Title Page

October 17, 1992 - Issue 63

Windows Online, the Weekly (WOLW) is distributed throughout the world by many well known on-line services. WOLW contains articles and weekly columns by WOL's staff writers. Subject matter includes all aspects of Windows and its associated applications and utilities. Also covered are Computer News, Communications and other GUI subjects. Reviews, Test Drives, First Looks, etc., are limited in scope to allow the Weekly to be both diverse and maintain a manageable file size.

If you are interested in writing for our new publication WinOnLine(tm) REVIEW download the file named WOLRG11.ZIP (our Writers Guide) from Windows Online, (510) 736-8343 (modem). This Writers Help File will explain all about how you can become a writer for the REVIEW.

Copyright Notice: The entire contents of this issue and all issues of the Weekly are copyrighted by Windows Online and Frank J. Mahaney

All right reserved (c) Copyright 1992, Windows Online

Call Windows Online Today!

(510) 736-8343 BBS


Index Page

(Click all Buttons)

  Big Changes to Our Magazine,  by Frank J. Mahaney

  Interesting Computer News,  by Randy Wong

  Visual Basics,  by Barry Seymour

Common Dialogs Without Custom Controls

  Windows Tips,  by Hugh E. Hardie

Help From Help

Inner Mysteries Of Paintbrush

Borland Ouch!

   Beta Tester,  by Alex Howard

A Beta Tester's Guide: Part One

  Shareware Review,  by Bob Gollihur

Print Envelope 2.31

  Shareware Review,  by Scott Drassinower

Imposter

  Shareware Review,  by Randy Wong

Win CD 1.30

  Game Review,  by Matt Russell

The Palace Of Deciet

  WinGrin,  by Bob Gollihur

A BIG SMILE...

  Modems for Members

The Best For Less!

  Write for the WinOnLine(tm) REVIEW

Freelance writers do not need to prepare help files

  About Windows Online

How to reach WOL


Big Changes to our Magazine
Big Changes underway to our Magazine

First, let me give you a little history about our magazine. It actually began as a daily in late 1990. Each of our writers had a day of the week when their article would be featured in our Windows Online NEWS. In April, 1992 we became the Weekly.

With this change, we began to issue our publication freely to all other on-line services. In the past, the WOL NEWS was exclusively available to our own on-line service readers. Changes at that time included the addition of graphics to our publication. After seven weeks of the Weekly, we made another change. Starting with issue #45, we became a Windows HELP (.HLP) file. The HELP file has allowed us to add bigger graphics and hypertext links to our publication.

With each change in our publication we have advanced both the content and the presentation. We are at it again. Change that is!

I'd like to announce a few of the upcoming improvements to our publication so that you know who we are and what we are becoming...

OUR NEW NAME:

   WinOnLine(tm)

REVIEW

This new publication will be the successor to the Weekly. This is the last issue of the Weekly, our next release will be the premier issue of the WinOnLine(tm) REVIEW!

The WinOnLine(tm) REVIEW will be issued twice a month. Issue dates will be the 1st and the 15th of each month. Distribution will be the same as before so you should find the REVIEW at many of the same places that now offer the Weekly.

We plan to expand our publication with additional features, improved graphics, and offer more reviews of both commercial and shareware software and hardware. We are planning to be both bigger and better!

Our issue numbers will continue as in the past, therefore, Issue #64

 of WinOnLine(tm) REVIEW will appear on 11/1/92. Our naming convention will change from WOLW63.ZIP to WOLR64.ZIP.

I am proud to announce my friend, Rich Young, one of our fine writers, has joined Windows Online as Editor of the Review. I will remain the Publisher.

Frank J. Mahaney

Publisher


Interesting_Computer_News

Software Publishing Corp. (SPC) has upgraded their Harvard Graphics for Windows. Besides correcting several minor problems, SPC added multimedia functions. Users can now add sound, MIDI music, and animation to their presentations. Version 1.01 offers multimedia functions that work in conjunction with their Launch Application feature. Version 1.01 provides speedier access to the style and symbol libraries. For more compatibility with other file formats, SPC added more file filters for exporting and importing files. A separate ScreenShow Projector application is included for users to view the presentation outside of Harvard Graphics. This is a show and tell utility for displaying your presentation on another Windows based computer. Harvard Graphics for Windows 1.01 is priced at $595.

Grand Junction Networks, Inc. is looking at running Ethernet LANs at 100 megabits per second. Currently, Ethernet LANs operate at 10 Mbps. Grand Junction will be presenting its ideas, on Fast Ethernet, to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers committee on November 9. Acquiring the approval of the committee is necessary, because the technique to boost the speed requires some changes in the Ethernet standard. The packet data remains the same, as in the 802.3 specifications. The signal on which the packet travels will have to change, to accommodate the higher speed. This means that existing LAN administrators would have to replace old hubs and adapter cards with new ones. Grand Junction has plans to roll out 100 Mbps Ethernet products by the end of next year.

