SOFTWARE : Packages to help you gain a foothold on the Net

The rush is on: every company is trying to get on the Internet. But putting your information on to the World Wide Web means either designing your own page by learning to use the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) - which is awkward compared to menu-driven operations - or employing an expensive consultant to do it for you.

It is not surprising that software companies have taken notice of the situation. Microsoft sees it as an opportunity to increase the popularity of its software, and has created a free add-on for Word called Internet Assistant, to be launched on 1 March at the Cyberia Caf. It will also be posted under "What's New" on its World Wide Web site (http://www.microsoft. com/).

Microsoft says that, used in conjunction with viewing software (also free at the same site), Word and Internet connection software, it enables Hypertext documents to be browsed, edited, created and posted to the World Wide Web without the need to gain familiarity with software other than Word.

Not to be outdone, Novell is fast on Microsoft's heels, and will be ready to launch Internet Publisher for WordPerfect some time during the second quarter of 1995. This will be available at http:// www.novell.com/ and allows users of WordPerfect 6.1 to create HTML documents using a guiding "template". Once created, a conversion program converts them to HTML. The package also includes Netscape Navigator for browsing the Web and integrated "viewers" for publishing: in other words, almost exactly the same functions as Internet Assistant.