW101.ZIP (142K) from my favorite BBS, Windows OnLine. Schedule Employees for Windows will give you a visual picture of the way it all fits together in 24 hour segments using time bars. You can show each employee's function, clock number, times, pay, and more. Graph the duty roster, print schedules, why, this program will do everything but yell at them when they show up late, and it's only $39.50 to register! Now, quit babbling and bring on one of those yummy squid tartare sandwiches, Dr.!

STEVE'S INI EDITOR

Good stuff from a member of the WOL family

All nepotism aside, this is a great little program! Wolly initially was skeptical about any specific program to edit INI files, thinking "what's Notepad for, then?". Just a quick glance at the program answered the question. Steve's INI Editor will automatically open your four favorite INI files when you start the program, ready and waiting to be edited. Pushbutton controls put file and edit options at your fingertips. A sensible feature is the automatic backup of a changed INI with an EDT extension which can help restore your application to pre-oops! condition. Halfway through the look-see, Wolly realized that the author was our very own Steve Peschka who contributes such wonderful stuff to the WinOnLine Review™. INIEDI.ZIP (26K) is only $5.00 to register. Steve, you owe Wolly one pepperoni pizza for the plug, despite the fact that it was well deserved.

FONT PRINTER

And a great deal more . . .

If you are a fan of our weekly TrueType updates, you probably also have the problem of trying to keep a handle on who's who and what's what in your collection. Font Printer does a great deal more than just print your fonts, providing strong facilities for viewing and mapping characters to the keyboard. The illustration shows the keyboard layout function: clicking on one of the keys on the shifted or unshifted illustration enlarges the character from 2X to 10X its displayed size for easy review (as shown) and indicates the normal keyboard location. A similar feature is available when displaying the extended character set matrix.

Font Printer can use its default character set or your custom text to print samples of selected fonts. Fonts are selected by moving them from the left listing to the right, but Wolly could find no way to select multiple fonts at a time or print a full inventory listing of all fonts. One annoyance was the delay while fonts were "loaded" at the time the program is begun and again each time the three special functions are used for the first time each session. Several long seconds went by as Wolly's current 249 font collection was shown sliding up the display graph. Unavoidable, perhaps? The button bar provides easy selection of most functions and access to the special keyboard, extended character set and font display routines. Is Font Printer different than some of the other utilities out there? Yes and no. If you've already bought one, you'll not see anything really special enough to warrant a change. However, if you're still in the market I would urge you to check out FONTPRT2.ZIP (122K) which is fully featured and considered by Wolly a shareware bargain at $15.00.

Wolly's Shareware Smiles

Wolly can't help but smile at the many authors who present Freeware to us through the goodness of their hearts. Their generosity is appreciated, and we should make it a point to let them know.

Drop a card to the author, or a message on the on-line service where they hang out, and let them know of your feelings. You may want to put a $5. bill in that card, or, parallel a request of some programs I've seen around. Make a donation to a good cause: the American Cancer Society, Greenpeace, your local United Way, to Public Radio, or some deserving cause, and make it in that author's name. Then, let them know of your action.

Match their spirit of giving in the most wonderful way possible. Make a donation to a worthy charity!

Click for Table Of Contents


SVP

For Sale - One Crystal Ball - Used...

Life in Portland, Oregon this time of year is usually such a grand affair. It's a time distinguished by the unmistakable belching of underachieving, overweight armchair basketball coaches with no real lives of their own. We guzzle beer and chomp down on soggy microwaved nachos while hooting and hollering at the big-time antics of a small-time team, the Portland Trailblazers. This year, with the Blazers going down in flames faster than the Krell of "Forbidden Planet" fame (I say this flick should be considered Leslie Nielsen's first stab at comedy), I've come to consider the potential of my own grizzly demise, so I thought I'd spend a few minutes pontificating the possibilities of the PC frontier. I'll use this same crummy crystal ball that told me the Blazers were going to win it all this year, and see if maybe it wasn't just a short in the connection to the metaphysical teleconference. Everybody hold hands now, hum your secret mantra, and let's summon the secrets of the telephony API (the keyword here is "...phony").

