Nov 95 Features

You don't need to hitchhike if you want to travel through the world of WordPad. Thumb through this atlas of useful information to see how you can use WordPad to read and write Microsoft Word files, Rich Text Format and two different flavors of ASCII. Once you've gone the distance, you'll find these directions were worth the stop.

BY: Rebecca Day

I was one of those kids who could be entertained all day long by poring over the pages of The World Book Encyclopedia. I can spend hours perusing an atlas. I read everything I can get my hands on when shopping for a new car or TV. In short, I love information. When the CD-ROM arrived, sound and graphics made my pursuit of information that much richer.

As the CD-ROM business has exploded, however, not all titles have lived up to their potential, so the emptor had better caveat. (Check out The Explorer in this issue to see what kind of problems other buyers have experienced.) To help you sort the good from the bad and the ugly, here's a brief overview of some of WINDOWS Magazine's favorite CDs. Although the titles are loosely divided into information, education and entertainment genres, categorizing CD-ROMs can be an arbitrary exercise--they all inform, educate and entertain to some degree. Here's how.

The multimedia CD-ROM has made surfing research materials a whole lot of fun. Information is no longer a boring rehash of facts and figures.

Take looking up a number in the phone book. Select Phone, from Pro CD, packs stacks of business and residential listings into a five-disc set. Combining both commercial and residential listings, Select Phone is divided into five regions: Northeast, Central, South, Great Lakes and Pacific. You can sort listings by name, address, state, zip code or phone number, and you can print out lists in either galley or label form.

Select Phone contains several noteworthy convenience features. To search a listing, insert all the information you know about the listing you want and then click on the icon of a dog. Said canine's tail wags to indicate he's retrieving the entry. If you're using the disc as a phone book, the program will team up with a modem to dial calls directly.

After the program dials for you, click on Phone to talk when the call goes through. The Tag Manager lets you select entries and store them in a separate custom listing. Switch between discs--travel from the Northeast to the Pacific, for example--without exiting the program, and amass a single listing of tagged entries from all of the regional discs.

Saving travel time is one of the great benefits of CD-ROMs. The Popular Mechanics Car Guide, the 1996 Edition, from Books That Work lets you visit the showroom without leaving your PC. You can check out more than 800 cars, trucks and utility vehicles, with pictures, prices, features, safety records and engine specs for each. You can also compare cars within price or performance categories. Click on a palette to paint a car in any of its available colors or even a custom color--the Acura Integra looks great in deep blue, for instance, but I don't recommend fuchsia.

To find out if your dream car is a reality, do a custom search for a model that matches all of your requirements. The disc also provides worksheets to help you determine how much car you can afford, whether it's better for you to lease or buy, and how much you can expect to pay for gas for whatever car you choose. Also included are helpful tips about warranties, options, depreciation and other considerations. I learned, for example, that a station wagon loses its value more quickly than a comparable sedan, and that a red interior is more likely to fade unevenly than blue, gray or black. If you're not in the market for new wheels, this disc will make you an educated consumer when you're finally ready to stroll into the showroom.

Once you've got your new car, you'll want to hit the road. Where to go? Consult Rand McNally's TripMaker, 1996 Edition, which will map out a route for you. TripMaker calculates the driving time of the journey in hours and minutes, total mileage, and number of days required to make the trip based on an 8-hour driving day and the quickest route. Add stopover locations or a different amount of driving time, and the program will recalculate the trip. You can also choose between the scenic route and the fastest path.

Thirty videos give you a multimedia look at as many cities. Other cities are shown with 360-degree helicopter views. Check out points of interest along the way with one of the 14 attraction packs that come with the program, including: camping, fishing, boating and hiking; beaches; outdoor adventures, like mountain climbing and rafting; tennis and golf facilities; and gambling venues.

If you're still not sure where you want to go, the Explorer Guide will suggest destinations based on your preferences.

