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^CBy Daniel Tobias

   This is issue #20 of BIG BLUE DISK.  It seems like yesterday that we were 
working on the first issue.  That issue came on a single disk, worked only on 
color-graphics PC's, and contained mostly programs converted from our Apple II 
diskmagazine, SOFTDISK.  It went out only to retail outlets, since no ads had 
appeared which could draw in mail subscriptions.  Now, BIG BLUE DISK is on two 
disks every month, contains a wide variety of software for both color and 
monochrome PC's, and it goes out to a number of subscribers which has been 
increasing monthly at a phenomenal rate.  We've come a long way.  However, that 
doesn't mean it's time to slack off and rest on our laurels: there are millions 
of new PC's sold every year, which means that there are an enormous number of 
these machines out there which do NOT have an issue of BIG BLUE DISK running on 
them.  We aim to fix that.  As we maintain and improve the quality of our 
monthly software collection, BIG BLUE DISK will increase its penetration into 
the PC world.  This will produce benefits for all; if we can sell advertising 
space on the disk or in the form of paper inserts, this may allow us to reduce 
our newsstand and subscription prices to give you even more value for the money.  
So tell all your friends about BIG BLUE DISK! 

   By the way, if you sell any other PC-related product, and are interested in 
advertising on BIG BLUE DISK, let us know.  (Contact Al Vekovius, the president 
of Softdisk, Inc.) 

   Since this is the June, 1988 issue, I just thought I'd mention that it was 
the June, 1938 issue of ^1Action Comics^0 which introduced the character ^1Superman
to the world.  Happy 50th anniversary, Supes!  (This has nothing to do with 
computers, but since I've always been a big comics fan, I thought I'd mention 
it.)  That first ^1Action^0, by the way, sells to collectors for over $30,000 in
mint condition.  Wonder if BIG BLUE DISK #1 will ever draw such prices?  It's 
still available from us for $9.95, the original cover price, as are all our 
other back issues.

   At any rate, this issue is truly ^1super^0.  Its lead program, EasyMenu, lets 
you set up menus on a hard disk to access programs and commands.  This is handy 
if you're setting up a system to be used by computer novices, and don't wish 
them to be exposed to the bewildering (and dangerous) DOS prompt.  By special 
arrangement, the publisher of this shareware program has released BIG BLUE DISK 
readers from the requirement of registering the program in order to use it.  
(However, if you wish technical support from EasyMenu, you still must pay a 
registration fee, which is specially discounted for BIG BLUE DISK readers.) 

   ^1But Wait... There's More!^0  Also on the issue is Form King, a useful program
to let you design forms for any occasion.  Whether it's for business use, or to 
help you get your life organized at home, there are probably many occasions in 
which you need to design a form with spaces for various information to be noted.  
Form King lets you design them on the screen, then print them out on one of many 
printer models.  Then photocopy the printed form (or print multiple copies), 
and you've got a professional-looking form.  (How about making a form for the 
I.R.S. agents to fill out?  Turnabout is fair play.)

   ^1And if you act now, you'll also get...^0 a great new game which took second 
place in our CodeQuest programming contest.  Kingdom of Kroz lets you explore 
its multi-level dungeons.  Watch out for the monsters!

   ^1And that's not all...^0  There's also a quiz on the 50 states and their 
capitals, and a command with a weird-sounding name ("GREP") which performs a 
highly useful function for users needing to find things buried in a file.  Of 
course, there are also regular features such as the Blue Notes letter column.
Users of the BlueLine text editor should also note that there's a brand new 
version of it in this issue, completely rewritten by staff hacker Richard Wong.  
It has several new features to enhance its utility and improve its appearance, 
and hopefully also fixes several bugs in the earlier BlueLine.

   One final thing.  You may have noticed some funny numbers and letters at the 
bottom of the copyright page at the start of BIG BLUE DISK.  They're probably 
not very meaningful to you, but to us they reveal a lot about your copy of this 
issue, such as which version of the issue you are running, and even which of our 
disk copying machines copied it.  This information is helpful when we are 
tracking down bug reports and other problems.  Hence, if you ever write or call 
us about a problem with an issue, please first take a few moments to look at the 
copyright page and copy down the symbols on its bottommost line, and tell them 
to us.

   The preceding information is to help you if you encounter a problem; we 
sincerely hope it will never be necessary for you to follow the above procedure, 
since we're trying to make all issues work perfectly for you every time.  
However, bugs and bad disks do occasionally crop in (it's one of the corrolaries 
to Murphy's law), so we want to be able to get to the root of such problems 
quickly to help make our products better in the future.  At any rate, we always 
replace copies of our issues that go bad, regardless of whose fault the problem 
is.  People have even sent back issues that their dog chewed up, and we replaced 
them free!  We value our customers, and want them to be happy with our issues.

   Speaking of problems, many of you have reported difficulties in saving a 
puzzle in the PC PUZZLE crossword program in issue 18.  The problem is that the 
issue is so crammed with programs that there's no room for you to save a new 
file.  I suggest you copy the program to your own disk. with plenty of free 
space, and run it there if you wish to create puzzles or save partially-solved 
puzzles in progress.  Or, you can swap in a blank, formatted disk before you 
select the save command, then replace BIG BLUE DISK when the save is finished.

   Well, so long for now.  Happy hacking!  (If you're a hacker, that is.  If 
you're just a user, well, Useful using!)
