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General & Business Applications - May '97

Windows 95 Windows 3.1

Windows 95

Sybiz Vision Lite

List price: From $2500 (for a three-user licence)
From:
Sybiz 1800 683 783
Minimum system requirements:
486 or better, Windows 95 or Windows 3.11, 8Mb RAM, 25Mb free Hard disk space.
URL: http://www.sybiz.com.au

Outgrown your 'small business', single user accounting software? Is your current system lacking in features and flexibility? Now you can afford to move to the best Australian designed, multi-user accounting software. Sybiz Vision Lite.

Sybiz Vision Lite is a fully integrated, complete Windows accounting solution for the small business. It offers system-wide benefits aimed at improving efficiency, cashflow and profitiability.

Vision Lite gives you all the power a pedigree of Sybiz Vision, a proven multi-user business system. But Sybiz has custom designed the features to suit a smaller business. Vsion Lite has everything a small business needs in the one package - the right features at the right price.

The trial version of Sybiz Vision Lite, which costs around $250 at retail outlets, is free to users of this month's PC User Offline CD. It is fully working for one full month of transactions.

  M.Y.O.B. 6

See the Windows 3.1 section


Info Central from Corel uses a peculiar object linking system to define relationships between pieces of information, as shown here.


While the Info Central approach can work in some instances, the developers have resorted to more appropriate screen layouts for contact lists and so on.

Corel Info Central 7

From: Corel 1800 658 850
URL:, http://www.corel.com
List price: Free with Corel Perfect Office
System requirements: 486 (486DX2 recommended), 8Mb RAM (16Mb recommended), Windows 95, 8-10Mb hard disk space.
Overall rating:

Without doubt, Info Central one of the most peculiar information managers ever released. The product treats any and all information as objects, with any object able to be linked to any other so as to suggest some kind of relationship.

For example, an employee object might have various fields for name, address, direct deposit account, base salary, spouse's name and so on. This might be linked to another employee object using a link that relates to the true management hierarchy.

Early versions of Info Central were limited to objects and links. Theoretically, this made it possible to store almost any kind of information. However, it didn't lend itself particularly well to personal information management.

The latest version, bundled with Corel PerfectOffice, includes several specialist objects such as an address and calendar view. Entries in either of these views can still be tied to other objects, but they appear on the screen in a format more compatible with their nature.

Info Central ships with a wide range of templates. These can turn it to such diverse tasks as managing a fleet of cars, tracking a wine or CD collection, and, if desired, pretending to be a day planner.

Unfortunately, the slightly tortured nature of the product makes it rather ill-suited for quickly plugging in the results of a sales contact or the like. And its highly structured nature forces the user to work the way the software wants, not the other way around.

For this reason, it's difficult to give Info Central the consideration Corel would no doubt like it to enjoy. It might come in handy as a kind of organisational planning tool, and could prove absolutely perfect for mapping a family tree, but as a contact and personal information manager, it doesn't make the grade.

However, Corel is currently giving away the full version of Info Central from its Web site at http://www.corel.com (for a limited time, no doubt) and on our CD-ROM this month -- a fantastic deal in anyone's language.

By Stephen O'Brien


ACT! 3.0 from Symantec is a simple but powerful contact manager with good marketing capabilities.


LiveUpdate! is a new service from Symantec that ensures you always have the most recent bug fixes to software such as ACT! 3.0.

ACT! 3.0

From: Symantec (02) 9879 6577
URL: http://www.symantec.com
List price: $299
System requirements: Windows 95 or NT 3.51 or higher, 8Mb RAM, 23Mb hard disk space
Overall value:

ACT! 3.0 is a good, solid update to an already strong product. Symantec has added flexibility and power without any needless complication. Indeed, most of the changes revolve around a series of tabs that have been added to the two main windows, although Symantec has also removed the completely pointless revolving Rolodex from the left-hand pane.

For the new user, ACT! is a very easy product to learn and use, even with its slightly American feel. (This isn't particularly easy to pinpoint, save that it expects you to work with it, rather than the other way around. Many US business products seen to emphasise a system rather than a framework which can bend to the user's needs). Still, this is less obvious in this version than it was in previous releases.

Entering new contacts is as easy as tapping the Insert key and filling in the fields. Searching is achieved by picking a target field from the 'Lookup' menu and entering a criteria. ACT! also supports freeform searching on any field.

You can recall pre-defined contact groups simply by selecting them from a list that pops up from the lower status bar. An excellent time-saving feature.

Calendar functions can be reached through the Contact menu and offer a range of views. This is all standard stuff, but delve a little further into the product and you'll start to appreciate this release's numerous changes.