Release of New Visual Basic Opens the Door to Microsoft's Systems Strategy

Microsoft officially announced Visual Basic 3.0 on May 14, 1993. The two key components of the new release are database connectivity via the Microsoft Access 1.1 engine and OLE 2.0 support. There are a few other noteworthy features, such as an outline control, new and enhanced functions, changes in the environment, etc., but the two big changes really give a good clue into Microsoft's direction in the upcoming months.

In a rather ironic twist, the Access 1.1 engine will probably ship with Visual Basic before it ships with Access itself, albeit only by a few days or weeks. The logic in this is rivaled only by the new Clinton economic plan (you thought Ross Perot had a crazy aunt in the basement - who do you think came up with this plan???). The more important component, however, is the inclusion of OLE 2.0 support. The good news is how it affects future Microsoft direction; the bad news is that any VB application that uses OLE 2.0 also needs to ship with about eight other DLL's and VBX's to work - but I'll save the product specifics for a future VB column, assuming I haven't gone bankrupt purchasing blank floppies to distribute my applications.

OLE 2.0 offers some cool features right off the bat for end users - the most significant being in-place activation and cross-application drag and drop. In-place activation means that when you want to edit an embedded object, you double-click on it. The only change you will notice is that the toolbars and menu items change to reflect the object's parent application. It doesn't appear to actually start up a session of the parent app and load the object, like OLE 1.0 does now.

Cross-application drag and drop takes drag and drop as we know it one important step further. With the current implementation, you can highlight a block of text, and then simply drag it around to any other location in your document. With OLE 2.0, not only can you drag it around to other locations in your document, you can also drag it around and drop it in any other application that supports OLE 2.0. Is this slick, or what? The end of the 'ol IBM Selectric may be in sight yet.

OLE 2.0 Opens Door to Common Macro Language

The trickle-down effects (where are you now, Ron Reagan?) of this new spec will be seen initially in the long-awaited release of the Common Macro Language. While the Microsoft Marketing Machine has been dangling this in front of our noses like a carrot to a donkey for years, someone finally did the coding to make it possible. Simply stated, OLE 2.0 allows applications to share enough information with each other that we'll be able to use a common set of functions between all applications. For solutions developers, this is a god-send (Note to Religious Zealots:  I only use an upper case "G" with "Gates"). Anyone who's done any developing in Word, then Excel, then Project, or any combination of the above, knows how frustrating it can be to try and learn the unique nuances of each individual package. OLE 2.0 should go along way towards eliminating that hurdle.

Which Came First, the Chicken, the Egg, or Cross-Platform Compatibility?

Fortunately, that time honored question designed to weed out Communist Atheists will soon be moot. Together with OLE 2.0, Microsoft is making new revisions of it's software products to one set of core logic code. Essentially, this means that the same set of code is used to create Excel for Windows and Excel for Mac, Word for Windows and Word for Mac, etc. This philosophy is extended with the Common Macro Language and future revs of Visual Basic. In releases later this year, or perhaps early next, you will see a version of Visual Basic that works on Windows NT, Windows 3.1 and Macintosh.

Those of us who have to deal with cross-platform issues to any degree at all will recognize the importance of such a move (if you don't see the significance, go directly to IBM and apply for a job - do not pass GO.). I can't count the number of times I've given myself a black eye from banging my head against a wall after finding the perfect software solution, only to realize later that it only supports one platform or the other. While this has proven to be impressive to many a female foreign-exchange student, I'd much rather lead the life of a lonely, yet successful solutions provider.

I Object!

Finally, OLE 2.0 forms the building blocks of NT V.x (that's Vaporware.x for you kids out there). Cairo, the second version of NT - 3.2 or 4.0 or 2.0 or 1.2 - depending on who's doing the math - will be based in large part on the technologies of OLE 2.0. It will be a distributed object-oriented system, that, according to industry pundits (I've always wanted to say that), will stop world hunger and provide a cure for cancer, or something like that. Look for details in your PC rags about three zillion months before it actually begins shipping.

The Signal's Breaking Up...

My crystal ball is getting fuzzy (logic), so I guess we've about tapped out our look into the future for today. The darn thing keeps steaming up - oh - I guess that's the sun beating down on my tears of grief for the fallen Blazers. Gee, I really used to like Spring...

