When I was close to giving up I found Demo Builder (DB) and was impressed from the very start. It has a fresh look and was the easiest to use of the programs I looked at. Its recording capabilities are quite good and its editing features are very good. There is a thumbnail view so you can easily locate any frame and a timeline which gives good control over the various objects DB supports. These include balloon callouts, animated text, notes, images, cursors etc. In addition there are effects such as fade in and out, fly in etc. which can add a nice extra zing to your demos.

I have found some annoyances such as no recognition of dual monitor setups, and UI issues which hamper productivity a bit. But these aside DB is the easily the best in its class as far as I'm concerned. The Surfulater movies will be available shortly and will show you what I've achieved in a reasonably short amount of time. For more information and a free trial visit the Demo Builder web site. 

DBxtra is a stand alone reporting and query tool that connects to unlimited databases, including Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, FoxPro, Excel and almost any other database through ODBC.

No programming or database knowledge is required to explore and report your data in our user-friendly environment.

Visit the DBxtra web site for more information.

From time to time I'm asked to add FTP capabilities into ED for Windows, and I have to say that I'm really reluctant to do this. I clearly understand the need to edit files on an FTP server. However, adding a complete, robust FTP client into ED just doesn't make a lot of sense to me when there are better solutions. Apart from making the ED code base even more complex, and costly to support and maintain, I have to question whether every application you use should have its very own FTP client! I mean how many different places do you want to have to go around and set up FTP accounts, and then keep up to date, when say, login details change.

Surely a better way is to have a centralized FTP program, that provides seamless access to files on FTP servers just as though they were on your local PC or LAN. Now there are a few programs around that do this and even Windows Explorer has FTP capabilities but the latter is very limited. Typically you can download and upload files, but you can't simply open them, edit them and then save them, as if they were on your local PC. Up until my recent discovery of Internet Neighborhood, I hadn't found a program that provided this seamless capability, or at least one that worked properly.

Internet Neighborhood integrates directly into Windows Explorer and has an intuitive, easy to use, user interface. It enables you to work with files as if they were on your local PC, albeit a bit more slowly. To edit files located on an FTP server you simply use Internet Neighborhood's ability to Map an FTP site to a Drive. Once that's, done you can edit them in ED just like editing any other file. It really couldn't get much easier. Now I've only been using IN for a short time, but so far it hasn't missed a beat, and I can honestly say I'm quite impressed.

So if you want seamless FTP access to your files from within ED, plus all your other apps, and like to keep your life simpler with just one place to configure your FTP accounts, then I recommend you give Internet Neighborhood a try.

There are various ways to manage and deliver emails to large groups of people. Web server based programs are quite common, but are often lacking in capabilities, such as sending HTML content, verifying email address, delivering batches of emails so you can stagger delivery, and tracking who has been sent what.

During our recent research trip into bulk email applications we were fortunate enough to stumble across Group Mail, which is a Windows application which doesn't suffer from the drawbacks outlined above. It was by far the most comprehensive bulk email application we were able to find, and is also reasonably easy to use and well priced.

Group Mail comes in three flavours, including a free version with a limited recipient list size, which is more than adequate to give you a good feel for the product. As you move up the ladder you get the ability to use different sending techniques, which can considerably speed up the delivery of large numbers of emails, plus a range of very useful add-ins. 

Group Mail add-ins deliver extra functionality such as Merging lists of recipients, Email address verification, Subscriber list management etc. And these are all free with the Pro product.

If you've registered on our Forums and said yes to receive email, then you'll be receiving information about ED from us via. Group Mail. To get more information and put it through its paces go and visit the Group Mail Web site.

Winspector hasn't been out long and is going through a rapid development phase, so problems are fixed quickly and if you request a new feature, it might just see the light of day. And if that's not enough to pike your interest, this will be - Winspector is free. So go and download a copy from www.gipsysoft.com/articles/winspector now.

There is one final thing I have to tell you about. Russ Freeman, the guy behind Winspector has an excellent HTML control called QHTM. If you want to display HTML in your applications, this is the way to go. See www.gipsysoft.com/qhtm/index.shtml  for more information.

After much searching, talking and evaluating I've settled on The Bat by RITLABS. This is easily the most full featured email client I've seen; you name it, it does it. Not only that but it has some impressive features I haven't seen elsewhere.

For example I regularly switch between using my Notebook and my Desktop PC when working with my email. As you can image I have a lot of email to manage and my email database is currently over 350MBytes. Over a 10M LAN copying this back and forth is painful to say the least. The Bat has the ability to synchronize email on multiple machines, which makes this chore so much easier. It can also work as mail server for machines that don't have a direct internet connection. 

The Bat handles multiple accounts, HTML email, threaded views, has good message management capabilities, powerful filtering, impressive templates (which handle signatures and more), the ability to work as list server, PGP support, tons of configuration options, is multithreaded, etc.etc.

There are areas I'd like to see improved in the User Interface, which would make it easier to use, and the Help needs more work, but I'm sure the developers are aware of this it will continue to steadily improve.

The Bat Free Trial is available at http://www.ritlabs.com/the_bat/index.html

The bottom line: Highly Recommended

Creating a macro is easy, and there is a wide range of commands you can choose from like file delete/copy/move, starting applications,  FTP'ing files, opening URLs, moving the mouse, sending keystrokes and lots more. You can add in flow control statements, wait on timers and access variables. This is all done by choosing commands from a tree, so you don't have to learn a new scripting language. In the unlikely event that you need even more power the Advanced Scripting version lets you use Basic, VB and Java Script. A flexible Project Tree lets you define and group your macros, and you can even use WinScheduler to remind you about important dates.

WinScheduler can be purchased stand-alone or part of a even more powerful suite of tools called ToolWorks, which includes Perfect Keyboard, ClickyMouse and ToolbarPro. If you need a tool to help automate your life a little, then download a free trial and evaluate it for yourself.

All developers need to be secure in the knowledge that they can revert to previous versions of a file or at least be able to compare and see what changes have been made when things that used to work all of sudden don't any more. CS-RCS turns this into a simple and painless process providing the safety net we all need.

This really is a no brainer - if you're not already using a RCS you have no excuses left. Even if you are I recommend giving CS-RCS a try. Download your copy from ComponentSoftware's Web site.

The bottom line: Highly Recommended

If you've got a favourite tool you'd like to have mentioned here drop us an email.