The HardKey/EG Pro is a combination of USB dongle and software together encrypting files or systems keeping your data safe from prying eyes.

Even with falling hardware prices, the expense and yet to be finalised format war rages on with DVD writing technology deterring many a consumer. DVD+R/RW appear to be making headway gradually with both format flexibility and hardware integration into next generation platforms.

Compared to the large number of HTML editors available in the market today, there are only a few editors out there for XML, and Austria-based Altovas XML Spy is probably one of the best among these.

MACROMEDIA E-LEARNING STUDIO

The buzzword in Excel 2003 is XML, best illustrated by the new mapping feature. This lets you map cells, columns and ranges to data held in XML data sources, so you can create Excel workbooks showing data from Web Services or other back-end data stores. The XML data is validated on input into Excel against a custom XML Schema under your control. Excel can also save your work in a native XML workbook format, which keeps any formatting but avoids the proprietary XLS file format. You may also, however, save data as a pure XML data file, leaving any formatting in the template. This XML data file can be put through BizTalk or imported into a back-end database.

A fully digital multitrack audio production suite for under $2,500

What makes PDF (Portable Document Format) unique is that it can provide an exact electronic replica of any document from any application on all major platforms, including all text, graphics and fonts. It’s an amazingly flexible format with a myriad of uses ranging from electronic manuals and e-books, through secure document exchange and archiving, to multimedia presentation and high-end commercial print.

We’ve all been warned a million times since the dawn of computing – but we’ll knock it into your head once more for posterity: save often.

The perfect blend of price and performance for the average home or small business user.

Useful new features and a total interface overhaul make this the best Office ever.

Sexy, isn’t it? And it might just knock Apple’s iPod Nano off its pedestal.

It turns out that Microsoft [I]is[/I] bringing out Windows XP Media Center Edition in Australia, but until such time as it materialises -- and Microsoft Australia is being very sketchy on the dates -- those of us looking to integrate our PC media files with our televisions and hi-fi systems have to turn to bridging solutions.

WinFM is a neat little package dedicated to Internet radio, although that term is a little abstract, because theres no radio waves involved.

Our pick of the low-cost office suites has had a much-needed overhaul, and now battles Microsoft in terms of features, not just price.

Useful for the very basics, but it’s early days for Google’s latest venture.

Now a true all-in-one package thanks to file and folder backup, but it can’t match Acronis for value.

Expensive but potentially very useful for those whose Wi-Fi has failed.

WinZip has become the most popular archival program used on the Windows platform, and it’s good to see some serious innovation in this revision.

This new version of PartitionMagic sees the main interface with XP styling, but at the top of the new features list is the File Browser, which allows you to view the contents of hidden and visible partitions and rename, delete or copy files.

This new version of PartitionMagic sees the main interface with XP styling, but at the top of the new features list is the File Browser, which allows you to view the contents of hidden and visible partitions and rename, delete or copy files.