When you enter one task, you can select to view a calendar so that you can see how it will overlap and affect other tasks. For example, I entered "excavate foundations" and specified a length of five days. The calendar blocked out five days in red (you can specify which colors you want). As you add more tasks, the calendar shows you how they overlap. Project Scheduler 7 will alert you if your resources are too scattered or overcommitted. Because the calendar can be only so big, I found this feature limiting. I had more tasks than the program's 256 colors.
I share data with a lot of teams both on and off the site. It was easy to electronically transfer via intranet Scheduler files to others running the same software. But the big strength of the program is the what-if feature. To test it, I set up a scenario that included four days of rain. By saving different scenarios under different names, I was able to play out how to make up the lost time and money.
I would recommend this program to any project manager, regardless of what kind of sequence-dependent project he or she is working on.
SOFTWARE
WillMaker, from Nolo Press, Berkeley, CA (800-728-3555, $49.95), a stand-alone program that creates wills, living wills, and final-arrangements documents
REVIEWER
Jordan E. Ayan, president of Create-It! Inc., a business consulting firm in Naperville, IL, and author of Aha!--10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas (1997, Crown/Random House).
REQUIREMENTS
386 or higher, 4 MB RAM, Windows 3.1. Hard disk required. Macintosh: 68,000 or higher, 6 MB RAM, System 7 or higher, 3 MB disk space
Working with a lawyer on a will could rank near the top of life's unpleasant tasks. Die without a will, however, and you can put your family into financial limbo or start a feud that makes the Hatfield and McCoy hostilities look like a school-yard scrap. Nolo Press's WillMaker 6.0 can make the task less daunting--and, in many cases, can completely remove the lawyer from the process.
WillMaker won't replace a lawyer for complicated estate-planning issues, but it makes easy work of developing a basic will, a living will, and a document that spells out your final wishes. The software provides detailed information that allows you to customize your will. You simply answer questions about your family structure and personal intentions by clicking on buttons or filling in the blanks. The program offers many options for family structure, including advice for gay parents. When all the questions are answered, the software assembles the will and provides instructions on executing it and detailed information for the executor. (It also includes envelopes labeled "Will," "Final Arrangements," and "Healthcare Directions.")
WillMaker is customized to accommodate probate laws that differ from state to state. I worked through several scenarios, each with varying levels of complexity, and the resulting documents accurately accounted for all the changes.
The program can also create a living will reflecting your wishes in case you are unable to make decisions related to life-prolonging medical treatment. You can select to have a caregiver make decisions for you or choose from a menu of directions that include diagnostic testing, CPR, and resuscitation. A Final Arrangements section also allows you to create a document ensuring that your wishes about your funeral and disposition of your body are followed.
The level of detail and complexity anticipated by the program makes WillMaker one of the leading legal-advice programs on the market. If you plan to have a lawyer assemble a will for you, WillMaker will help you organize your information and reduce the time you spend with the lawyer while the meter is running.
Tape Me Back
Two types of devices let you easily copy every byte on your hard drive
Hello, Joe? My hard drive is making a funny grinding noise, and this afternoon's presentation has disappeared. Find it for me while I grab a quick lunch, will you?" Great. The document is gone, the drive is shot, the computer won't reboot, and the presentation is due to the CEO in one hour. No lunch for me. But the real question is: Will I still be employed after 2 p.m.?
Think those calamities happen only to the other guy? The bad news is that although hard drives don't fail often, many computers eventually lose some or all of their data because of viruses or mysterious corruptions. The good news is that for as little as $150, you can buy a device that will make copying every byte of your hard drive a snap. Without this handy insurance policy, your only option is to entrust the drive to a data-recovery service--an expensive and time-consuming alternative--or else take an unplanned vacation.
Two types of devices will let you copy large amounts of data, a process called backing up or archiving. The first is a tape drive like the Iomega Ditto Easy ($99.95 for Ditto Easy 800; $149.95 for internal and parallel, www.iomega.com, 800-697-8833). It records the contents of the hard disk onto a tape slightly larger than an audiocassette. Installation was a snap: 5 minutes to connect the cables and power supply to the drive and 14 minutes to run the installation program. Filling the tape's 800 MB capacity takes about three hours.
If you have a problem with your hard disk, insert the backup tape in the drive and specify which files you want to recover. If you regularly back up, you will never have to fear equipment failure, theft, or destruction.
The other type of backup device is the removable hard disk. It's just like a 3.5-inch floppy disk except that it holds up to 700 times more data. Two examples are the Syquest EZFlyer 230 MB ($299, external model only, www.syquest.com, 800-245-2278) and the Iomega Jaz 1 GB drive ($499.95 for external model, $399.95 for internal model, www.iomega.com, 800-697-8833). Both types sport similar features, but the Iomega holds more than four times the data on a disk slightly larger than the Syquest. Iomega also offers a rechargeable-battery power-pack option, so you can back up your laptop while on the road.