When you've finalized your trip, print the file and you'll have a cover page, list of attractions, overview map and individual maps with text directions for each segment of the trip. The text describes each road, its direction, mileage on each road, next road, time of travel on each road, total mileage and a key to a printed Rand McNally map.

TripMaker also helps you figure out how much your journey will cost. You fill in per-day projections for lodging, food, entertainment, purchases and fuel, and the program estimates the bill for the entire trip. The program also features listings of hotels and rental car companies, including toll-free numbers. With TripMaker, you'll have almost as much fun planning your trip as you will taking it.

When you get home and discover you brought back more than you left with, you might want to consult The Mayo Clinic Family Health Book. Either a hypochondriac's dream or worst nightmare, the Health Book gives you the skinny on more than 1,000 diseases and disorders. Picked up a rash on vacation? Do a search and call up brief narrations and illustrations of various skin ailments in living color. You have 190 rashes to choose from.

The disc's multimedia highlight is the Anatomy section, which shows a drawing of the human body. Using a horizontal control, you can highlight the organ or body part of your choice. Certain areas have photographs of X-rays associated with them. Click on a rectangular button to compare, for instance, the X-ray of an emphysema-ravaged lung with a picture of a healthy one.

Health Book's Trail function is particularly noteworthy; it lists the various sections you've read and allows you to switch back to a particular section at the touch of a button. You also get direct online access to CompuServe from the CD-ROM for up-to-the-minute health information and online forums on health issues. While you're researching a topic, you can make notes and save them to the notepad for future recall.

The concept of note-taking has made a quantum leap with multimedia encyclopedias. The days of copying notes to index cards are ancient history. With Microsoft's Encarta 95, you can not only transcribe articles or portions of text to a notepad by simply defining and clicking, you can also copy pictures, sound and video clips along with their proper citations. The disc is rich with resources: More than 26,000 articles are organized into 94 categories, with more than 8,000 photos and illustrations and 8-plus hours of audio.

Encarta's highlights include video footage from the repair of the Hubble space telescope, including Hubble's photographs of a comet bombardment of Jupiter. Another interactive feature lets you compare languages. You can hear, for example, how a word such as "thanks" sounds in 40 different tongues. The Mindmaze game tests your knowledge in various categories and shoots you to a subject if you want to learn more about it. Other inter-activities include a nutrition segment that calculates your recommended caloric intake and daily allowances of vitamins and minerals.

Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia features three viewers: one for text and two for pictures, animation and video clips. Icons running down the left margin lead you to other areas of the disc: the editing room, where you can put together multimedia presentations using sound, text and image data that you've bookmarked for later use; a timeline; an atlas; and other navigation guides.

Compton's has all you'd expect from a top-notch interactive encyclopedia, but where it really shines is in its exploration environments. Go to Grandma's Attic and click on the picture of the trumpet. Up pops a captioned photo of Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach and Charlie Parker playing at a Toronto jazz session. You also get an accompanying sound bite. Tap a bicycle wheel, and you see a photo of the first self-propelled bicycle, invented in Scotland in 1840.

Click again on Explore to visit the Madcap Music store. Click on the stage, and you're treated to Symphony 101--a breakdown of each section of the orchestra, its individual instruments and their roles, sound clips, and a demonstration of how the opening of Beethoven's Fifth spreads the music across the orchestra. Click on the store's parrot to hear a recording of a defiant Richard Nixon insisting he's not a crook. Click on a star, hear "Twinkle, Twinkle" and see a photo of a starfish with a caption below. Click again and the song repeats, but this time you see a star pattern on a patchwork quilt and learn how quilts are made. Click on the star again and ... Warning: This disc can be habit-forming.

The word "edutainment" is a byproduct of multimedia hype, but you can't help buying into the term when you look at some of the top education discs. They're so entertaining, they make you forget you're learning.

