Issue 1.2 9/96
This issue of KDP is sponsored by:
DMM IS NOW KDP |
As you may have noticed, Digital Media Monthly has a new name. As it turns out, there were some trademark issues surrounding the term "Digital Media." To avoid any conflicts, we changed the name of the publication to "The Kleper Report on Digital Publishing." For now, all of the email addresses and URL's from DMM will still work. We will gradually update the web site to reflect the new name. The publication is the same, so there is no need to re-subscribe. The name change and legal issues are what delayed this issue of KDP, and we apologize for the delay.
We also welcome a new sponsor in this issue. Impossible Software, makers of the TypeTamer font utility for the Mac, is sponsoring this issue of KDP. Impossible is also extending a special offer to subscribers of KDP. Our readers can purchase TypeTamer for $29.95, a discount of about 50%.
In an effort to make advertising feasible for shareware authors, we are now running a special promotion for shareware authors. You can buy a "panel-size" ad on one of our secondary pages or an issue sponsorship for the price of a single license of your program! If you sell just two copies by advertising with us, you make a profit! This offer is only for shareware authors and some restrictions apply. Send email to <scott@printerport.com> for more information.
COMPONENT PUBLISHINGby Professor Michael Kleper <mkleper@printerport.com> |
OpenDoc and its "parts", now called Live Objects, have finally come into their own as a real technology. Live Objects provide a new category of "component publishing", whereby a publication may contain a variety of digital media parts, such as text, video, teleconferencing, web links, live web data feeds, web pages, charts linked to web pages, and more. The capability of publishing live documents will certainly raise the bar for traditional computer publishing applications and their delivery systems.
OpenDoc technology was created, in part, in response to the runaway sizes of software suites, and the incompatibilities between competing products. The benefits of Live Object publishing will be a motivator for traditional software publishers to create either Live Object parts, or to build in component publishing capabilities to their existing products, or perhaps, both. Regardless of how it comes about, component publishing is now established as the most seductive and effective way to present information.
<http://www.opendoc.apple.com>
AVOIDING 1-800-SOS-APPL AT ALL COSTSby Scott J. Kleper <scott@printerport.com> |
Naturally, many Mac users are worried about this policy. After the problems users experienced installing System 7.5 Update 2.0, the possibility of another one of those every three months spawns several headaches. Personally, I'm not worried. Maybe it's because I installed 7.5.3 without a problem, or maybe it's because I know that Mac users can get along just fine on their own even when Apple seems to abandon them.
What's the secret? In my opinion, it's about a dozen or so Macintosh web pages that constantly provide prompt support for the latest Mac-related problems. Browsing some of these pages every couple of days can cure a lot of problems and alert you of offers and releases that you might not have found otherwise. Here are some of the best ones:
Macintouch - Ric Ford, of MacWeek, has set up a web site that tracks various problems and notifies users of updates. His site is a terrific resource and I recommend stopping by once a day to get the latest scoop on updates and fixes.
The Macintosh Resource Page - While similar in content to Macintouch, the MRP tends to have more links to free downloads as well as more commentary. The MRP also does the weekly RAMWatch page, which tracks the prices of RAM chips so you can get the best deal. The site also has a software page, feature stories, links, and more.
<http://www.macresource.pair.com>
The Online Macinstuff Times - For excellent stories and commentaries, head over to the Online Macinstuff Times. This site contains around ten stories each day with topics ranging from Mac rumors to software reviews.
<http://www.informedusa.com/t/>
MacSurfer's Headline News - If you're on a time budget, the MacSurfer's Headline News is the answer to all your problems. This page was an incredibly smart idea. It tracks the various Mac web sites (including all of the above) and lists the headlines for each of them. You can then pick and choose which sites you want to visit. Links to daily news stories are also included and the site is updated several times each day, generally in the afternoon.
<http://www.dentalsite.com/macvantage/macsurf/>
AppleSauce - For Macintosh gossip and rumors, head over to AppleSauce, a daily digest of humorous tidbits and speculation about the Mac industry.
<http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/AppleSauce/sauce.html>
Mac Rumor Page - This site contains a wealth of information about what Apple has in store for us. The most recent additions include detailed information and screenshots from MacOS 8. The author of the pages, Ethan Allen, provides reviews of confidential alpha and beta software currently under development by Apple.
<http://home.earthlink.net/~eallen19/macos-rumors.html>
TidBITS - As one of the first email-based newsletters, TidBITS established a loyal Mac following. Adam Engst, author of the "Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh", is editor of this excellent Mac-only newsletter.
While these web sites might not solve all your Mac-related problems, they're guaranteed not to keep you on hold.
Feature Review: Personal Font |
Using the Personal Font is somewhat of a surreal experience. We are conditioned to expect typographic characters to appear on the computer screen as a result of keyboarding. With the use of Personal Font we see our handwriting being composed before our eyes...quite amazing! The Personal Font makes it possible to prepare faxes, letters, notes, or any kind of document, with an excellent reproduction of one's own handwriting. In addition, the Personal Font includes a multi-key sequence which composes one's own signature. The capability to compose a signature is very useful, especially for signing electronic faxes that do not originate in paper form.