Written By,

Steve Peschka

Click for Table Of Contents


Commentary

The Way Windows Ought To Be

A Wish List For Future Versions Of Windows

By

Rich Young

Over the years that I have been using Windows, I have seen what I feel is the birth of the future of computing. My fascination with Windows has been fed by the constant improvements I have seen in the program since I first loaded Windows 286 on my upstart clone. My life changed the day Windows 3.0 was released and I installed it with the glee of a kid under the Christmas tree. And Windows 3.1 had the same effect on me.

Now Windows is a part of my everyday life, and once the initial excitement wore off, I began to notice that there were things "missing" or just not good enough. I started to wonder why the good folks at Microsoft were satisfied by releasing Windows with the cumbersome, inadequate File Manager or the almost hilariously useless and wimp Terminal utility. What were they thinking? It took a host of third party utilities to make me see that Microsoft dropped the ball in a lot of respects. What follows are changes I would make to the next major release of Windows, as if I had any say in the matter.

The Shell Game

Lets face it, Program Manager is boring. I find that very little imagination went into this "front end" of the program. Sure it does the job, but you will quickly run into the inadequacies inherent in Program Manager. Hey Microsoft, take a look at Norton Desktop for Windows and PCTools for Windows! Note the cool look, and the ability to keep those most needed icons directly on the desktop. No need for one big window to house icons that make smaller windows, just to get to an application icon. Note the user customizable menus! Now that's thinking. Let the user set up his own comfort zone. To me, Symantec and Central Point did the "obvious" with their fine replacement shells. You may say its Mac-like, but shells like these have made my Windows sessions more productive and a bit more interesting.

Another nice feature of having "live" desktop elements is being able to drag a document onto a printer icon, and having it print without any additional hassle. The gang in Redmond really needs to look at this kind of stuff. I am very surprised that with all of the power and resources Microsoft has, that they have not thought to implement these things themselves, rather than let third parties take the lead.

File Manglers

And what's the deal with the Windows File Manager? Who were the programming wizards that came up with this? Where were the beta testers when this was being developed? Did they fear saying, "Hey, this bites!" to the powerful Microsoft? With Windows 3.1, the File Manager was supposedly improved! And yet, it remains slow, confusing, bulky, and just plain non-intuitive. When you can do your file management tasks from a DOS prompt (gag) several times faster than in the Windows File Manager, then something is amiss. I don't know, call me silly.

This is lame!

This is intuitive!

Again I site Norton Desktop as an example of well thought out software. Not only do I have all my drive icons conveniently located on my desktop, but I don't have to launch a file management "program" to access them. A simple double-click on the drive icon of my choice immediately brings up the file window, and in no time I'm done! And if that weren't enough, I can view an applications data file without having to run the application that created it.

Some Others To Consider

The Terminal utility: Get rid of it! I don't think there are enough improvements that could ever save this dog.

Windows Write: Although its probably the best of the added features to Windows, a spelling checker is sorely needed.

Windows Notepad: The file size limit is annoying, and is easily fixed. There is a plethora of third party text editors that aren't limited in this way!

GDI Resource Limitations: While vastly improved in Windows 3.1, you can still run low without much effort. This reminds me of the dreaded 640k barrier in DOS.

Error Messaging: I don't know about you, but the General Protection Fault doesn't say much more useful information than the old Unrecoverable Application Error. Help us out here and give us more complete information when an error occurs.

And many more. . .

In Conclusion

I hope this article doesn't come off as Windows bashing. That is not my intent at all. I love Windows and I could not compute without it. But as in everything in life, there is room for improvement. I hope that Microsoft is paying close attention to what users are loading on to their hard disks to enhance the Windows program. If they could see the type and amount of shareware that the members of Windows OnLine are downloading, they would be amazed. I see a bright future for Windows, and I am keeping my fingers crossed for more improvements with the next release.

Brought to you by

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  Rich Young

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Rich Sig


HDESK_Review

HealthDesk for Windows

by Tami Brydone-Jack

HealthDesk for Windows is described as "Personal Wellness Software" by its developer, HealthDesk Corporation. With HealthDesk, doctor visits, medications, hospitalizations, personal health statistics and family health statistics can be tracked. HealthDesk can point out trends and potential health dangers from the information entered. Not only does HealthDesk have all of these features, it contains a wealth of health related information as well. It is not only practical, it is very colorful and extremely simple to use.

