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(Editor's Note: The WinMag Box Score rates products on installation, usability, supporting materials, functionality, performance and utility. We use a 5-point scale:
1 poor, 2 fair, 3 good, 4 very good and 5 outstanding. A list of recommended desktop systems is at the end of the Reviews section; in future months, other hardware and software products will be added to the Recommended list.)
By Rich Castagna
When your communications needs tend toward the mail of the species, AddressMate offers an easy way to accurately address your company's missives and economize on bulk mailings. This handy mail-merge mechanism works within or without your word processor to print envelopes and labels, maintain an address database and, in this version, ensure that addresses are correct.
Using an AddressMate Plus macro, you get to the program without switching away from Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or Lotus' Word Pro and Ami Pro. In Word, AddressMate adds "Amate" to the menubar, which offers selections to print an envelope, and the document, using the address in your current document. You also can look up an address in AddressMate's address book using up to three search criteria and Boolean operators. The program highlights matching entries in a list to the right of the current record display.
AddressMate Plus' design module lets you modify one of its 100-plus envelope and label layouts, or create your own. It offers a limited toolset to draw lines and rectangles, and add graphics, text and database fields to envelopes and labels.
To build your address database, you fill in AddressMate's record form or add your correspondence addresses. The program supports data imported from .DBF, .DB (Paradox), ASCII and .CSV files. AddressMate displays your original data-base's record structure at the left with AddressMate's on the right; you map the data structure by highlighting corresponding fields and clicking on the Connect button to draw an arrow between fields.
The new address verification feature will check any address against an included Pitney Bowes CD, make sure it's correct and add the U.S. Postal Service's zip+4 suffix. It even fixes addresses you type to conform to USPS standards. I typed an address without the word "street" and with San Francisco abbreviated, and AddressMate corrected both.
AddressMate not only facilitates mail preparation, it saves you money by making sure your correspondence is sent as accurately and inexpensively as possible.
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AddressMate Plus
Price: $99.95; annual CD-ROM subscription, $89
Pros: Address checker; print formats
Cons: Design tools
Platforms: Windows 95, 3.1, NT
Disk Space: 2MB
RAM: 4MB
CoStar Corp.
800-426-7827, 203-661-9700
WinMag Box Score 3.5
By Rich Castagna
Although they're called personal computers, we usually have to share our PCs with colleagues or family members. You can secure your Windows 95 setup from unauthorized users by locking up your PC. A security product known as WinShield offers a more practical solution.
WinShield is a modest utility that lets you restrict access to most key system functions. It goes one better than setting up general user passwords because it lets you selectively choose which features are to be off-limits.
The program's menu is simply a dialog box with nine tabbed pages. Each page lists system functions for a specific category. A check box next to each of about 30 parameters lets you toggle access on or off. For example, by using the System tab, you can prevent access to MS-DOS, hardware drivers and profiles, the Registry and so forth. Set it so diskettes won't be recognized, shut down the CD drive or let only specific CD-ROM discs play.
Set up default and alternate configurations, so you can retain full PC access for yourself while limiting your guests'.
Unfortunately, while it offers these very desirable safeguards, WinShield isn't particularly convenient to use. For instance, if you want to make changes, you have to rerun the installation using the same serial-numbered program copy. When you switch between default and alternate configurations, you will have to restart Windows 95. And the program lacks the file-protection options you'd expect to see.
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WinShield forWindows 95 1.0.2
Price: $49.95
Pros: Provides additional security
Cons: Awkward reconfiguration
Platforms: Windows 95
Disk Space: 90KB
RAM: 4MB
Kent-Marsh Ltd.
800-325-3587, 713-522-LOCK
WinMag Box Score 2.5
By James E. Miller
ASAP Wordpower 1.95, a new presentation graphics package, offers so many excellent design elements--and such unprecedented ease of use--that you'd be hard-pressed to do a bad job with it. (Don't be misled by the name, however; this is not a word processor utility.)
ASAP's built-in smarts go a long way toward automating the presentation process. Type your proposal into your word processor and click the ASAP button; the program builds a default presentation on the spot. You can customize it by changing layouts, color schemes and designs from option in a tabbed list. Your changes are made throughout your presentation. ASAP automatically adjusts fonts and drawing elements when you add more type to a slide, which prevents you from making conflicting choices--so you can fiddle endlessly with a presentation without worrying that your experiments will end in disaster.
The software lets you work in outline or slide views. ASAP doesn't offer a slide sorter, but you can drag and drop slides in outline view, quickly indenting or outdenting points as you sort. ASAP's preview mode is editable, too, and lets you insert graphics. The program automatically reformats text as you switch through the design elements; it can create its own charts or use other packages such as Excel and Harvard ChartXL to build graphs and tables.
