A few of our favorite things: the editors point to 21 products that make their work easier

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1990 by Steve Chen, Crystal Waters, David Hallerman, Ted Stevenson, Lance Paavola, Bernadette Grey, Steve Morgenstern, Henry F. Beechhold, Edward P. Stevenson

Broderbund; (415) 492-3200

I've mentioned Bannermania so many times you probably think I own stock in the company. I don't, and I've never used the program to make a banner. But I probably use the software weekly for one task or another. I've tested letterheads and designed new title pages to give our publisher's designers something to work with. Finally, it's a program that shows noncomputerists that a computer can be fun and easy, and shows Mac owners that a DOS machine is not a clumsy, immobile oaf.

--PAUL EDWARDS

LIKE A FLU SHOT

Virucide ($50)

(Anti-virus software)

Parsons Technology; (319) 395-7300

Right now Virucide is a particular hero because it saved me countless hours of woe. A demo disk that a small software company sent me turned out to be infected. I've tried other virus detectors, but they're complex and I'm not sure of the results. Virucide works as easily invoking a BAT file and does the job. (Much to the credit of the software company, it acted immediately on the information and sent corrections and apologies.)

--PAUL EDWARDS

NEVER FEAR, MR. CLEAN IS HERE!

Norton Utilities ($179)

(MS-DOS utilities)

Symantec; (213) 319-2000

I've just started using Norton Utilities 5.0, which promises to be even more useful and usable as a DOS housekeeping tool than its predecessors. While I've liked Norton's menus for several versions now, the new version has pull-down and vertical menus together with easier-to-understand descriptions of what the utilities do. Norton's new vertical menu organizes its functions into four groups: Recovery, Speed, Security, and Tools.

The Norton utility I use frequently each day is the Norton Change Directory. The new version has an improved Speed Search capability. I can now glide around directories by simply entering the first letter or two of the directory I want to reach. This is faster than reaching for my mouse.

Norton Utilities gained fame for saving accidentally erased files. Symantec has improved his lifesaver with a menu that includes a prognosis on the chances for recovering erased files. Norton has a variety of other tools, including Disk Doctor II, which resuscitates deed disks. Fortunately I don't have to use these very frequently.

A housekeeping function I use regularly to speed up my hard disk is Speed Disk. It does for a hard disk what a professional organizer does for an office or a home--rearranges what's there for optimal performance.

What I like best about Norton is that it makes it possible for me to perform what seem to be technically monstrous tasks with just a few keystrokes.

--PAUL EDWARDS