When first opening HealthDesk, you choose which person's records you want to work with by double clicking the person's name. It is very easy to add a new user by choosing "Add User" at the welcome screen. Users may also elect to have their information confidential by choosing the password option at the "Add User" section if they so desire.

Every topic for the chosen user can be accessed through the Home screen. Health Desk can keep records of health professionals, vaccinations, financial information (relating to medical expenditures), medications, doctor visits, hospitalizations, personal health information and family health information. These items are accessible through the left button bar (Medical Records).

The management modules (accessible through the right button bar on the Home screen) available are Weight, Exercise, Stress, Heart Health and Women's Health.

Each "Manager" is loaded with information relating to its particular topic, which is presented as help files. All but the Women's Health Manager have an "assessment test" to interpret data and make recommendations for improvement. While each module offers a wealth of information, the information is presented in simple terms. The few technical terms that are used are well explained with hypertext pop-ups. The help files also contain information about locating health organizations and resources for even more information.

Many of the "Managers" also have animated visuals, which are well done. For instance, the Exercise Manager, actually shows the knee flexing and extending, the Heart Health Manager shows a heart beating, etc. Most of the "Managers" have more than one animation.

HealthDesk requires a 386 or 486 system running Windows 3.0 (or higher) with a minimum of 2mb RAM (4mb recommended) and VGA monitor. A complete installation requires only 5mb hard disk space. A mouse is not required, although it is recommended.

HealthDesk runs at an acceptable speed on my 386/40, 4mb RAM, Windows 3.1, DOS 6 system. Installation is quick and easy with only 2 diskettes, and it did not tinker with my WIN.INI file, as many Windows programs do, but rather created its own .INI file. I found HealthDesk to be very well-behaved while multi-tasking as well.

HealthDesk comes with minimal documentation. However, this program is so easy to use, that if you have ever used a Windows application, you already know how to use HealthDesk. The program has a simple interface, which should not be confused with having very little information or use. HealthDesk not only offers the capability of keeping track of a family's medical records, it can also be used to make suggestions for a healthier lifestyle, to learn more about a wide variety of health topics and locate health-related organizations. All of these features are combined into an easy to use, colorful package. For its $99.00 suggested retail price, HealthDesk is a bargain.

Contact:

HealthDesk Corporation

1801 Fifth Street

Berkeley, California  94710

(510) 843-8110

Brought to you by:

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Click for Table Of Contents


Tami_Signature


Microsoft_Encarta
Have you ever wondered how the circulatory system works? Do you know what sound the mandolin makes? What ocean does Queen Charlotte Island reside in? If these types of questions come to mind, would it not be wonderful to have the answers in a flash?

An encyclopedia is an excellent source for answers to these types of questions. But, the local library may be a bit too far or too inconvenient to get to. With the right computer equipment, you could own a complete encyclopedia set, without the cost of buying the hard cover copy. There have been many electronic encyclopedias floating around, but the latest attraction to this area is Microsoft's Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. It is packed with multimedia features, such as music clips, speech, and animation.

Microsoft Encarta contains text from Funk & Wagnall's 29-volume New Encyclopedia. Encarta has over 7 hours of sound and a collection of over 7000 images, photographs, interactive charts, and graphs. An Atlas is included with over 800 color maps. The historical Timeline chart displays characters, writings, and events. The Timeline starts at 15,000,000 B.C. and progresses to the future year of 2000 A.D. Pointing and clicking on the historical event or object, you will get a brief summary or a complete article. The Gallery consists of pictures of various specialized subjects, loaded with high graphic pictures, animation, and sound. Windows Write is included for use as the word processor. To completely round it off as a complete set, a Webster's dictionary and college thesaurus are included. Yearbook updates are integrated into a new edition that will be available annually.