For instance, ACT! has a fully customisable interface. That includes every menu, every toolbar, every field and every list. It also supports multiple windows like Maximizer (not reviewed here), has an enormously improved report designer, and -- perfect for workgroups -- built-in data synchronisation.

ACT! also integrates particularly tightly with Windows 95's fax and e-mail subsystems. These include Microsoft Exchange, cc:Mail, CompuServe and Lotus Notes. New mail appears in a special pane, and if another ACT! user sends you one of their contact's cards or schedules, it is a simple matter to integrate that data into your own ACT! database.

E-mail can also be originated from within ACT!, with the full text of the message appearing in the card's notes section. Unfortunately, there is no way to attach incoming e-mail messages to particular cards, making this facility a bit like a two-legged stool.

Still, while ACT! 2.0 was buggy and overrated, this latest version deserves every accolade it will no-doubt receive -- including this one. If you don't mind the corporate rather than personal feel, it is well worth a look.

A trial version of ACT! 3.0 is available from Symantec's Web site at http://www.symantec.com and our CD this month. You can use all of the features in this version, but you cannot open a database containing more than 25 contacts or 25 groups. If you want to try importing or adding more than 25 contacts or groups, you can do so, but you will not be able to reopen that database.

As an added bonus you also get the Trial version of Winfax Pro!

By Stephen O'Brien


Janna Contact Personal is unique in its use of embedded objects such as this map display.

Janna Contact Personal 1.0

From: Solution 5 (02) 9929 6644
URL: http://www.solvit.com.au
List price: $139
System requirements: Windows 95 or NT 3.51 or higher, 12Mb RAM, 8Mb hard disk space
Overall value:

Janna Contact is the new kid on the block-- one with plenty of promise. Like many new products, Janna Contact Personal is an eclectic mix of often good and innovative ideas. However, it takes some getting used to.

Janna offers two primary views: contact and calendar. However, these are far more malleable than the others with plenty of way to drag around tabs, reorder and resize columns and, in fact, drag and drop data from almost anywhere to anywhere.

Unfortunately, glitzy icons and an occasionally muddled screen layout don't give it the suave look of, say, ACT!, Organizer or Outlook. In fact, it looks decidedly home-grown.

However, underneath the interface lies a powerful product with the speed where it counts.

The main Janna screen has a "Hit List" down the left-hand side -- managed by entering a set of selection criteria -- and, across to its right, a tabbed pane that displays different categories of contact information for the highlighted record.

The tabs include general contact data, telephone numbers, custom fields, categories and notes. Categories are a simple way to specify that contact as being part of one or more groups. Typical categories might include "Christmas Card List" and "Good Payer".

Notes are Janna's power play. A note can be any of numerous object types internal to Janna -- meetings, reminders and telephone logs are just a few examples -- or any object dragged from an external source.

The Notes panel is made up of three windows. The tallest one lists each note object while a smaller one displays any explanatory notes attached to that note. The final window is used to display content. This provides instant viewing of word processor documents, spreadsheets, photographs or whatever. So long as you have the supporting OLE-enabled application installed on your computer, the document will display correctly in the viewing window.

OLE 2.0 applications that support in-place editing can be launched with a double-click of the mouse, providing instant editing within the current application's framework. This can be less disconcerting than jumping to an external application, but also a rather cramped way of editing large files.

Janna is an unusual contact manager, if only because the developers have made very good use of the well-connected Windows environment. However, it isn't particularly intuitive, lacks the appealing screen layouts of many of the other packages, and its support for drag-and-drop objects, while innovative for a contact manager, is of limited utility.

A trial version of Janna Contact Personal is available from Solution 5's Web site at http://www.solvit.com.au or our CD this month. This trial version is fully functional, but it will time out 30 days after you first use it. You may choose to purchase Janna Contact Personal at any time during your 30-day trial. Just follow the instructions on your screen.

By Stephen O'Brien


Now Up-to-Date has a well-designed interface and a sprinty QuickAccess Manager.

Now Up-to-Date 1.5

From: Trio Technology (07) 5577 4411
URL:http://www.nowsoft.com
List price: $179
System requirements: Windows 3.1 or 95 (CD-ROM includes both versions), 8Mb RAM, 10Mb hard disk space, Netscape Navigator
Overall value:

Now Up-to-Date looks simple enough, but that's just the first glance. It divides itself between two main screens: address book and calendar, and like all good software, its simplicity is only evidence of how hard the program works behind the scenes.

After installation, the software can be launched from either the unique QuickAccess Manager or by resorting to the usual Start button hierarchy.

