The real Computeractive of the Internet. (WebActive - Magazine)

Member Name: paddywak

Product:	WebActive - Magazine
Date:	02/06/01 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap (75p). Plenty of articles. Well written. Easy to understand. Good range of topics covered.. Easy to use workshops and guides.

Disadvantages: 9 pages out of 82 devoted to advertising

VNU Publications must have seen my title for my 'Web User' review (The Computeractive of the Internet) and decided to take me up on it. Either that or they just decided that they would apply their talents to an Internet related magazine that would be useful to all users of the Internet. (I know I waffle a lot, but it was worth a try!)

Issue 1 went on sale on May 31st at the very attractive price of 75p! Webactive is to be published on a monthly basis, rather than the 2 weekly basis that it's sister magazine Computeractive is. You can check out the website at:

http://www.webactive.vnunet.com

After reading issue 1 from cover to cover, I've noticed that VNU Publications have put a lot of hard work into this magazine and it's looking like a good Internet related mag which is both cheap to buy and has plenty of meat in it. Like all other magazines, Webactive will have its regular features each month and they?re looking like:

News File ~ ~ Breaking news from the Internet world.

Top 10 ~ ~ Webactive's top 10 sites for the month. Naturally these will vary each month.

Surf's Up ~ ~ Readers talking about their favourite websites and giving their views on the good and bad of each of them.

Online Games ~ ~ News and reviews from the online gaming world.

Cyber Celebs ~ ~ An in-depth look at celebrity fan sites and the likes.

Web Toys ~ ~ A look at all those lovely toys for the boys (& girls of course!!) that have Internet uses.

Next Issue ~ ~ What you can expect to find in the next issue of Webactive.

Search Engine ~ ~ Every month the mags researchers will look for sites for one category and list the most interesting of the ones that they find. A new topic covered each month.

Interactive ~ ~ This section will be split into:

~ ~ Postbag ~ ~ Readers letters to the mag. Some real mumblings and grumblings to be
read here from time to time!

~ ~ Readers Homepage ~ ~ Each month 1 reader?s website will get the complete once over and given glory by the mag. Why not submit your site?!

~ ~ Q & A ~ ~ All your tech questions and problems answered by the gurus and hopefully solved.

Features ~ ~ Each month you'll find a wide variety of topics covered. This month they covered:

~ ~ Online guide to shopping ~ ~ This one will be an ongoing topic, so it may be quite interesting and useful to those who shop online.

~ ~ Broadband ~ ~ Looking at speedy connections to the Internet and how they may help change the Internet. (If we ever get the chance to use it at a reasonable price that is!)

~ ~ MP3 ~ ~ A nice article to teach you about the highs and lows of MP3 music and MP3 devices.

~ ~ Cover Story ~ ~ Every month you'll find a few ages devoted to the to the magazine's cover story. This month is about 'Rip-Off Britain' and is quite a compulsive read for most. Learn how to find that elusive bargain and how to have a safer, more enjoyable shopping experience online.

Each month Webactive is going to run a tutorial to teach you how to build a website. This month they've kicked off with a 4-page article which covers things like:

~ ~ Planning your website ~ ~ What do you want a site for & what are you going to put on it.

~ ~ Tools of the trade ~ ~ The tools needed to build your site.

~ ~ URLs explained ~ ~ All about getting your domain name.

This is looking like a very useful section for those who want to build their own site but haven't gotten round to it yet or don't fully know what's involved. Next issue will cover building your first webpage.

Another regular feature will be the step-by-step guides. These are basically the magazine's workshops (just like Computeractive's workshops). They will be
all Internet related and split into the following:

Workshops ~ ~ Each month you'll find a few in-depth but easy to use and understand tutorials that are aimed at helping you get better use of Internet software. This month they covered :

~ ~ Using Google to get better results. Basically they teach you how to use the Google search engine to get the results that you need and want.

~ ~ Getting better use out of Internet Explorer. This was quite a helpful tutorial, which is for those of you who are quite new to IE & the Internet.

5 Minute Workshops ~ ~ These are quick tutorials to help you out on various topics. They're not very in-depth, but are still very useful to keep for reference. This month they covered:

~ ~ Tweaking Windows Media Player's appearance. How to skin WMP and make it the way that you want it.

~ ~ Signing-up for a Hotmail account. How to get your Hotmail account and get Messenger up and running.

~ ~ Using News Tickers. How to get news tickers to bring the news to your desktop and keep you up to date on what's going on. (You have to be connected to the Internet for these to work)

~ ~ Avoiding humungous attachments. This is a good one because we all get fed up when someone sends an e-mail with a great big attachment that takes forever to download!

Hints and Tips ~ ~ This section is for everyone and will be a handy monthly feature for all readers. There's plenty to be learnt about the Internet and the software you use to enjoy the Internet. You'll find hints and tips about most things Internet related to make life on the net that little bit easier!

That's basically what you can expect to find in a typical issue of Webactive and things are looking good for future issues if they are as high a standard as the first issue was!

Conclusion ~ ~ Issue 1 contained 82 glossy pages, 9 of which were advertising. T
he news articles were interesting and short and sweet, but still get their point across. The tutorials were well written and easy to use and understand. Overall I was pleased with what I found in this mag and found it to be an interesting read, which is aimed at all, users of the Internet, regardless of your Internet experience.

It's a good mag at a good price and well worth the 75p asking price!


Why not have a butchers at the magazine in your local newsagent, bookshop as it's well worth it!

Enjoy & thanks for your time .... Tom

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