Encarta's multimedia features let you see, hear, and experience what you are learning. You see pictures that range from color drawings to real life photographs, in motion or still shots. Animated sequences range from moving engines to moving body parts. If sound is something you want to hear, there are over 7 hours of sound imbedded in animation, music clips, and various subjects. There are 350 jazz, classical, and world music clips. You will find hundreds of animal sounds and will hear over 100 authors reading their works to you. There are 45 foreign language samples and word pronunciations.

Encarta is easy to use. Upon starting Encarta, you are confronted with the title screen. The options are Opening Encyclopedia, Category Browser, Encyclopedia Contents, and Quick Tour. The Quick Tour shows you what is offered by Encarta and how to use the software. Opening Encyclopedia will bring you right into the first category, or resume at the last article opened. Using the Category Browser, you can search for articles by subject. There are 9 categories to choose from. Within each category, you are given a selection of subject to further limit the section you are looking for. The Encyclopedia Contents begins with a graphical display of a 26 volume book set. Each book is labeled from 'A' to 'Z'. When you select a book, it will begin the list of articles at that alphabetical letter. Another powerful function, is the Find feature. With the Find function, you can pinpoint to a specific item or subject, such as picture, animation, sound, or map.

When you get tired of filling your mind with knowledge, Microsoft has included a mind twisting game to keep things interesting, plus it is another way of using Encarta. The MindMaze game teases your brain with questions. You get to travel from room to room, answering little tidbits about various things. You must answer correctly, in order to proceed to the next room. If you do not answer correctly, you get the chance to make another selection or you may go into Encarta to find the answer. As you open doors that lead you deeper into the maze, you accumulate points and win awards. According to rumors, if you reach the end, Bill Gates will personally award you with a Master of Knowledge Certificate. One to five players can join in the fun.

Two years in the making, Encarta is very well done. In my opinion, this software is ten times better than the special introductory Compton Encyclopedia CD-ROM that came with my Media Vision Pro 16 Multimedia System. My kids found Encarta, useful and a good source for their reports. I was intrigued by the sounds, animations, and how well the presentation was organized. I learned a few new things myself. One thing that I did noticed, was the slowness when operating on my kid's 2 Mbytes computer with a standard CD-ROM player that transfer at 150K per second. Moving to my main computer with 16 Mbytes and a NEC double-speed CD-ROM player, there was a noticeable improvement in speed. If you have a video card that supports more than 16 colors on your system, the images and pictures will be impressive. With a sound card; voices, music, and sounds will enhance your reading pleasure.

For accessing sound, animations, graphics, and text, you will need:

   A Multimedia PC or a Microsoft Windows based computer with the Multimedia PC upgrade kit, which includes a 150K per second transfer rate CD-ROM drive and a MPC compatible audio board..

   Microsoft DOS 3.1 or higher.

   Microsoft Windows 3.1 running in Standard or Enhanced mode.

   MS-DOS CD-ROM Extensions (MSCDEX) version 2.2 or later.

   VGA, VGA+, or higher graphic resolution.

   Any Windows pointing device.

   Headphones or speakers.

For accessing text and graphics only, you will need:

   Any Microsoft Windows based computer, a 386SX and higher based computer is recommended.

   2 MBytes and higher random access memory (RAM).

   A CD-ROM drive.

   Microsoft DOS 3.1 or higher.

   Microsoft Windows 3.1 running in Standard or Enhanced mode.

   MS-DOS CD-ROM Extensions (MSCDEX) version 2.2 or later.

   VGA, VGA+, or higher graphic resolution.

   Any Windows pointing device.

For more information, please contact:

Microsoft Corporation

One Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052-6399

206-882-8080

1-800-426-9400

Retail Price:  $395.00

Special pricing of $249 for educators, students, and school administrators

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Custom_Control

Building Picturesque Apps with Custom Control Factory

When I'm grinding through one of the thirty or so different applications that cross my desk each month at the world's greatest workplace (Just Do It.), the one thing that always makes an application stand out is the pictures. Stupid, you say?  Yeah, well, I'm no different than the other 2.5 billion shmoes in this world. We all love pretty pictures, snapped up and saved for the millennia on our computers. As good as some pictures are, you can actually go one step better by adding motion, or animation, if you're in to dropping computer buzzwords. Custom Control Factory 2.0 for Visual Basic, by Desaware, the masters of VB flash and sizzle, lets you incorporate these little gems quickly and painlessly.