Monarch Notes, which has long served as an easy out for students too lazy to read the originals, even makes cheating fun by sprinkling short animation and video clips into some of its multimedia entries. The Monarch Notes CD-ROM, available from the Bureau of Electronic Publishing, is actually a useful reference source for biographies and interpretation of major literary works. It even plays certain entries with an eye toward pure entertainment. Lines from Emily Dickinson poems, for instance, are supplemented with watercolor images. A 4-second animation depicting an A-branded Hester Prynne walking past a disapproving crowd nicely illustrates Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.

As a research assistant, the Monarch disc is logically organized and easy to use. Highlighted words of literary terms can be accessed via pop-up windows at any time, and the extensive index indicates the number of topics in which selected text appears.

If multimedia can make even Monarch Notes fun to use, imagine what it can do for a CD-ROM about art. Corbis Publishing's A Passion for Art is a must for any aficionado of Impressionism, Post-impressionism and modern art. Providing an up-close look at hundreds of works by artists such as Renoir, Matisse, Rousseau, Picasso and C@zanne, the disc opens the doors of the controversial Barnes Foundation collection, which owner Dr. Albert Barnes closed to the public early in the century--restricting access to everyone but art students.

Actual photographs of the foundation's interior show paintings as they appear on the walls. Click on the works to get a closer view, including brushwork and other details, and then peruse information about the painting, the artist and other works in the artist's portfolio. Cinematic tours add historical perspective to the creation of the foundation and Barnes' place in the art world.

CDs can also introduce you to some of Mother Nature's visual masterpieces. Sumeria's OceanLife series, for instance, could make a marine biologist out of anyone. Featuring extensive footage from northeast Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the two-disc set opens with a music video depicting some of the 200 species on the disc. The disc opens to a contents page opposite a color photo of the first species on the list, a sea anemone. Click on any of the Contents topics to learn more about the sea creature, such as its morphology and behavior. Then click on the picture to move to a narrated video showing the sea-dweller in action.

Not only are the contents aesthetically appealing; the disc is laudably logical, with a wonderfully intuitive design. Fish icons with arrows pointing forward or back take you to the next species, for example. When a function isn't immediately obvious, the disc offers concise, clear instructions: "Click once to advance to the next movie." Discs like this could go far toward solving the U.S. scientist shortage if they wind up in the hands of enough young students.

Leave it to a cable TV programming company to come up with some of the coolest CD-ROMs. Straddling the fence between entertainment and education, The Discovery Channel, which publishes Nile: Passage to Egypt, uses audio, video, photos and graphics to their fullest advantage. The Nile disc packs in 30 minutes of video, 3-plus hours of narrated text and more than 300 photos. The program starts with a video of Samia, your guide, who describes how the disc works and what you'll see on your voyage. You travel in a felucca, the official mode of transport down the Nile, which is equipped with several tools, including a camera, compass, media player and help lamp that give you control of your journey.

Various spots in your field of vision are highlighted with twinkle stars, which, when you click on them, go into more depth about that subject. Clicking on a fish eagle brings up a video of the bird looking for food.

Choose your own route using supplied maps, or take a guided tour with experts and well-known travelers like Mark Twain. Historical facts are complemented by games that challenge you to unlock the secrets of the ancient Egyptian language, rebuild the Temple of Abu Simbel or assemble statues of Ramses II.

From a body of water to the human body, A.D.A.M. The Inside Story uses narrated animation to teach how the body's systems work. A great copout for parents who freeze when it comes to explaining the birds and the bees, A.D.A.M. answers many of these dreaded questions with simple language, clear illustrations and informative text. But if you, or the kids, aren't quite ready for the naked truth, the disc allows you to cover genitalia and breasts with fig leaves and block the chapter on the reproductive system. The program also shows impressive political correctness, enabling you to choose gender and skin type for the on-screen body.

The CD-ROM discusses 12 systems in its anatomy section, including cardiovascular, digestive, reproductive and nervous. Selecting one highlights only those parts of the body that relate to the system. You can also locate anatomical parts by doing a search. The desired organ or section is then highlighted in red within the skeleton.