The Personal Font can be composed within any application, and it benefits from the use of a proprietary utility called "SigSoft". Most fonts have only one shape for each character, but Personal Font, since it has connected characters, and the nuances of personal handwriting, has several. The SigSoft utility is used to analyze the composed characters and substitute the proper shape so that the words appear as if written by hand. $99.95
Contact: Signature Software, Inc., 489 N. 8th St., Suite 201, Hood River, OR 97031, 541 386-3221, Internet: sigsoft@netcom.com, <http://www.sigsft.com>, fax: 503 386-3229.
Screen Shot: <http://www.printerport.com/dmm/issues/art/v1n2pfo.gif>
Contact: MacSoft, a WizardWorks Company, 3850 Annapolis Lane, Suite
100, Plymouth, MN 55447, 612 559-5301, 800 229-2714,
<http://www.wizworks.com>, fax: 612 577-0631.
Everyone has seen a bargain font library. Here's one that's
different in several ways...the most important being that these
fonts are original, having never appeared in another collection.
ImageFonts 3000 contains 500 unique typefaces, each with extended,
condensed, thick, stretched, and super-condensed versions, each in
TrueType and PostScript Type 1 formats. These fonts are a real buy
at about one cent per font! $29.99
Contact: MacSoft, a WizardWorks Company, 3850 Annapolis Lane, Suite
100, Plymouth, MN 55447, 612 559-5301, 800 229-2714,
<http://www.wizworks.com>, fax: 612 577-0631.
Handwritten Fonts is a CD-ROM collection of 300 TrueType fonts made
from handwriting samples from real people (just like you and me!).
The variety of designs offers a unique opportunity to select fonts
appropriate for personalization. Handwritten fonts can be used as a
stark contrast, and refreshing change, from conventional fonts.
$39.95
Screen Shot: <http://www.printerport.com/dmm/issues/art/v1n2hwf.gif>
Contact: Signature Software, Inc., 489 N. 8th St., Suite 201, Hood
River, OR 97031, 503 386-3221, Internet: sigsoft@netcom.com,
<http://www.sigsft.com>, fax: 503 386-3229.
PenPals is a set of five TrueType fonts which resemble handwriting.
The fonts are accessible from the System font menu, in both regular
and bold weights. One shape is provided for each uppercase,
lowercase, figure, and punctuation character. $29.95
Contact: Signature Software, Inc., 489 N. 8th St., Suite 201, Hood
River, OR 97031, 503 386-3221, Internet: sigsoft@netcom.com,
<http://www.sigsft.com>, fax: 503 386-3229.
SUPERscripts is a set of five contextual fonts, which provide
multiple shapes of most characters, to create a realistic rendition
of handwriting. The user types normally using one of the fonts, and
then uses the supplied SigSoft Handwriter to substitute the
appropriate character shape. $49.95
Contact: Signature Software, Inc., 489 N. 8th St., Suite 201, Hood
River, OR 97031, 503 386-3221, Internet: sigsoft@netcom.com,
<http://www.sigsft.com>, fax: 503 386-3229.
Each citation is entered in a reference template which has the
fields appropriate for its particular type, such as a book or a
magazine article. There are 16 pre-defined reference types, with up
to 27 fields available to hold data, although the user can define
new types or modify existing ones.
Term lists, which contain terms; and journal, publication, and
author names, which are used repeatedly in one or more libraries,
can be generated easily. The terms can be copied to ensure
consistent data entry throughout the bibliography.
The program includes over 300 bibliographic formats which can be
selected to produce a bibliography that conforms to almost all known
specifications. The user can also generate a custom format as
needed. Bibliographies can be generated from the citations that the
author inserts while the paper, article, or scholarly work is being
created; or directly from any part of the library of bibliographic
entries. The program can work directly within a word processor and
can update the bibliography at any point, renumbering all citations
on-the-fly.
Bibliographic information stored in other formats, such as a
database, can be imported into End Note 2 Plus to gain its
organizational and formatting benefits. $299
Screen Shot: <http://www.printerport.com/dmm/issues/art/v1n2en2.gif>
Contact: Niles & Associates, Inc., 800 Jones St., Berkeley, CA
94710, 510 559-8592, Internet: info@niles.com,
<http://www.niles.com>, fax: 510 559-8683.
With the sophisticated spell checking capabilities contained in
programs like MS Word and WordPerfect there would not seem to be
much of a need for a standalone spell checker. But Spell Catcher is
not only superior to native spell checkers, it works within any
Macintosh program, even e-mail. This one spell checking program
eliminates the need for the large dictionaries which accompany
application-bound spell checkers, and provides a consistent and
powerful set of writing tool aids.