The QuickAccess Manager is a small floating button tray with five options. These let you launch the main software, look at you most frequently used names and 'phone numbers, take a look at the day's schedule, instantly open a window for creating a note or logging a telephone call (just assign it to a contact later), and reply to meeting notices.

This forms an ideal way to access the power of Now Up-to-Date without having it loaded all of the time. Unfortunately, the only way to jump back to the Manager after heading into Up-to-Date is to select the manager from the Tools menu. Why didn't the developers automatically make the Manager load after quitting from the program proper?

Now Up-to-Date is easy to use and particularly painless. An AutoType function automatically completes previously typed names and addresses, and tabs down the side of every screen provide quick access to a number of different, attractive views of the contact information or calendar. There is almost no learning curve associated with this product and it is superbly flexible with up to 30 custom fields.

Furthermore, Now Up-to-Date is very Web-savvy. It's a simple matter to drag-and-drop e-mail addresses and URLs into Up-to-Date's fields. Later, double-clicking either will launch Netscape (not Internet Explorer) and either pre-address an e-mail message to the recipient, or jump to the appropriate Web site.

Even more interestingly, it is possible to publish your calendars and contacts to an Intranet. Other users can drag this to their own copy of Up-to-Date and automatically merge the information. (Unfortunately, this feature couldn't be tested on the copy submitted for review, so you'll just have to take Now Software's word for it.)

Now Up-to-Date is an excellent software-based management tool, but it also recognises that not everyone spends their days tied to a desk. The software provides a wide range of paper-based formats compatible with the popular DayRunner, Day-Timer and Franklin Quest organisers. It also has plenty of good plain paper formats, but if you really don't want to sever that electronic umbilical cord, will also, with add-on software, talk to the Palm Pilot PDA.

A 30-day working trial version of Now Up-to-Date 1.5 is available from Now Software's Web site at http://www.nowsoft.com and from our CD this month.

A manual is also provided in Adobe Acrobat format.. This can be found in the \general\Win95\nudw32\manual folder on the CD. If you have Acrobat installed you can view this now.

By Stephen O'Brien

 

DeskNotes

URL: http://www.mindspring.com/~tmastran
Registered price: $50
Rating:

If you use sticky notes programs, you have to check out this one -- it's terrific! The notes you create look thoroughly realistic. You can create notes in a variety of styles; they can look like pages from a legal pad, an index card, or a hole punched card, among others. You can assign sound events to a note and there are over 100 different properties you can assign to your notes, so that they work as you want them to. There's even an included Notes Server, so that you can exchange notes with your friends via e-mail. You manage your notes via Notebooks, so that you can keep all your to-do items in one book, and notes for projects in their own special notebook. If you want to use DeskNotes to manage your URLs, you simply need to click on an URL and you're taken to that site.

By Angela Booth


Klick-N-View Business Cards displays almost -instant business cards with colour and graphics.

Klik-N-View Business Cards

URL: http://www.hotfiles.com
Registered price: $25
Rating:

Klick-N-View is a fast and easy way to create and print your own business cards. You can use colour, any font you have on your system, and you can even include graphics, using OLE. To create a new card, just click on File, New, and then start adding text and graphics to your card. There's Print Preview, so you can check to see what your card will print like. Six samples are provided to get you started. Creating and printing your first card will take you around five minutes.

By Angela Booth


Create brilliant business drawings with SmartDraw 3.0

SmartDraw 3.0

URL: http://www.smartdraw.com
Registered price: $79 (BudgetWare 02-9519 4233)
Rating:

SmartDraw makes fast and simple work of creating great looking flowcharts, diagrams, presentations and other business graphics. Most of the program is drag-and-drop, so no artistic skill is required -- the graphics are contained in libraries and you drag the shape you want onto your screen to use it. There are lots of libraries and templates to choose from and you can purchase more if you need them. The program automatically links your shapes, and you can choose from curved, straight or segmented connectors.

You'll find these new features in version 3.0: instantly format charts, create your own toolbars and shapes, rotate and flip shapes, attach text to lines, instantly format text, print preview, hundreds of new symbols and templates, and open up to 32 drawings and 16 libraries at a time.

By Angela Booth

  Microsoft Project for Windows 95

List price: $799
From: Microsoft (02) 9870 2100, http://www.microsoft.com.au
System requirements: Windows 95 or NT 3.51 or later, 8Mb RAM for Win 95 or 16Mb for NT, 10Mb minimum hard disk installation.

