Datext, a teletext editor and display program, is the first offering I've seen from Optima Software. It comes nicely packaged with a small six-sided manual and contains two programs plus some example teletext pages.

The purpose of the software is to allow the user to create, store and display customised screens of information in as simple a way as possible.

The storage and display is certainly easy to use - up to 17 separate pages can be displayed in an automatic cycle with a specified display time.

Also, if desired, pages can be displayed selectively.

The editor is not quite so simple to use, for obvious reasons.

The exotic colour and graphic effects available from Mode 7 are achieved by the insertion of non-printing control codes on the screen.

If these codes are not detected and indicated in some way by the editing program then a complex design can be very difficult to form.

Datext's editor does not contain this facility, and to me this is its only fault. This aside, the editor gives access to all the available effects including flash, separated graphics and hold graphics, and very little practice soon allows the user to put together pleasing displays.

One final point is that Optima's animated logo is the best that I've seen.

Alan Plume