Spell Catcher is customizable, and can catch spelling mistakes as
they are made, and offer suggested spelling alternatives. It
provides an audible signal when a word is typed that does not appear
in its dictionary, which incidentally, contains 95,000 words.
Auxiliary medical, legal, and HTML dictionaries are provided, and
the user can also construct a custom dictionary. Spell checking can
be performed on any selected text, from a single word up to an
entire document.
Other helpful features include a comprehensive thesaurus; a
Shorthand Glossary that will expand user-defined abbreviations such
as "tyia" into "Thanking you in advance"; a Ghostwriter feature that
saves keystrokes to disk to avoid the loss of text during a crash or
power outage; a Punctuation checker that can correct capitalization
errors, substitute an em-dash for double hyphens, and more; and a
statistics screen that counts characters, words, syllables,
sentences, and paragraphs, and provides two readability indexes.
Incidentally, if you understood what you just read, Spell Catcher
will tell you that you are reading at a Flesch Index level of 35,
appropriate for a college or university student. $79.95
Contact: Casady & Greene, 22734 Portola Dr., Salinas, CA 93908-1119,
408 484-9228, Internet: c&g@casadyg.com, fax: 408 484-9218.
Contact: Pacific HiTech, Inc., 3855 So. West, Suite B, Salt Lake
City, UT 84115, 801 261-1024, <http://www.pht.com>.
Image Club has released several new clipart collections, each
distinctive and reasonably priced.
Schoolsville, Volume 40 in the Image Club series, is a highly modern
interpretation of the stages leading from grade school to college.
The iconic collection consists of black & white and color images in
EPS format. $99
Sketches Around the World Clip Art is a collection of over 200 EPS
travel images rendered in pen and ink. $99
Hoopla! is a collection of artwork, typefaces, layered photographs
and original sounds designed by artist Dean Stanton. The CD-ROM
collection is stylistically coordinated so that all elements will
work together. $179
Neo Retro is a collection of more than 150 clipart images with the
nostalgic feeling of the postwar period. The images are grouped in
six categories: Heroes, Home Life, Just Folks, Leisure Time,
Technotronic, and Working Stiffs. $99
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Contact: Image Club Graphics, Suite 800 - 833 Fourth Avenue
Southwest, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2P 3T5, 800 661 9410,
Internet: rsixto@adobe.com, <www.imageclub.com>, fax: 403 261 7013.
Personal mapping and personal phone search CD-ROMs have been
available for quite a while. Now Delorme has linked them together so
that users can pinpoint the locations of individuals and businesses
on a map, using the information that they find in the phone
directory.
Street Atlas USA 3.0 ($79) contains street-level detail for the
entire U.S. Phone Search USA 2.0 ($29) contains three CD-ROMs, one
for each one-third of the country. The user can search by name or
business type, reverse search by phone number, limit a search by
given criteria, and export the results to a file or paper copy.
Contact: DeLorme, Lower Main St., POB 298, Freeport, ME 04032, 800
452-5931, Internet: info@delorme.com, <http://www.delorme.com>, fax
back: 207 865-7083, fax: 800 575-2244.
BMUG has released another series of CD-ROMs focused at the needs of
Macintosh users. Roadside Resources 3.0, The BMUG Internet
Collection not only contains an essential collection of Internet
tools and utilities, but also six complete Internet books, and
excerpts from several more. ($28)
ResNova's Web For One, Personal Web Server is a personal web server
that lets any MacOS computer on a TCP/IP network publish documents
on the Internet or LAN. The Control Panel interface provides simple
prompts for assembling, publishing, and securing a basic Home Page.
Inexpensive and useful. ($24)
The BMUG PD-ROM, Fall 1996 Edition is packed with over 600MB of
publicly distributable shareware, all of which has been tested to
work with System 7.5. Categories include business, education,
entertainment, graphics, Internet, programming, sound,
telcommunications, utility, updaters, and demos. $30
The QuickTime 2.5 CD-ROM contains QuickTime 2.5, MoviePlayer 2.5,
sample movies, and complete documentation for using and applying
QuickTime movie technology. $10
Cyberdog/OpenDoc CD-ROM provides a workable Living Objects
environment. Cyberdog is a Web browser, FTP browser, telnet client,
mail manager, and news reader. $12
Contact: BMUG, Inc., 1442A Walnut St., No. 62, Berkeley, CA
94709-1496, 510 549-2684, fax: 510 849-9026.
Several rare and meticulously rendered image collections have been
released as a series of four CD-ROMs of steel engravings. These new
Wildside Press titles consist of Animals; Castles and Cathedrals;
Designs, Dropcaps and Borders; and Arms, Armor and Battles. Each
image has been digitized as an 8-bit grayscale TIFF file at 300 dpi,
resulting in average file sizes of from 1 to 4 megabytes.
Each cross-platform collection, which averages between 200-300
images, includes a KUDO image browser with multiple keywords for
each image and thumbnails in three sizes. Selected images can be
cut-and-pasted or drag-and-dropped onto a layout or document page.
