Street Atlas USA and Phone Search USA

 Let's start with the fact that these programs from DeLorme of Freeport, Maine are on CD/ROM - one disk for Street Atlas USA and three for Phone Search USA (East/Central/West).

 Minimum system requirements are 386SX33, 4MB RAM, 4 MB space on the hard disk, CD-ROM with 650MB read capacity, Windows 3.1 and VGA card and monitor.

 Installation of both programs was a snap - open Windows, go to "File - Run", type (CD/ROM drive):\setup, and follow the very simple instructions. You can change the name and drive of the directory and the rest is automatic. They also provide an uninstall icon for each program.

It took about 5 minutes a program, maximum, to install and to start up. Then the fun began. Throw away the book of maps that you purchased a few years ago - we have a better way to find your way around strange cities or to find streets here in Hometown USA.
 
 

Street Atlas USA

I started looking up addresses locally to see how Street Atlas USA did in areas that I know. It worked flawlessly and promptly located the block where the address is located. I could zoom down to almost an individual block on most streets and the handy indexing/drawing tool allowed me to put a marker on the map showing any wording I wanted. For example, I could label my house with the address or identify where a theater is if I wanted.

 The advantage to that is that I live on a very small street and showing my house location and address could be most helpful as the Christmas party season starts. It will be a real boon to those trying to find the house for the first time.

 I found that I can locate addresses by using either the street or the zip code. (What, you don't know the Zip? No problem - Street Atlas USA has a search function to solve that problem). I can locate a city - zoom around looking for shortcuts and then narrow the view to a small neighborhood with the target street in the center.

 I could also navigate around the area in 45 degree offsets in order to identify major streets, expressways, etc. This was most helpful in looking up the address in Washington DC. I had not been there before but I now have a very detailed map to aid me as I traverse the streets of one of the most confusing towns I have ever been in. This trip will be easier than I expected before I tried the program.

Major landmarks are clearly shown and they include stadiums, parks, colleges, lakes, rivers, etc. These landmarks make it much easier to follow the map to the target area.

 If you like gadgets and have a Global Positioning Satellite receiver you will enjoy this program. It gives you the latitude/longitude at the bottom of the screen so you can really nail the location down to within a few feet if you wish.

 The manual was excellent as was the available on-line help. I encountered no problems in using it once my clumsy hand-eye coordination meshed with the mouse. It is a highly usable program.

Street Atlas USA would be a great addition to the library of CD/ROM's taken on a trip if you have a notebook with a CD/ROM player. The list price of approximately $79 puts it in the really nice Christmas present range (cut this out and leave where the significant other can find it).
 
 

Phone Search USA

 The SIC would allow you to type in a location and get all the restaurants in the area, either restaurants in general or a particular type of ethnic food. There are several thousand SIC's available and you can search out the one(s) you need by typing in the key word such as restaurant.

 There are approximately 80 million numbers on the three disks and they are divided by regions with the states shown clearly on each label. Once the program is started by clicking on the icon in the DeLorme program group, the rest is as easy as typing in a name or a phone number.

 Naturally I checked my number and it was right on all accounts. Oddly enough, my daughter's name and number were not listed in the Phone Search USA program in spite of her having a listed number for several years. However, one out of 80 million isn't too bad!

 I searched for several different people and businesses and found them listed. Some have unlisted numbers now but they were in the program also. It was possible to obtain names, addresses and phone numbers based on a multitude of different searches. You can list by last name through about one-third of the country (a VERY large search), by state or city or even by the telephone area code or exchange.

All searches went fairly rapidly and certainly found lots of people with my last name (Barth is not a real common name, but darned if there aren't hundreds of us out there).

This was also a very easy program to install and use. The manual was easy to read and follow and both programs have both an on line tutorial and a demo program. I would also recommend buying the Phone Search USA program if you have a need for this type of program. The price of $79 is in line with other directory type programs and this particular program is worth owning.
 
 

Running both programs together

 It is no big thing to find the address and phone number of the person or business that you want and then to close the Phone Search USA program, open the Street Atlas USA and find the location of this address.

While it would have been nice to be able to do that with a click of the mouse, it really didn't detract from my appreciation of either program and I strongly recommend that Street Atlas USA be put on your shopping list. Phone Search USA is a "nice to have" program for most of us but could be a real valuable tool to those that need its capability. If you do a lot of Desktop computing and find yourself using directory assistance at the same time, this will be a real money saver.

 DeLorme can be contacted at Lower Main St., P.O. Box 298, Freeport, ME 04032. They are on the internet at http://www.delorme.com and their phone number is (1-800-452-5931, ext. 102).

 Street Prices at Egghead and others is $72.80 per program. With your Cue card and discount coupon in this issue from Egghead you can save another 10%.