Like most of Desaware's products, CCF provides a slew of functionality wrapped up on one 3.5 inch floppy diskette. Some of the key features of CCF are as follows:

  Animated Buttons - when the button is clicked, frames are displayed in a specified order until the last frame. When the mouse button is released, frames are displayed in a specified order back to the first frame.

  Multistate Buttons - Each frame specifies a particular state. When a button is clicked, it automatically switches to the next state and displays the appropriate frame.

  Two-State Animated - When the button is clicked, frames are displayed in the specified order until the last frame. When the button is clicked again, frames are displayed in the specified order back to the beginning.

  Enhanced Button - An animated button with only two frames.

  Enhanced Checkbox - A multistate button with 2 or 4 frames.

  Enhanced Option Button - A special mode for two-state and multistate buttons that allows only one button in a group to be checked at a time.

  Multiple List Box - A replacement for the standard VB list box, it provides many enhanced capabilities, such as bitmaps, multiple colors, tab stops, multiple selections and more.

CCF is the kind of product where a picture IS definitely worth a 1000 words, in which case this article is at about 16K and growing. For this type of product, however, I think the best description really can be attained only through the use of multiple samples, as I've shown above.

  Animated Controls

The basic process of using CCF is fairly simple. A CCF custom control has a feature called Frames. Pictures are loaded into individual frames. These frames, when played back in order, form your animation. Getting a picture into a frame is relatively painless - you can paste an image from the clipboard into a frame or select the Load option and pick an image from a standard dialog box.

Once a picture is into a frame, you can manipulate its order in the frame by copying and doing a Paste Insert into the proper location. While this certainly does the job quite nicely, the Window-Maniac in me would like to see the ability to display the frames in thumbnails, and then drag and drop to reorder pictures (just a suggestion, Desaware).

One other drawback I noticed is that there is no Undo or Cancel option in the Frame dialog. There is a Delete button so you can remove pictures from a series, but if you make a mistake or mess up your picture order, there doesn't seem to be anyway to revert back to the original animation.

When you have your frames all in order, you can save your work in what Desaware calls a CCB file. A CCB file is simply the collection of frames that you created. This makes it very handy to save and later reuse animation work you had done previously. The CCF custom control has a CCBfileLoad option so you can quickly pull your past work into a new control - just pick the file name from a dialog box. This is the way code reusability was meant to be!

  Multiple List Box

The Multiple List box also has a some very worthwhile features. Probably its two most important features (although there are at least 10 more worthy of discussion) are having the ability to select multiple items, and the ability to assign bitmaps to an item in the list box. Kind of a neat application for this might be (among other things) using the control as a color selection box. For example, when you want a user to be able to choose a color attribute for something in your VB app, you can display a list box of colors, from which he or she can scroll down and make his or her selection.

In the screen sample shown here, from the soon-to-be released Steve's GraphMaster 2.0 (only $15 from Steve's Software -  address below), a list box array is created for each data item in a graph. Each list box contains 16 bitmaps that I created in Paintbrush - plain colored boxes is all they are. At runtime, I put each bitmap into each box when the form is loaded. When the user clicks on an item in the box, I record the selection into an array, so that I can determine which color was selected.

This is actually a little bit tricky, because you have to unselect the item as soon as the user clicks on it. That's because when the user selects an item from the list, the color changes to reflect the fact that it has been clicked on. The trick, as I found out, was to make the box a multiple list box. This allowed me to use the Selected option to determine which item was clicked, and then to unselect it. The code snippet for this is as follows:

Sub ColorCombo_Click (Index As Integer)

Dim Looper As Integer

For Looper = 0 To 15

  If ColorCombo(Index).Selected(Looper) = True Then

    DBColor(Index) = Looper

    ColorCombo(Index).Selected(Looper) = False

    Exit Sub

  End If

Next Looper

End Sub

The code might be a bit confusing because of all the array activity. Basically, it breaks down as follows. ColorCombo(Index) is the control array I created of Multiple List Box controls; the Index as Integer at the top of the sub tells me which control I've selected. DBColor(Index) is an index I created to track the color of each item of data in the graph. I have to count through each item in the control, from 0 to 15, to determine which item was clicked. When I find it, I assign the number to my DBColor(Index) array and exit the sub. I'm able to assign the number, instead of some weirded-out color reference, because the graph color uses a QBColor-type function to determine the graph color of an individual data item.

