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More software
By DAVE GUSSOW and MATTHEW FORDAHL, Associated Press ReferenceEncarta Reference Library 2002Company: Microsoft Price: $74.95 System: Windows It wasn't too many years ago that CD-ROM encyclopedias were a must for PC owners. But the Web has taken over as the information resource, and the CD-ROMs have been dropping out of sight. Microsoft seems intent on keeping the genre alive. The Encarta Reference Library is comprehensive (67,900 articles; 25,800 photos and illustrations; more than 26,000 Web links), easy to use (a researcher, animated diagrams and homework help) and current (updated content available through the Web and downloads). Encarta also includes a thesaurus, world atlas, Encarta Africana, a fact finder and statistics. In short, it's a massive, well-done package. It also eliminates the annoying problem of shuffling disks that so many multiple CD-ROM programs have. But the optional solution -- installing all five disks on the hard drive -- takes a chunky 330 megabytes of space. - DAVE GUSSOW, Times personal technology editor Anne Frank House: A House With a StoryCompany: Cinegram Media Price: $44.95 System: Windows, Macintosh My first thought was to wonder how technology would treat the touching story of a young Jewish girl forced into hiding from the Nazis during World War II. But this CD-ROM quickly put to rest any fears that it would trivialize the powerful book, The Diary of Anne Frank. The software is a splendid supplement for the book, which is included in some packages. It includes more than 1,500 photos, 15 videos, among them the only known film clip of Anne, and hundreds of slides. People can tour the house, using the mouse to select different views of rooms and hiding places. It uses technology that provides a 360-degree perspective, just as if you were in the house looking around. Narration clearly explains the events and key people in the story. It also includes a time line, glossary and a helpful feature that lets you backtrack if you get lost. Cinegram also has produced a resource guide for teachers. - DAVE GUSSOW, Times personal technology editor * * *Utilities/productivityNorton Internet SecurityCompany: Symantec Price: $69.95 System: Windows Security should be a priority for all Net users, but particularly those with always-on connections through cable modems or digital subscriber line services. Norton makes it easy with an all-in-one package: its top-selling anti-virus package, a firewall to block intruders, privacy controls and even ad-blocking functions. Users can install all or just the programs they want. It's a simple process to set up the level of security you want. When a program tries to access the Internet, the software asks if you want to proceed. It also has parental controls for those concerned about kids wandering into no-no zones on the Web. My main complaint about the package is in the online tech support. I had problems installing the program for Windows XP, apparently because of a beta version of Norton's antivirus program. But trying to get a useful answer online failed miserably. Only after the company checked on this planned review and found out about the installation problem did I get an assist from a tech support manager. That fixed my problem, but Symantec, like other software companies, needs to improve its Web offerings. - DAVE GUSSOW, Times personal technology editor FranklinCovey OnePlaceCompany: Enfish Price: $69.95 System: Windows My electronic filing system is similar to my paper one: I know I put valued information somewhere, but I don't always remember where. FranklinCovey OnePlace solved that problem, and even some I didn't know I had. It indexes and organizes everything on your hard drive, turning your desktop into a super browser. It lets you search for material by a keyword, or you can create custom pages or trackers. It turned out to be a great bookmark organizer for my Web browsing. I simply created pages by subject, such as News, Reference and Weather. For each topic, I could have up to six windows showing a related Web site. I click on the topic, a page opens and the designated sites load (showing only a partial view, not the entire Web page). I choose which I want to read with one click, close it the same way and move on to the next. The only downside to organizing the Web are those incessant pop-up ads, which show up in droves under this system. The program has another annoyance. It seems more unstable than other programs running on my Windows XP machine, shutting down for inexplicable reasons. Even with that, though, I keep using it, finding it a time saver (and sometimes an information salvager). One last note: If you have a large hard drive, it's probably best to load this program when you go to bed or when you won't need your PC for the several hours it will take to organize your files. - DAVE GUSSOW, Times personal technology editor Office v. XCompany: Microsoft Price: $299 upgrade ($149 upgrade through Jan. 18); $499 full version System: Macintosh Apple's new operating system, Mac OS X, is a work of art. It's fast, and a Unix base provides stability. But the lack of compatible software long prevented Apple from winning converts from the Windows-based PC world and even thwarted Mac users who wanted to upgrade from Mac OS 9. Now, a new office productivity suite makes the strongest case yet for a switch. Making good on a promise that came with a $150-million investment in Apple five years ago, Microsoft has released Office X, the latest version of its ubiquitous office suite. It contains the familiar names from earlier versions: Word for word processing, Excel for spreadsheets and PowerPoint for presentations. It also has an e-mail and organizer program dubbed Entourage. Fundamentally, the features differ little from Office XP for Windows or earlier Mac operating systems. But this suite is not backward compatible. It only runs on Apple's new operating system. That alone will score points for the Mac faithful who ran the last version of Office in Mac OS X's slow compatibility mode. And the Microsoft Mac team did not include the underhanded activation scheme found in Office XP and Windows XP, where users must send information back to Microsoft or face deactivation of their software. Office X also does not include Smart Tags, an Office XP feature that links text in one document to information in others or on the Internet. Documents produced in Office X can be shared with Windows PCs and older Macs. And Apple wisely improved the Mac's ability to communicate on a Windows network. There are some limitations, including the lack of support for synching with a Palm handheld computer. It also lacks some of Outlook 2001's groupware features popular with businesses. - MATTHEW FORDAHL, Associated Press
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