Original review published on Steve Litchfield's 3-Lib.

I have to admit that in the last year or so I've been a little weary of the non-stop flow of small EPOC utilities, all designed to make life that much more convenient, saving a second or two here or there but ultimately complicating life still further. Treesoft's Symlink, however, is the utility that breaks the pattern, with some truly innovative features. I've been having some fun with v1.2, grabbed from their web site. The demo version expires after 28 days, although I suspect 28 minutes will be enough for most people to recognise its worth for the Series 5 'power user'.

Unlike most EPOC utilities, which have to be launched via hot-keys or the Extras bar, Symlink integrates itself into the Series 5's object embedding system. Sounds cosy, and indeed it is. Booting up a document in one of the built-in applications and choosing "Insert object" reveals that Symlink is now ensconced in the list of available object types. Each Symlink object, in turn, is a direct link to a file/application, folder, email address or web hyperlink. Which means, for example, that for the first time you can directly 'embed' DATA or AGENDA files, Route Planner documents, OPL applications or Internet links inside another EPOC document.

Within each host document, the simple Symlink arrow and an optional caption tell of an embedded object. By setting Symlink's Preferences to 'Quick launch', a double-tap on any object will take you straight through to the target path (be it file, folder, URL etc).

Does the system work? Actually, remarkably well considering the ambitious nature of what it's trying to do. I experienced some crashes on my GeoFox One, which the author is looking into, but operation on the Series 5 was smooth enough. The only gotcha is that the inclusion of Symlink objects tends to slow down the host application somewhat, with editing and saving of DATA records slowing from one second without embedded Symlinks to around four seconds with.

As Treesoft point out in their excellent documentation, Symlink has a few other unique tricks up its sleeve. Because you can use it to link to an existing file, you can eradicate the old 'Open document/Copy to clipboard/Switch to new host/Insert object/Paste from clipboard' cycle by simply Symlinking to the existing file itself. A folder of commonly used logos and signatures is an obvious application. And by using Symlink to insert standard SKETCH and SHEET objects instead of using EPOC's standard mechanism, the object files exist separately outside the host document and remain editable directly from the system screen.

Symlink opens up a lot of possibilities for anyone itching to integrate their Series 5 programs beyond that which Psion offers out of the box. Recommended.

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