The images are royalty free and can be browsed quickly using the
accompanying variable speed slide show. $49.95 each, $149.95 for all
four.
Contact: Wideside Press, Judson Rosebush Co. Inc., Carnegie Hall
Studio 826, 154 West 57th St., New York, NY 10019, 212 581-3000,
Internet: info@rosebush.com, <http://www.rosebush.com>, fax: 212
757-8283.
CD-ROM Express is a utility program that uses unique techniques to
significantly increase the performance of CD-ROM drives and
multimedia applications. The program uses hard disk space to store
frequently-used CD-ROM sectors which not only improves the delivery
of information at hard disk rather than CD-ROM speeds, but also
preserves the information from one session to another. $79.95
Contact: PC-Kwik Corp., 3800 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Suite 260,
Beaverton, OR 97005, 503 644-5644, fax: 503 646-8267.
Spacecraft Encyclopedia (WIN) is one of several new low-cost
multimedia titles on CD-ROM that incorporates a proprietary software
engine that is controlled by 14 icons. These icons allow for access
to program content in a variety of ways, such as written articles,
video clips, slide shows, narrated text over a background image, and
more. Each title in the collection includes informative text,
narration, music, over 100 photographs, and 20 minutes of video. The
Spacecraft Encyclopedia includes every spacecraft in the world.
$16.99
Contact: American MPC Research, 11849 E. Telegraph Rd., Santa Fe
Springs, CA 90670, 310 801-0108, fax: 310 801-0138.
Contact: Allied Compugraphics, Inc., 401 Norwood Ave., Satellite
Beach, FL 32937, 407 777-4004, 800 330-4488, Internet:
allied@metrolink.net, <http://www.cco.net/~allcompu>, fax: 407
777-8003.
Clipart collections are pretty standard elements in most desktop
publisher's design arsenals. In the early days of desktop
publishing, before the widespread use of scanners, and the
proliferation of image suppliers, a single image could cost several
dollars, and the selection was limited at that. The trend over the
last couple of years has been to offer more and more images at
increasingly reduced prices. This has lowered the per image cost to
just pennies each. The latest clipart collection release from Zedcor
introduces a new level to the economics of digital clipart. Their
DeskGallery Mega-Bundle consists of 15 cross-platform CD-ROMs,
containing almost 120,000 600 dpi images arranged in four volumes.
The printed manual of thumbnail specimens is thoroughly indexed, and
consists of more than 1000 pages.
Each of the four volumes is available separately at $49.95 each, or
together in the Mega-Bundle at $149.95 (a savings of almost $50).
They consist of the Advertising Art Volume with 3500 EPS images,
each in ten variations (bordered, shadowed, colored, watermarked,
etc.) resulting in 32,000 images; Lifestyles and Occupations with
30,000 images of people in a wide variety of situations and
settings; Animals and Plants with 27,500 images drawn from nature;
and Universal Symbols with 30,000 spot illustrations.
Screen Shot: <http://www.printerport.com/dmm/issues/art/v1n2zed.gif>
Contact: Zedcor, Inc., 3420 N. Dodge Blvd., Suite F, Tucson, AZ
85716-1469, 520 881-8101, Internet: zedcor@zedcor.com,
<http://www.zedcor.com>, fax: 520 881-1841.
Owen Jones' Grammar of Ornament is one of the most famous works on
Ornamental Design ever published. It was produced on over 600 hand
etched stone plates and took five artisans nearly a year to
complete. Many of the 2300 designs shown in the book were from
ancient monuments and buildings that no longer exist.
The new CD-ROM multimedia edition of the 1856 Folio Edition, is
presented in Adobe Acrobat format. In this form it is fully
searchable, with over 23,000 hypertext links. The copyright and
royalty-free Professional Artists' Edition includes the AliveArt!
collection of 160 precision drawn files in Adobe Illustrator format.
Each of these illustrations is provided in CMYK, grayscale,
black-and-white, and lineart formats. The Compact Edition, which
does not include the AliveArt! collection is priced at $99.
The book has translated perfectly into multimedia form, and benefits
from the excellent navigational tools; QuickTime morph movies; and
examples of how several of the designs have been applied to
products, such as stationary, posters, video, ceramics, and
needlepoint. $199
Screen Shot: <http://www.printerport.com/dmm/issues/art/v1n2gro.jpg>
Contact: Direct Imagination, POB 93018, Pasadena, CA 91101-3018, 818
793-8387, <http://www.DImagin.com>, fax: 818 449-6083.
Contact: Application Techniques, Inc., 10 Lomar Park Drive,
Pepperell, MA 01463, 508 433-5201, 800 433-5201, fax: 508 433-8466.
