JUNE 1995 Personal Computer World June 1995 £2.50 Multimedia kits,mice, Overseas Price £2.95 France 58 FF Germany DM 17,00 Italy 13,400 Lire Spain 925 PTS keyboards and software Holland HFL 14,25 Belgium 272.00 BFr Finland FIM 39.50 to Win on page 619 VNU Business Publications ● 157,544 readers can't be wrong • Britain's top-selling personal computer magazine 22 Multimedia DX2 66MHz 486s Awards 1995 ● Best Hardware, Software, Peripherals 1995AwardsAwards ● £1500 to spend? Readers' MATHS SOFTWARE How to buy a complete Awards PC system p408 Best hardware 22 Multimedia Best software DX2 66s from Best peripherals ● £949 p454 Ami Pro 4.0 ● New Releases Quicken 4.0 Ami Pro 4.0 and Entry Level PowerMacs Quicken 4. 0 If your Disk or CD is missing, Volume 18 Number 6 please ask your June 1995 Newsagent June 1995 PCW June 1995 Contents Features First Impressions Regulars Hands On PC Awards 325 Newsprint The Infobahn is set to become a reality; the PC world prepares for the 21st century; 1995 Adobe and NetScape indulge in Acrobatics; Delrina homes in on memory lane; the French have their PCs, the Brits have more fun; The best PCs, Amstrad airs “Text Radio”; Gates on Win95. 627 Introduction 628 Windows 346 News Analysis PC software and DOS Tim Bajarin on the industry vs. Microsoft; 632 peripherals Jack Schofield on the future of Unix; 634 32-Bit 366 Compaq DeskPro 575 Barry Fox on video data storage. Word Processing voted for by you, Model 420 4/4 638 With outstanding network management 642 Spreadsheets the readers 351 Sounding Off by Michael Hewitt and top-of-the-range components, this 646 Databases looks set to make a real impact. 353 Homefront by Tim Nott 650 Graphics & DTP 656 Multimedia 368 3D Interior Designer 355 Straight Talking by Barry Fox Performa Macs 402 Redesign your entire home from the 660 Sound PCW Cover Photography by David Whyte comfort of your PC. 662 Visual Programming PCW Computer Graphics by Magic Lantern Group by CHRIS CAIN 357 Business Matters by Nick Beard 422 666 Low Level Apple’s bid for a slice of the home market is based on three new 369 Quicken 4.0 for Windows 361 Letters 674 Numbers Count Disk with Performa Macs, one of which bears an uncanny resemblance to The best program for balancing your every 676 Networks issue Cover Disk Compaq’s Presario. personal accounts gets better. 680 Macintosh 696 Buyer’s Charter 370 Word Pro 684 Computer Answers With a new name, Lotus’s word proces- Five go mad with £1,500 408 ChipChat 686 Beginners or CD-ROM sor is back to challenge Microsoft Word. 703 ● Cover Disk 12 by THE PCW TEAM Our annual look at how to buy a complete PC system — PC, 372 Micropolis AV Gold Series Group Tests Flamingo Lite: fully featured image printer and software — armed with a pen, a phone and a wad. Capricorn 3243AV The ideal hard disk for jitter-free editing package multimedia performance. Reader Survey 420 ● PCW Interactive CD-ROM 14 374 Visual FoxPro 3.0 Win a Western Systems Pentium 60 and help us make PCW New, easy-to-use version of FoxPro with Hundreds of megabytes of hot stuff, even better into the bargain. 32-bit goodness. including Peter Gabriel’s Xplora, PCW Awards 422 376 Psion Series 3a 2Mb PaintShop Pro 3.0, full-screen demo Psion’s latest organiser puts more RAM by THE PCW TEAM in your pocket. of Hell, plus 30 royalty-free photos The best PC products of the last year, including, for the first time, the PCW Reader Awards. 376 FreeStyle for Macintosh At last, a sequencer that thinks like a CUTTING EDGE musician. 502 Uninstall utilities 378 Acorn RISC PC 486 571 Introduction by PAUL BEGG Windows on the Archimedes is no longer DX2-66MHz 486s 454 PCW Online A close look at seven utilities for clearing out the detritus left a RISCy business. DX2-66 is fast becoming the entry level for multimedia PCs, with prices starting 572 Net.answers by unruly Windows apps. to dip below the £1,000 mark. Eleanor Turton-Hill put 22 of the machines 383 Paint Shop Pro 3.0 Net.surf 574 It’s only a shareware paint package but it through the VNU Eurolabs mill. 578 Net.news feels like Photoshop. Programming in Access 2.0 518 582 Comms 530 588 Net.newbies by IAIN SUMMERS & ANGUS MacKELLAIG 383 VVL PC Card Camera Maths software Eric Adler set tests for seven leading mathematics packages, totted up the The first of a three-part series on how to get the most out of A nice idea for niche applications. PCW Futures marks and awarded the Editor’s Choice prize. Microsoft’s popular Windows database. 