Summary

Once again, Desaware has come through with what I consider to be a very valuable control at a very reasonable price. There's a ton of features, and at less than $50, its tough to say no - so don't. Give it a try today, or call Desaware to get a copy of the demo program.

Written By,

Steve Peschka

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TypeCase_Review

SWFTE Typecase

by Tami Brydone-Jack

I have a terrible secret which I will share with you...I am a confirmed FONTAHOLIC! It almost doesn't matter what the font looks like, if it's new or different, I've got to have it installed on my system. The other thing you should know about me is that I am perhaps one of the most fussy people around when it comes to running a "mean and lean" system. I regularly weed out the "clutter" on my hard drive, and I insist that all files on my disk are as efficient as possible, including documents that I create.

A problem that can occur with amassing a large font collection, such as the one I have, is that Windows can take forever to load, along with seriously draining memory resources. Most of the fonts that I have collected are not used on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, many of them have only limited use. At one point, I even had a braille font installed on my system!

Along comes Typecase from SWFTE International, Ltd. Typecase is a True Type font manager that can arrange fonts into font groups or "typecases." It has absolutely no effect on installed ATM fonts or printer fonts.

Typecase comes with over 100 True Type fonts, (including PC Keys), which should make any fontaholic chortle with glee. I ran a font check with my font checking utility (a "must have" for serious font collectors) on all of the Typecase fonts, and not one of them failed.

With Typecase, you can arrange your font collection into font groups or "typecases."  A "typecase" is a group of fonts with a similar usage, such as headline fonts, decorative fonts, novelty fonts, text fonts, etc. You may also designate your own font groups for specific types of documents. For example, you produce a monthly newsletter which uses four fonts. You can create a "newsletter" typecase that consists of the four fonts. When you are working on the newsletter, you activate the typecase. When you're not working on it, deactivate the typecase. The fonts are not removed from your disk, they are inactive, so they are not draining memory resources and slowing down your system.

Typecase offers great flexibility in True Type font management. Some fonts get much more use than others do; Times New Roman is a good example of such a font. A font may appear in more than one typecase, without taking up any more disk space than it normally would. Typecase can also selectively activate fonts within a typecase.

Typecase is supposed to be able to install fonts and preview them before they are installed. I found that when I previewed a font, I was not able to install it properly from Typecase, and if I previewed the same font more than once, I got the dreaded "GPF." Each time that I previewed a font before installing it, the font would have the same appearance as "Arial," even though the font looked nothing like that. I also was not able to remove the font once Typecase had "installed" it without exiting Windows and giving my computer the old "three finger salute."  I would not recommend using the installation feature of Typecase, but rather, install your true type fonts from the Control Panel.

The documentation included with Typecase consists of a card which shows a sample of each included font on one side and installation instructions on the other, which refers you to the on-line help. This is really quite sufficient, since Typecase is very easy to use, and a manual is not required.

Other than the font installation problem previously mentioned, this is a good font management program, which has solved many of the problems of my large font collection. There is no limit to the number of typecases you can have on a system, so theoretically, you would only be limited by the amount of your free disk space. It looks like I'll be busy adding to my font collection...

System requirements are MS-DOS or PC-DOS 3.1 or later; Windows 3.1 or later; 286 or higher processor and hard disk; 2MB of RAM; EGA, VGA, 8514/A, Hercules Graphics card, or compatible video graphics monitor. A Windows compatible printer and mouse or pointing device are optional, although these are highly recommended.

Contact:

 SWFTE International, Ltd.

P.O. Box 219

Rockland, Delaware 19732-9904.

Brought to you by:

    (Click Here)

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ImagePals_Review
Have you ever spent time looking for the just the right image for your document? Are you wondering where you may have put that little picture you have been saving? Is Windows Paintbrush not up to your requirements? U-Lead Systems has something for most users to solve these problems, ImagePals. Version 1.0 of this software, had lacked some functions and features. Now, version 1.2 runs better and is easier to use. More file formats are supported, for managing more graphic file formats, such as Photo CDs. A slide show feature was added for creating presentations. Object linking and embedding is now supported. The product has three main programs. They are the Album, Enhancer, and Capture.

