REVIEW: AUTOMAP ROAD ATLAS trip & route planning software Automap, Inc AUTOMAP was the first travel and highway route planner I encountered several years ago and my first impression was that it was neat. It still is! Now there are several good programs that essentially do the same thing. To the best of my knowledge, AUTOMAP is the only route planner that is available to those computer users who do not have access to a system with a CD-ROM drive or wish to use it on a laptop. The system requirements are MicroSoft Windows 3.0 or higher, 2MB of RAM and 5.5 MB of free space on your hard drive. AUTOMAP's database contains 410,203 miles of highways and more than 120,000 cities and towns. You simply enter the starting point and your destination and AUTOMAP will give you several options - shortest. quickest or alternate routes. AUTOMAP will calculate the distances and driving times and will print out a detailed map complete with driving instructions as well as the costs associated with the trip. The database also includes telephone numbers for local road conditions, weather information & tourist information as well as statistics on state and city population, land areas, natural features, recreation areas, laws of the road, etc. AUTOMAP allows you to zoom in on any place and you can configure the program to add your own home or office and use it as your starting point. The feature I really like is using Windows to view different screens, so you can see a large scale map, close-up, another totally different trip and the detailed driving instructions. From what I understand AUTOMAP has recently been acquired by MicroSoft. I am not sure if any major changes are planned to it. I expect there may be a CD-ROM version in the making, but I would hope that the powers-to-be would also continue to make AUTOMAP available on diskettes as well. %T Automap v 3.0 for Windows %I Automap, Inc %C Bellevue Washington %D 1993 %O diskette-based %K travel planner, route planner (C) 1995 Michael Crestohl Nahant Massachusetts USA mc@shore.net DISCLAIMER: I have no interest, financial or otherwise, in the success or failure of the book or materials reviewed herewith, nor have I received any compensation (other than a review copy requested by me) from anyone who has. All opinions expressed are strictly my own. Other Internet and Aviation book/software reviews by me can be obtained by anonymous FTP from: x2ftp.oulu.fi in the /pub/books/crestohl directory.