Panel Fan

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday May 27, 2000

Rose Vines

Do you backtrack, sidetrack, bookmark and open multiple browser windows while you surf, just to keep tabs on all the links you simply must visit? Now you can junk those techniques and use BroadPage instead.

This beautifully crafted browser lets you open multiple panels within the browser window so you can view several Web pages simultaneously.

BroadPage is not the first browser to offer multi-paned viewing. The excellent freeware Katiesoft can handle four simultaneous mini-browsers. But ultra-slick design, clever one-click configuration tricks and some powerful extras, including integration with Microsoft Office, make BroadPage worth its price tag.

BroadPage's window is divided into four sections. Across the top is a menu bar. To its right is the TabBar, which contains a tab for each panel you have open. Click a tab to maximise its linked panel instantly. You can swap the Panel Tabs for Layout Tabs that give you single-click access to pre-formatted layouts and layouts you've created and saved yourself.

On the left is the DriveBar, which has six vertical tabs to provide access to your active panels, layouts, favourites, browsing history, search engines and file system. You can click and drag an item from the DriveBar to display it in a panel and, best of all, you can hide, re-size or re-display the DriveBar with one click on the inconspicuous DriveBar sizing tools.

You'll need Internet Explorer 4 or later installed to use BroadPage, which comes in two flavours, the $US29.95 ($52) standard and $US44.95 ($78) professional edition. The standard edition lacks the DriveBar and integration with Microsoft Office.

BroadPage

www.broadpage.com

Katiesoft

www.katiesoft.com