Business Plan Writer Deluxe 2003 Version 6: Nova Development Corporation.

Nova's program is the most attractive, with nice icons for categories such as `financials' and `milestones' displayed down the left side of the screen and a toolbar across the top of the screen, under the menu bar. The remaining workspace changes to accommodate questions, explanations, and samples in the area you're working on but in the opening screen, much of that workspace is given to hawking third-party products from Nova's partners.

Other screens settle down to your business. Near the beginning, for example, the Break-Even Chart told us our business was worth a shot. However, we were concerned that, at that particular stage in the program, most users won't have a realistic idea of their operating expenses. Still, there's nothing preventing users from jumping to the financials portion of the program.

Business Plan Writer Deluxe 2003 has a Next button format that can sometimes seem removed from the big picture of what you're doing, but that is often a problem with wizards. The program also lets you see something akin to an outline or table of contents, but the quality and tone of instruction didn't match those of the first two programs. On the plus side, there's a second wizard to help you cream a marketing plan, an electronic Gilbert's Law Dictionary, Business Law Guide, and Kiplinger's Working for Yourself.