Instant Web, E-Paper, Fishing for Ideas

Three CEOs review new software packages.

New software packages help you create Web pages in a jiff, customize the morning newspaper, and brainstorm on business problems. Here's how our CEO reviewers rate them

Software
Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word for Windows, from Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash. (800-426-9400; http://www.microsoft.com/msoffice/freestuf/msword/download/ia/default.htm; free on-line, $5 shipping for disk), a World Wide Web-page authoring program

Reviewer
Ethan Assal, CEO of Executive Presentations Inc., an $8 million, 120-employee computer graphic design company in Rockville, Md.

Requirements
386 or higher; Microsoft Word for Windows 6.0

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How long do you think it takes to set up a page on the World Wide Web? A week? Maybe a month? Two months? Try 10 minutes. That is, of course, if you're using Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word for Windows, an add-on to Microsoft Word that converts Word 6.0 documents into Web pages. How does it work? Internet Assistant translates Word files into hypertext markup language (HTML) format, the file format for information displayed on the Web.

In the past if you wanted to create a Web page, you were forced to learn that somewhat cumbersome code. Not so today. With Internet Assistant you have the ability to create documents for the Web quickly and simply. Best of all, Internet Assistant is both an HTML editor and a Web browser. So while you're creating a Web document in one window, you can cruise the Web in another. And you can switch between the two with just the click of an icon -- a feature that's particularly nice when you're building links into documents. In other Web builders, you may create a link, but you have no way of knowing whether that link still exists. Internet Assistant can take you right to the linked site.

Another plus: with Internet Assistant, you can take information that's been stored in Word files and quickly get them up on the Web. That can be very helpful when you want to display product information on the Web.

To begin, I installed Internet Assistant on my portable 486DX2/50 mhz machine. Once loaded and launched, the Internet Assistant icon pops up on the Word toolbar. The first screen looks like a Web page with four informational categories: Navigating the Internet, Creating Web Documents, Favorite Places, and Tips & Tricks. You can click on any one of the categories to read more information. I focused on creating a Web site.

For the most part the software did what it promised; I had just a few problems. At first, the program was slow. During my HTML authoring -- the time when I was building links into my documents -- there seemed to be unexplainable lags. Another problem: the current version of Internet Assistant only knows HTML 2.0 specifications. Microsoft does provide a fill-in box so that if you want to enter post-2.0 codes, you can, but the conversion isn't automatic.

All in all, Internet Assistant is an add-on for Word that is well worth paying for. The best part about it: it's free.

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Software
Personal Journal, from Dow Jones & Co., Princeton, N.J. (800-291-9382; free software, $12.95 a month for service), a customized on-line version of the Wall Street Journal

Reviewer
Dan Caulfield, CEO of Hire Quality, a $500,000 company in Chicago that offers temporary employment services

Requirements
386 or higher; 4 MB RAM; 9600-baud modem or faster

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So you're thinking of ditching all your stock in companies that make news-print and buying shares in America Online. Well, if the Personal Journal from Dow Jones is any indication of the electronic newspapers of the future, print may have more life in it than some people think. The Personal Journal is an on-line service that allows the user to download a customized version of the Wall Street Journal.

To get the service, all I had to do was call Dow Jones. The company sent me the Personal Journal software free of charge. (I had to pay $4.95 for shipping and handling.) The software comes with a password and simple instructions on how to obtain a local access number, which you need to dial in and download the paper.

All users see the first two columns of the Journal just as they appear in print. It's up to the individual to define what the rest of his or her paper will look like. The software allows you to create a "personal profile" and a "personal portfolio." The personal profile is a list of 25 items. You can choose Journal columns you want to receive, or you can just enter the names of companies in which you're interested. So, for example, if you enjoy Walter Mossberg's column on personal computing, you can receive that every day. Or if you want to keep up to date on IBM, you enter the company in your user profile. Then when you dial in for the paper, you'll get all of the day's articles that mention IBM. The personal portfolio is a separate list of 25 stocks or mutual funds that you want to follow.

The problem with this customized version of the Wall Street Journal is that it assumes that the user always knows what he or she wants to read about. I certainly don't. To make this product really useful, Dow Jones should index the paper and allow users to choose from the index those articles they want to download. I found myself reading the printed paper every day just to make sure the computer hadn't missed anything important.

The Personal Journal did help me find an article I had missed on WMX Waste Management, a company with which I was trying to close a deal. It was a seemingly insignificant article, but when I mentioned facts from it during a sales call, the manager was very impressed.

The news and portfolio updates are good features. It was fun to download the paper at the end of the day to see what the next day's headlines were going to be. You do have to be careful how many times you go in for an update, though. The service costs $12.95 a month, but that's for just one download a day. Extra downloads each day cost 50¢ a piece. A more important problem: the Personal Journal takes an agonizingly long time to download.

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Software
IdeaFisher PRO, from IdeaFisher Systems Inc., Irvine, Calif. (800-289-4332; price $89.95), brainstorming software

Reviewer
Brian Harrington, marketing director of Green Design Furniture, a $110,000 company in Portland, Me., that designs and sells furniture

Requirements
386 or higher; 2 MB RAM (4 MB recommended); 5 MB disk space; Windows 3.1 or higher; or Mac with 68020 or higher processor, 2 MB RAM, 5 MB disk space, System 7 or later. Available on 3.5-inch high-density disk or CD-ROM.

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Pulling together a direct-mail piece on a tight deadline can be maddening. It's easy to lose focus when there are so many things to think about -- figuring out the target audience, choosing a message, and translating that message into copy that will grab the attention of the audience. I used IdeaFisher PRO, a brainstorming and strategic-planning software package, to help me design and implement my most recent direct-mail advertising campaign.

When you load IdeaFisher PRO, a screen appears offering you two options. The first is a question bank, a series of questions about the project. The second is an idea bank, a bank of words used for brainstorming. If you choose the question-bank option, a list of eight categories appears on the screen. I clicked the Advertising and Promotion category on the menu bar, and a list of question topics popped onto the top of my screen. At the bottom was a blank box, called the Answer Notepad. I clicked on the heading Context and General Purpose, and the questions started. The first asked me what my personal feelings and reservations were about the direct-mail piece. Then I was asked to list any negative feelings I had about the project. I typed my answers into the Answer Notepad. Those were great questions to start with. Often projects get dumped on people whose hearts aren't in their work. (That wasn't the case with me.) The program also asked me to list deadlines and to create a schedule. I wanted to finish the project in under two weeks, a schedule that forced me to think about when I needed to complete each phase of the proj-ect, from taking the finished version to the printer to mailing it. Other questions helped me focus my advertising message and identify the main purpose of the piece.

The second part of the program is designed to help generate ideas -- things like product names and advertising slogans -- through the use of word association. Because the word associations were predictable, I didn't find the function very helpful. It was just as productive to brainstorm on my own. Although the idea bank was a disappointment, the question bank alone is reason enough to buy this program. It really helped me approach my direct-mail campaign objectively, forcing me to answer questions I might otherwise have blown off. In fact, I just put the piece in the mail, on time and on budget.