WPC; 2BVgW?3|Dman 10pt (ASCII) (Port) (FW) aeWA,,}}Wo> PA"^(08Tx,@DT$8(,TTTTTTTTTT0,Ltlt|pd<@pp|dp\hxltdpH,DT(XTHTH0HX,,T,XXTT8@0XLpD@@TTTIYMSRIYMSR.PRS}Wo> PA,,0#o2  W\3|W"^,40\p(88T,4,4\\\\\\\\\\00Xllxtl`x(ThXxhpl`thddd<4 PA,,0#o2 gqsE"^(88T(@@T(8(,TTTTTTTTTT,,Pptth(,s}q}S `> XiA2{   nvgSwiss Roman 10pt (ASCII) (Port) (FW)Swiss Roman 8pt (HP Roman 8) (Port) (FW)Dutch Roman 10pt (ASCII) (Port) (FW)Dutch Italic 10pt (ASCII) (Port) (FW)Swiss Italic 6pt (ASCII) (Port) (FW) aeWA,,}E}Wo> PAb?F5$,%Fo> PfQZ^hVA(,N}d}V [ PAaeS>(,s}q}S `> XiAh :=3&,3t> XA2 J  aeWA,,}E}Wo> PAb?F5$,%Fo> PfQZ^hVA(,N}d}V [ PAaeS>(,s}q}S `> XiAh :=3&,3t> XA8?3&,,3 [ PA@@yj4@@@@@@@@@@@@@ D8iwpwpwwpwwwwFwwpHwwIwwpJwwKwwFwwGww%  ww&  ww&  ww& ww&ww& ww% ww* ww)wwKww?ww?ww@wwwwAwwAww@wwKww 8ww 9ww 9ww 9ww 9ww 9ww 9ww 8wwKwwpJwwIwwpHwwEwwpwwwpwwpwiyj4@@@@@@@@@@@@@ D8iwpwpwwpwwwwFwwpHwwIwwpJwwKwwFwwGww%  ww&  ww&  ww& ww&ww& ww% ww* ww)wwKww?ww?ww@wwwwAwwAww@wwKww 8ww 9ww 9ww 9ww 9ww 9ww 9ww 8wwKwwpJwwIwwpHwwEwwpwwwpwwpwi <<d    ,,  Fo> PfQ IYM Software Review "3,4 4" Page 17 y%,dddy   8%҇ }V [ PAd program, titled WinText, Windows Filer, and WinScan, respect ah ԭively. By the time you read this, those applications may already be available. XWindows Spell does what its name implies. Anytime you ah  need to spell check a document created by a fair sampling of Windows products, you simply run Windows Spell, then open ah  the document in question. Either on screen or in the background, Windows Spell then proceeds to check the document ah  for spelling errors. Because of the way it operates (the program alerts you that it has found an error, then patiently waits for you to correct it before proceeding to the next problem), the background mode of operation is practical only in such specialized cases as final proofing of a long document, such as a novel, but it's welcome, nevertheless. Unfortunately, the blinking icon that is supposed to alert you to Windows ah  Spell being in a waiting condition isn't properly implemented; ah  the icon blinks once, then redisplays as a solid item. XLearning to use Windows Spell is easy. The documentation ah  consists of a single thirty page pamphlet containing numerous illustrations, and can be covered in under an hour. You are taken on a sequential tour of the product, which implements a 130,000 word standard dictionary, and allows you to create multiple supplemental dictionaries consisting of the words unique to your circumstances or occupation. When Windows ah  Spell encounters an error, you are presented with a list of ah  alternative words to choose from, may skip the word once or for the remainder of the document, or may add it to your dictionary for future allowance. A feature of Windows Spell ah  that we particularly like is that an icon representing an "active" version of the program changes color proportionally to indicate the percentage of your document that has undergone spell checking. y!a 2!#yjddPROFILEy U 1  1 N!A(0 l$l$ddq>( 3t> XA  Product Name  3 [ PA,  :=  Windows Spell $95 Palsoft 4455 S. Padre Island Drive Suite 43 Corpus Christi TX 784114417 (512)8548787NXWindows Spell can check files created by Window's own Write ah  and Draw, as well as Micrografx's In*A*Vision, Designer, and ah  Graph Plus, Microsoft's Word and Excel, Aldus' Pagemaker, ah  WordPerfect's WordPerfect, and both ASCII and ANSI ah  $88? ! 7$compliant text files. The ! 7product is dated, however. ! 7The current versions of ! 7Designer and an updated ah  ! 7and renamed Graph Plus ah  ! 7!0 7(now known as Charisma), ah  ! 7!0 7are not yet supported, and ! 7!0 7only the straight DOS ver! 7!0 7sion of Word is compatible. ah  ! 