Those who have been enchanted by Mike Matson's adventure programs will expect the same high quality package in this venture into the word of teletext. I don't think they'll be disappointed because, like the earlier programs, it's been tried and tested in a number of schools and comes complete with an excellent handbook - if only all educational software showed such consideration! - a set of laminated "help" cards, page planning sheets, a function key strip and a second disc containing eight sample "books". In other words, it's more than just a computer program, it's an educational package.

I say this despite Mike's remarks about "reviewers who haven't a clue what education is all about"! (Readers wishing to appreciate this will have to buy the program to see some of the amusing - some may say funny ha, ha; some funny peculiar! - pages in the sample books.)

I like the remarks near the beginning of the handbook - "Please don't think you need to work though this book from cover to cover before you can use TeleBook... keep the manual handy... and refer to it only when necessary." This shows considerable confidence that the program is "user friendly" and indeed, with the help cards to hand, it isn't long before the screen is full of coloured text, doodles etc. - not great creations, perhaps, but a start.

If you can suppress your creative urge for a few minutes, it's helpful to have a look at the sample "books", which give a very clear and colourful impression of what it's all about - class magazines, project work, stories, puzzles, illustrations. These can be seen through the "Load a Book" option, which allows the user to look at or edit a book, and has a manual or automatic page display, the latter with a time setting option - ideal for Open Days.

"Writing a TeleBook" permits up to 15 pages to be created. Four modes, changed by a touch of the TAB key, give:

1. TEXT - elementary text-handling facilities with white text only.
2. OVERWRITE A - the default mode with normal cursor movement, any text already on the page will be overwritten.
3. OVERWRITE B - the cursor remains static (unless moved with the cursor keys or RETURN) and is very useful when selecting colours and graphic shapes.
4. SHIFT - text not overwritten in this mode; useful when blocks of text or graphics need to be moved.

Teletext features are added by the use of function keys combined with CTRL or SHIFT, and lower case letters, numbers or punctuation marks keys give the graphic characters when the graphic colour codes are used. Using these features, imagination is the only limiting factor, and children will begin to appreciate that they have a new and exciting way of presenting their work, and at the same time gain an insight into the idea of electronic mail. Other features in this option permit editing and copying of pages, changing page numbers and saving the book.

Disc versions have two additional programs:

1. DISC UTILITY, which permits the merging of books, cataloguing and fitting a disc, locking, deleting or renaming a book, and dumping pages to a printer.
2. SEARCH, which is a very useful, easy-to-use database to store information about a software library - a bonus!

I've seen teletext simulators which allow the background colour to be added to the whole screen at one go and also a flashing background. Both these would be useful additional facilities but, it appears, could only be achieved by reducing the 15-page book length in memory or require disc access for each page. Some might think it unfortunate that every page must have a title and that there isn't the option to remove screen instructions when viewing. Personally, I find it easier to create graphics if six adjacent keys have been programmed to represent the six pixels making up a graphics character, which is then created "off-page" by pressing the individual keys "on" or "off", rather than having 64 additional characters to remember to look up on a help card.

However, these last few remarks should not deter prospective purchase from seriously considering this first class package, which really should encourage teachers (and those using it at home) to do something in a new way.