-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Software Shopper Online -- October/November 1994 Vol. 5 No. 7 SOFTWARE SHOPPER Contents: [] Editor's Notes: Lots of Hot New Titles [] Shareware Reviews: Looks at seven of the best new shareware programs, including GeoPublish and Apogee's Hocus Pocus! [] FYI: Capturing Screens in Windows (a quick tip) [] Featured Selection: Our pick of what's new [] New Releases: New shareware programs [] New Versions: Updated shareware programs [] What Is Shareware?: A cheerful explanation of try-before-you-buy [] About the Catalog: A note on Software Shopper's database Entire contents copyright 1994 by Falsoft, Inc. Software Shopper is intended for the private use and pleasure of its subscribers, and reproduction by any means is prohibited. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Editor's Notes \|/ by Lauren Willoughby ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LOTS OF HOT NEW TITLES! A wise TV commercial once said, "Don't you know the less you sleep, the longer summer lasts?" So I've traded my pillow for the keyboard to spend more time enjoying the latest bounty of shareware. Apogee has not one but two new arcade games out: Hocus Pocus and Mystic Towers. NeoSoft topped its fantastic NeoBook Pro with Version 2.0, an even more fantastic upgrade. GeoWorks dipped into shareware waters with its GeoPublish. I've been flown back to my youth with The Greatest Paper Airplanes, and been fascinated by two new Windows utilities (Plug-In and wInformant). If you're interested, check out the New Releases/Versions section. OK, I reviewed some of 'em too -- sometimes I just can't help myself. HD Going Great Guns Our new high-density (HD) line is proving popular -- more popular than we anticipated, and we quickly ran out of high-density floppies! So if your order arrived a little later than you expected, it was because we were waiting on a shipment of floppy disks. Don't worry, we have plenty now! For those who missed the last issue, I'll recap the HD thing: Shareware programs are growing by leaps and bounds, and trying to distribute the latest and greatest titles (like DOOM) on eight low-density disks seems a little ridiculous -- so we are distributing those programs on high-density disks. You'll find these programs now much easier to install (because the files aren't spread out to kingdom come), and they're less expensive within our HD pricing structure. Our HD titles are easy to spot: the file numbers begin with the letters "HD," and an HD disk symbol will appear (we hope) within the description. Even if you didn't miss the last issue, you did miss something, I'm afraid. The issue went to press minus the HD disk symbol and assorted graphic elements. Let me tell you what happened: I made the move from PageMaker 4.0 to 5.0, but some of the graphic elements apparently didn't follow. They did print on our laser-printed proof copies but jumped ship when printed to film on the Linotype. By then it was too late to do anything but point and scream. Sorry! One more thing about HD titles: please order them on 1.44MB disks if you possibly can! Some of the titles have more data than can fit on one 1.2MB disk -- and I didn't want to add $4 to a program by splitting it into a two-disk set when it could fit just fine on a single 1.44MB disk. Remember, there is no surcharge on 1.44MB disks. Introducing Our Featured Selection! "If you want it, do nothing -- we'll send it to you automatically!" Just kidding! Book-of-the-month clubs do have a good idea, though, and we're borrowing a page from their book with our own variation on the featured selection theme. Starting this month, we're going to pick a few of the best new shareware titles, call them our "featured selection," and charge half our usual distribution fees for them (for a limited time). A program that normally costs $6 will cost just $3. And an $8 high- density (HD) program costs just $4. You can order just a few of the "featured" programs -- or order the whole bunch for an added discount. Attention, Shareware Programmers! If you are not a member of the ASP (Association of Shareware Professionals), please consider joining! The ASP distributes its members' software to vendors on monthly CD-ROM discs. It's a good way of getting your shareware wide coverage -- and of making sure vendors have your latest releases. Oops! I'm beginning to hate the word oops, and I regret having to say it again. In the last issue I praised Time & Chaos Professional as a terrific PIM. That's not the problem: it still is terrific! The problem is that I forgot to mention that T&CP requires the file VBRUN300.DLL in order to work. Since I already had the Visual BASIC 3.0 runtime file installed on my system, T&CP had no reason to ask me for it, and it installed beautifully. For those who did not have the runtime, installation did not go so well. If you're one of those who ordered Time & Chaos Professional but could not get it to work, please call or write and we'll send you VBRUN300.DLL at no charge. For those who haven't yet ordered T&CP but want to, note that we've given it a new file number: HD0050 (yep, with the addition of the 398K runtime file, TC&P becomes an HD title). -=-------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- --------------=- Shareware Reviews ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <> Color Presentation Magic <> GeoPublish <> Hocus Pocus <> NeoBook Professional <> NeoShow Pro <> QuikGraf <> wInformant -=*=- GEOPUBLISH: HOME-PUBLISHING POWERHOUSE GeoWorks' GEOS is a fast graphical user interface that gives unprecedented GUI power to old 808x computers. While it never really made a dent in Microsoft Windows, as many hoped it would, it has achieved a high profile as the adopted interface of the Zoomer PDA, a personal digital assistant marketed by Tandy and Casio. The PC suite of GeoWorks programs, GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0, is still being sold and offers a viable alternative to Windows. GeoWorks Ensemble deserves more attention than it's getting, and GeoWorks recognizes that. In fact, it's decided to move the GeoWrite (word processor) portion of the Ensemble package into shareware as GeoPublish. This program can do just about everything you need for desktop-publishing (dtp) projects. It's a first-class act! An added bonus is its efficient design: GEOS moves as fast on 640K 286 systems as Windows does on 4MB 386 systems. Graphical Interface Goodies The GEOS interface closely resembles Windows. If you like mousable icons, buttons, dialog boxes, scalable windows and pull-down menus, you'll love GeoPublish. If you'd