march 1995 thebest new - vintage apple · 2014-10-14 · march 1995 /volume 11 number 3 contents...

MA

RCH

199

5 / $

3.95

Laser PrintersShould Your Next One Be Color?

Top-Notch Charts7 Packages That Can Make Your Data Sizzle

Get Rich Quicker!Which Tax Software Delivers the Best Return — page 40

P L U S

Editors’ Choice Awards

10th Annual

PRODUCTSBESTNEW

THE

INTERNET! FOUR EASY WAYS TO CUT ON-LINE COSTS – PAGE 127

MARCH 1995 / VOLUME 11 NUMBER 3

CONTENTS

MacTools Pro and Norton Utilities forMacintosh Two diagnosis and repairprograms that promise to keep your harddrive humming. / 37

MacInTax and TaxCut Which tax softwaregives you the best return for your dollar?/ 40

Radius PhotoEngine The newest way tomake Photoshop run faster — on Quadrasand Power Macs. / 42

LaserMasterDisplayMakerProfessionalLarge-formatprinterproducesstunningprofessional-quality signs,

posters, and banners in a variety of sizes./ 46

Metrowerks CodeWarrior The premierPower Mac development environment is agodsend for Power Mac developers. / 47

ClarisDraw Targeted for beginners,ClarisDraw 1.0 is versatile and easy touse. / 48

MovieWorks Making QuickTime-basedpresentations shouldn’t be this awkward./ 52

WordPerfect Envoy Portable-documentsoftware features good support forannotating. / 54

Agfa StudioScan II and UMAX Vista-S6More for less: two flatbed color scannerspriced at under 1,000 bucks. / 56

Aquazone andEl-Fish Digitaldesktopaquariums arealmost as muchfun as the realthing. / 63

HouseCall Take charge of your healthwith this electronic medical-referenceprogram. / 63

Special Delivery 2.0 This entry-levelmultimedia tool needs work. / 64

VirtualDisk Catalog your disks. / 65

Living Album Virtual photo album lets youdisplay electronic pictures and movies./ 65

SAM Administrator Now net managerscan more easily distribute and updateantivirus software. / 66

NE W ON TH E MEN U

Power Macs More bang for the buck. /64-MB SIMMs 8100 RAM heaven. /Technöggin PowerBook batteryrecall. / Zmac Utility of the MonthSoundSmith. / Plus Macintosh priceindex. / 27

C O LUMNS

Letters The Word 6.0 debate rages,kids and MSTies speak out, andreaders challenge Dr. Power Mac. / 11

Maggie Canon And the winner is . . ./ 17

Andy Ihnatko Word 6: Time toswitch. / 21

John C. Dvorak Speed is not enough./ 190

Product Index / 153

Advertiser Index / 156

Marketplace / 162 Four Paws of Crab More than justdelicious Thai recipes, this image-richCD-ROM features a look at Thai culture./ 67

Autoscore Pitch-to-MIDI convertertransforms notes you sing or play intoMIDI events. / 67

67 / Thai one on with all the rightingredients.

MA

RCH

199

5 / $

3.95

Laser PrintersShould Your Next One Be Color?

Top-Notch Charts7 Packages That Can Make Your Data Sizzle

Get Rich Quicker!Which Tax Software Delivers the Best Return — page 40

P L U S


10th Annual

PRODUCTSBESTNEW

THE

INTERNET! FOUR EASY WAYS TO CUT ON-LINE COSTS – PAGE 127

R E V I E WS & QUICK CLICKS

On the cover /Hardware Productof the Year: thePower Mac 6100.

Cover photo /Giampiero Benvenuti

27 / Optical storagedouble-hitter.