Microsoft's Cinemania was originally destined for the information category as a resource tool, but we're not sure what's more fun: going to the movies or playing with this disc. More than 24,000 movies are profiled, and many are annotated with film, dialog, stills and music clips. Each listed film carries a brief synopsis as well as information on its cast, year made, rating, awards, whether it's color or black-and-white, length, and availability on videotape or laserdisc. Many of the movies also sport film clips and reviews by noted critics Leonard Maltin, Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert. Classic scenes from Casablanca (Sam playing "As Time Goes By"), Gone with the Wind ("And you, miss, are no lady") and Silence of the Lambs ("A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and some nice chianti") are immensely entertaining.

The disc is simple to use either by entering a title you're looking for or scrolling through the main list. You can compile lists according to category and make your own notes about each film. There's biographical information on some 4,000 members of the film industry, and you can search for references to favorite actors or directors. A Vanessa Redgrave search produced 101 items of related information. If you're stumped for a movie to rent, let the disc make suggestions. Choose a category such as Serious or Thrills and Chills, click on a lever, and a roulette wheel stops on a list of about 25 titles from which you can choose.

It's the extra dimensions that make multimedia CD-ROMs so special. Take Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Interactive from Graphix Zone. It's a discography, biography, scrapbook, music and video clip file, and walking tour all in one.

The best part is discovering what lies beneath the pictures. Start out with the collage of items, including a coffee cup that takes you to a '60s-style coffeehouse. There you can choose Dylan audio clips from a jukebox, click on a poster of Dylan and Joan Baez and see a video clip from the "Hard Rain" TV special, or tap into an interview with the guy who was with Dylan when he wrote "Blowin' in the Wind." Put yourself in New York's Washington Square, where Dylan first made his name at Folk City. Look up the words to all Dylan songs and see what other artists covered them. Listen to an outtake of "115th Dream." Access the timeline that notes important dates in Dylan's life and concurrent world events. Your bonus is track 2, a previously unreleased audio version of Dylan performing "House of the Rising Sun."

For more nostalgia trips back to the '60s, '70s and '80s, check out Multimedia Publishing Studio's The Playboy Interview: Three Decades. There are undoubtedly some people who have saved every issue of Playboy since it first hit the stands in 1953 just for the monthly interview--really. A mirror of contemporary culture, the 300-plus Playboy interviews are in-depth Q&As with the likes of Muhammad Ali, Walter Cronkite, Miles Davis, Malcolm X and Betty Friedan. Each interview includes the photos that accompanied the interviews as well as the original headline.

Multimedia's contributions to the Playboy disc include short audio clips from several interviews. Hear, for example, hotel queen Leona Helmsley complain that she was "betrayed, victimized, vilified, you name it, all because my name is Leona Helmsley." Or listen to Whoopi Goldberg explain how she came by her name.

The Roundtable portion of the disc is useful for research as well as entertainment. Six celebrities address a variety of philosophical subjects including fame and fortune, entertainment, intrigue and the meaning of life. Take, for example, Paul McCartney on chauffeured limos: "I was happier when I had my own little car."

Until now, reports of its arrival were greatly exaggerated, but the age of multimedia is truly upon us. Kick your computer into turbo and take your CD-ROM drive out for a spin.

Rebecca Day is a freelance writer based in Chestnut Ridge, N.Y.