like a DOS shell that offers tree views of directories (XTree-style) or icon views of files (Macintosh-style), you'll love GeoPublish even more. Because along with the word processor, you get GeoManager, a graphical file manager for copying, moving, renaming and deleting files. With its graphical approach, GeoManager is probably the best place for beginners to go to get a handle on simple DOS operations. Both Windows and GEOS multitask, letting you work on more than one document or program at a time. Another neat interface feature is GEOS's pinnable menu. Just about every menu can be "torn off" and "pinned" to the desktop. Imagine not having to pull down menus and root through submenus when you're "auditioning" fonts or performing other tedious formatting chores. GEOS asks much less of your system than does Windows. All you need to run GeoPublish is 640K of RAM, DOS 3.0 or higher, a hard disk (occupies 5MB of space), a mouse, and a graphics card -- Hercules, CGA, EGA or VGA! (16-color Tandy Graphics are not supported, but the two-color CGA mode works fine on Tandy 1000 systems.) A mouse and a 286 or better processor are recommended. Word-Processing Power All the text-editing features you expect are there in GeoPublish. You can apply formatting and search/replace text, all with the help of the mouse. Everything is WYSIWYG, of course, meaning you see all elements onscreen exactly as they will print. Clicking is encouraged! You can click on the Window menu to cycle among all your open documents. You can click on toolbar elements to set tabs, paragraph spacing (single, double or triple), text attributes (bold, italic, bold- italic), alignment (flush left, right, centered and justified) and fonts. Speaking of fonts, you get nine, including clones for Times Roman, Helvetica and Cooper Black. The fonts are scalable from 4 to 792 points in size. You may also click to select drawing tools for lines, boxes, circles and Bezier curves. Or click to rotate text and graphic elements -- this is a powerful feature not many dtp programs offer. Up to 32 columns are allowed per page, so GeoPublish is a good choice for producing newsletters. Its text-wrap features let you drop a graphic into an article without having the words overrunning the picture. A lot of effort goes into formatting newsletters and other complex documents, but GeoPublish does much of the work for you. It comes with eight document templates already formatted with font, margin, attribute and spacing settings. All you have to do is double-click to replace the template's boilerplate text with your own words. The headlines will be large and the subheads will be bold without your having to do anything special. Templates are included for awards, business letters, envelopes, fax cover sheets, two-column newsletters and more. Thanks to the GEOS engine, all printouts will take best advantage of your printer. Even nine- pin dot-matrix printers will turn out impressive, laser-like results. What's Missing? GeoPublish is a power-packed program that beats Windows Write to Redmond and back. But in its shareware incarnation it lacks a few vital features that would put it head-to-head with programs like Microsoft Word and WordPerfect. Namely, a spelling checker and a thesaurus. Other important no-shows are import/export filters -- which means you won't be able to import canned clip art or export your magnum opus for spell checking elsewhere. All limitations are cast aside when you register, however. The Benefits of Registering GeoPublish is useful as is, but you'll want to register, and you should. The $79.95 registration fee is small compared to what you'll get. Not only will you receive a spelling checker, thesaurus and import/export filters, but also the complete GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0 package! That's GeoCalc (a spreadsheet), GeoFile ( flat-file database), GeoDraw (paint/draw program), GeoComm (a communications program), GeoBanner (a banner printer), games (Solitaire and Tetris) and more. I'd call that a pretty "suite" deal! | Software Shopper Ordering Information: | | GeoPublish HD0041 2 Disk $10.00 | -=*=- HOCUS POCUS: ARCADE MAGIC FROM APOGEE Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble; give me an Apogee arcade game -- on the double! Hey, it works! Life is good when you have a new Apogee game to play, and you have one in Hocus Pocus. If you're fond of "platform"-type, run-jump-and-shoot arcade games in the vein of Commander Keen and Monster Bash, you'll like Hocus Pocus. It's a smooth-scrolling VGA arcade game in which you shoot bad guys, leap up and down among platforms, grab health restoratives, seek out talismans, and look for "crystals" that advance you to higher levels. In the game you take the part of young Hocus, a wizard-in-training who's been singled out by the Council of Wizards for a dangerous mission. (If only you hadn't been doodling in the margins of your spellbook, they might have picked on someone else!) And so you venture through strange realms, encountering dragons, demons, imps and other creatures. You defend yourself by throwing "spells" (which are like bullets in other Apogee games), and occasionally you stumble upon magic potions to temporarily heighten your powers and give you new abilities (to teleport and fire spells more rapidly). Hocus Pocus has welcome humorous touches. A senior wizard who pops in occasionally to deliver hints or comments will say things like, "Haven't you found that secret treasure room yet?" and "It took me 67 years to grow this beard." The animation is amusing too. The marching mushrooms are a kick, and Hocus makes a point of "braking" at the end of his jumps. The VGA graphics are of Apogee's usual excellence -- as are the sound effects and music. Hocus Pocus offers a variety of "theme music" that plays while you play. Of course you'll need a sound card to hear it. All popular sound cards are supported. This shareware episode is the first of a four-parter. If you want the other three episodes of Hocus Pocus, you must register for $24.95. Considering many Nintendo games cost twice as much but aren't half as good, that's a bargain! | Software Shopper Ordering Information: | | Hocus Pocus HD0043 1 Disk $8.00 | -=*=- NEOBOOK PROFESSIONAL GETS PUMPED IN V2.0 A few short months ago I basked in the power and ease of use of NeoBook Professional 1.0, a DOS multimedia authoring program that lets its users create disk-based books, magazines and more. Picky person that I am, I composed a wish list of features I hoped to see in Version 2.0. Well, Version 2.0 is here, and so are those nifty features! (Now, that's