Data Race, Inc. is getting ready for the credit card size modem race. Their success so far, comes from bundling a portable size Data/Fax 2400/14.4 card with laptop computers. They will soon be threatened by other manufacturers, such as Intel, Hayes, and others. To stay in the forefront, Data Race will be introducing a new line of modems. The ReadiCard will be a v.32bis modem with Fax and will support speeds up to 14.4 Kps, and will support cellular networks. They are also considering selling their products directly to the end user.

XTree Co. is planning on opening three European support offices for their XTree for Windows product. XTree for Windows is their Windows version of their disk management product. The plan is to have offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. The implementation of these offices is planned over a two year time span. XTree claims that over one million copies of XTree for Windows have been shipped to Europe.

XTree Co. has also announced their first network management product, XTree Tools for Networks. XTree tools are designed for PC-LANs. It will provide monitoring, alerting, tracking, reporting, diagnostics, and virus detection. XTree Tools special features are server backup, user management, and configuration management. XTree Tools for Networks will be available in mid-November and will cost $695. for the first server and $295. for each additional server.

DataEase International Inc. has rolled out their latest database product. DataEase Express for Windows is purported to be just as easy to use as its DOS counterpart. Express is a relational database management system, that features style sheets and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). Using the right button of the mouse, a user can bypass the drop down menus. The price is $395.. This is yet another database product beating the big rollers to the punch.

LogiTech Inc. is shipping their new Scanman 24-bit color hand scanner for Windows. It is bundled with LogiTech's FotoTouch Color for editing in 24-bit color or 256 color gray scale. It will sport a white fluorescent light that requires no warm up time. The price tag is $699..

Airlines are attempting to capitalize on the popularity of portable computers. For the business class travelers on international flights, ninety-six of United Airlines' jets will have installed PCs by next year. Thirty-four United Airlines Boeing 777 planes will have 386 based computers at passengers' seats by 1995.

Microsoft Corp. has promoted Daniel Petre to Vice President of the Workgroup Division. This is another clue that Microsoft is serious about the Workgroup technology. Petre will be heading Microsoft's largest division. Daniel Petre was the General Manager of Microsoft Australia.

Lotus has launched another product into beta. Lotus Improv for Windows is a multidimensional spreadsheet. Improv will come with several complex samples that users can modify and reuse to build their own complex object oriented models. Improv was originally developed for the NeXT Step operating system. Lotus is looking at shipping this product at the end of the year. The price is unknown. Lotus hinted that Improv will not be more advanced than Lotus' 1-2-3 spreadsheet for Windows.

IBM has started beta testing their OS/2 monitoring product, the System Performance Monitor/2 version 2.0. The software will monitor remote or local OS/2 devices. SPM/2 will monitor CPU and disk activity, and produce a graph for information or comparison with previous data. OS/2 users can order the beta for $30.00. IBM is also beta testing their next release of OS/2, which is free to OS/2 customers.


PopUp_Randy_News


VISUAL BASICS
Common Dialogs Without Custom Controls

This week's example is another gem from Costas Kitsos, a man who seems to delight in giving us something for nothing. Kitsos placed the valuable source code for this example on CompuServe as a free download. Thank you sir!

With the introduction of Windows 3.1, Microsoft promoted the use of a set of common dialog boxes common to most applications. Using these dialog boxes would increase the consistency of Windows applications by providing the same mechanism to open or save files, set up the printer and choose fonts and colors. The common dialogs were contained in a dynamic link library called COMMDLG.DLL, and can be called from Windows 3.0 as well as 3.1.

Figure 1: The File Open Common Dialog Box.

In Visual Basic, the Professional Toolkit provides a custom control, CMDIALOG.VBX, which gives easy access to these dialogs. However if you didn't want to shell out bucks for the Toolkit, or weren't willing to include the extra 16k file in your project, you were out of luck. Until now...

Costas has gone through the Windows API and figured out all the calls required to access the common dialog boxes in COMMDLG.DLL directly, without use of the custom control. Yes, it's a bit trickier, but not much, and it's free!

Basic Concepts

Using a common dialog, either with the custom control or this method, is like a pool shot. First you set it up, then you execute it, then you sit back and reap the rewards. If you want to use the File Open dialog, for example, you set the parameters which define how the box will behave, you open the box, then you retrieve the data entered by the user. These are the flags required to set up a file open dialog box using the custom control...

Default File Extension	The File Extension the box will filter

Dialog Title	Appears in the dialog box's title bar

File Name	String containing the file path and name

File Title	String containing only the file name

Filter	A set of allowable file specifications for the dialog

FilterIndex	Which filter is active upon dialog open

Flags	A number of parameters controlling dialog behavior

Initial Directory	Startup directory for the dialog box

FileSize	Maximum allowable length of the filename

When using the custom control from the VB Pro Toolkit to access the File Open dialog you add the control to your project and set the control's properties to control how it will behave. When you're using the Windows API you must create a user-defined type to contain this information.

