Kid desk. (EdMark Corp's desktop utility software for children) (Software Review) (Evaluation)
by Carol Ellison

EdMark's Kid Desk packs more fun than you'll find in any other menu program. With it, you can set up attractive and fun-filled individual menus for every kid in the house - including yourself!

Kid Desk places a colorful "menu" onscreen, but it doesn't look like a traditional computer menu; it looks like a desk. The desk comes with fun-filled accessories: pen and pencil sets you can click on to select a different desk style, an Early American scroll-top, for instance; a single date calendar that flips up to a monthly calendar that you can write on; a clock that speaks the time; a desk light that turns on or off to brighten or darken the screen; and a telephone that actually talks in many languages when you click on it to pick up the handset.

Press a three-key combination, and the program switches to Adult mode, where Mom and Dad can add programs to the desktop, set up individual menus for each child, password-protect the Adult mode with a word only they know, and select attractive icons to launch the programs they add to the desk.

Icons for each child appear on an opening menu. Children click on their own icons to launch their individual desktops. The program can be installed so that Kid Desk is launched when the computer is turned on, and you can configure it so that children cannot escape to DOS where they can get into grownups' files.

Almost everything here can be individualized. If you have a scanned image of your child, you can load it into a picture frame displayed on the desk, or you can place clip art pictures in the frame. If you have a sound card with a microphone, a recorder on the desk lets you and your child record messages to one another that can be played back.

Kid Desk offers a unique - and quite fun - menu solution just for kids, one that assures children have fun while parents' files and applications remain safe from curious hands.