service. Thanks, NeoSoft!) NeoBook was awesome before, but now it's untouchable. What's new? Animation! Besides letting you embed sounds and still images in your multimedia application, NeoBook Professional 2.0 allows you to call Autodesk Animator .FLI/.FLC files. There's nothing like a little motion to bring an article to life! NeoBook Pro 2.0 also now supports 24- bit color (images with 16 million colors). One of my favorite new features is more of a fix: Version 1.0 had a little glitch where letters would wander away from their words; Version 2.0 doesn't have this problem. Whether you feed it ASCII text files with or without line breaks, NeoBook Pro keeps words together and looking sharp. Like NeoBook Pro 1.0, Version 2.0 lets you create stand-alone applications (.EXE files) you can distribute hither and yon. But unlike 1.0, Version 2.0 supports the keyboard! Your readers no longer have to have a mouse to read your application -- they can navigate using the tab, arrow and PAGE UP/DOWN keys. NeoBook Pro 2.0's list of requirements remains minimal: any processor (including PC/XT), 640K, DOS 3.1+, a hard drive, a mouse and one of these graphics cards: Hercules, EGA, VGA or SVGA. The only video card not supported is CGA. Registration for NeoBook Pro 2.0 is $89.95, though you can register for $45 to get "plain" NeoBook (no sound or animation support). On a scale of 1 to 10, NeoBook Pro v2.0 rates a 10. | Software Shopper Ordering Information: | | NeoBook Professional v2.0 HD0048 1 Disk $8.00 | -=*=- WINFORMANT: 7 UTILITIES IN FOR WINDOWS If you polled a group of Windows users for the utility they would most like to see, you'd probably get this unanimous answer: "An uninstaller!" It's true, Windows programs rarely pick up after themselves. When the time comes to delete a Windows program from your hard drive, you often must play detective in tracking down the bits, parts and pieces it leaves behind. To the rescue comes Neocom's wInformant, a suite of seven utilities that run from a "toolbar." And one of the seven happens to be called Uninstall. Yes, the Uninstall utility does a good job of seeking out and getting rid of program files, help files, .INI files, groups, subdirectories, OLE objects and system .INI entries. If you asked me for the Windows utility I would most like to see, I'd probably say, "A good file finder." wInformant has one in its Search program. This utility finds files fast and allows you to execute them with a simple mouse click. (If you're a person who, like me, "loses" files, you need this!) The rest of the utilities include: Swapfile (tests Windows' swapfiles); DLL/VBX (a programmer's utility for finding redundant FLL/VBX files); Prof.Edit (efficient way to edit .INI files); Restart (a one-click Windows' restart button); and Eject (a fast exit button). Registration is a reasonable $39. | Software Shopper Ordering Information: | | wInformant HD0045 1 Disk $8.00 | -=*=- PRESENTATION GRAPHICS: ON WITH THE SHOW COLOR PRESENTATION MAGIC NEOSHOW PRO QUIKGRAF Presentation software is a class of programs to help businesspeople and educators -- and anyone else who must stand and talk in front of a group of people -- instruct, persuade or inform. With presentation programs you can prepare "slides" to show on your computer screen: pictures, outlines and charts that will help drive your point home. You can even set up self- running presentations that progress from slide to slide automatically. Commercial presentation programs like Harvard Graphics can do it all, everything from giving you outline editors for "text slides" to putting together self-running presentations to translating spreadsheet data into graphs. There is no "do-it-all" presentation program in the shareware market. But the good news is that you can use several specialized shareware programs to create just about any presentation you need! QuikGraf is a Windows-based shareware program that turns x,y-type data into a graph or chart (which you can save as an image file). NeoShow Pro lets you link images together in an onscreen slide-show display. Color Presentation Manager lets you create slides for printout -- no onscreen displays or graphic export supported. Let's take a closer look at each of these shareware solutions. QuikGraf If it seems like the buckets of figures you must deliver to your audience will be too much for them to digest, consider not delivering them at all. Use charts and graphs to tell the tale in easy visual bites. Peninsula Software's QuikGraf 1.0 for Windows quickly transforms data into charts and graphs. It's great if you're starting from scratch -- there's a table grid into which you type your numbers (up to 16 rows and 99 columns). It's not so great if you have data already prepared in a spreadsheet program; no data import is offered, so you'll have to retype it in QuikGraf. After entering the data comes the fun part -- deciding which of the 11 exciting chart styles to use! QuikGraf has bar, line, pie, polar surface and hi-lo-close charts (some of them in 3-D flavors as well as 2-D). It's like putting a tuxedo on boring figures! The graphical options don't stop there. You can choose colors and assign labels. Charts can be saved in .BMP and .WMF file formats for import into other programs. NeoShow Pro Imagine a salesman who can rattle off your product's features, night and day. That's NeoShow Pro -- a DOS program that lets you create computer "slide show" presentations of .PCX and .GIF images in resolutions as high as 1024 by 768 (256-color). The images can come from paint programs, image libraries, clip art, or your own scanner. NeoShow Pro links the images with exciting transition effects like you see on the news. You can have one image fade into the next, explode into the next, dissolve, implode or weave. You can easily "program" your presentation to wait for a keypress before proceeding, or the presentation can be totally automatic. NeoShow Pro's graphical interface allows you to easily choose image files, effects, time intervals (how long each "slide" is to stay onscreen), and even lets you attach sound files (in Sound Blaster .VOC format) to slides. Unlike Harvard Graphics and Freelance, NeoShow Pro offers no facilities for creating graphs or bulleted lists -- but you can create these kinds of "slides" in paint programs more easily than you think. A compiler is included to turn a presentation into a single executable (.EXE) program that can run on any computer -- license-free -- without NeoShow Pro itself. This is a helpful feature for professionals who must take their shows on the road. It costs $89.95 to register NeoShow Pro. A less expensive