Menu!/Reminders! (utility programs) (evaluation)
by Anthony Moses

Inexpensive and efficient, Menu! and Reminders! perform many of the functions of their larger and more costly counterparts.

If you use a hard drive, you may be experiencing DOS-lexia, an inability to remember the correct order of directory paths. Menu! lets you bypass DOS by helping you set up a menu of the programs you most often use and then access them at the touch of a key. The main menu provides for up to 26 directories, within which you may create subdirectories to group related programs or to handle frequent DOS functions such as copying or formatting--without recourse to DOS commands. During installation, Menu! will insinuate itself into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and will be ready to use as soon as you boot up your computer.

So will Reminders!, a prosthesis for the absent-minded. After your system boots, Reminders! will appear, notify you of your business for the day, and discreetly withdraw at a keystroke. If you wish, it will beep to remind you when appointments roll around and even wake you in the morning (five-minute snooze alarm included). Accessed by hot-key commands, Reminders! will also pop into other programs to display a three-month calendar with important dates highlighted, an autodial phone book, and a datebook that allows you to check appointments months in advance. You can also create specialized and password-protected Reminders! levels if more than one person uses your system.

Menu! and Reminders! provide clear manuals and copious help screens to prompt you through their functions. Both are solid, streamlined programs--and all that many people will ever really need.