591 Innovations 386 Circle Elements 593 Horizons Simple sound-sample fun. Bluesky ● Playing to the 597 Create a poster 550 387 CD-Speed 601 Retro Computing gallery: Great Artists by CHRIS JONES Soup up your CD-ROMs. 5 PCW Media on CD-ROM If you think producing slick, professional-looking A1 posters costs an arm and a leg, think again. 394 Setup Advisor 602 Books (with the PCW Bookshelf Selection, p605) Help for those who don’t know their 6 610 CD-ROMs DMAs from their IRQs. PCW Fun Tutorial: Procomm Plus for 614 Kids’ Stuff Windows, part 2 554 8 619 Competition: Win a multimedia kit, two sound sample by STEPHEN RODDA Long Term Tests CD-ROMs or a Microsoft Natural Keyboard * Writing Procomm scripts to access CIX can automate the 398 HP ScanJet IIc 621 Screenplay process and offer you superfast file transfer speeds. 399 PC Tools for Windows 2.0 + 624 Leisure Lines 1 6 437 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD 2 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JUNE 1995 = JUNE 1995 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD Editorial Advertising Editor Ben Tisdall Group Ad Manager Paula Devine 0171 316 9194 Associate Editor Simon Rockman Ad Manager Pranav J Oza 0171 316 9466 News Editor Clive Akass Assistant Ad Manager Kevin Elderfield 0171 316 9303 Cutting Edge Editor David Brake Senior Sales Executives Features Editor Chris Cain Catherine J Russell 0171 316 9303 Reviews Editor Gordon Laing Richard Young 0171 316 9309 Technical Writer Eleanor Turton-Hill Jon Miles 0171 316 9302 Staff Writers Steven Helstrip Sales Executives Nick Lawrence Timothy Mickelborough 0171 316 9463 Editorial Assistant Adele Dyer Nick O’Connor 0171 316 9304 PC Consumer Sales Columnists Nick Beard Beccy Carr 0171 316 9307 Barry Fox Alex Hole 0171 316 9306 Michael Hewitt Tim Nott Micromart Sales Executive Ben Hedges 0171 316 9308 International Correspondent Tim Bajarin Credit Control Manager Michael Donlan 0171 316 9701 Contributors US Sales Representative Barbara Gough 0101 415 306 0880 Jake Abrams ● Eric Adler ● Tim Anderson ● Tim Taiwan Sales Representatives Grace Chu/Kent Lai 010 886 2717 7663 Bajarin ● Paul Begg ● Chris Bidmead ● Ian Burley ● JJ Clessa ● Stephen Cobb ● Simon Collin ● Karl Dunkerley ● Barry Fox ● Jeanine Fox ● Tim Frost ● Production Nicky Glatter ● Wendy M Grossman ● Kerrin Hands ● Production Controller Melanie Thomson 0171 316 9481 Chris Jones ● Jake the Dog ● Frank Leonhardt ● Mike Production Manager Adrian Brown 0171 316 9484 Liardet ● Angus MacKellaig ● Bruce Mackie ● Jonny Production Assistant Susie Ross 0171 316 9486 Millar ● Mike Mudge ● Chris Nixon ● Tim Nott ● Tim Phillips ● Patrick Ramus ● John Robinson ● Stephen Rodda ● Jack Schofield ● Nicole Segre ● Nick Stanton Circulation ● Iain Summers ● James Taylor ● Ian Waugh ● Subscriptions Manager Leisha Bulley 0171 316 9712 Stephen Wells ● Mark Whitehorn ● David Whyte Subscriptions Supervisor Joanne Nicholls 0171 316 9713 Editorial Phone 0171 316 9000 Publishing Editorial Fax 0171 316 9313 Editorial Email first name last - Founder Angelo Zgorelec [email protected] Marketing Manager Juliet Parker 0171 316 9191 Portfolio Administrator Kyley Chapman 0171 9316 9183 Production Publishing Director Peter Goldstein 0171 316 9000 Publisher Jon Ross 0171 316 9187 Production Editor Lauraine Lee Sub-Editor Mark Monahan Test Results are based wholly or in part on methodologies provided by National Software Design Testing Laboratories, a division of McGraw-Hill, Inc, and licensed to Personal Computer World. 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