Relax! A Modern Home Office Is No Big Deal

A couple of years ago, my children asked if they could have a cat. So we went to the pound and picked up a kitten. Case closed.

But if my wife and I treated their request the way most people deal with equipping a home office, we’d have spent months scouring pet stores and studying every pet periodical. When we finally did buy a cat, it would have been a lion.

Life needn’t be that complicated. If you are setting up a home office, don’t feel compelled to pore through every article in PC Goliath and all the other computer magazines. And whatever you do, don’t invest every last penny in industrial strength hardware and software.

For most people, small and simple really is beautiful.

I’ve been operating a home office for years and have come up with a short list of essentials. It won’t serve the needs of everyone, but for most it will do just fine.

Computer: Get a PC with Windows or a Macintosh. You can struggle with the DOS prompt if you enjoy tinkering, but unless you’re at home in that world (in which case you can really get by on the cheap), you’re way ahead with a graphic environment. Windows and Mac programs are not only easier to use, they tend to be more powerful.

If you choose a PC, buy a 486; it’s overkill for many home offices, but it costs only a little more than a 386 and provides extra performance. Four megabytes of RAM and a 120 megabyte hard disk are a minimum. Get more of both if you plan to work with graphics, multimedia or lots of big Windows programs.

Monitor: You probably don’t need color but, let’s face it, you want one. Go for it. They’re not all that expensive anyway. Just be sure it has a .28 dot pitch or lower and is non-interlaced (never mind why; trust me).

Printer: You need a good one, but don’t mortgage the house for it. Unless you plan to print large volumes, you’ll do fine with an H-P InkJet or Cannon Bubble Jet. Both do laser quality, only slower. Panasonic, Hewlett-Packard, Oki and others offer low-end laser printers at less than $750.

Modem: You can get a 2400 bit per second modem for next to nothing, but I would go for something faster. These days it’s 14,400 bps, with fax capabilities.

Fax modems have pluses and minuses compared to a standard fax machine. On the plus side they are cheaper and they let you send faxes directly from your computer. Sending a fax from a Windows PC using software such as WinFax Pro or E-Fax is just like printing, only the document goes to someone’s fax machine. It’s quicker, it saves paper and the quality is better because the document doesn’t have to be scanned.

The downside to fax modems is that you can’t use them to send printed documents such as newspaper clippings.

Also, your PC must be running in order to receive a fax and, if you’re using the computer, there’s a chance that your work will be interrupted even though most Windows and Mac fax programs, in theory, operate in the background.

On-line services: If you get a modem, consider a subscription to an on-line service. MCI Mail is good for electronic mail but CompuServe and America Online offer e-mail as well as information services. Prodigy is good for home use, but its e-mail and business-oriented information aren’t as sophisticated.

Software: Don’t feel you must buy the most sophisticated and expensive software. For most people it is a waste. Most users will do fine with Microsoft Works or the new ClarisWorks. Both provide a simple but powerful word processor, spreadsheet and database. ClarisWorks even has communications and graphics. And they are cheap.

If your business calls for lots of writing, you might want to consider Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or Ami Pro. If you crunch numbers for a living, consider Improv. It’s a resource hog, but amazingly powerful and easy to use. Excel is nice too.

Once you get started, other categories you might want to explore include contact managers, personal information managers and computerized appointment books. Programs such as InfoSelect, Packrat and Lotus Organizer can help clear up the clutter and keep you on schedule.

Whatever you do, enjoy your home office. I’ve been working from home for years and enjoy it. I get to spend more time with my family and less money on gas. And I hardly ever have to visit the dry cleaner.