Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 31, 1993 TAG: 9310290084
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY NOAH MATTHEWS KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Windows users have been waiting patiently for new shareware programs. Here's a coloring book for kids of all ages (including myself). And a program that will tell you how much you should weigh and track your daily food consumption with style.
WINDOWS COLORING BOOK (IBM) - My kids have had crayons since they were crawlers. Our walls testify to that. With this program my daughter's masterpieces can be colored right on the computer monitor. If you have Windows 3.0 or 3.1,you'll have a grand time coloring a cowboy, duck pond, ship, house and undersea creatures.
I say you, because even though my 8-year-old daughter had a grand time with Windows Coloring Book, here in the still of night I'm catching up on my colors. (Actually, any child - or adult - who can handle a mouse will be able to work this program.)
Three changeable color palettes line the top of the screen. You click on a primary color or blend, then click on the space you want to color. A chimney can be painted red, smoke coming from the chimney gets gray. And if you or your resident artists have second thoughts, you can simply click on a new color. For folks who want to know how the computer would paint the picture, that's available, too. Pictures can be saved for each member of the family and their friends. Boys get a boy icon, and you can change the color of the icon's hair. Girls get a girl icon, and grandparents get their own icon.
After trying the nine pictures in the shareware Windows Coloring Book, registration costs $29 and comes with a total of 80 pictures to color, including airplanes, dinosaurs, snowmen and the like. You'll need Windows, a color monitor, hard disk, 4 megabytes of RAM and a mouse. And a printer, if you'd like to see your work on paper. Look for WINCOLOR.ZIP on America Online.
NUTRI-SOFT WEIGHT PERFECT (IBM) - Once I discovered that a whole apple pie had 2,420 calories and 105 grams of fat, I knew that dieting would not be terribly easy. This program not only calculates your ideal weight, it tracks every bite of food you eat during the day. It doesn't much like egg yolks or junk food, which is good news for you. You pick a meal (or a snack), and Weight Perfect tells you everything you need to know, calorie- and fat-wise, about the food. As the day wore on, I realized that by lunch time, I had exactly 280 calories left. The shareware version doesn't have all foods listed; registered users who pay the $35 fee get more. Look for version 2.0 or higher (NSWP2.ZIP). Nutri-Soft also offers Control Diabetes for Windows and Fat and Cholesterol Counter for Windows, which I've already reviewed. (I'll send you copies for $7 each.)
BEFORE DARK (Mac) - You've probably used After Dark, the commercial screen saver, with its fish and other creative ways to entertain your monitor while you're away. Before Dark is a desktop pattern utility. You can choose such patterns as wood paneling, shower tiles, magenta gobs, fruit (my favorite), carp and pseudo DNA. And you can preview patterns before you actually select them. In all, you get a choice of more than two dozen patterns, and you can import others.
(For copies of Windows Coloring Book or Weight Perfect for Windows, send $7 each, plus tax for Californians; for Before Dark for the Mac send $7, plus tax, to Shareware, P.O. Box 7037, Long Beach, Calif. 90807. Credit cards: (800) 395-7797. Fax (310) 426-0110. A catalog of IBM shareware on a disk costs $2. Please specify 5.25- or 3.5-inch disks.)
by CNB