Map fit very nicely into your computer, are there just when you need them, and at exactly the resolution and with the level of detail that you need.

I discovered this after recently picking up an excellent CD and digital map of greater Bangkok from ThinkNet called "MapMagic" for what I believe to be a real bargain price of less than 200 baht. The application, which installs from a CD, has already helped me or has enabled me to help others reveral times.

This has been both while giving or receiving directions, be it to a restaurant or to a friend's house. Indeed, I have even found a couple of new shortcuts that have come in useful while driving when traffic is bad.

This digital map allows you to zoom in or out, to pan -- moving from th part of the map on screen to an adjacent portion -- as well as search by name, either in Thai or in English.

ThinkNet's map also allow you to see place names in English or Thai, and you can switch language at any resolution at any time, while the manual is also bi-lingual.

You can also measure distances accurately as well as easily add "favourites" in one of several different categories to your map -- enabling you to conveniently add landmarks or places of interest with a coloured icon and a name you can provide.

Furthermore, you can easily print ou the on-screen map from the file menu or the print icon, useful in order to be able to provide customised direction to a friend -- or to take with you in the car to help you to navigate somewhere. Another button copies the screen display to the clipboard, so you can paste the image elsewhere, such as in an email.

The flexible zoom feature allows you to fill the screen with the exact area that is relevent to your directions, and I must say that ther are no hidden "gotchas" with this digital map. There isn't even any copy protection on the CD, but for less than 200 baht, which includes an excellent printed fold-out street map, this works out to be a better deal than the local software pirates offer.

On several occasions now I have been able to mark a restuarant on the computer map, one time with a friend pointing out where it was so that I would be able to find it myself later, and at other times I have marked a location and then printed out directions to hand to others.

After installation, the MapMagic Bangkok application took just 153 megabytes of my harddisk -- which is relatively little these days -- an it does not require the presence of the CD to function after that.

MapMagic is a rich and flexible application that allows you to change th appearance of maps by selecting the layers that are displayed. There is a default setting, "show all" and "show none" settings, while you can customise exactly which kinds of facilities are displayed. For example, the default setting shows Buddhist temples, but not mosques or churches, but these can be "turned on" by simply selecting them from the layers menu.

Similarity, banks, department stores, gas stations can be turned on or off, selectively if desired. So your map could show just KBank and Bangkok Bank branches, for example, if that's what you were interested in. In addition, everything that is displayed on the map can be edited to the point that, if you wish, you could even turn off roads and waterways if they were not relevant to your use of a particular display.

I should think that just about everyone living in Bangkok who owns a desktop or notebook computer would find a use for this program and ThinkNet's MapMagic Bangkok is versatile and a bargain at the price.

It is available from branches of Se-ed as well as on the internet at www.thinknet.co.th.