The CPC is exceptionally well served for word processors, for besides Tasword and the superb Protext, there is Brunning's Brunword and its bigger brother Infoscript. And one thing that sets Infoscript

Now Brunning has added 100 Letters, a utility that works within Infoscript. Its purpose is to provide a library of over 50 standard letters that can be edited, amended and added to, so that your own individual needs are catered for.

To put things simply (if you own and use Infoscript you'll appreciate that a program that does so much needs to be complex), you begin by loading Infoscript and then loading 100 Letters. Now you select your letter from the list available, and with a couple of keypresses you're in Brunword, with your letter ready for editing.

The key combinations and method of working will be familiar to anyone who has used Brunword or Infoscript. But what about people new to this computing lark? It's all very well saying, "Reset the computer, CAT the disk and load the INFO file," but if you don't know a reset from a CAT, what do you do?

What you do is consult the manual. One criticism levelled at Infoscript was that the documentation was insufficiently detailed for the novice, and that shortcoming has been admirably corrected for 100 Letters. You're taken first on a "walk round" tour of what you can do with the program, which cleverly takes you through Infoscript and into Brunword. So, without knowing exactly what you're doing, you've already been actively involved in "this computing lark."

After that there's a well written and carefully explained tutorial that shows you how to print out the summary (so you know what letters there are), and sections on updating the LABELS file, creating new files and using existing ones, using library letters and creating single ones, and so on.

To be honest, it's rather a lot to take in at one sitting, and you'd be well advised to go out for a brisk walk to clear your head. But if you have gone to the trouble of shelling out £50 for Infoscript, and have perhaps found it not as easy as you'd hoped, why not make the little extra effort to try again with 100 Letters?

P. Useful utility.
P. Very good introductory manual.

N. Requires Infoscript and 128K of memory.