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PsL Monthly 1994 September
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PSL Monthly Shareware CD-ROM (September 1994).ISO
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=====News & Views <psl_logo.pcx>
-----A Library At Your Fingertips - in six months, get the entire PsL
-----New CD Features - changes coming in the Monthly CD
-----Words & Graphics - highlights of this months CD bonus files section
-----Shareware Vendor Upheaval - major distributors fold
-----Upgrading A Motherboard - get a 486 for under $200
-----Bypassing Boot Sector Viruses
-----Does Not Compute... - bug reports, missing authors
-----Selected Retail Products
=================================
-----A Library At Your Fingertips
The author of a program reviewed this month said:
"I wrote the program when I needed a way to test for a direc-
tory within a batch file..."
The fact is, there are about a half-dozen utilities in PsL alone
that can do what the programmer wanted.
If you need a program to do a specific task and can't find one
or don't know where to look, you'll be happy if you have the com-
plete PsL library of over 10,000 programs arranged by category
and with complete descriptions.
With the May PsL CD-ROM, we have completed the process
of copying all of the programs in PsL to CD-ROM. Now we will
continue to repeat the six-month cycle of putting part of the
library on CD each month, updating the section for the thousands
of new and updated programs which have come during the prior
six months.
For example, we started this process in December 1993 with
Programming. Since we completed the first cycle with the May
CD, Programming will be on the June 1994 CD, but updated for
the programs received between December and June.
Please remember that these sections are free bonuses. We
started and priced the Monthly CD as a way of getting the hun-
dreds of NEW programs each month (900+ this month) to users
at a low price. Even if you are not interested in a particular cate-
gory being featured on one month's CD-ROM, there are sure to
be lots of programs for every taste and need in the New Programs
sections.
-----New CD Features
Converting the 10,000+ files from 7000+ floppies onto CD-
ROMs over the last six months has been a monumental task. Sim-
ply dumping the files to CD would have been a lot of work by
itself, but much more was involved.
We had to run many of the programs (especially in Utilities)
to make sure that they were still up-to-date. We had to re-read
each review (and edit many of them) and come up with more
refined classifications.
Now that the mountain (of software) has been scaled, we can
stop and enjoy the view, but there are still greater heights to scale.
Updating the section of the month on each month's CD was no
small chore.
We will be refining the CD-ROM access software for DOS
and Windows to access these sections. (The software presently
only accesses the new program sections.)
We are overhauling our tech department database in which is
stored the name, size, version and description of each program
along with the author's name and address. We will add that data-
base to future CDs along with software to access it.
To the best of our knowledge, this will be the first extensive
(well over 10,000 programs) public database of pd/shareware
software with author's names and addresses. At an expected size
of over 20MB, we will only distribute it on CD-ROM.
-----Words & Graphics
This month's CD-ROM contains all the programs in PsL
which are related to word processing, desktop publishing, print-
ing, drawing programs, clip art, pictures, and multimedia, which
includes sounds and music as well. Both DOS and Windows will
be represented.
Here are the highlights, starting with DOS first. (Disk num-
bers are shown for the benefit of those without CD-ROM drives,
but see the front, inside cover for information about low-cost CD
drives.)
---Word Processing:
PC-Write (#27070) was one of the pioneering programs of
shareware. It is still a powerful, yet easy-to-use word processing
program, packed with many professional features.
There are a great many popular and powerful text editors,
such as Boxer (#3266), E88 (#1187), VDE (#1933), and Qedit
(#1006).
Bedit (#3118) is a text editor which uses large characters for
the benefit of the vision impaired. H-Key (#0625) is an editor
which allows movement-impaired individuals enter all keyboard
characters with just the cursor keys and a keypress.
---Hypertext:
Hypertext programs let you create and view files which can
be read on the computer in a non-linear way. This means that as
you read, you can branch off to read more about things men-
tioned in the text.
Some programs, such as HyperShell (#27399) let you mix
text and graphics. The pictures can have hot zones for hyper-
jumping to new subjects by clicking on the selected area with the
mouse.
---Writing Tools:
Whether you are in school or in the business world, you can
produce perfect documents with tools from this section. Cross
Check (#27074) is an excellent spelling checker.
Theaur Plus (#1804), Multiword (#2908), and PopSaurus
(#27819) all pop up to give you word substitution suggestions.
JORJ (#7372) is a dictionary on disk.
Critic (#1861) is one of the best writing analyzers we have
seen. Buddy (#12077) teaches writing, spelling, and punctuation.
PC-Proof (#20343) is an excellent grammar checker which can
read the files of many popular word processors.
Outliners help you organize your thoughts and then let you
import your outline into a word processor. Outliners used to be a
hot software category, but we don't hear much about them any
more. We still think they are useful tools. MegaDisk Set #27073
has four outliner disks in it: Idea Tree, Kamas, PC-Outline, and
Ravitz Editor.
If you would like to word process but don't know how to type,
get a typing tutor like PC-Fastype on #4522. If you want to type
in a different language, get set #27764, which translates English
to/from German, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese.
---Forms Managers:
If you keep a filing cabinet full of forms of different types
(eg: purchase orders, employment applications, insurance claims,
etc.), you can clear out the file cabinet and save time to boot by
keeping forms on the computer with programs such as EZ-Forms
Executive (#1499) and FormGen (#0645).
These programs not only let you fill them in on-screen, but
they keep track of form numbers, sum up columns and rows, per-
form calculations such as for sales tax, and more.
---Desktop Publishing:
The award winning EnVision Publisher (#20045) is the clear
winner in DOS-based shareware desktop publishing.
If you are already sold on Ventura, you'll find a number of
time savers such as those on the 5-disk MegaDisk Set #27698:
Decoder!, Swap!, Filer!, Index!, and Tag!. Code to Code (#2335)
helps with any files containing typesetting codes.
Image processors let you modify graphics, primarily for use
with DTP programs. Graphic Workshop (#20274) and Image
Alchemy (#27636) let you convert between graphic file formats,
rotate, scale, halftone, and more.
---Clip Art & Picture Files
The library has far too many types of clip art to summarize
here.
PCX is something of a standard format, but with programs
such as those mentioned above, if the files you want are not of a
type you can use, you can easily convert them to the needed
types.
Most clip art files are line drawings. We also have a large
number of picture files which can be used in documents. They
can also just be viewed for enjoyment or converted to BMP for-
mat for use as Windows wallpaper.
---Drawing Programs:
MegaDisk Set #27683 has several powerful drawing pro-
grams such as Desktop Paint which support high resolution 256-
color images in PCX, GIF and other formats.
Wire-frame CAD programs, like DanCad3D (#27188), have
many features for ease and efficiency in designing and drawing
houses, cars, and other objects. We also have a large number of
utilities for use with AutoCAD
While most drawing programs use bit-mapped graphics
(dots), programs like Draft Choice (#1630) and Picture This
(#27080) use vector graphics which can be