Eudora is much more than a way of sending and receiving mail. It is
a mail management tool that provides these important features:
Unlimited mailboxes and folders into which incoming mail can be
sorted and filtered automatically, and automated responses can be
generated for common requests; sounds can be enabled to alert the
user to important messages; incoming mail can be forwarded
automatically to other locations or users; built-in spell checking
eliminates typos; boilerplate stationery can be generated to reply
to habitual inquiries; a toolbar provides access to the most-used
features; live URLs provide instant access to the WWW; text
formatting supports bold or colored fonts; file attachments make it
easy to send multiple documents, graphics, digital videos, or any
other kind of file to one or more recipients; multiple signatures
can be composed to personalize any message; a multiple field address
book makes it easy to address messages by the name the user prefers;
mail lists can be composed, maintained, and executed easily; mail
can be moved easily from one mailbox to another, and can be sorted
by name, date, or subject; mailboxes can be exported to a database
or other application; third-party plug-ins, which perform such
specialized functions as language translation, can be added; and
more. How can you resist? The Macintosh version is shipping. The
Windows version will ship in late fall. $89
Contact: Qualcomm Inc.. 6455 Lusk Blvd., San Diego, CA 92121-2779,
619 658-1292, 800 338-3672, Internet: info@qualcomm.com,
<http://www.qualcomm.com>.
Any serious HTML designer should have BBEdit (MAC) in his or her
arsenal of tools. The powerful text editor from Bare Bones software
was designed for editing any type of text file. Version 4.0 comes
loaded with a wealth of HTML tools and extensions. The new version
also features syntax highlighting for HTML, making it obvious when
you leave off a quote. BBEdit and its shareware counterpart, BBEdit
Lite, support extensions, which allow developers to add
functionality to the program. The BBEdit 4.0 CD-ROM contains
extensions from various developers and information on how to write
your own. BBEdit 4.0 is also scriptable, which greatly extends the
power of the application. For example, I wrote a script that would
allow BBEdit to interface with my HTML conversion program. Now I
have HTML conversion functionality from within the BBEdit program!
If you work with HTML code directly, I highly recommend BBEdit.
BBEdit Lite can be downloaded for free from Bare Bones Software's
web site and Bare Bones also offers upgrades from other HTML
editors, like Adobe's PageMill. US$119, $79 cross upgrade.
Review by Scott J. Kleper
Bare Bones Software, Inc., PO Box 1048, Bedford, MA 01730-1048,
(617) 676-0650, sales@barebones.com, <http://www.barebones.com>
Phantom is the first commercial Web crawler for Macintosh, from
Maxum Development Corporation, a prominent Macintosh internet
developer. Like Digital's Alta Vista, Phantom works by sending out
little robots on your (or any) web site. The pages are then indexed
in Phantom's database, which is searchable. You can use Phantom to
to mirror or archive a site, to make your site searchable, or to
watch a site for changes. The program is easy to use, provides
powerful searching capabilities, and perhaps most importantly,
behaves itself--Phantom recognizes the robots.txt file, which sites
can use to restrict the use of robots. Once a Phantom index has been
created, it can be searched offline on a Mac or be run as a CGI
script on your web site. US$395.
Review by Scott J. Kleper
Maxum Development Corporation, 820 South Bartlett Road, Suite 104,
Streamwood, IL 60107, info@maxum.com, <http://www.maxum.com>
It took an inventive mind to think of using a printer driver to
convert text from any application into HTML, and a programming
genius to make it a reality. Myrmidon (mur-muh-don) automates Web
publishing by converting any document into HTML code with a single
click. It works within any application that has a "Print" command
(and of course, most do).
As useful as this main feature is, the program fulfills its purpose
as a Meta-Printer in several different ways. It can do creative
things like locate all of the addresses in a document and print
them, one per page. It can also identify the From and To addresses
in a document and print an envelope. Finally, it can convert all of
the text in a document into an email message for Eudora, Claris
Emailer, or America Online. The user can also create meta-printers
with special features. $49.95
Contact: Terry Morse Software, 4546 B10 El Camino Real, Suite 427,
Los Altos, CA 94022, 415 858-1017, Internet: tmorse@terrymorse.com,
<http://www.terrymorse.com>, fax: 415 494-6272.
WebTalk is a software application that contains two licenses for
using the World Wide Web through which to speak to another Internet
user. The package includes a copy of Quarterdeck Mosaic web browser
and a microphone. $69.95
Contact: Quarterdeck Corp., 13160 Mindanao Way, Marina Del Rey, CA
90292-9705, 310 309-3700, Internet: info@quarterdeck.com,
<http://www.quarterdeck.com>, fax: 310 309-4219.
Contact: Natural Intelligence, Inc., 725 Concord Ave., Cambridge, MA
02138, 617 876-7680, <http://www.natural.com>, fax: 617 492-7425.