7!0 7Officials at Palsoft ex! 7!0 7Ԛplained this by saying the ! 7!0 7file formats were different, ! 7without giving us a feel for ! 7when the issue might be ! 7addressed. In any event, ! 7Windows Spell is not smart ah  ! 7enough to sense automatic t,88ally the type of document you are working with you must tell it. XThere are also a couple of production problems. The illustrations in the manual look as if they were captured in a low resolution graphics mode and printed without being touched up, and the dated documentation (in fairness, since5 R0! j 7,#!0 l$7)!5 Windows Spell will still run under older versions of Windows, ah  the age of the documentation can be forgiven) gives instructions in several place that are imprecise. For example, under "Starting Windows Spell" you are given instructions that work ah  exactly as stated, but no mention is made of your need to be in a particular directory. Novices, heads up. MOAn earlier Windows 3.0ĩcompliant version of Windows Spell ah  (version 3.06) that was released had a serious bug in it. If you touched any of several keys while Windows Spell was either ah  active or iconized (including CTRL, SHIFT, and TAB), while running in either standard or 386enhanced modes, the system would be severely crippled, and messages telling you that applications had been terminated abnormally became the rule, rather then the exception. This problem has since been corrected, but our overall impression hasn't changed. It does it's job, but Windows Spell makes you work a bit harder then ah  it ought to, and needs an serious update. MLm Q+E ă MLfPioneer Softwareă MOQ+E is one of those products that we love to review. ah  However, it's also the kind of product about which we feel exactly the opposite. We love Q+E because it does a few ah  tricks that are very useful, yet not terribly common in other software, imposes very little system resource overhead, and even at full retail price, it's cheap. We hate Q+E because it ah  defies easy definition, and makes the job of writing a review extremely difficult. Is Q+E a database? A query tool? A ah  Windows tool? Well, it's all of the above, and then some. The ah  question is, who needs it? yAa L#8yjddPROFILEy 1 ! 1 KAA(&&dd( 3t> XA  Product Name  3 [ PA,  :=  Q&E $149 Pioneer Software 5540 Centerview Drive Suite 324 Raleigh NC 27606 (800)8763101 CheckratedKMOWe have exactly two bad things to say about Q+E. One is ah  that the preceding question is not easily answerable. Whether this is a marketing problem or simply built into the product's nature is open to interpretation; we lean toward the latter. The utility of Q+E is so broad, it boggles the mind. Hmm . ah  ! 7. . that sure didn't sound negative, did it? Complaint number ! 7two gets no such reprieve. Despite it's heritage (this product ! 7has been around for awhile, a version exists for OS/2, and no ,%%!! 7A%,less an authority than Mi! 7A%crosoft has teamed up with ! 7!0 7A%Pioneer to distribute the ! 7!0 7A%product), Q+E for Windows ah  ! 7!0 7A%3.0 doesn't multitask . Ex ah ԭ& ! 7!0 7A%A%&ecute a query or sort opera& ! 7!0 7A%A%&tion, and Q+E grabs con ah ԭ& ! 7!0 7A%A%&trol of your system until & ! 7!0 7A%A%&activity is complete. This ! 7A%A%isn't usually a big deal, but ! 7A%A%try performing a multiple ! 7A%A%join on moderately sized, ! 7A%unindexed databases. We ! 7A%did. There were three, numA%bering 975, 235, and 350 A%records, and the join was on A%a single, field, identically .%%named in all three. Then we waited . . . and waited . . . and made coffee . . . and waited some more. All told, we waited more than five minutes, using a 386/20 machine in Windows'