' File Open/Save structures and declarations

Type OPENFILENAME

     lStructSize As Long

     hwndOwner As Integer

     hInstance As Integer

     lpstrFilter As Long

     lpstrCustomFilter As Long

     nMaxCustFilter As Long

     nFilterIndex As Long

     lpstrFile As Long

     nMaxFile As Long

     lpstrFileTitle As Long

     nMaxFileTitle As Long

     lpstrInitialDir As Long

     lpstrTitle As Long

     Flags As Long

     nFileOffset As Integer

     nFileExtension As Integer

     lpstrDefExt As Long

     lCustData As Long

     lpfnHook As Long

     lpTemplateName As Long

End Type

As you can probably guess from this type declaration, there is more information to keep track of when you're using the API. Some of it you have to initialize yourself; others you merely include so there's room for the API to supply it.

The code to call the File Open dialog performs some additional housekeeping dictated by the needs of Windows and the API. For starters some basic information has to be copied to Windows' Global Memory Block so the dialog box can access it. After the dialog box is called with the GetOpenFileName function call, the information is copied back from global memory and the global memory is freed. You can then use that information to open your file.

Sub mnuFOpen_Click ()

  Cls

  Dim O As OPENFILENAME

  Dim Address As Long

'First Copy the strings to the Global Memory Block

'use a sub-allocation scheme to avoid overloading the LDT

  szFile$ = String$(128, 0)  ' String Length limiter

'Set up Filter options which will appear in the dropdown

'listbox "List Files of Type..." All options go in a single string; Format is...

'	Text in the ListBox + Null + Actual Filter + Null

'	End with a second null.

  szFilter$ = "VB Files (*.frm;*.bas;*.mak)"

  szFilter$ = szFilter$ + Chr$(0) + "*.frm;*.bas;*.mak"

  szFilter$ = szFilter$ + Chr$(0)

  szFilter$ = szFilter$ + "Text Files (*.txt;*.doc)"

  szFilter$ = szFilter$ + Chr$(0)

  szFilter$ = szFilter$ + "*.txt;*.doc"

  szFilter$ = szFilter$ + Chr$(0) + Chr$(0)

'determine the string space required to hold this information

'and set aside that much space in the global memory block using

'the GlobalAlloc API call. If successful, Lock that memory using

'GlobalLock.

  wSize = Len(szFile$) + Len(szFilter$)

  MemHandle = GlobalAlloc(GHND, wSize)

  If MemHandle = 0 Then Exit Sub

  Address = GlobalLock(MemHandle)

'Copy the information into the memory block allocated and locked.

  Call hmemcpy(ByVal Address, ByVal (szFile$ + szFilter$), wSize)

'Finish populating the data structure...

  O.lStructSize = Len(O)

  O.hwndOwner = hWnd ' handle of the current form - the 'owner' of the dialog

  O.Flags = OFN_FILEMUSTEXIST Or OFN_HIDEREADONLY Or OFN_PATHMUSTEXIST

'The OFN_ constants are defined in the global file

'and determine how the dialog will behave.

  O.nFilterIndex = 1 'Use the first item in the filter list

  O.lpstrFile = Address 'Pointer to the File information in Global Memory

  O.nMaxFile = Len(szFile$)

  O.lpstrFilter = Address + Len(szFile$)

  Result = GetOpenFileName(O) 'actual function call

'Get the data back from Global memory, then unlock and free that memory.

  If Result <> 0 Then Call hmemcpy(ByVal szFile$, ByVal Address, Len(szFile$))

  Ok = GlobalUnlock(MemHandle)    'Free The Memory

  Ok = GlobalFree(MemHandle)

  If Result = 0 Then Exit Sub

'For this demo, just display the results...

  File$ = Left$(szFile$, InStr(szFile$, Chr$(0)) - 1)

  Print "Common Dialogs File Open"

  Print

  Print "You selected: ", File$

  Print "Path:", Left$(File$, O.nFileOffset)

  Print "Filename:", Right$(File$, Len(File$) - O.nFileOffset)

  Print "Extension:", Right$(File$, Len(File$) - O.nFileExtension)

End Sub

As you can see, once the data structure is set up and the data is copied to global memory, getting the common dialog box is a matter of a simple function call.

Other Common Dialogs

COMMDLG.DLL also provides dialogs to save a file, to set up the printer and to choose a font or color...

Figure 2:  The Color Selection Common Dialog Box

If you've used the Control Panel to configure your system you already know what these common dialogs look like.

Using Common Dialogs in Your Code

I won't go into sample code for the other dialogs here, but you can download VB024EX.ZIP from Windows Online and incorporate the code easily into your own. Bear in mind that if you distribute an application that uses this code, COMMDLG.DLL must be installed on the system using it. Windows 3.1 has COMMDLG.DLL included, but if the user is running Windows 3.0 they need to obtain it. If you wish to include this DLL with your application, you'll find it on WOL as COMMDLG.ZIP. COMMDLG.DLL can be freely distributed, much like VBRUN100.DLL.

Again, Thanks...

...to Costas Kitsos, who has often provided valuable input to VB programmers free of charge. The source code included in this example and in VB024EX.ZIP are his.

For Windows Online


About MCC
Marquette Computer Consultants provides...