No one with any computer experience would ever question the need for
regular disk backups, yet most users don't do it. Now there is a
simple, direct application which requires only three easy steps. The
DataSaver Personal Backup Utility for Macintosh requires first, that
the user select the source to backup; second, identify where the
backup data will be stored; and third, select a filter (selecting
either modified files, the entire drive, applications only, system
files, or user data). $79.95
Contact: Software Architects, 19102 North Creek Parkway, Suite 101,
Bothell, WA 98011-8005, 206 487-0122, <http://www.softarch.com>,
Internet: sales@softarch.com, fax: 206 487-0467.
They've done it again, and they've done it better. RAM Doubler 2 for
the MacOS provides up to triple the available built-in memory, up to
256MB. The program installs in seconds and exhibits little or no
performance impact. An easy purchase decision. $99
Contact: Connectix, 2655 Campus Dr., San Mateo, CA 94403, 800
950-5880, 415 571-5100, fax: 415 571-5195, Internet:
cards@connectix.com.
How do you clean unwanted file fragments, unattached aliases, empty
folders, unused Preferences files, and other hard disk clutter? The
hard way is doing it manually...the easy way is with LaundroMac.
LaundroMac automatically performs eight file cleaning functions:
resolving unattached aliases, removing unneeded code from "fat
binary" applications, removing empty folders, eliminating unused
fonts, deleting unneeded help files, completely removing all
associated files belonging to an unneeded application, locating
orphaned files and assigning them to a compatible application, and
removing unused Preferences files.
Contact: The Excelsior Group, 7900 Kelly Ann Court, Fairfax Station,
VA 22039, 888 239-0433, Internet: Excelsior@aol.com,
<http://members.aol.com/ExcelsiorG>, fax: 703 239-8982.
DiskMapper is a useful utility that provides Windows 3.x and Windows
95 users with a colorful map of their hard drive contents. The map,
which can be customized to reveal such attributes as file
extensions, directory levels, file types, time since the last use of
files, and the date of file creation, offers a much more visual and
informative look at hard disk contents than standard tree listings.
The space taken up by applications and other categories of software
is clearly shown, and sub-directories can be zoomed to reveal lower
levels of detail. As the mouse pointer moves across the map, the
full file name, path, size, date and extension type are displayed on
the status bar, and optionally, next to the cursor.
The business part of the program is the Delete and Zip toolbar
buttons which are used to instantly remove or compress any files
with a click. This easy deletion feature can be a mixed blessing
since needed files can be erased all too easily. $49.95
Contact: Micro Logic, 89 Leuning St., So. Hackensack, NJ 07606, 201
342-6518, Internet: staff@miclog.com, <http://www.miclog.com>, fax:
201 342-0370.
According to Post Office surveys, more than 30% of all mailpieces
have misspelled street or city names, improper state abbreviations,
missing or incorrect ZIP codes or other inaccurate or incomplete
information. All of these errors can delay, or in the worst case,
stop delivery of the mail. A cure for this problem is Address Fixer
for Microsoft Word and Office. This add-in checks any address in
Word against a CD-ROM database of U.S. addresses, corrects
misspellings and mistakes and adds the complete 9 digit ZIP code.
$19.95
Contact: CoStar Corp., 599 West Putnam Ave., Greenwich, CT
06830-6092, 203 661-9700, <http://www.costar.com>, fax: 203
661-1540.
First Aid uses an extensive knowledge base to analyze and fix most
common Windows software configuration problems as they happen. The
program is memory resident and senses when a system error message
occurs. When that happens the program pops up, analyzes the
situation, and offers to repair it immediately. All changes are
logged so that the user can check what has happened, and even undo
the changes if he or she so chooses. $49.95
Contact: CyberMedia, 2029 Century Park East, Suite 810, Century
City, CA 90067, 310 843-0800, fax: 310 843-0120.
Contact: Alien Skin Software, LLC, 800 St. Mary's St., Suite 100,
Raleigh, NC 27605-1457, 919 832-4124, Internet:
alien-skinfo@alienskin.com, <http://www.alienskin.com>, fax: 919
832-4065.
Special Delivery 2.1 is a multimedia authoring tool that does not
require programming, timelines, flowcharts, or scripting. The
patented graphical user interface enables users to employ an
extensive set of interactive capabilities that add interactive
control to projects for business, education, training, kiosks and
interactive CD-ROMs. The Special Delivery run-time player allows
users to distribute their productions, on any medium, with no
royalty fees. The package also includes a large collection of
buttons, backgrounds, and transitions. $399
Those new to multimedia might want to buy the Interactive Multimedia
Getting Started CD-ROM, which includes a collection of clip-media,
tutorials, sample Special Delivery projects, and tryout versions of
several complementary products. $24.95
Contact: Interactive Media Corporation, POB 0089, Los Altos, CA
94023-0089, 415 948-0745.
The developer and publisher of Volkswriter, Correct Grammar and The
American Heritage Dictionary has published Crossword Wizard.
