Content area
Full Text
SilverPlatter is one of the leading publishers of CD-ROM products. Beginning in 1983, SilverPlatter has grown to an international company with over 50 CD-ROM products. Along the way, their retrieval software has undergone several upgrades: there are now software versions available for the Apple Macintosh computer (Mac SPIRS) and the IBM-compatible (PC SPIRS). Version 2.0, released in the spring of 1991, contained some major enhancements and features. This review is for the PC SPIRS version and will focus on the changes in this new version.
NEW FEATURES WITH SPIRS 2.0
System Administrator can:
* Select drive on which SPIRS will reside
* Choose colors used in display
* Select default fields used in Show, Print and Download
* Make use of enhancements in installations procedures Software features include:
* Show (F4) immediately displays first record
* Marking records in Show
* New menu functions
* Options feature permits changes to showing, printing and downloading
* Saving of search strategies for later use
* Local area network compatibility
INSTALLATION CHANCES
SPIRS 2.0 now comes on one diskette instead of two. Software can be installed from either Drive A or Drive B and reconfiguration can be done by typing reconfig SPIRS in the SPIRS subdirectory. Installing the software was no problem and the new reconfigure flexibility makes it much easier to change a single setting later. For those with color monitors, SilverPlatter now offers a choice of display colors including white on blue or green on black or black on white. Other decisions which can be set during installation include whether to display the intermediate search results on the screen or simply have the final results display. The default is to display the intermediate results.
Being able to set your own defaults in Show is a nice addition. Most users preferred showing a citation and abstract (CITN, AB) rather than all of the fields and now we can set that as our default. There is also a choice of long or short field labels. The long format explains the abbreviations so the user knows what they stand for, but the screen looks a bit more cluttered. However, the long format is handy to have on the printout. We get very few questions now about what an abbreviation...