WarmBody 2.0 (JenniSoft, $3000 and up)

     WHILE THIS SOFTWARE BUNDLE comes with one of the best plug-ins available for any application, its quirky extensions can sometimes be so annoying you'll want to re-boot your entire system. One way of dealing with it would be to drag everything to the trash and shop around for a freeware version of WarmBody Pro, but hold off and try to make some sense of the confusing dialogue boxes. Once you get the program to open, click on Preferences, toggle off Repeat Behavior, and it becomes more flexible, re-formatting itself to support a variety of user tasks.

     Although this package has a relatively simple interface, it's shipped without documentation or service support, so it may take quite some time to figure out. This is one reason it's best integrated with a low-end application, such as the dated TomBerry 9.5.3x DeluxePro.

     The combination of these two programs can be mildly effective in its own way, especially with a large disk cache (both programs use virtual memory instead of the real thing), but unfortunately the basic 286-designed programming can cause crashes if installed on a high-end workstation, especially the new PowerSystem X series. Therefore, you may want to run this program using analog stylus output devices.

     While we wait for the anticipated upgrades, however, the most definite opinion we can offer is the one we've heard most often: You can't live with it, and you can't live without it.