Crossword Wizard is the first program to completely and
automatically create true crossword puzzles that fit the
construction criteria of professional puzzles published in
newspapers and magazines. The program has a vocabulary of over
70,000 words which can be used both to construct puzzles, and to
solve them. The program also includes the Idea Wizard, which
provides insight into how the puzzle was constructed and the ways
that words and ideas relate to each other. Puzzles can be published
using most word processing and desktop publishing programs. $19.95
Contact: Cogix Corp., 419 Redwood Road, San Anselmo, CA 94960, 415
456-8182.
Many games claim to deliver 3-D graphics, but few offer the sense of
depth and realism that is achieved by Jeremy Bem's Glimmer for the
Mac. Glimmer uses the red-blue movie glasses technology of the
1950's combined with the raw processing power of the Macintosh to
deliver "genuine stereoscopic 3-D". The results are very impressive.
Each level of glimmer places you in a room filled with various
obstacles and enemies. The object is to collect the diamonds
scattered throughout the room and exit through a small tunnel. The
game is surprisingly addictive and the 3-D effects are incredible.
Best of all, Glimmer is shareware! If you have a pair of 3-D glasses
around, you can download Glimmer immediately and try out the first
six levels. If you sold the glasses at your last garage sale, Jeremy
will send you a free trial pair if you send him a self-addressed
stamped envelope. If you decide to register, for $20, you'll get two
pair of glasses, a registration code to allow you past room six, and
maybe another unexpected surprise...
Jeremy Bem, 301 Wyckoff Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850, glimmer@kagi.com,
<http://members.aol.com/glimmer3d/>
You can buy into some inexpensive and fun role-reversal with the
Murder, She Wrote multimedia CD-ROM. Four murders are presented,
each with a video cast of suspects. Solving each case depends on
keen listening skills and an eye for detail. Clues are hidden in
computer-controlled jigsaw puzzles, with user-defined piece shapes,
number of pieces, and sound effects. The disc incorporates Centron's
Jigsaw Power puzzle engine which features a slew of controls, and
over 100 puzzles. Users can also convert their own graphic files
into puzzles, and save puzzle solutions in process. $29.95
Contact: Centron Software, 300 American Legion Lane #4, Pinehurst,
NC 28374, 910 215-5708, 910 295-8908, 800 848-2424, Internet:
centron@ac.net, WWW:www.ac.net/~centron/msw/msw.html, fax: 800
848-2424.
Certainly the key new feature, among the over 100, in Claris
FileMaker Pro 3.0 is its relational database capability. This
capability lets users combine the information in multiple files
without duplicating data. This report is composed, incidently, using
FileMaker Pro 3.0, with the vendor addresses kept in one database
file, and the news items kept in another. We've always found
FileMaker to be powerful and easy to use.
Claris has just released new training materials to flatten the curve
on learning the new FileMaker Pro 3.0 features. Going Relational
with FileMaker Pro 3.0 is a self-paced workbook covering four areas:
converting existing FileMaker Pro 2.0 (and later) files to the new
version, basic relational concepts, relational database design, and
a tutorial on how to compose a working business solution database.
The workbook includes a set of exercise files on Macintosh and
Windows diskettes. $24
The FileMaker Pro 3.0 Relational Video, presented by expert Rich
Coulombre, also covers four areas: relational database concepts,
planning your databases, creating databases, and converting
databases. $39
Contact: Claris, 5201 Patrick Henry Drive, Box 58168, Santa Clara,
CA 95052-8168, 408 987-7000, 800-3-CLARIS, 408 727-8227,
<http://www.claris.com>.
Using an intuitive graphical interface, Project KickStart for
Windows helps the user organize projects into easily definable
phases, tasks, sub-tasks and details. The project organizer helps to
generate effective strategies, task lists, and resource assignments
for projects.
The user is led through eight steps, answering questions that draw
information that leads to a clear overview of the project and its
requirements. A context-sensitive Project Advisor provides tips; and
a library of phases, goals and obstacles reduces the time necessary
to describe the project. $99.95
Contact: Experience in Software, Inc., 2000 Hearst Ave., Suite 202,
Berkeley, CA 94709, 510 644-0694, 800 678-7008, fax: 510 644-3823.
3D MAX LCD shutter glasses are based on field-sequential theory, and
incorporate the proprietary VLSI ASIC chip. The lightweight glasses
provide a realistic three dimensional sensation in games that have
been designed to work with them. The system package includes the
glasses, a plug-in card, a cable, a 3D Stereo Graphics CD-ROM title,
utilities, a manual, and a demo program. Under $200.
Contact: Kazan Electronics, 1428-2 Kwanyang-dong Anyang, 430-061,
Korea, 82-343-21-0114, 82-343-24-0114, fax: 82-343-21-8500,
82-343-22-8500.
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Please visit our web site at <http://www.printerport.com/klephacks/>
DTP Reviews
Publishers on a tight budget will be interested in a new low-cost
tool called MacPublisher. MacPublisher, named after one of the
original DTP programs for the Macintosh, boasts a long list of
high-end features. These include linkable text boxes, kerning and
leading controls, a 93,000-word spell checker, automatic
hyphenation, spot color separation, and several other capabilities.