version of the program, NeoShow ($35 to register), is available for those who don't need compiling. NeoShow/Pro requires 640K of RAM, DOS 3.1+, a hard disk and EGA, VGA or SVGA graphics; it works even on XT-compatible computers. Color Presentation Magic! If your goal is to generate full-page transparencies to slap on an overhead projector, try Color Presentation Magic!. It lets you put together "slides" with either graphs or bulleted text lists. The program is optimized for use with color thermal transfer printers, but as a Windows program it of course works with any Windows-supported printer. Besides printing full-page transparencies, Color Presentation Magic! can also print four "slides" per page -- perfect for audience handouts. Bulleted lists are tools that keep the main points of a presentation in view: outlines to help audiences stay on track while the speaker adds layers of verbal detail. There are usually at least three items in the list but no more than five. Color Presentation Magic! lets you adjust fonts and typesizes for a perfect fit. You can also create colorful graphs using Color Presentation Magic!. Four basic chart styles are offered: bar, line, pie and double pie, with 2-D and 3-D variations. Whether you're creating slides with text or graphs, you can choose colorful backgrounds from a gallery of styles. The authors of Color Presentation Magic! designed the program to offer features that presentation designers use most -- to be streamlined and easy to use. It is both. | Software Shopper Ordering Information: | | Color Pres. Magic HD0040 2 Disk $12.00 | | NeoShow Pro NV9301 329K $6.00 | | QuikGraf HD0018 1 Disk $8.00 | -=-------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- --------------=- FYI ~~~ CAPTURING SCREENS IN WINDOWS Your keyboard's Print Screen key does something pretty neat in most DOS programs: press it and you get a screen dump (a snapshot of your current screen) sent to the printer as a printout. You can also use it at the DOS prompt as a quick way of printing the contents of short files, like the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. In Windows the Print Screen key has a similar function. But instead of sending a snapshot of the screen to the printer, it sends it to the Clipboard. And you know that anything from the Clipboard can be "pasted" into just about any other Windows program using the Edit-Paste option. (Try it inside Windows' Paintbrush.) Why would you want to do this, you ask? Capturing screens in Windows has a number of uses: for providing illustrations to go along with a software manual you're writing; for proving to your friends that, yes, you really did once score 425 in Solitaire; or, more practically, for pulling in onscreen text from a DOS session without having to retype it in your Windows program. -=-------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- --------------=- Featured Selection ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our pick of the best of what's new in shareware. We're offering these programs at half off our normal distribution costs until November 30, 1994. Want the whole bunch? We'll send them to you for $20 -- that's an additional $4 savings. GeoPublish Terrific home-publishing value! GeoPublish is a shareware home publishing package based on the powerful and easy-to-use GEOS operating environment (which is a Windows-like GUI). See review above. Requires: 640K, DOS 3.0+, hard drive File #: HD0041 Size: 2 Disk Cost: [NOT $10] BUT $5 The Greatest Paper Airplanes v1.0 Flight principles and airplane designs! Want to learn to fold classroom darts and principles of flight too? Check out The Greatest Paper Airplanes. You'll see the folding steps in 3-D animation. You can also let the program generate printouts with folding lines and military decorations. Five darts, "schoolyard specials," are included. Gliders and "Stealth"-style planes are included in the registered version ($29.95). Requires: Windows 3.1 and at least 2MB RAM File #: HD0042 Size: 1 Disk Cost: [NOT $8] BUT $4 Hocus Pocus v1.0 Arcade trials of a young wizard If you like "platform"-type, run-jump-and-shoot arcade games in the vein of Commander Keen, Monster Bash and Duke Nukem, you'll be pleased with this new Apogee classic. See the review above. Requires: 386 SX+ CPU, VGA, hard drive, 640K File #: HD0043 Size: 1 Disk Cost: [NOT $8] BUT $4 MVP Wordsearch for Windows Seek and find in Windows Like word-search puzzles? Try this one from MVP Software. It comes with many puzzles you can solve, plus you can let the program create word-search puzzles from your word lists -- and print puzzles for "offscreen" solving. Requires: Windows 3.1 and VGA; printer optional File #: AU9420 Size: 249K Cost: [NOT $6] BUT $3 NeoBook Professional v2.0 Heavy-duty multimedia authoring system! NeoBook Professional is an authoring system for creating multimedia disk-based newsletters, books, catalogs and more. Your readers will be amazed by the VCR-style controls and the button interface. NeoBook Pro is a powerful authoring system. (Also available on low-density disks, our DE9388, $10.00.) See the review above. Requires: 640K, DOS 3.1+, hard disk, mouse, EGA+ File #: HD0048 Size: 1 Disk Cost: [NOT $8] BUT $4 wInformant v1.00 Drudgery-free Windows housekeeping wInformant is a 7-in-1 advanced utility system for Windows. It runs from a toolbar and was designed by systems analysts at Neocom to "take the drudgery out of everyday Windows housekeeping tasks." See the review above. Requires: Windows 3.1 File #: HD0045 Size: 1 Disk Cost: [NOT $8] BUT $4 -=-------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- --------------=- New Releases ~~~~~~~~~~~~ NEW SHAREWARE PROGRAMS!