Opening Format

                              Opening Format

                             by Tony Curro

    A few days ago you stuffed yourself with turkey. Now, it is time to

    do your Christmas shopping. I hope you checked out my picks last

    month to help in your purchases. There were many programs that I did

    not touch on last month. I mainly focused on utilities and games. No

    word processors were mentioned. The reason was that I had not yet

    looked at MS Word 6.0 for Windows. After looking at it, I feel that

    if you purchase it, or WordPerfect 6.0 for Windows, you will not be

    disappointed. These are the two big pro grams for Windows. Both

    companies have improved and enhanced their products. Word has made

    it easy for WordPerfect users to make an almost painless switch. On

    the other hand WordPerfect has made its program more windows-like,

    which is a big plus. I have used both products, and do not have any

    negative comments about them.

    Our News column this month has a special offer from Ron Janorkar,

    the author of TagLine Xpress. In addition we have a ton of

    information on new releases and other exciting news.

    This month we look at two hardware products, several CD-ROMs, and

    other programs. In our ShareWare SpotLight, we look at two products

    from Software Creations.

    In other reviews we have:

    Hardware: Viper VL-Bus video card, and another review of

    PaperDirect. PD has a holiday collection, and has also released a

    wonderful new product that makes sign making simple.

    Software: WordPerfect 6.0 for Windows, askSam for Windows, LabelPro

    for Windows and Norton Backup v2.2 for DOS.

    CD-ROM: Global Explorer, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis,

    National Geographic's The Presidents: It All Started With George and

    Microsoft Encarta.

    The CD-ROM marketplace is booming. Many products are being

    re-released on CD-ROM. Others are being released only on CD, while

    some are being released on both platforms simultaneously.

    In my reviews, in the Product Information section, I use the letters

    SRP before the price of an item. This stands for Suggested Retail

    Price. It is the quoted price from the manufacturer. It is NOT the

    street price. It would be impossible to list the street price as it

    varies from store to store. The reason I mention this is that

    several people have commented on it. They said they bought it for

    less than I quoted. If anyone pays the prices I quote, I can sell

    them some prime oceanfront property in Arizona ( country song that I

    like). The prices are here only as a guideline. Generally, it will

    be about 25% or so less in the stores.

    I would to wish all my readers a Happy Hanukkah and a Merry

    Christmas. For anyone celebrating a different holiday, a warm wish

    for you also.

    Due to file size limitations, there are no graphics in this issue.

    Wow! This is the last issue of 1993. When I come back, while it will

    still be '93, it will be for the January 1994 issue. Until then, may

    you always have a safe format.

    Tony Curro...

                           ***   DISCLAIMER  ***

                                 ----------

    The information provided in this magazine are the opinions of the

    author whose name appears at the top of the article.

    We do not wish to discredit a product, company, or  author of said

    product. The software reviews are based solely upon the opinion of

    the author of the review, and his or her experiences from using the

    product in question.

    We further assume no liability from any problems or dissatisfaction

    that a user may have from a product that we have reviewed in our

    magazine.

    The News, Updates, and Upgrade column is not an endorsement of any

    product. It is presented solely for information purposes.

                Tony Curro, Editor - ComputerTalk Magazine.