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In a message dated 97-06-24 22:36:02 EDT, you write:

<< On the open dialog, check "Files of type" symbol and place the focus in
 the list of symbols.  The focus must be there, in other words, one of
 the symbols must be highlighted (brightly) and then when you type a
 symbol it will become highlighted and load when you press enter or click
 OK.
 
 Equis Support
  >>


Equis,
thanks for the info.  I finally figured it out.  Although you have already
read the following paragraphs, they are my suggestions for improving
MetaStock.  Please forward them to the appropriate personnel.


Thank you,
Daniel.



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The following are 2 messages I posted on the Equis AOL message boards:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I have criticized Window On Wall Street Pro v5 for having numerous glitches,
errors, and bugs.  I installed MetaStock v6 yesterday with the aid of your
technical support.  Although I know MetaStock v6 is superior to WOW, I wanted
to let you know there is one area where MetaStock could improve.

WOW also has data CD's.  Instead of having to load up my hard drive with 550
MB's of data, WOW simply built an index.  The data on the CD is then merged
with any data which was downloaded via my modem using only the index.  There
is no duplication or waste.

Even with the new large capacity hard drives, most people do not have 550 MB
of free disk space.  Even if a user does have 550 MB of free space, any
partition larger than 511 MB wastes capacity due to the inefficient
method DOS and Windows use to store data.  Because of the cluster count
limitation, partitions larger than 511 MB lose 25% capacity and this
inefficiency increases as the partitions get larger.  

Luckily, I had 450 MB of free space and am using DriveSpace 3.  DriveSpace 3
corrects this inefficiency.  Also, the data that is transferred is highly
compressible (4-1).  This means anyone who transfers large amounts of data
from the data CD is wasting even more space.  Having to load up my hard drive
with data already on the data CD is extremely wasteful. Please use indexes
the way WOW does.
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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I am using the 10/25/96 MetaStock v6 build.  If you have an update patch,
please let me know.  

WOW = Window on Wall Street Professional v5
MS      = MetaStock v6

I mentioned in my previous post how WOW has one advantage over MS.  The index
system that WOW uses is more efficient and faster than MS's method.  With
WOW's index method, it doesn't matter how many securities are in the index.
 With the WOW CD-ROM, the typical number is 10,000.    The load and system
speeds are always the same.  WOW simply uses one file, the index, to find a
security's price history on the CD-ROM and hard drive.  Even though I was
using WOW's price history only from CD-ROM, the load speed was much faster
than MS from my hard drive.  Also, WOW's ticker symbols, security names, date
coverage table, and templates are all on one full page.

Because I have loaded all US stocks, all of MS's file commands are sluggish.
 Even though I have upgraded my computer with a P150 MHz, have a new EIDE
hard drive and my system is at least 12 times faster than before, MS's file
system makes my computer seem slow.  This is because MS has to go through
THOUSANDS of files.  In order to load a graph with MS, you either have to go
to the directory containing the data, or you have to do a FIND.  Because MS's
FIND command doesn't start in the correct directory, everytime you do a FIND
you have to switch to the equis\data\* directory.

................

This is the one area which WOW is better.  However, if you have read my posts
in the AAII message board, you will know that MS is superior in the actual
analysis of the graphs.  So once I am actually able to load the graph, I am
better off.  I realize if you change your file system other software
companies may be affected.  However, it seems to me you are using a very old
method and it should be improved.
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