50 under $50: the greatest software values on the market - Buyers Guide

Home Office Computing, March, 1995

The Greatest Software Values on the Market Today

There are only two ways to make an extra dollar: Increase your revenues or reduce your expenses. The 50 products that follow do both. They raise your productivity while reducing the amount you spend on software.

Look beyond traditional core applications and you'll find exceptional bargains among add-ons, utilities, and libraries--even the occasional full-strength application such as a finance package or personal information manager (PIM). For less than $50 in the stores (street prices are given here), you can improve your finances, keep track of business contacts, create a new company logo, manage your fonts, add spice to your presentations, hook up to the Internet, and keep your system humming smoothly.

We've only skimmed the surface of useful, inexpensive software. We didn't delve into shareware or freeware. If you poke around on BBSs, the Internet, or commercial online services, you'll find plenty of business shareware with registration fees as low as $5 and freeware, which costs you only your connect time.

Another way to get more for your money is to upgrade regularly. We mention the DOS 6.22 Upgrade here, but any upgrade includes new features for relatively little money. Vendors want to keep their installed base, so they discount upgrades heavily to current owners. Think of the upgrades as the regular tune-up you need to keep your software running smoothly.

Any way you slice it, there are products out there to improve the way you work without biting into your budget.

Quicken Deluxe

(WIN)

How do you improve the best personal finance program? Put it on CD-ROM. Quicken Deluxe has video advice from financial experts Marshall Loeb and Jane Bryant Quinn, multimedia tutorials, and the Quicken Financial Suite, which includes a conference room, home office, and library stocked with electronic books. It's like having a consultant at your constant disposal. If keeping track of your finances is giving you an ulcer, Quicken Deluxe will soothe the pain. $49; Intuit, (415) 322-0573, (800) 624-6930.

Managing Your Money

(WIN/MAC)

Where has all the money gone? Certainly not to purchase Managing Your Money which helps manage your checkbook and offers financial advice, tax estimates, and investment analysis. A home inventory manager tracks your belongings for insurance purposes, and your financial condition can be shown via charts and graphs or a quick Financial SnapShot, an overview of your fiscal shape. $39.95; Block Financial Software, (203) 255-1441, (800) 527-9993.

Kiplinger's Simply Money

(WIN)

Just about any personal finance program can keep track of your checks. Kiplinger's Simply, Money goes one better and literally gets down to business when it comes to handling your money. The package provides functions you'd expect to find in an accounting program, including those for performing cash and accrual accounting, payroll, and accounts payable and receivable. These features, along with an innovative drag-and-drop interface, make this package a winner. $35; 4Home Productions, (516) 342-2000, (800) 773-5445.

Money

(WIN)

If, as expected, Microsoft sends Money 3.0 to WordPerfect, a good product will only get better. No other personal finance package on the market gets you up and running as quickly as Money. Besides an impressive set of Wizards to guide you, Money also schedules monthly payments. Best yet, Money provides online links for paying bills, viewing your accounts with certain affiliated banks, and downloading stock quotes. $14.95; Microsoft, (206) 882-8080, (800) 426-9400.

DESKTOP PUBLISHING

Page Magic

(WIN)

Why force yourself to learn QuarkXPress when Page Magic can meet your needs for light desktop publishing work? Page Magic helps the small-business person who wants to create attractive business cards, letterhead, and other promotional material. Page Magic's Powertext feature offers some stylish text controls, and the package's support of OLE 2.0 makes it easy to work with OLE-compliant applications, such as word processors and spreadsheets. It's DTP without the pain. $49.95; Nebs, (603) 880-5100, (800) 882-5254.

MyBrochures

(WIN)

Put together a brochure without investing lots of time or money with MySoftware's MyBrochures. One of the package's 98 templates of trifold brochures will fit your situation, and hundreds of bullet styles, a selection of drawing tools, and the ability to import text files supply you with a fair amount of flexibility. As a bonus, MyBrochures includes a selection of colored paper so you can look even more professional. $39; MySoftware, (415) 473-3600, (800) 325-3508.

FontMinder

(WIN)

Put enough fonts on your system and you'll need a way to manage them. FontMinder lets you install the new PostScript or TrueType fonts you need without having to restart Windows and remove old ones that hog system resources. You can also create and associate font packs with a document or application, as well as automatically download PostScript fonts into printer memory. For DTP, FontMinder keeps your fonts in order. $49; Ares Software, (415) 578-9090, (800) 783-2737.