Like any sophisticated and mature program, Coastal Explorer uses a lot of shortcuts. You can view a list of keyboard shortcuts at the end of the Exploring Coastal Explorer booklet. More welcome, Coastal Explorer uses many standard Windows shortcuts. Standardization is particularly important in an application that is used seasonally or only on weekends. Coastal Explorer spares you re-learning a slew of new shortcuts or icons at the start of each boating season or after five days at work using other computer applications. And during those first two weeks of the boating season–when you're still warming up–the multi-level undo capability is great for those of us who click first and ask questions later.

WORKING WITH CHARTS

Coastal Explorer is compatible with the major chart formats, including NOAA RNCs (raster charts), NOAA and international S-57 ENCs (vector charts), and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers IENCs (vector charts of U.S. inland waterways). Coastal Explorer also reads all Maptech digital charts (except Maptech's BSB5 format), SoftChart digital charts, NDI DigitalOcean charts (Canadian charts in raster and vector format), and PhotoNavigator products.

We had no trouble panning and zooming over a chart. Coastal Explorer's "chart quilting" seamlessly moved across chart files of different scales. Charts can be displayed north-up, course-up, or heading-up.

Laptop navigating tends to become porthole driving, where you only see the small chart area around your vessel. In addition to the detailed, full-screen chart display, a small window in Coastal Explorer's upper right screen shows the larger overview area. And we particularly liked the split chart display option. You can choose to split the main chart display into two or three panels (see photo ).

Rose Point Navigation SystemsSplit window functionality allows Coastal Explorer users simultaneous access to raster charts (left), satellite images (right) and Coast Pilot information (bottom) on one screen.

Our favorite chart display feature was Coastal Explorer's search capability. Search functions have been the Achilles' heel of several of the charting and navigation applications we've reviewed so far. At best, some of the programs, such as MacENC, let you search for, then "scroll to," waypoints, routes, or tracks by name.

Coastal Explorer allows a complete search of all objects in its database–a staggering two million places and points-of-interest (POIs). For example, type any word or string that relates to data on a chart. We typed "Elliott Island" and the chart for Elliott Island, Maryland popped up. In case we didn't mean this Elliott Island, a small window displays similar options, letting you click on an alternative location.

WAYPOINTS AND ROUTES

The creation of waypoints and routes is very sophisticated in Coastal Explorer. Obviously you can do all the regular tricks: create unlimited waypoints and routes, set boundary circles and areas with alarms, make chart annotations, draw range and bearing lines, and so on. But let's focus on some "wow" features that require getting down into the details.

To make a route, you can simply click along a string of waypoints. This is certainly convenient–and a lot better than the klutzy alternatives offered by some programs, such as dragging and dropping waypoint names into a "new routes" folder. But even better, as you string together waypoints and approach the edge of the chart, the cursor flips to a white arrow. Nudge the edge and the chart automatically scrolls so you can continue creating your route seamlessly across displays and charts.