If you plan and manage large-scale projects, such as engineering, construction, software development, system upgrades and so on, your needs will probably go beyond Microsoft Team Manager (see review in the May 97 PC User) to Microsoft Project. You can learn about what Project does at the Project Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/project/ and try it for yourself with the 90-day evaluation version available from the site and our May 97 CD.

 
 

Windows 3.1

  M.Y.O.B. 6

From: Data-Tech Software (02) 9955 3611
URL: http://www.datatech.com.au/myob/

The market leading accounting package for small business -- and the best, according to our reviewers. See M.Y.O.B. 6 review for further details.

Free on our CD is the M.Y.O.B. Test Drive, which costs $10 to buy from a retailer. The only restriction with the Test Drive is a limit of 200 entries, but in all other respects it is fully working. You can setup your own company accounts, print invoices and reports, and anything you enter in the Test Drive can be used when you purchase the full version of M.Y.O.B.

Also included on our CD is an Adobe Acrobat version of the Getting Started book that comes with the Test Drive. You will need to install the Acrobat plug-in to view this online tutorial.

 

Pastel SOHO and Partner

From: Pastel (02) 9957 4010
URL: http://www.pastel.co.za

SOHO is the entry-level version of the popular Pastel Partner accounting package. See Pastel SOHO review for further details.

Trial versions of Pastel SOHO and Pastel Partner, and help files containing knowledgebases for SOHO and Partner, are available from Pastel's Web site at http://www.pastel.co.za -- and of course on our CD this month. The trial versions are full working with the only restriction being the number of transactions which are limited to 800.

 

ACT! 2.0

From: Symantec (02) 9879 6577
URL: http://www.symantec.com
List price: $299
System requirements: Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later, 386 or higher, 4Mb RAM, 5Mb hard disk space

Older, Windows 3.1 version of ACT! 3.0 for Win 95, reviewed above. A trial version ACT! 2.0 is available from Symantec's Web site at http://www.symantec.com and our CD this month. You can use all of the features in this version, but you cannot open a database containing more than 25 contacts or 25 groups.

 

Now Up-to-Date 1.5

From: Trio Technology (07) 5577 4411
List price: $179
System requirements: Windows 3.1 or 95 (CD-ROM includes both versions), 8Mb RAM, 10Mb hard disk space, Netscape Navigator
Overall value: 4/5

The same as the Win 95 version reviewed above. A 30-day working trial version is available from Now Software's Web site at http://www.nowsoft.com and on our CD this month.


Marcel Writing Tool is a speedy word processor specially created for anyone who does a lot of writing.

Marcel Writing Tool

URL: http://www.hotfiles.com
Registered price: $25
Rating:

This program is a speedy word processor specially designed for anyone who does a lot of writing. It loads faster than your usual word processor because it uses the system font to display text, however, when you print your files, you can choose any font on your system. Marcel files are saved in RTF (Rich Text Format), which is accepted by most word processors and many e-mail systems. It has all the tools writers need, such as spell checking, word count and a thesaurus. Files can be as large as your system's memory. An intriguing addition to the program is optional PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) for your files; there's also a HTML conversion option if you want to upload your text to your Web site. Marcel is ideal for academics because it allows you to create citations, as well as endnotes.

By Angela Booth


Weight Shedders: improve your nutrition and lose weight with this program.

Weight Shedders

URL: http://users.aol.com/nutrigenie/
Registered price: $50
Rating:

As well as losing weight, this program can tailor your diet to make sure that you're achieving optimal levels of nutrition. It contains a food database, so that you can choose your favourite foods, as well as avoiding others -- those which contain too much fat, for example.

The program is easy to use. You can use it at the start of the day (or week), and enter your food choices for three meals, plus snacks. As you choose the foods, the program counts the calories, plus shows you the level of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. You can view and print graphical analyses of your diet. If you wish, the program will also generate eating plans for you, according to the energy level you choose. You can therefore generate your own diet plans: the program will create menus for you, so that you know exactly what you can eat at each meal, to stick to your diet and lose weight.

By Angela Booth


The Recipe Processor for Windows will help you manage your recipes.

The Recipe Processor for Windows

URL: http://www.shareware.com
Registered price: $40
Rating:

This program does more than simply store your favourite recipes. It allows you to manipulate the servings, convert the ingredient measurements, add scanned pictures to your recipes, print your recipes in book form, or as index cards, plus it has a real-time calorie calculator, which tells you the number of calories, plus the fat, sodium and cholesterol count of each serving. You can create shopping lists, and import and export in a variety of formats, including Meal-Master and Compu-Chef. Lots of recipes are included to get you started. This program does more than many of the commercial recipe programs.

By Angela Booth


General and Business Apps - April '97

General and Business Apps - March '97


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