A.D.A.M. The Inside Story
Price: $39.95
800-955-9920, 404-980-0888
A.D.A.M. Software

A Passion for Art: Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Dr. Barnes
Price: from $39.95 (street)
Corbis Publishing
206-649-3971, fax 206-643-9740

Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Interactive
Price: $59.95
Graphix Zone
800-828-3838, 714-833-3838

Cinemania
Price: $59.95 (street)
Microsoft Corp.
800-426-9400, 206-882-8080

Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
Price: $79.95
Compton's NewMedia
800-284-2045, 619-929-2500

Encarta 95
Price: $99.95 (street)
Microsoft Corp.
800-426-9400, 206-882-8080

Mayo Clinic Family Health Book
Price: $59.95
IVI Publishing
800-432-1332, 612-996-6000

The Monarch Notes CD-ROM
Price: $79.95
Bureau of Electronic Publishing
800-828-4766, 201-808-2700

Nile: Passage to Egypt
Price: $49.95
The Discovery Channel Multimedia
800-762-2189, fax 317-579-0402

OceanLife
Price: $49.95 per volume
Sumeria
415-904-0800, fax 415-904-0888

The Playboy Interview: Three Decades
Price: $59.95
IBM Multimedia Publishing Studio
800-898-8842, 615-793-5090

Popular Mechanics Car Guide, the 1996 Edition
Price: $49.95
Books That Work/Hearst New Media
800-242-4546, 415-326-4280

Select Phone
Price: 1996 edition, $99.99 (street)
Pro CD
800-99-CD-ROM, 508-750-0000

TripMaker 1996 Edition
Price: $39.95 (street)
Rand McNally New Media
800-671-5006 ext 402, 708-329-8100

These units cost between $1,700 and $2,500. Maximum resolution, dot pitch and controls will all affect price.

Pay special attention to the resolution and the refresh rate. Chances are you'll need at least 1280x1024 at a 75Hz or higher refresh rate.

The dot pitches of aperture-grille monitors (such as those with a Trinitron or DiamondTron tube) and regular, shadow-mask monitors are measured differently. For that reason, an aperture-grille monitor will have a smaller dot pitch than an equivalent shadow-mask monitor.

The first rule of thumb in judging dot pitch (the space between the dots) is "Less is better," so lower numbers mean superior viewability. Most monitors offer 0.28mm dot pitch, although some go as high as 0.31 or as low as 0.25. If you want to run a 1600x1200 resolution, then lower dot pitch is particularly crucial.

The actual image size that you can display can vary greatly from one monitor to another. For a 20- or 21-inch monitor you should be able to display an image between 18.75 and 19.88 inches diagonal.

If you are willing to pay the price, moving up to a 21-inch monitor can increase your visual real estate substantially, whether you want to see all of your CAD/CAM drawings or display large spreadsheets. Make sure the monitor you choose lets you control various factors, including rotation, degauss (distortion control), pincushioning, color temperature, convergence, color modes, moir@ and orthogonality (angles and curves). Many monitors provide on-screen programming or software that lets you command these aspects with controls or your keyboard/mouse. Also, make sure the unit you're considering adheres to standards such as MPRII low radiation; Energy Star power conservation; and DDC I and II, the Plug-and-Play standards. If cost is an issue, consider a 20-inch monitor, which could be priced several hundred dollars less than its 21-inch counterpart. However, remember that you cannot comfortably display two full pages on a 20-inch monitor, as you can on a 21-inch model.

We asked monitor makers for some suggestions for on-the-spot tests that you can perform to compare two monitors. Here's what they said:

• Fill the entire screen with the letter "E." Check to see that the image covers the entire area, including the corners. Make sure that the letters in the corners are as focused and bright as the ones in the center.
• Put up a white background on each monitor and adjust the brightness and contrast. This will help you judge each screen's overall brightness.
• Pick one or two basic images and put the same picture up on each monitor. Compare the color contrast, the brightness intensity, and the picture crispness and quality.
• Don't get roped into a standard demo. Instead, pull up programs that you work with often. See if the large screen and the picture quality improve your ability to work with that application.
• Put up white text on a dark screen from the C: prompt. Look at the text closely to make sure that the convergence (when red, blue and green rays come together to create white) is good and that no colors are bleeding out at the characters' edges.

Finally, trust your own eyes. Choose the monitor that looks best to you.