Windows Programming in Microsoft Visual Basic

Database programming for Windows/DOS applications in standalone, networked and/or SQL Server environments

Windows installation, optimization, training and support

Hardware support, assistance and troubleshooting


Windows Tips

Help from Help

Inner Mysteries of Paintbrush

Borland Ouch!

Help from Help

The help systems in most applications are reasonably good. You can find some that are no help at all and others with context sensitive help which really do get right to the point.

We tend to view help systems as an on-line tool. While this is their primary role, there is another way to use them which can make the difference between good and not so good.

There are many times where using on-line help is an exercise in frustration. There you are, in the middle of trying to figure something out and you become engaged in the seemingly hopeless rigmarole of switching from help to application back to help again. Each time, you get a little bit further but each time you have to go back to the help system for the next morsel which moves you, ever so slowly, to a complete solution to your problem.

Enter the printer. Yes, the printer can play a very useful part in helping you get to the end of the tunnel faster. Recently, I was trying to understand a rather complex series of steps. They were related to editing menus in the Norton Desktop for Windows, NDW, program. I know not why but in the middle of my flip-flop between application and help system, I thought how nice it would be if I could print out the description of the steps and refer to it without leaving the application. Well, lo and behold there is a Print Topic built into the help engine, see below.

I printed the topic I was working on and it made the whole exercise an order of magnitude easier. Readers of our Windows Online Weekly or REVIEW, yourself that is, can use the technique to print out articles and keep them for reference even if you do not have the space on your hard drive or simply choose not to keep the whole issue.

As a test. I printed out Scott Drassinower's article in Edition 61 of WOLW. I got the entire article, and while the graphics were barely readable, I found having the text on paper most useful. I did not try tweaking anything to make the graphics more readable and you might be able to do better than I did with some work.

The bottom line is, don't view the Help system in your favorite application as only being available on the screen. There are times when having it on paper will make your life a whole lot easier.

The Inner Mysteries of Paintbrush

This juicy little tip comes by way of Lang Murphy, a frequenter of the Windows ILink message exchange. It goes like this.......

In response to a message I had sent to someone else about a problem, Lang came back with a solution to it. The problem is that Paintbrush exhibits strange behavior when you paste in a full screen image captured into the clipboard with the Print/Screen key.

As you all probably know, pressing the Print/Screen key captures the entire screen, not just a single window, into the clipboard, the place to which all copied or cut items go. Paintbrush, like most programs, uses menu bars and palettes to allow the user to control the operation of the program. With the space taken up for menus and palettes, there is not enough room to have all of the captured screen showing inside the display area of Paintbrush.

It is possible to see the hidden parts of the screen by moving them into the viewing area. The problem was that, if you saved the image in Paintbrush using the File/Save or File/Save As, what was saved was the portion that was showing in the viewing area of Paintbrush and not the whole image.

WWWWEEEELLLL, it seems that there is another way to save a file in Paintbrush that I, and, I suspect, many of you have never used. That is the Copy To selection in the Edit menu, see below. Who ever heard of saving a file from the Edit menu, obviously the developers of Paintbrush.

Selecting the Copy To item, brings up the above dialog box which looks suspiciously like its File Save brother/sister. The rest, as they say, is history. The saved file can be loaded into other graphics programs with all the pixels in the original screen showing.

Thanks, Lang!

Psssst! Lang, you also mentioned something about printing. Speak to me O Great One!

Borland Ouch!

Mr. Kuby Downs had a nasty experience when he ordered his copy of Borland's Quattro Pro for Windows by mail. He was excited about using the "most advanced, slick, powerful and ecologically safe spreadsheet since Visicalc 1.0".

Imagine his state of mind when the package arrived. He "happily took it out of the package......' and did what comes naturally, A:INSTALL.

The first message he got shattered his world as it then was. The message was "Quattro Pro for Windows will ONLY RUN ON A 386 or higher processor." He was shattered especially since he has a 286 with 3 megs of memory. Any one of us could have made the same mistake. Windows runs on my 286. Ergo anything will.

No mention on any of the packaging on the order form about the 386 requirement and no mention on the packaging. All those who think this is shoddy behavior, say, "AYE!"

Uncle Phil, is that any way to run a software promotion?

Investigation conducted by

Hugh E. Hardie

P.S. I can be reached in either the I-Link Windows or Relaynet Windows conferences for questions or for tips.


hughpop2

Hardie & Associates Inc.

Walnut Creek, CA

(510) 935-3994


A_BETA_TESTER'S_GUIDE
A Beta Tester's Guide

Part One

by Alex Howard

What is a Beta Test? A Beta Test is the process of pre-release testing. People outside a software company put a program, or application, through various levels of usage. By doing so, and reporting the results to the company, the company can fix bugs that their own developers haven't found. The inside developers can be so very close to their product that they lose a sense of objectivity. Without that objectivity, developers cannot see where the product is weak or worse, where it has functional problems, or bugs. Feedback from outside testers allows the company to clean up bad grammar in documentation or help files, and strengthen functionality. Most beta tests last up to nine months. Some may even last longer. There are various reasons to get into beta testing. I will list some of these reasons. In future articles, I will discuss many of the beta tests in which I have been involved. I hope to cover these as soon after I am released from the NDA as possible.