The new version adds extra transition effects (depending on the design you choose), new layout/color scheme choices and faster operation. There's hardly any documentation, but you don't need much since the program's design encourages you to explore.
ASAP lacks the bells and whistles, such as multimedia and animation support, found in higher-priced presentation packages. But it's head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to ease of use and productivity gains.
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ASAP WordPower 1.95
Price: $99
Pros: Ease of use; designs; price
Cons: No multimedia support
Platforms: Windows 95, NT
Software Publishing Corp.
800-336-8360, 408-537-3000
WinMag Box Score 5.0
By Joel T. Patz
Corporate sales goals are often regarded as just another set of arbitrary figures that underlings have to meet. How management arrived at these figures and how the message is communicated is often unclear. GoalSetting, a sales management tool, helps remedy this ambiguity by integrating the raw numbers with input from those expected to meet the goals.
After installation, you're asked for basic company information, organizational structure, proposed time period and organizational level, and whether you'll be using a top-down or bottom-up method for setting goals. You can enter this data manually or import it from an Excel 4.0 spreadsheet or an ASCII file. The documentation explains the differences between top-down and bottom-up goal setting.
After entering your company information, you set preliminary sales goals in a spreadsheet-like format, then view the results to check your initial assumptions. If you go back and adjust your goals, the changes are reflected in the summary screen. If there's a large difference between stated and proposed goals, you can find a middle ground. GoalSetting's View/Edit Data screen lets you fine-tune information, taking into account individual, regional and territorial differences.
GoalSetting lets you sort and customize data, then save it as an Excel file. A charting utility offers predesigned charts, or you can choose from a gallery of styles and properties.
Once your goals are in place and your sales force is hard at work, you can track milestones, measure progress and identify your most reliable clients.
The program's helpful and well-written documentation is reproduced in its online help, and each screen's Tip Cards provide valuable assistance. The excellent user interface adjusts to the task at hand.
GoalSetting is an effective tool that provides managers and their sales force with a blueprint for results.
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GoalSetting
Price: $399; introductory offer, $299
Pros: Design; results-oriented
Cons: No formal tutorial
Platforms: Windows 95, 3.x
Disk space: 5MB
RAM: 4MB (8MB recommended)
Young and Associates Ltd.
708-573-2500, fax 708-573-2522
WinMag Box Score 4.0
By James E. Powell
Plenty of programs put word processing documents on the World Wide Web after you import the file and add the appropriate tags. HTML Transit, however, does the work for you, using styles already in your document.
The program's chief benefit, apart from speed, is that it maintains documents in their original form so you can publish updates on the Web (or Intranet server within your own network) with minimal effort. This makes it easy to keep your cyberspace lists of prices, catalogs and manuals current.
I tested Transit with a variety of Word documents. It took some painless experimentation (and, frankly, playing around just to see what this program could do) before I got exactly the look I wanted, but the program took over from there. Specify the input files you want, and the program searches them for style markers, letting you set options for each style. If you haven't used styles, the program can search for text patterns instead. It can create a table of contents and, if your source is marked with index entries, an index, too.
Your template automatically can create horizontal rules before and after content. You also can add graphics and textures from those provided with the program. The template offers incredible flexibility, from turning embedded tables into the appropriate HTML code to handling bulleted lists. Transit can also incorporate files from different word processors into the same output document. Buttons on the main screen let you switch to your Web browser or HTML editor, although changes made in the editor will not be reflected in your template.
Transit makes it easy to experiment and learn the basics quickly. From there, you can become quite sophisticated in your Web-styling. You could, for example, display nonprinting text in an HTML document. Transit templates are easy to modify, and the printed tutorial covers the program well.
Transit does have a few limitations; it can't yet handle forms, for example. But for the majority of your cyberspace text, Transit gets documents moving to the Web at supersonic speed.
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HTML Transit
Price: $495
Pros: Fast; easy to learn
Cons: No forms support
Platforms: Windows 95, 3.x
Disk space: 5MB
RAM: 2MB
InfoAccess
800-344-9737, 206-747-3203
WinMag Box Score 5.0
By Joel T. Patz
How does a business beat its competition? That's a tough question for a small business without a full-time market analyst. Crush, a multimedia course in Marketing 101 and beyond, attempts to give a focused, action-based methodology for analyzing the market and planning a competitive strategy.
Well-known consultant Regis McKenna acts as your Crush mentor. Clicking on mentor window buttons plays short, to-the-point videos on topics such as Competitive Opportunities or Market Trends, with suggestions for implementing strategy.