All of this on one floppy! Despite the give-away price, which also
includes a CD-ROM with 1000 clipart images and 40 fonts, the
performance of the program is slow and imprecise. We tried it on two
PowerMacs and got similarly lethargic, unresponsive behavior on
both. $24.99
Editorial Tools Reviews
End Note 2 Plus is a powerful full-featured utility program for
managing reference citations and generating bibiliographies. The
program works either as a standalone application or a plug-in,
working within popular word processing software. Sets, or
"libraries" can contain up to 32,000 references, each of which can
contain up to 16 pages of text. A user can create an unlimited
number of libraries, and library entries can accommodate large
abstracts and notes. Each library entry can be edited, and extensive
search options of all fields (with unlimited length boolean search
strings) can be conducted quickly.
CD-ROM Reviews
Pacific HiTech has one of the largest collections of low-cost
Macintosh and Windows CD-ROMs. Among the titles we've recently seen
are: PHT Illustrations ($39.95), a cross-platform collection with
100 royalty-free illustrations in categories such as animals, art,
food, landscapes, space, etc. The files are provided in 300 dpi and
72 dpi resolutions in TIFF, BMP, and PICT formats. MacSource CD-ROM
($29.95) contains source code, compilers, interpreters, utilities,
and tips for Macintosh programmers and developers. HyperStacks
CD-ROM ($19.95) contains a large collection of HyperCard stacks that
work with the Claris HyperCard Player. Wheat Paper Volume 5 ($39.95)
is a collection of royalty-free, drum-scanned, high-resolution paper
backgrounds for desktop publishing and multimedia applications. The
CD-ROM includes a browser for viewing and copying images. All images
are in TIFF, at 300 dpi, with dimensions of 2610 x 3570, and 900 x
900. Light of Days, Volume One ($29.95), is a cross-platform set of
100 royalty-free images from the Norman Bosworth Original
Photography Series. The images are provided in both 72 and 300 dpi
resolutions for multimedia and desktop publishing uses. Categories
of images include backgrounds, desert scenery, seascapes, people,
mountains, fireworks, leaves, buildings, deep canyons, and sunsets.
Browsers are provided for both Macintosh and Windows users.
Digital Photography Reviews
A new collection of digital art has been developed for the critical
high-resolution requirements of vinyl sign making. The cross
platform CD-ROM contains each lineart image in 13 file formats and
each of the 200 original images can be used for sign making or
printing. Major categories include animals, business and industrial
equipment, food, business objects, plants and flowers, sports,
tools, transportation, workers, and miscellaneous images. $119.95
Printing Reviews
Pizazz 5 is a screen capture and printing utility that combines
ease-of-use with superior graphic capabilities. The Capture
Activation window lets the user select if the captured screen, or
screen area, will be opened with the Pizazz 5 Edit program, for
customization, or will be automatically printed, or saved as a file.
The Pizazz 5 Edit program provides capabilities to open saved screen
capture files, display them, edit them, print them, and/or convert
them to another file format. Editing options include swapping
black-and-white, inverting color images, adjusting color, changing
size and color level, cropping, changing the image orientation,
mirroring, adding borders, and more. Up to 32 sequential effects can
be saved as a "recipe" to be repeated automatically for a different
image. All in all the best program of its class. $99
Internet Reviews
Eudora has a long history, by Internet standards, as a hassle-free,
efficient email application. The freeware Lite version is available
from several sites, however, once you try the Lite version, the
benefits of the Professional version 3.0 become irresistible. I've
used Eurdora everyday for years, and the newest version is well
worth the modest price.
Utility Reviews
Macintosh power users will be interested in DragStrip 2.0, a desktop
organizer that puts buttons, representing frequently used files, in
user-customized windows right on the desktop. The program is a
tremendous help in organizing applications, projects, boilerplate
files, etc. $59.95
Multimedia/Graphics Reviews
One of the frustrating parts of working with feature-rich software
applications is that they sometimes don't include the one feature
that you need. In the case of Adobe Illustrator 6.0, one of the
major voids is the lack of style sheets. This deficiency has been
met with the release of Stylist, a plug-in which includes 100 preset
effects. Stylist lets the user directly set both the text and path
properties of styled objects. Objects that have become linked to
styles are automatically updated as the style sheet information is
modified. Because of this link, Alien Skin refers to the effects as
being "live." $199
Entertainment Reviews
Miscellaneous Reviews
A Word From Our Sponsors
Are you a Macintosh fanatic? Want to put that claim to the test? Try
MacFolklore II, the original Mac trivia game. MacFolklore has a bank
of almost 200 questions about the Macintosh and Apple. There are
questions about famous Apple ads, product codenames, company
politics, and more. MacFolklore II is a $5 shareware program from
KlepHacks Shareware and is available immediately from:
<http://www.printerport.com/klephacks/folklore.html>
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