By Rich Castagna

The longest distanceon earth is the space between you and your mouse when you're ready for your presentation's next slide--but the mouse is clear across the stage. You can try to fill the gap as you shuffle back within reach. Or you can stand your ground, and just point and shoot with Interlink's RemotePointPlus.

The RemotePointPlus wireless pointing device uses an in- frared beam to control your cursor. The slender unit fits comfortably in your hand, with your thumb resting on the 7/8-inch rubber disk that controls cursor movement. The disk is really a pointing stick cleverly disguised--in fact, Interlink provides the pointing-stick technology for many notebook PCs. On top of the unit are five more buttons, one midship with four semicircling it.

Below, a sculpted ridge rests against your finger and makes it easy to hang onto the unit, while your index finger sits poised over the "mouse" button on the front of the ridge. A wedge-shaped receiver less than 3 inches tall is on the other end of this setup.

Simply plug the wedge's wire into a serial port, load the VersaPoint Plus software and in five minutes you're unfettered.

The RemotePointPlus has a range of 40 feet and a horizontal range of 175 degrees. With the VersaPoint Plus software, you can program any of the five buttons to turn the cursor into a highlighter, a spotlight, a pen, a clip-art stamper--or just about anything you'd like. Each button can do triple duty, because you can assign separate functions for a single, a long or a double click. To assign functions, you can just drag one of VersaPoint's presets and drop it on a graphic of the pointing unit.

You can practice your pitch to make sure you stay within striking distance of your mouse. Or let your feet lead you where they may, and stay in control with the RemotePointPlus.

--Info File--
Interlink RemotePointPlus
Price: $139 (street)
Pros: Installation; software
Platforms: Windows 95, 3.1x
Interlink Electronics
800-340-1331, 805-484-1331
WinMag Box Score: 4.0