Top of the ChartsMake yournumbers talk

with a charting program.There are several to choose

from, offering varying levelsof complexity. Here we

review seven. BY JOSEPH SCHORR / 98

L ABSZD

S PECIAL REP ORT

The 10th Annual


F EATURES

The Color-Laser PromiseFinally! Color laserprinters have arrived —

but do they measure up? MacUserLabs puts three of the latest entrantsthrough their paces to find out.BY TONY BOJORQUEZ / 91

L ABSZD

DESKTOPPUBLISHING / 106

Clip Art A collector’s guide to quirky clip-art and digital-photocollections. / 109

Graphics How-ToUnmasking masktechniques. / 112

Expert Tips Using OPI for swapping hi-resfiles. / 113

NETWORKING / 114

The Internet Turnyour Mac into anInternet server./ 117

Mac to PC Software bloat has got to go, andOpenDoc is paving the way. / 119

HANDS ON / 122

Smart Money Mac Managing your moneyis easy with the right application. / 122

Mobile Mac Workarounds for thePowerBook 500 series./ 125

Net Traveler Fourways to cutInternet costs./ 127

Help Folder Bob andAndy answer all ofyour questions. Plushot tips on your favoriteprograms. / 128

TEXT

GRAPHICS

OpenDocfileCHARTS

125 / Openup and say“ahhh.”

MacUser’s annual salute tothe year’s best and brightestMac products and to thepeople behind them.DESPITE SUCH MONUMENTAL CHALLENGESas a switch in CPUs, a dearth of developmenttools, and maturing markets, third-partydevelopers pulled through once again witha slew of spectacular products. Here arethe finest achievements of 1994, and thepromising contenders for 1995.BY THE EDITORS OF MACUSER / 71

4 MacUser / MARCH 1995

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Editor James S. BradburyManaging Editor Nancy GrothTechnical Director Henry BortmanExecutive Editor Rik MyslewskiSenior Editors Cheryl England, Mark Frost, Susan Janus,Karen J. Ohlson, Pamela PfiffnerTechnical Editor John RizzoSenior Associate Managing Editor Claire H. BreenChief Copy Editor Eva LangfeldtAssociate Technical Editor Rhoda SimmonsAssociate Editors Carolyn Bickford, Shelly Brisbin,Nancy Peterson, Sean J. Safreed, Jim Shatz-AkinCopy Editor Jon ZobenicaAssistant Editors Patty Ames, Kristin M. Balleisen, Jason SnellContributing Editors Sharon Zardetto Aker, David Biedny,Christopher Breen, Don Crabb, Bruce Fraser, Andy Ihnatko,Ted Landau, Bob LeVitus, Stephan C. Somogyi,Michael Swaine, Gregory WassonContributing Anti-Editor John C. DvorakExecutive Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief Teresa Campbell

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LET-

LETTERS

Write to Letters

c/o MacUser950 Tower Lane18th FloorFoster City, CA 94404To send your letter electronically via theInternet, MCI Mail, CompuServe, orZiffNet/Mac (our on-line service), see“How to Reach Us,” on page 4. Allletters become the property of MacUser,and we reserve the right to edit anyletters we print. Include a returnaddress and a daytime phone number.If you write to us on-line, please specifywhether you want your electronicaddress printed.

Four-Letter Word

I MUST DISAGREE with your decision toaward four mice to Word 6.0 (Reviews, De-cember ’94, page 43). A four-mouse prod-uct is one that is just short of perfect onmany fronts.

I believe that a word processor can’t pos-sibly have a wide appeal when it really runsbest on 68040 Macs. The additional re-quirements of at least 8 MB of RAM and 10to 25 MB of disk space for a “typical” installare simply ridiculous for a word processor.This isn’t Photoshop — it is a text-genera-tion program.

Despite the plethora of features — giventhe lofty memory requirements, sorry per-formance, and compatibility problems — Icould not in good conscience give Word 6.0a rating better than 2.5 mice.Noah P. N. [email protected]

IN RECENT YEARS, the commitment ofMacUser reviewers to the idea of maintain-ing the standard Mac interface appears tohave declined. Microsoft used to give us, inMS-DOS, function keys that had a differentuse in every program and were difficult tomemorize. They now give us similar-look-ing icons that have different meanings, anddifferent icons that have the same meaning,in different programs.