Crush is divided into four modules: Market, Competitive Analysis, Positioning and Action Plan. Subsections within each group contain questions you'll complete during the analysis process. The Market section, for example, asks for your market focus, quizzing you on trends and the competition.
Establishing a team of the best-qualified individuals, using their talent and expertise to benefit your analysis, is an important aspect of Crush. You can add notes and links to outside files and use the rating tools and graphics to develop an action plan.
Although the program's printed documentation is helpful, its CD-ROM is poorly executed. It cuts topic explanations short, repeats the beginning words of videos and explanatory segments, and sometimes gets visual and audio sequences out of sync. It's also a resource-drainer; I had performance problems on a powerful Dell 133MHz Pentium with 16MB of RAM.
Basically, Crush is a tool to help you think, offering little additional analysis. While the concept is interesting, I'd delay using Crush on the competition until its multimedia quality catches up.
Info File
Crush
Price: $499
Pros: Provides some business strategy assistance
Cons: Design; functionality
Platform: Windows 95, 3.x
Disk Space: 12MB
RAM: 12MB
Hands-On Technology
800-772-2580, 415-579-7755
WinMag Box Score 2.5
By James E. Powell
It's time for your data backup to catch up--with your new operating system, that is. Arcada Backup for Windows 95 includes the features that Windows 95's Backup applet lacks and that Windows 3.x backup programs simply can't handle. It fills Win95's backup gaps with features such as Registry backup and support for a variety of tape units, and it's not flustered by the long filenames that trip up Win3.x backups.
The program provides two equally easy ways of selecting files to back up. You can use the Backup Wizard, or manually select drives, directories and files (modified or normal) by clicking on check marks in Arcada's Explorer-like hierarchical tree display. You can either run your backup immediately or queue it up for later execution using the program's scheduler. The scheduler lets you set times for regular unattended backups and define backup parameters such as "all files in the Document directory" or "all files on drive C."
I was able to minimize the program and let it run in the background while I launched other applications, although there was an occasional lag in response when I switched from one app to the next.
Arcada's restore operations are as easy to understand and use as its backup options.
The program not only handles the software side of backups, but it might also help you get your backup hardware working properly, too. In my tests, Arcada automatically installed drivers for an Adaptec SCSI interface card that were missing in my tape drive configuration. The program also works with Plug-and-Play devices to resolve conflicts between tape devices and other installed hardware peripherals.
Arcada supports a range of backup devices--including parallel, SCSI and floppies--but does not work with older QIC 40 devices. The program has another drawback--it doesn't recognize existing backup sets when adding new files to a tape because the software uses a new catalog system.
Arcada Backup does a good job without a lot of fanfare--and without a lot of fuss. The package is so straightforward and useful that its documentation is almost superfluous. For Windows 95 backups, Arcada is the best available solution you'll find.
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Arcada Backup forWindows 95
Price: $69 (street)
Pros: Installation; performance
Cons: No QIC 40 support
Platforms: Windows 95
Disk Space: 2MB
RAM: 8MB
Arcada Software
800-3ARCADA, 407-333-7500
WinMag Box Score 4.5
By Hailey Lynne McKeefry
Not too long ago, I introduced Macintosh floppy disks to my Windows PC, using DataViz's Conversions Plus. With MacOpener, the same company is now helping put my computer on speaking terms with other Macintosh media, including CD-ROMs and the medium used by removable-cartridge storage devices.
MacOpener, which runs under Windows 95 or 3.x, lets you use and format Macintosh floppy disks, SCSI disks and CD-ROMs through a simple point-and-click interface. The program automatically adds the needed PC file extensions to the files, and also lets you save your PC files in Macintosh formats. Before choosing to move or reformat a file, you can preview it and also get information such as file format, size and the day and time it was created.
The program worked well with every file I tried to open from a floppy disk. However, I ran into problems trying to access files from CD-ROMs. In some cases, the program could not recognize the discs. DataViz is aware of this glitch and will provide a free patch to remedy these occasional lapses. The difficulties are related to certain types of sectoring methods used on some CDs. After installing the patch, I had no trouble accessing the CD-ROM files I needed.
This utility's cost and the software patch are, indeed, a small price to pay for any Windows PC user who needs to work and play well with a Macintosh.
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MacOpener
Price: $49.95 (street)
Pros: Interface
Cons: Compatibility
Platforms: Windows 95, 3.x
Disk Space: 766KB
RAM: 4MB
DataViz
800-733-0030, 203-268-0030
WinMag Box Score 3.5
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