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~ DOS PROGRAMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Simple Bookkeeper v3.0 Single-entry bookkeeping The "easiest single-entry bookkeeping system available," this program is designed to complement your present accounting program and "does not require any accounting or computer expertise." It tracks income and expenses of a small business or home business and produces a variety of reports. Requires: 384K, DOS 2.1+ and a hard drive File Number: AU9417 Size: 254K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 EZ-Calendar v1.2 What am I doing when? A date-tracking program that allows you to leave messages for any date between 1899 to 2099. EZ-Calendar offers a message- search function, cut-and-paste between different dates, and more. Requires: 640K and a floppy drive File Number: AU9411 Size: 159K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $5.60 Dr. Form v3.1 Design and print your own custom forms Dr. Form is your answer for designing forms and even filling them in onscreen. It includes an automatic grid maker, and you can draw lines and fill in areas with patterns (you have access to the entire extended character set). Forms can be as large as 81 rows by 136 columns. If you have a mouse, all of this can be done without touching the keyboard. Dr. Form lets you create "master forms," which can be filled in onscreen. In Fill-In mode you can print just the filled-in portion on preprinted forms, or you can print the entire form on blank paper. Depending on your printer, Dr. Form prints text in bold, italic, underlines, etc. Supports dot-matrix and laser printers. Dr. Form will work on practically any PC compatible; a mouse and hard drive are recommended. Requires: 640K and CGA or better graphics File Number: AU9407 Size: 362k Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 Write Chinese v1.01 Teaches basic Chinese calligraphy Write Chinese is a program that teaches basic Chinese calligraphy. Its tutorial focuses on the 150 most frequently used characters (which constitute about one-third of all printed materials). Students' strokes are monitored as they draw them in a "nine-square box." The program evaluates each program as it is being drawn, providing continuous feedback and positive reinforcement. Also teaches Mandarin/Cantonese transliterations and character meanings. Requires: 286+ CPU, hard drive, VGA, mouse File Number: AU9413 Size: 148K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $5.20 Merlin's Math Multiplication wizardry for kids Merlin's Math teaches children how to multiply and divide multiple-digit numbers. Starting as an apprentice magician, the student gains in power by solving problems of increasing difficulty. Points are awarded on the basis of speed, accuracy and the difficulty level of the problem. Requires: 286+, hard drive, VGA, mouse File Number: AU9415 Size: 182K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 Sea School: Math Waves VGA math fun for preschoolers Kids 3 and up will enjoy this math "edutainment" program that features colorful graphics, music, speech and sound effects. Kids get practice in counting, simple addition and numerical sequences, along with positive feedback and encouragement. This program is the first part of a trilogy; you'll receive the other two episodes by registering ($29.95). By MVP Software. Requires: 286+ CPU, 512K, VGA, hard drive, mouse File Number: HD0046 Size: 1 Disk Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $8 Krazy-Face v1.0 Kids mix and match to "draw" faces Kids who like Mr. Potatohead will enjoy Krazy-Face. It's a mouse-driven face-builder program for kids age 3 and up. It's so easy to use that your children won't need your help to play with it! Kids can choose from a gallery of facial features (hair, eyes, nose, mouth, accessories) for both male and female characters. Or they can draw their own characters from scratch. Supports Sound Blaster for melodies that play in the background. Requires: 286+ CPU, DOS 3.3+, hard drive, VGA File Number: HD0044 Size: 1 Disk Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $8 California Earthquakes Magnitude and location of past quakes California had an unbelievably large number of earthquakes in January 1994. Using data obtained from Caltech and the USGS, this program shows you the time, magnitude and approximate location of each of those quakes. The registered version comes with earthquake data for 1992, 1993 and 1994. Requires: 386+ CPU, VGA, mouse File Number: AU9419 Size: 179K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 Cultural Awareness How cultural-literate are you? This program tests and improves your children's "cultural literacy." It has two levels of play. At the novice level, Cultural Awareness is suitable for students in sixth grade and up. At the advanced level, the game is a challenge for adults. The testing is essay-style. Topics include proverbs, idioms, grammar, children's literature, mythology, music, art, philosophy, the Bible, world religions, history, geography, science, technology, mathematics and more. Requires: a hard drive File Number: AU9414 Size: 186K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 Mystic Towers Even old warriors can do some damage With dark forces overcoming the gentle land, and an unfortunate absence of young warriors to battle the evildoers, it falls to the not-so-young Baron Baldric to pick up the magic staff and set things right. Not to be confused with Apogee's popular platform-type arcade games, Mystic Towers is an action/puzzle-packed adventure in which you must explore hundreds of rooms and use magic (and your wits) to overcome obstacles. Baldric is a humorous and complex little character who can jump, push, pull, flip switches, open doors, climb and cast a variety of spells. The game also features VGA graphics, amusing animation and a digital soundtrack (Sound Blaster or compatible required). Requires: 286+ CPU, VGA, hard drive File Number: HD0051 Size: 1 Disk Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $8 Games Magazine Presents Word Puzzle Cryptograms, crosswords and more A "graphical potpourri of word games for players too smart or too bored with the shareware shoot-'em-up scene." Includes 20 puzzles, among them cryptograms, crosswords, double crosses, word scrambles and quote boxes. Features attractive graphics and an original music score, which is supported by most popular sound cards. This is a shareware version of a commercial program from Villa Crespo Software. (This shareware version is distributed by MVP Software.) Please order on a 1.44MB, 3.5-inch, high-density floppy, because there is too much compressed data here to fit on a 1.2MB disk. Requires: VGA File Number: HD0047 Size: 1 Disk Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $8 Peter Box VGA logic puzzle game from Spain Peter Box comes to us from a Spanish company called True Emotions. The game is a logic puzzler in which you must cover up X's with "boxes": the boxes must be moved in a particular order to conquer each level, and each level grows more complex as you progress. To make things more interesting, the computer counts your moves and puts you on a timer. Requires: 640K and VGA (286+ CPU recommended) File Number: AU9410 Size: 327K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 Show Maker Multimedia authoring for novices Show Maker is a multimedia authoring program designed especially for novice users. Novices, you can use this program to create your own custom presentations, advertising "kiosks," demos, tutorials, reports and more. With this package you can combine human speech with music, sound effects, text, neat transition effects and high-resolution images (up to SVGA). Supports .PCX, .TIF, .GIF, Targa, .VOC, .CMF, .WAV and .MID MIDI files. For best results you'll want a Sound Blaster. Requires: DOS 2.1+, VGA and a hard drive File Number: AU9403 Size: 352K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 EdgeFlow v5.0 Do flowcharts, orgcharts and diagrams EdgeFlow is a feature-rich flowcharting and diagramming tool for DOS. It has automatic line-routing aids, an intuitive graphical-style interface, easy text entry, onscreen editing, pan/zoom and more. EdgeFlow remembers connections between figures. When text exceeds the size of a figure, the figure grows automatically. When you move a figure, connections to other figures and labels move along. You can use EdgeFlow to create flowcharts, organization charts, data-flow diagrams, block diagrams and more. You'll need a mouse. (Supports EGA, VGA and Hercules graphics.) Requires: 512K, DOS 2.0+, 720K disk space, EGA+ File Number: AU9401 Size: 233K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 1994 Football Guide Has 1994 schedules! Computes standings! If you are an NFL football fan, you will love this program. Not only does it contain the 1994 NFL schedules, but it also computes standings from the results that you enter each week (in an easy-to-enter format). It makes predictions of which teams will win based on four variables: won/lost records, points for/against ratios, winning streaks and home-team advantage. Up to 20 players can compete in office pools. Requires: a floppy drive File Number: AU9416 Size: 164K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $5.75 Insty Install program for programmers INSTY is a configurable program that lets programmers create installation routines for their software. It checks for files, sufficient disk space, valid drives and directories. It can alter the PATH statement, does not use the DOS COPY command, and offers a friendly user interface. Requires: 256K and a floppy drive File Number: AU9412 Size: 120K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $2 Simply Help v1.06 Turn hypertext documents into .EXE files With Simply Help you can create text-based hypertext documents as .EXE or TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) files. This means you can add custom online help to any DOS-based program, whether your own or a commercial program. Includes a complete integrated development environment for hypertext. Modify any aspect of your document and then "run" it to see the results. Easy to use with pull-down menus, dialog boxes, mouse support, compiler and libraries for QuickBASIC 4.5 and PDS 7.1. Requires: File Number: AU9408 Size: 346K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 Racontex v3.25 Text search and retrieval Racontex is a shareware alternative for commercial programs like ZyIndex, FolioViews and askSam: it's a text-search program that lets you "look up" something in a computer file. Type in a word to look up, and Racontex will let you jump to very occurrence of that word in the file. Useful for legal transcripts and manuals. Requires: 256K, DOS 3.2+, 500K disk space File Number: AU9404 Size: 315k Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 Deadwood v1.22 Which files are deadwood on your system? DeadWood is a file-management utility that lets you find files that are not being used, so you can consider getting rid of them and recovering the disk space. The system has two parts: a file-management program and a pair of small (19K total) TSRs that track file usage under both DOS and Windows. File Number: AU9418 Size: 236K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 WStyle v1.16 Want to improve your writing style? The Wintertree Writing Style Analzyer (WStyle) can help improve your writing in two ways. First, it examines your writing for common problems, such as redundant words, wordy phrases and awkward sentence structure. Second, it analyzes your writing style and presents statistics that tell you where your writing is weak and where it is strong. Although WStyle is not a substitute for an independent review, it can help you to write more clearly and directly, avoiding common errors. Requires: a floppy disk File Number: AU9409 Size: 298K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 Writer's Editor v1.0 Write a whole book as one file The Writer's Editor is a word processor that lets you work with "live outlines." It gives you an overview command of organized material. For example, if you're writing a book about dogs, the first screen could contain nothing but the specifications "Sporting," "Working," etc. After jumping to the "Working" section you could jump down to individual breeds. Or you could divide your file into chapters, cutting and pasting among them as necessary. A whole book could be written in one file. File Number: AU9406 Size: 335k Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WINDOWS PROGRAMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AdMaker v3.5 Create your own display ads AdMaker is a special-purpose desktop-publishing program designed to do only one thing: help your business produce small display advertisements for newspapers, newsletters and flyers. "While it's not suitable for color ads in slick magazines, the program is ideal for smaller ads in other publications." AdMaker prints camera-ready artwork from any Windows printer (laser recommended), and ad sizes can be as large as 7.5 by 9.5 inches. TrueType and Adobe fonts are supported, and you can add clip art and line drawings. Requires: a 386+ CPU and Windows 3.1 File Number: HD0037 Size: 1 Disk Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $8 CAD/DRAW v1.11a Powerful computer-aided design If you need to draw blueprints, plans or elevations in Windows, try CAD/DRAW. It features numerous drawing tools, multiple layers (up to 256) and color support. It also has associative dimensioning, library management, user-defined hatchings, context-sensitive help and more. Commands are available by menu, keyboard command or icons. Requires: Windows 3.x File Number: HD0038 Size: 1 Disk Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $8 ShowStopper for Windows v1.1 Turns dBASE scripts into a show A multimedia development tool for creating training applications or any kind of multimedia presentation. Scripts are created in a dBASE file to display screens with 256-color images and scrollable text as well as sound clips (.WAV files). You can also design multiple-choice screens for user interaction. Create