Its usefulness is further limited by the fact that there are no instructions to guide the learner. Within the subsequent language learning screens online help is generally limited to how to tackle the exercises and how to navigate the program and access certain features. Evaluation Technological features The program was installed on a Pentium 75 PC with Windows 95. Installation was effortless and performance faultless. The program was also run on a 486 DX66 using Windows 95 without problem.
Installation is made with the single accompanying CD that also contains all the language files.
Running only one section of the program at a time, which would be perfectly adequate in most situations, requires up to 6MB of hard disk space. To run both sections of Power Chinese from the hard disk requires 9MB of free disk space. It is also possible to run the program directly from CD-ROM, requiring only 600K of free disk space. This mode is not recommended unless the user's CD-ROM drive is 4x or faster as delays may be encountered moving from screen to screen, and video clips may not be properly synchronised. It is necessary to resort to the help menu in order to discover the function of a slider control by which one can move to any of the eighty-seven screens contained in Section One.