The Random House Reference Set (for MS-DOS computer; $89.95) presents words to you instantly on a pop-up screen. To quote the company`s imaginative ad: ”You`re working on an important cereal proposal and things take a turn for the worse. Crackel . . . is it `el` or `le`?”
Reference Set to the rescue. You hit Alt-D and you`re given a list of correctly spelled words that are close to your spelling. If you`ve spelled it wrong, you use the cursor keys and highlight the correctly spelled
”crackle.” You tap the INS key, and the correct spelling moves to your copy. If you spelled the word correctly in the first place, then just hit the return key and you`re back to what you were writing. Brilliantly simple.
Need the thesaurus? Hit Alt-T. As an example, take the phrase, ”On my way to Poughkeepsie.” (Please.) You need a new word for ”way,” so you move the cursor to anywhere within the word. Hit Alt-T, and a window pops up on screen with: WAY: (n.) manner, fashion, habit, custom, practice, means, course, plan, scheme, respect, particular, direction, passage, progress, distance, space, path, channel, road, track, avenue, highway.
Using the cursor keys, you move the highlighting cursor to the word of your choice (say, ”passage”) and then hit the INS key. You are returned to your text, and your sentence now reads, ”On my passage to Poughkeepsie.”
The Reference Set also has a unique feature: press Alt-U, and a utility menu pops up. From it you can read your MS-DOS directories, look into a file other than the one you`re currently working on or look up words in the thesaurus and dictionary.
As you see, the dictionary, thesaurus and utilities are only windows away –they don`t show up on your screen until you call for them.
This program works as simply and wonderfully as one can ask. This programs`s newest version, version 2.1, can also act as a spelling checker
(previous versions did not). With a floppy disk system, you have a 50,000-word dictionary, and with a hard-disk system, you have 80,000 words.
(The one time I do check for spelling while writing is when using MCI Mail. The Reference Set works well in MCI Mail, though it will not insert words. Hit Alt-D or Alt-T after a word and find a new word or spelling. Then, instead of hitting the INS key, hit the return key, and insert the new word manually by first using the delete key. Using the INS key will only freeze your cursor, and you must exit MCI Mail and call back.)
I use thesauruses, and the operation of this one works well for me. Here, if I look up a word, and none of the many synonyms has quite the right shade of meaning, I can have The Reference Set Thesaurus give me synonyms for one of the synonyms. Of all the electronic thesauruses I`ve looked at (maybe four), this one works best.
Unfortunately, there are not enough words in the present version. The first few words I looked up, such as color, orange, bounce and stormy, were not in the thesaurus`s list. The next 15 were (including run, walk, saunter, idea, notion, computer, noise and ramble ). The Reference Set Thesaurus offers something like 5,000 root words that offer a total of 50,000 synonyms.
If this program sounds like something for you, Donald Emery of Reference Software (president and one of the authors) has an offer for this column`s readers: After you buy the software from your dealer, send in the copyright page from the manual, and he`ll send you $10. Or if you want to order directly from Reference, you can get a $10 discount directly.
P.S.: What`s another word for thesaurus?
(Reference Software, 2363 Boulevard Circle, Walnut Creek, Calif. 94595;
(800) 826-2222, or (415) 947-1000.)
A warning:
If you use Managing Your Money, TURN OFF THE CLOCK! Run the Install program, and when it asks, ”Do you want the clock on?”, answer no. A devastating bug has been found in the 2.0 version of Managing Your Money. Free fixes are being sent out from MECA to all registered owners. In the meantime, TURN OFF THE CLOCK.
