November 1996

Windows 95

Integra Office NT

URL: http://www.windows95.com/apps/
Registered price: $250
Rating: 8/10

This program is a complete group schedular and financial management application for your office -- handle all your time and money chores at once.

You can create reports in all areas of the program, both in billing and scheduling. One of the most interesting features is the ability to create Plans for marketing, billing, payments and so on. If you decide to change a date on a plan, the succeeding dates are all recalculated for you. Additionally, once a Plan is created, you can use it as a template to create plans of a similar type. This relieves you of the donkey work of setting up reminders and follow-ups -- the program handles all that for you.

Shorthand

URL: http://home.zdnet.com/home/filters/main.html
Registered price: $40
Rating: 8/10

Shorthand is a typing productivity tool. It allows you to create short letter abbreviations for the phrases you use most often. When you activate Shorthand via its hotkey and type the abbreviation, Shorthand expands the abbreviation into whichever application you are working in. You can enter names, logins, passwords, and Internet addresses directly into terminal windows, as well as using Shorthand in all your Windows applications.

Smart Address

URL: http://www.windows95.com
Registered price: $60
Rating: 8/10

Smart Address is an attractive and full-featured contact manager. It combines an address book with a diary so it may be all the information manager you need. One of the best features is its document manager: you have instant access to all the documents created for a specific contact. You can also have multiple address books and diaries open at any one time, each running in its own window. Other features include: configurable, multiple address pages; multiple notes per entry; categories; unlimited alarms and reminders; export and import wizards; direct links to your favourite word processor; insertion of addresses or fax numbers; support for over 100 label and envelope formats; automatic backup; full telephone support (including a redial option if the number is busy); and a comprehensive Calendar view.

Windows

The Raven

URL: http://www.fineware.com
Registered price: $45
Rating: 8/10

The Raven is a text management utility. It's ideal for anyone who needs to create documents, such as contracts, from boilerplate text. When you've installed a block into The Raven, you can load the block onto the clipboard by pressing one of the colourful buttons, and you can then use the block over and over again. The program's interface is large and colourful. You can have up to 40 category tabs and each tab can have as many as 50 buttons. Who could use The Raven? Lawyers, doctors, programmers -- anyone sending out information such as support personnel etc.

DOS

Text Organizer/Manager

URL: http://www.zdnet.com/pccomp/freestuff/1001util.html
Registered price: $70
Rating: 8/10

If space is even more of a premium on your notebook than your primary machine you'll like this tiny DOS application which uses a drawer/folder metaphor to store all the text you want to cram into it. Easy and intuitive (unusual in a DOS app), this program will become one of your favourites very quickly. You can have as many drawers and folders as you like. This is a brilliant app for anyone who does research and needs to find their data quickly.