your scripts using Wampum or another dBASE clone. Requires: Windows 3.1 File Number: HD0036 Size: 1 Disk Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $8 Color Presentation Magic! v1.5 Super slide-based presentations Ever need to put together "slide"-type presentations quickly but don't want to lay down a chunk of change or study a manual for hours and hours? Color Presentation Magic! is for you. It's the "first presentation program designed exclusively for creating office presentations. It is designed with secretaries, salespeople, marketing and general office personnel in mind." This Windows program is so easy to use, you don't need to refer to documentation (I know you've heard this many times before, but it's true here too!). Creating a slide is as easy as clicking on the New Slide button from the large vertical, toolbar. In fact, you do just about everything from the large vertical toolbar, whether preparing text for bullet charts or jumping into a chart or graph. You get a variety of pie, bar and line chart styles to choose from, and it's easy to customize them with your own data, labels and titles. Plus you can add slide backgrounds with lines and color gradients. Up to 15 slides are allowed per presentation file. The system is optimized for color thermal-transfer printers. If you register ($34.95) you'll get a spelling checker and a drag-and-drop slide sorter. Available on 1.44MB disks only: there is too much data to fit on two 1.2MB floppies. Requires: 386+ CPU, 4MB RAM, DOS 5.0+, Windows 3.1 File Number: HD0040 Size: 2 Disk Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $12 SuperFlow v1.01 Windows-based diagrammer Try SuperFlow for professional flow charting and presentation. Its drawing capabilities include auto-connection rerouting, extensive font support, connectors, templates and user-defined objects. Requires: Windows File Number: AU9402 Size: 320K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 Cross-Stitch Designer v2.0 Experiment with cross-stitch patterns Isn't it about time someone came up with a program for needlepoint and cross-stitch hobbyists? Someone has! Cross- Stitch Designer is a Windows 3.1 program that allows you to draw cross-stitch patterns on the screen using your mouse. Types of stitches supported include full, half, quarter and outline; and "threads" can be viewed in 16 or 256 colors. You can print a pattern at any time in either stitch mode or the symbolic mode, in which symbols are used to represent the various thread colors. Windows' cut-and-paste is supported, which means you can drop a Paintbrush creation into your cross-stitch design! Requires: Windows 3.1, VGA, mouse File Number: AU9421 Size: 107K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $3 Plug-In for Windows v2.0 Fills in gaps in the Windows GUI Plug-In Manager is designed to fill in Windows' "holes" with a variety of interface enhancements. Its most important talent is letting you create nested groups in Program Manager: yes, now you can put groups within groups -- as many DOS menuing utilities let you do. It's an intuitive way to organize applications for both beginners and pros, and it's neater. Other handy things Plug-In Manager does is let you decorate Windows' title bars with the time, date, a stopwatch and a resource watchdog (to keep an eye on your free drive space, for example). You can also set alarms and change the look of your mouse cursor. Another important feature is the "Power Button": a Task-Manager-like tool that helps you quickly get where you want to go (the button is located conveniently at the left on the title bar of the active application). Requires: Windows 3.1 File Number: HD0049 Size: 1 Disk Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $8 Spelling Sentry Spelling checker for Windows Spelling Sentry can check and correct the spelling of words in Windows Write files, text files and the Clipboard. It comes with a 100,000-word dictionary and supports three types of user dictionaries. Additional features include American/British rules selection, drag-and-drop file checking, readability statistics, detection of repeated words, and automatic correction of frequently misspelled words. File Number: AU9405 Size: 332k Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 -=-------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- --------------=- New Versions ~~~~~~~~~~~~ NEW UPDATES TO SHAREWARE PROGRAMS Court Rules Service 2.0, Hypertext Software for lawyers and paralegals For the legal professional or just the curious, Court Rules Service 2.0, Hypertext Guide, offers a sampling of federal court and appeals rules, including civil, criminal, copyright, bankruptcy, habeas corpus and more. Now includes the federal criminal sentencing guidelines and the Uniform Commercial Code as well as a special report containing all federal laws providing for recovery of attorneys' fees. Requires: 640K and DOS 3.1+; mouse recommended File Number: NV9388 Size: 336K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 EnVision Publisher v2.0 Best DOS desktop publisher in shareware EnVision Publisher is better than ever in its latest update! This award-winning WYSIWYG program is a full-featured blockbuster! EnVision Publisher, whose mousable interface looks much like that of Windows, lets you easily design and print attractive letterheads, resumes, flyers, newsletters, greeting cards, brochures and more. Import graphic files (clip art or scanned photos), arrange articles in columns, and block your copy in one of the included fonts (scalable from 4 to 144 points). Special layout features include master pages, style sheets, cut/paste, leading and kerning control, page numbering, flexible page sizes, text rotation, text fill patterns and more. Supports laser, dot-matrix, inkjet and PostScript printers. (You can even send the output to a disk file.) It also works even on XTs with CGA or Hercules graphics. Requires: 512K, hard disk, graphics card, printer File Number: OC9240 Size: 2 Disk Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $10 Simply Docs Turn text files into programs This program converts ASCII documents into .EXE files or TSRs. What's the deal? Well, you can add color and hypertext jumps to your words -- and create a smashing on-disk electronic book, newsletter, catalog, etc. You could also use Simply Docs to create online tutorials and manuals for novice DOS users. Files can be printed in whole or part, and the document can be kept in memory while an application is running (like having online help). If you need more hypertext and programming oomph, check out Simply Help (our AU9408, 346K, $6), which