This paper describes the use of commercial application and programming software to provide language students with self-access materials used in their own time. In all cases, it assumes such students will be unsupervised. The idea is that in place of buying expensive and restricted commercially produced authoring packages, a teacher with limited computer skills can make his or her own tailor-made materials. The article begins with tips on using Microsoft PowerPoint to produce simple yet effective listening comprehension packages and goes on to suggest ways of using Visual Basic for reading, listening, and writing comprehension. The paper concludes with some simple comprehension work requiring students to download their own information from the Internet. The point is made throughout that it is especially important for the teacher to know precisely what he or she wants to do with the software package. Intensive and deliberate teacher planning and preparation are essential for computer uses in education to be effective and productive. Screen captures appear as needed throughout the text to make matters as clear as possible for the instructor. (Contains 9 Web sites and e-mail addresses where whole shell programs may be downloaded at no charge.) (KFT)