This 200-page volume starts with a brief introduction to the history of micros before going on to describe floppy disks and it's not till chapter five that you get an intro to software.

The sixth chapter tackles word processors, starting with a brief and out-of-place history of printing before describing what a good word processor should give you and mentioning 15 programs briefly. And this is one of the longer chapters.

Each program is summarised and there may, or may not be, a more or less useless table of ratings, plus comments.

Most important areas of applications software are covered, but you'd be better off with a good software directory on a PC magazine.

Bryan Skinner