What is an NDA? That is a good place to start. Under most circumstances, no company will allow outside individuals to test their software, not while it is still under development. Not unless the outside individual has signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement. This is a legal document, an agreement by the tester not to discuss any aspect of the software with anyone else. Pre-released software is a company's proprietary information, or trade secret, and belongs to that company. If you have any intention of testing, you must treat an NDA as a sacred covenant. Without question if information were to be given out, even in the most innocent and harmless way, that information can be used by another, competing software company. So, if you get involved in testing, you must sign and be silent.

There are many reasons to become involved in a Beta Test. One reason is to have an influence in the final product. If the test period lasts long enough, a company can incorporate the testers' suggestions into the final product. Often there is not enough time. A beta test in which there was enough time, was Microsoft Windows Version 3.1. The test ran nine months, and the people at Microsoft listened to the testers. Many suggestions were incorporated into the finished product. Often those which made good sense, but would have taken too much time to implement, become tasks for the next version. Sort of a wish list.

Another reason to test a product is to have advance knowledge of a product, to know whether the product will be one you want to use. This is valuable to End User Computing Managers, Consultants or Systems Integrators. By participating in a beta test, they will know whether a product will be applicable to their End Users or Client base.

The last, least important reason to participate in a beta test is for the payment. In very few cases testers do come away with tangible value for their efforts. If you think about it, you must come to the conclusion that it's not really a fair trade. Considered in simple terms, the number of hours spent testing, it adds up very quickly. Companies give a tester one free copy of the retail version of the software. The free package of software cannot possibly be equal payment for the time spent. I tested Microsoft Windows Version 3.1 for nine months. When it was released, Windows 3.1 sold for as little as $39.00. While testing, I used Windows 3.1 as my Operating Environment from the start. I only reverted to Windows Version 3.0 when I had to use an application that was not yet compatible. That was a small percentage of the time. As such, the payment of a free retail copy did not come close to compensating for my time. I was not in it for the free software.

There are, of course, other reasons to test a product. Some of these reasons can be considered dishonorable intentions. A person might test to write an article and beat the competition to publishing a review. Another person might test to advise the competition. And still another might test simply to say that they were in a Beta Test, as a boost to their own ego. Enough about intentions. Now, to discuss the testing.

When testing, it is most important to develop a mind set  a specific approach  to testing. You must never assume anything. More than that, you must forget everything you know or think you know about the product you're testing. That way, you are not limited by the known limitations. Sounds redundant, doesn't it? Think about it. If you don't know what a product can do or cannot do, you can try most anything. Taking that approach gives you the opportunity to make an application fail. That is what a beta tester is supposed to do, make the product fail!

Another approach you must take is to forget about the manual. Forget about the documentation. Frequently, there is no manual in early builds or revisions of the product. So there is no way to know how to accomplish tasks with the new product. And that really helps, in the sense that a tester can determine whether a product is intuitive or user friendly. This is similar to installing an application and not reading the manual. After all, most users don't crack open a manual until they run into a situation that requires it. So when you are testing a new product, this approach allows you to give the manufacturer valuable feedback on the usability of the product.

Feedback is the life blood of beta testing. Finding and reporting problems or bugs is what it's all about. There were seven thousand testers for DOS 5.0, and fifteen thousand testers for Windows Version 3.1. Microsoft tried to find as many individuals with as many different requirements as possible. All with the intention of finding everything and anything wrong with the products. Only by having such a diverse population could they be certain that the largest number of problems would be identified. The success of these two products proves that point.

In future articles, I will discuss products I have tested. I will only discuss those for which I have been released from my NDA. The first product will be the Windows Sound System. This was a short test; the period was nearly eight weeks. There were only fifty testers who were not Microsoft Employees. And the test was a lot of fun. Watch for this in the next issue of the WinOnLine(tm) REVIEW.

Alex Howard


Alex_Popup
Alex Howard is president of Oxymoron Unlimited, an independent consulting company in North Bergen New Jersey. He can be reached by calling (201) 868-7681, by fax at (201) 854-2990, on Compuserve at 73310,2237, or through Windows Online at (510) 736-8343.


PrintEnvelope
Okay, let's have a show of hands: How many of you still keep a rickety old typewriter around to address your envelopes? Or are you one of those people who put tacky labels on your beautifully printed stationery? Guilty? It's time to give PrintEnvelope a try! Maurer Associate's versatile utility can solve your envelope and label addressing needs easily and give you professional looking results.

A very friendly and familiar image greets you that somewhat parallels the envelope you can produce. This is a program that you can use intuitively and receive immediately satisfying results. The return address is accessed through a drop down menu entry and addressees can be entered through pasting, keyboard input or a data file merge. A single "Attention" type line can be keyed directly or selected from a listing that can appended with your own selections.