offers more power and flexibility to programmers. Requires: a floppy disk File Number: JU9302 Size: 156K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $5 SCREEN Thief v1.56 Captures just about any screen! SCREEN Thief, a primo screen-capture program, captures screens other capture utilities won't touch. It supports all VGA modes, plus extended Trident and Paradise Super-VGA modes. (It can even capture redefined fonts in text mode, such as those used by DOS 6.0.) At capture time it gives you the option of saving to .GIF, .PCX, .TIF or .BMP format. Screen-capture programs are great when you're documenting new software. Now supports the ET4000 chip set. Requires: 286+ CPU, VGA File Number: DE9341 Size: 145k Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $5 Vivid v2.0 Ray tracer that produces stunning images Vivid is a ray tracer, a program that takes a source-code text file of graphics instructions and from it produces stunning "ray-traced" images. Abstract shapes and solid objects come to life in 24-bit, photorealistic color with lighting effects and shadows. You can create the input source file in any text editor. The Vivid "language" looks like C and uses a right- handed coordinate system for defining the location of objects in space. Commands let you specify image size, antialiasing info, viewpoint, lights and surface characteristics. Note: you'll need VGA graphics in order to view the resulting graphics file. The 24-bit .IMG files produced can be converted to .GIF files with an included utility. (This version has been compiled for 286 and better CPUs with math coprocessors; the author also offers code compiled for a bare 8086, but he says, "I hope you don't plan on using your PC in the next month.") Requires: a 286+ CPU and a math coprocessor File Number: MA9412 Size: 313K Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $6 Rockford v3.50 Design and print business cards Stop paying the printer: design your own business cards, and print them on card stock. Rockford is great for times when you need special-purpose cards to highlight your various business assets. With this WYSIWYG program, you can enhance business cards with clip art and lines, plus you can format text with any installed font (TrueType or ATM). Formerly JU9238. Requires: 386+ CPU, Windows 3.1, VGA, printer File Number: HD0039 Size: 1 Disk Software Shopper Dist. Cost: $8 -=-------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- --------------=- What Is Shareware? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WHAT IS SHAREWARE? HOW DOES IT WORK? Shareware operates on the "try before you buy" system. Authors allow their programs to be copied and passed around, among friends, over BBS systems or through services such as Software Shopper. If you find a shareware program is of value to you and you intend to keep and use it, then you must register the program with the author (pay a fee -- the amount varies). Registration gives you various benefits, depending on the author. (Common benefits include printed manuals, newer versions and support if you happen to run into problems.) The fee also helps motivate authors to improve their programs and develop new ones. No part of the money collected by Software Shopper, or any other service, goes to the program authors. Those charges are strictly copying, handling and shipping fees, and they are non-refundable. The author gets paid only when you send in your registration fee. We supply all copies of Shareware programs on both 5-1/4- and 3-1/2- inch disks, although there is an extra charge of 75 cents per disk for 3-1/2-inch (720K) format. Programs are separated into subdirectories on a disk when we make up special orders for you (most of our orders are special orders). A short instruction sheet is packaged with the disk, but your disk label tells you the name of the subdirectories. Generally, our orders are processed within 24 business hours of receipt. Due to volume, we may run a day or so behind from time to time. Our business hours are generally 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. We disclaim any damage that any of the software in Software Shopper may cause and cannot guarantee that any particular system follows sound business practices. Our sole liability, in any event, consists of a refund of the copying and distribution charge we make for providing software to you. We invite and solicit your comments and suggestions about Software Shopper and the Shareware which we make available through it. Our shareware library contains many more programs than appears in this issue of Software Shopper. If you have a specific need, please contact us on our Customer Assistance line, (502) 228-4492. We will do everything we can to try to help. Falsoft, Inc. is an approved vendor and associate member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Graver Road, Muskeg, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007, 3536. -=-------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- --------------=- About the Catalog ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The rest of Software Shopper Online is our database or "catalog" -- the majority of the shareware programs in our archives, which are neither new nor updated this month. While you'll see more than a thousand programs listed in the database, please keep in mind that more is coming! We're still in the process of converting records, so future issues will be more complete. If your favorite shareware title is missing from the database now, it will probably soon be added. Also, a note about how the database is structured. There really is a method to the madness! We divided the database into 32 sections: 16 broad categories for DOS and the same 16 broad categories for Windows. (Categories include Business, Education, Games, Utilities, etc.) Each rather generic category is in turn broken down into smaller subcategories -- for example, "Business" is broken down into Accounting, Contact Management, Personal Finance and others. When you read the database, it will look like each category starts out nicely in alphabetical order -- but then does several A-Z cycles! The reason for this is that the subcategories are also in alphabetical order. Yes, we COULD have separated the database into distinct subcategory files, but your SysOps would have wanted to murder us for making them deal with hundreds of files instead of the slightly unwieldy 32! As long as you know the subcategory structure is there, you should have no trouble finding the kinds of programs you're interested in. Enjoy! -=------------=- T-H-E E-N-D F-O-R N-O-W -=-------------=-