Hi, folks,

I downloaded and installed IBM's Home Page Reader, along with Netscape
Navigator 4.05, and have begun learning its many features while actually
using it.  My initial several hours with it (last night and this morning)
have left me absolutely astounded in a most positive way.

One of the things that I thought might detract from my liking the product
is its non-standard Windows setup.  However, to offset this it has a very
easy-to-use on-line help system and I found that I could find help on a
given topic and then execute what I wanted with no difficulty.

So as not to make this an unnecessarily long message I will briefly
describe some of Home Page's features.

The afore-mentioned, extensive on-line help system is excellent.  The
speech engine included with it, IBM's Via Voice Out Loud, is nothing less
than incredible.  It can deal with many types of items found on web sites:
frames, tables, forms, checkboxes, radio buttons, select items, text entry
fields and probably others that I'm overlooking.

But the reader doesn't just deal with these items in a haphazard way, it
actually tells you what's on the page as well as your relation to any type
of item.  The user can also find out where he/she is on a given page at any
time.

Well, as I said, I've only just begun to explore this product, which is
right now in beta, but I did go over to The CD Connection's web site and
actually had fun filling out a search form with no trouble whatsoever.

This truly is a well-thought-out, well-designed product and I would urge
anyone interested to go and check it out.  I look forward to purchasing the
Home Page Reader when it is officially released in January.

For now people can download the beta version along with Netscape 4.05 at
the same ftp site:

ftp.software.ibm.com/sns/hpr

--Sam Troia
(Your Alternative Uncle Sam)
KHUM rules!