File presents the usual options to save your configuration, make changes to your printer setup, and access a preference dialog box. You can choose your background colors and elect to print the postal codes for five or nine digit zipcodes. The Postnet Code, when selected, positions itself above the addressee field using the new postal specification that allows wide area bar coding of mail. This reader may or may not be in use at postal facilities in your area. However, it is usually wise to use it since it can often help speed your mail to its destination.

Return Address allows you to save four addresses for repeated uses or omit the return if you're using stationery. You can spiff up your envelope by creating a graphic within PaintBrush and using it as your return logo. A small graphic, such as your initial, the American Flag or the supplied Smiley Face can precede your regular return address to imitate those popular address labels.

Document Selection affords you seven envelope and seven label size options along with a user defined selection of each.

Additional options appear if a label size is indicated on the Document Selection dialog box.

Click on Set selected document preferences from the dialog box and another opens giving you tremendous flexibility in the final appearance of your envelope or label. Separate fonts, sizes and styles can be chosen for the return address, addressee and remark areas. The positioning of the return address and addressee fields can also be adjusted. Each type of document has its own unique set of preferences.

Feed supplies versatility to accommodate virtually any printer. In addition to the paper bin selections, the position and feed direction of the envelope can be selected. Dot matrix printer users will be pleased at the quality results that they can obtain.

Address Book can access the cardfile within Windows. An address within the card can be copied to Notepad and will subsequently automatically be entered into the addressee field in the open envelope. You may also set up a merge file to print multiple envelopes or labels from a database. PrintEnvelope can use the Windows Cardfile database or an ASCII delimited file you create or extract from another application. Once you begin printing there seems to be no way to stop. During my testing I clicked at large to try to get the program's attention. I did. It crashed as a result of an illegal call function. The ability to stop the process within the context of the program would be welcome.

A one page WRI file provides information on the program, and on-line help is available to clarify any of the functions that require it.

               Summary

PrintEnvelope is a great program that produces professional results with versatility and ease of use. The option to include graphics in the return address and select fonts is especially nice and adds to the distinctive look that can be achieved.

Registration is very reasonable $30.00, and includes technical support. Logo scanning and design services are available at additional cost. The author is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP).

PrintEnvelope is available to members of Windows Online at 1-510-736-8343 as ENVEL231.ZIP. The program requires VBRUN100.DLL to run, also available as VBRUN100.ZIP.

For further information please contact:

Maurer Associates

15 Lakeside Plaza

164 Lake Street

Newburgh  NY  12550-5243

Tel: (914)562-6600  -  Fax: (914)562-6613

CIS: 74017,2140  -  GEnie: T.MAURER

Prodigy: HFJG92A  -  America Online: SMaurer


bobpopup10


bobpopup15


Imposter

by Scott Drassinower

Even the most die-hard Windows users will admit that the sometimes need to go back to the old-fashioned command line to get something done. To delete some files really quickly, or to run an application, whatever. But especially for people running in Standard Mode, opening up a DOS prompt is tedious, and leaving one open all the time just wastes memory. A powerful utility called Imposter will give you access to all of your favorite DOS commands, and some new ones, all without DOS.

Imposter is a native Windows application that runs in a resizable window. It looks like a windowed DOS prompt, but is really more powerful. You can run DOS or Windows applications, or even associated files just by using basic DOS commands (like C:, CD, etc.). When you get to the directory file you want, just type the program's name (WINWORD for example), or the name of the document (WINLOGO.BMP). Imposter has almost all of the DOS internal commands (DIR, DEL, REN, COPY), and most of the external commands (XCOPY, ATTRIB, LABEL) built in. Imposter also adds some new commands:

 NUKE - Completely erases the specified directory.

 DUMP - Displays the given file in hexadecimal format.

 MAX and MIN - Runs the specified application maximized, or as an icon.

 FF - Searches the current drive for any file.

 DEJUNK - Searches through a file and strip all high-ASCII characters.

Imposter will also let you create aliases, or an abbreviated name for a command (this is similar to DOSKEY's macro feature). KILLTEST could replace 'NUKE C:\WIN31\TESTPROG /!'.

Imposter also adds its own batch language. You can create a batch file with an .IPS extension, and Imposter will treat this as one of its own batch files, and not use COMMAND.COM to run it. You can even go as far as creating multiple .IPS files, and in each .IPS file instruct Imposter to run another copy of itself (spawn itself), and have several minimized copies of Imposter doing various jobs, and still be able to get back to work while these jobs run in the background.

Imposter will also run as your Windows Shell, instead of Program Manager, and save some memory and system resources. Imposter will even let you run an .IPS file when you start it, so you don't lose the ability to have a StartUp group. You can also assign a hotkey for Imposter, and change the screen size, colors, and fonts.

Imposter is an indispensable utility for Windows users. You can perform many operations quickly and easily, and the price is right - Imposter is completely free!

Imposter Program Information

Scott Drassinower

Staff Writer

Windows Online


About Scott
®

15 Lake Street

White Plains, NY 10603

Tel: (914)682-0626

Fax: (914)682-0506

©1992 Scott Drassinower and Cloud 9 Consulting, All Rights Reserved


About Imposter
Imposter

Available to members on Windows Online (IMPOST11.ZIP).