Album manages all your images. With this program, you can visually manage images, graphics, and application files. Each group of objects that you want to keep together is an album. If you are working on a project, all associated files could be grouped into one album. As for me, I use it for managing images. It is like a photo album, where you keep all your thumbnail images of the original picture. You can arrange the images in an album by name, file type, size, date, description, data type, resolution, dimension, label, and user defined. Almost every possible way of sorting the images you can think of was included. A description of the image is attached with the thumbnail, so you can quickly identify the image. Clicking on the thumbnail image, will bring the picture into full view. A configurable toolbar is placed at the top. Here, you can add up to eight applications. Icons are used to represent the application. The applications are launch either by clicking on the icon or dragging and dropping an image on the icon. The slide show feature allows you to link several images and display them in a sequence. From this point of view, ImagePals' Album can be used as the central point in a project.

Enhancer is high powered 24-bit image editor. It supports Black and White, 256 grayscale, 16 color, 256 color, RGB HiColor, and RGB True Color image formats. You can open up an existing image or you can import images from a scanner, video device, or Photo CDs. File formats supported are BMP, EPS, GIF, JPG, MSK, PCX, TGA, and TIF. The utility provides a sophisticated set of retouching tools for cropping, resizing, painting, airbrushing, cloning, blurring, sharpening, and brightness. An interesting tool, was the Magic Wand tool. With this tool, a user can create a color range, and when selecting an area, only the pixels that are within your specifications are selected. Several other special features that this utility included were the stitch and merge functions. You can now merge two images together, either side by side, or overlapping. The Enhancer has enough special effect functions to make any image simply dazzling.

Capture is quite a step up from the standard Windows function of capturing screen areas. In addition to capturing an area of the screen, such as active window, client area, dropdown menus, or the whole screen, you can collect images from applications and the clipboard. Using Multiple Document Interface (MDI), you could open several images for viewing or comparing. Special effects can be added before saving the captured image. You could add borders, frames, keylines, or shadows. When activated, you could send the captured image to a file, clipboard, printer, or even to the Capture workarea. One unique feature of the Capture utility is the time delayed capture. You could set the delay for sequential capturing of images, for creating an animated slide show routine. The cursor is also configurable to other cursor shapes, for the ease of capturing a screen area.

ImagePals provides a nice way to organize your graphics. Support for high and lower resolution images makes it easier for me to keep track of all my pictures, no matter what format they are in. From the thumbnail images, created in the Album facilities, I get to see a preview of the contained graphics. The Enhancer application is built with enough tools and features for most users. If you are looking into heavy duty painting or drawing programs, you might wish to step up to Enhancer's bigger brother, PhotoStyler. The most interesting function that I saw in the Capture application, was the feature of going into other applications and capturing images and icons directly from within. That solves a problem that I have where I need to capture a programs logo or icon for my reviews. These are a very useful set of programs, that I would recommend to any Windows user.

   Any Microsoft Windows based computer.

   Microsoft Windows 3.0 or 3.1.

   2 MBytes of random access memory (RAM), 4 MBytes and higher is recommended.

   Approximately 6 Mbytes of disk space is required to install, plus more space for images.

   An EGA, VGA, SVGA, XGA, or 8514/A compatible display adapter, running in either 4, 8, 16, or 24 bit color.

   Any Windows pointing device.

   Supporting file formats includes: BMP, CGM, CLP, CUR, DXF, EPS, GIF, ICO, IMG, JPG, MSP, MAC, PCD, PCT, PCX, PIC, RAS, RLE, TIF, TGA, WMF, and WPG.

   Optional scanning device or TWAIN compliance device.

For more information, please contact:

U-Lead Systems, Inc.

970 West 190th Street, Suite 520

Torrance, CA  90502

(310) 523-9393

Fax:  (310) 523-9399

Retail Price : $249.00

Upgrades from Version 1.0 to 1.2 are available from U-Lead

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