Eurodata
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Archived article

Eurodata's Web site is no longer functioning as of summer, 2007.

Online Capture. EuroData makes it easy to grab URLs or text from Web pages, online services, travel CDs, etc. for future reference. You can then clean the text up with the "Format" button, if necessary, and save it with your itinerary or in a separate text file.

Itinerary Notebook. Use either the General Notebook or the "Daily Notes" feature to record notes on places you'd like to see, addresses, phone numbers, reminders, and other information. You can paste information that you've gathered with online capture directly into the notebook.

Bookings & Reservations. As you enter travel routes and hotels into your itinerary, you can annotate and sort them into categories for convenience in making reservations. For example, you might assign airline tickets and Eurailpasses to your travel agent and room bookings to a hotel chain's reservation number. Later, you can use EuroData's "Reservations Request" feature to generate printed reservations requests for each travel agent or travel provider.

Currency Exchange. EuroData keeps track of exchange rates, using a table that you can download from the EuroData Web site. Every time you update the table, your entire trip budget is recalculated automatically.

Traveler Profile. Use this screen to record personal travel preferences, frequent-flyer data, passport numbers, travel agents, and other information for yourself and other travelers. For example, you could select a non-smoking airline seat, first-class train compartment, hotel chain, car-rental firm, etc. and (at your option) click a button to apply the preferences to everyone in your family.

Program pluses and minuses

EuroData is a carefully thought-out and comprehensive application for the kind of traveler who uses personal organizers and budget books. With a price of only US $10, it's one of the best travel bargains around.

I have only two criticisms of EuroData:

• It's "U.S.-centric." The currency converter changes European money into U.S. dollars, but not into Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, or other currencies.

• The program needs updating. EuroData started life as a Windows 3.1 application, and its heritage shows in the way it uses menus and the lack of ToolTips (pop-up text captions) for the sometimes cryptic button icons. Also, EuroData is compatible only with Windows 3.1, 95, and 98.

With luck, the next release of EuroData (the current version is 2.5) will make the program more useful to non-U.S. travelers while giving it a Windows 95/98 "look and feel."

Page 3: How to try or buy

 

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