Also available on the CompuServe WINADV Forum.


WinCD_Review
Now that you got that new CD-ROM connected to your computer, does it sit there idle half the time? For me, yes, it does. What I did, was join the thousands of users who use their CD-ROM as an expensive CD audio player. This way, I get to hear the music that soothes me and I see the player in use. Since there was no CD audio player included with Windows 3.1, you had to look elsewhere to find a player for Windows. There are not many Windows CD audio players available yet. Of the ones I found, I liked Win CD. It does not show a flashy graphical CD Player, but something simple and functional. In this case, the player is only used to play music in the background.

Win CD 1.30 is an audio CD player for Windows 3.1. It simulates a regular home audio CD player. If you have more than one CD-ROM player, you have the option to choose which one is in use. In the display windows, you get a real time display of the track time. A graph below the time display shows a graphical representation of the track (percentage) played. The track selection is shown in different colors. The green track numbers are tracks that have not been played. Yellow represents tracks that has been played. The red track number displays the currently playing track. It has the standard play, pause, stop, eject, previous track, skip reverse, skip forward, and next track buttons. You can also display information about the CD disk.

 When you drop Win CD to an icon, it displays a real time track counter and the track number. You have an option to keep the icon on top of all applications running in foreground. If by some chance, you need to pause the current CD, all you have to do is just click the right button of your pointing device on the icon. To resume, just click on the icon again.

Win CD covers almost every function a real audio CD player has. There are four playing modes. They are normal, shuffle, programmed, or timed. The CD database keeps all my CDs on file. All I do is pop the audio CD into the CD-ROM, and Win CD knows that I want to hear only certain songs off the CD. Of course, I had to program which songs I wanted the first time around. To ensure that Windows 3.1 is setup correctly to play audio sound from your CD player, the CD audio driver must be loaded. Windows CD audio players have a problem with loading without an audio CD loaded. An error message pops up and the application fails to load. Eventually, this problem will be corrected.

Win CD does everything I wanted for playing audio CDs on my computer. With its extra features, such as shuffle and timed, it has a few functions that the other Windows CD audio players missed. It does lack a sexy graphical representation of a CD audio player, but that is not a necessity. The author has included some trouble shooting information for users who are having problems with their CD-ROM drive. It is simple and easy to use, very straight forward in operating. As time goes by, other features such as a volume control and an improved look to the application, will keep this software on the top of my list.

  Windows 3.1 or higher.

  Any MS Window based computer (286 or higher processor).

  Windows operating in standard or enhanced mode.

  121K of disk space is required to install.

  Any Windows pointing device.

  CD ROM drive with MSCDEX.EXE 2.1 or higher.

  CD Audio Driver installed in Win 3.1.

Other BFM Software products

For more information, please contact:

BFM Software

Brett McDonald

20278 Old Homestead

Harper Woods, MI 48225

Compuserve ID 73770,1254

AOL ID BrettMc

WCD200.ZIP can be found on your local Bulletin Board System

or to members from

Windows Online 510-736-8343

This program is shareware. If you like the program and continue to use it, please support the shareware concept. Registration  Fee: $9.95 U.S.


PopUp_Randy_Face


RV_WCD_Select


RV_WCD_CDinfo


RV_WCD_DiskCat


RV-WCD-Pop1


RV-WCD-Pop2


RV-WCD-Pop3


RV_WCD-Pop4


RV_WCD_Pop5


RV_WCD_Pop6


RV_WCD_Pop7


RV_WCD_Pop8


Palace of Deceit
 	I really like to play games on the computer. They're usually so much better than the regular Nintendo games because there's more to do.

I can never wait to get the next Sierra or other adventure game. My family always gets mad because I don't do much homework and I'm always using the computer when I get a new one. I mostly enjoy action-adventure games.

My step-dad and I first saw the demo for Dragon's Plight on a bulletin board, so we downloaded it. I finished the demo in about 15 minutes and it was quite easy to complete. But, I liked the demo because it really caught my attention. When it was done I especially wanted to get the full, registered version because the demo ended right after something happened and it made me curious to find out what was going to happen next.

The game is very easy to play. In the upper right hand corner is a book that shows what your character was seeing. In the upper left hand corner were boxes used for saving your game, restoring your game, a box that shows your inventory, etc. The lower part your screen has a large area that displays a message after you click on something and a small window displaying the item you selected from the inventory box.

When you place the cursor on a character and it changes to a cartoon bubble that means you can talk to the person the cursor changes on. When you click on that person the box above shows up on the screen. The box already has messages displayed in it. A very nice thing about Dragon's Plight is that you never have to touch the keyboard at all throughout the game.

When you click on the inventory box on the upper left hand of the screen the window above appears. If you picked up an item earlier in the game it will show up in the inventory box. If you click on an item you will be able to use that particular item in the game until you click on another one.

               Conclusion

When we got the fully registered version it was a little less then I expected it to be like. During the game you had to talk to different characters such as a large snail, a severed head, two large rats, and a lobster which I found a little childish, and I just turned twelve. Some parts of the game might be more fit for a lower age group.

