Australian software developer Virtual Media Pty Ltd has developed Hypershelf for users of Microsoft Corp’s Windows Help that use Hypertext documents and need a method to organise and manage all of this on-line information. The company says it developed Hypershelf to address the inherent problems within WinHelp, such as an inability to achieve a full text search, and the inability to handle or print more than one document at one time. The software is visually represented as a bookshelf that contains a master book alongside the individual books that together make up the Hypershelf. The master book incorporates a master table of contents, master index and a list of bookmarks relating to all the other books; each book is a single HLP file. The bookshelf is defined by the user specifying the path in which to look for the document files. The bookshelves are based on search directories so a new document can be added to the search directory and it is then automatically added to the bookshelf and shows up in a different colour. Users can search within a book by lists of titles in alpabetical order and by specific user-defined lists. Hypershelf requires at least a 80486 processor at 25MHz with 4Mb of RAM. It is shipping in the UK via SoftKlone UK Ltd. A single user kit costs UKP100 but is currently offered for an introductory price of UKP70, a 20 user licence costs UKP500, a 100- user licence will cost UKP1,250, and UKP1,800 buys licences for 200.