I also found the game to be very easy to complete. If you got stuck all you had to do was move the mouse around the screen and the icon would change if there was something important on that particular section of the game. I really liked that you could play the whole game by just using the mouse and never typing anything.

Altogether I would say this game is worth the twenty dollars to buy the full version, if you like fantasy games or games in which you need to solve puzzles. I am used to playing Sierra and other mystery games that can be very hard. This game was too easy to complete for me and I would have liked it more if it could have been more challenging. I guess that it is more for kids who are younger or less experienced at adventure games than I am.

Step-dad Notes:

The Dragon's Plight is 593K in its zipped demo form, and the complete version occupies over 4 megabytes of disk space once installed. It is provided on one disk in a self-extracting zip format. The game will only run in 640x480 mode, so I had to drop out of my usual SVGA display. 800K free RAM and a mouse, along with a hard drive and VGA display is required to run the game.

There is one help screen for the game that supplies some information and tips. A .WRI file also outlines the operation of the program and provides background information on the characters and some additional tips and should be read. The GSWIN interface, as described by the author, enables the mouse-only operation of the game and should be considered a plus for the younger set or anyone not too adept at the keyboard.

The full version of Palace of Deceit, The Dragon's Plight is $20.00, and is only available on 1.44 meg 3.5 inch disks. If you can't get through the game there is help available! A hint book for Dragon's Plight is available for $5.00 from the author, but according to Matt, you probably won't need it.

The shareware version is available to members through Windows Online as !PAL21.ZIP. VBRUN100.DLL is required to run the program and is included within the zip file.

For further information please contact:

Cliff Bleszinski

Game Syndicate Productions

6019 Birdie Drive

La Verne, CA   91750

with Step-dad


mattpopup100
Bob Gollihur


WinGrin


wgpopup10


wgpopup20


wgpopup30


Writers
Write for the WinOnLine(tm) REVIEW

Do you like to test shareware programs? Do you enjoy giving opinions on the latest commercial Windows software? Do you have an interest in Windows software, hardware, programming, etc., and the time to write an article or review? Do you like working with graphics? We are interested in adding a few quality Freelance writers for the WinOnLine(tm) REVIEW. Freelance writers can submit their article whenever they wish and are only required to include a .RTF or .DOC file and the .BMP graphics for their article. We will prepare your help file for you. YOU can become part of our publication, call us today.

The WinOnLine(tm) REVIEW pays a fee for each article we published. Why not get both, publicity for yourself, and cash to spend. Give your writing career a kick in the pants! For complete details on how you can become a paid writer for the WinOnLine(tm) REVIEW, download our WRITERS GUIDE named WOLRG11.ZIP. This Guide (a HELP file) was written by Rich Young and Randy Wong, staff of the REVIEW, and soon to be available for download on many bbs's around the world and on CompuServe. You can also download it directly from Windows Online (510) 736-8343 (modem).

Rich Young - Editor


US Robotics ad

The Best For Less!

WOL has special pricing for its membership US Robotics modems. Members pay,

$349.00 for a USR Sportster Internal PC/FAX 14,400bps v.32bis

-or-

$369.00 for a USR Sportster External/FAX 14,400bps v.32bis

USR 14,400 modem will allow compressed file transfers (.ZIP files) at speeds of 1,650 CPS

Windows Online sells all US Robotics products - Call us with your order

Consider membership with Windows Online for the latest Windows shareware and now outstanding modems at fabulous prices.


WOLWINFO


Rich Wri
Have further Questions?

Call Windows Online with your modem (510) 736-8343. When you reach the main menu Use the command "J 4" to Join conference #4 (Conference 4 is our new Writers Conference). Then use the "E" command to ENTER a message, address your question to me, Rich Young. I'll get back to you ASAP.

Rich Young - Editor.


About Windows Online

the Weekly is a product of,

Windows Online™, (WOL), an on-line service dedicated to the MS Windows™ operating environment and to other GUI subjects. WOL prides itself on having the most complete and up-to-date library of Windows shareware in the world. WOL currently has over 7,500 Windows 3.x programs and files for download. Call today for your free trial. Consider membership in Windows Online, the Worlds Premiere Windows On-line Service.

No reprinting of this document is permitted without the express written permission of Frank Mahaney of Windows Online. Sysops and Corporations may freely offer the .ZIP file for download by their users. It is NOT permitted to directly display any part of the contained .HLP file or .ASC file in any form. In other words, you may not display our files as bulletins, news, help files or any other method, on any bbs or other on-line service or any other such reprinting or display of these files, except as otherwise expressly granted by Windows Online. Subscriptions are available to display the Weekly for Sysops and Corporations by calling the voice number listed below. All articles are copyrighted by their authors and upon publication all rights are sold to and owned by Windows Online. Opinions presented herein are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of WOL or the Weekly.

Windows Online

(510) 736-8343 bbs

(510)736-4376 Voice/Fax

Copyright Notice: The entire contents of this issue and all issues of the Weekly are copyrighted by Windows Online and Frank J. Mahaney

All right reserved (c) Copyright 1992, Windows Online