It should be a severe mark against a Mac

program that its dialog boxes depart fromthe standard interface. Rather than receiv-ing praise for a spiffy new 3-D look, as inyour review of Word 6.0, Microsoft shouldbe criticized for encouraging departuresfrom the standard interface. Praising itmay encourage departures by other pro-grammers who also think they know howto do things better.Peter [email protected]

/ Apple, as a forward-looking company, has clearly

moved on to the next-generation platform — the

RISC-based Power Mac. Word 6.0, as a forward-

looking application, has clearly been engineered

for Power Mac–class machines. Nevertheless, we

understand the frustration of trying to run Word

6.0 on 68030 and lower-end Macs, and our review

clearly warned owners of those machines that they

could expect less-than-optimal performance. But

to take the feature-rich Word 6.0 to task for looking

forward rather than backward did not seem in

keeping with the spirit of our industry. / SJ

Disc Us

THANKS FOR PUTTING the proper em-phasis on vendors’ tech support in yourcomparison of CD-ROM drives (“Built forSpeed,” December ’94, page 76) and formaking the phone calls necessary to deter-mine the ratings. I am outfitting a newPower Mac and have had trouble gettinggood vendor service, what with newly un-bundled support policies, interminabletelephone holds, and unhelpful and un-knowledgeable people at the other end ofthe line.

I think MacUser should make the qualityof customer support part of every review.Customer support has been too importantan issue to continue to get short shrift inMac publications.Eric P. StewartCatonsville, MD

Hot for Teaching

I REALLY ENJOYED your guide to Children’sSoftware (“Learning Power: Software forKids,” December ’94, page 90). I have afour-year-old who loves to sit and makethings happen with the computer and a

OPEN FOLDERWhen intrepid columnist Andy Ihnatko de-voted an entire column (“Paper Chase,” De-cember ’94, page 23) to his favorite maga-zines, we knew we’d get inundated withreading suggestions. Readers recom-mended periodicals ranging from the high-brow The Economist to the electronic InsideMac Games to the conservative DartmouthReview — even Motorcycle Magazine. It gaveus the idea for a new spin-off: Andy Illus-trated (a.k.a. AI), a monthly Ihnatko pictorial.And with every paid subscription, readerswill receive a lovely Andy Ihnatko collector’splate from the Franklin Mint!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, thenwe’re speechless. Young Timothy L. Merkelwrites via the Internet: “I hear you guys printpeople’s [e-mail addresses] for them. Ithought I would go one step further and seeif you guys would print my picture.” En-closed in his message was a color GIF imageof what we can only assume is Tim himself.No dice, Tim — you’re going to have to getyour own magazine.

Gee whiz, kids. Tim wasn’t the only preco-cious teen to give us a piece of his mind. “Iam shocked and sadly disappointed thatMacUser continues to insult the intelligenceof any reader under 20,” writes J.D. Barillari,of Winchester, Massachusetts, pointing outthat his idea of intellectual stimulation iswriting programs, not playing the “far fromchallenging” Carmen Sandiego series. Moreupbeat is Mike Hayes, who boasts via theInternet that “I’m your not-so-average Macwhiz kid. I know more about Macs probablythan anyone in the town — the teacherslove me.” Mike spends his time rendering3-D objects on his LC III. These kids today.

Play time is also important to MichaelSturm, who asked via the Internet if we knew“of any package that could provide com-puter control of a train set with the Mac.” Achoo-choo CPU? We bet Tim, J.D., and Mikecould help out on that one . . . .


ASK DR. POWER MAC

LETTERS

SOMETHING SEEMS A BIT OFF in yournews about the PowerPC 620 (New on theMenu, December ’94, page 35). The 620 isonly 3 times as fast as a 601? I’d heard ru-mors that the 604 was 6 to 12 times as fastas the 601. Where does the 604 stand inall of this? Also, what’s after the Pentiumfor Intel?Jay [email protected]

/ We use SPECmark ratings for the various chips tocompare raw speed. With those ratings, the 133-MHz 620 is about 3 times as fast as the 100-MHz601. In general, real-world applications are goingto be even faster than esoteric benchmark testsindicate. The 133-MHz 604 should be about twiceas fast as the 100-MHz 601. If the 620 were to runat over 200 MHz, it might provide up to 6 timesthe speed of a 601, but a 12-times performancegain seems unlikely.

Intel will provide 125- or 133-MHz Pentiumsby the second quarter of 1995 that will slightlyoutperform the 601. The P6, Intel’s next-genera-tion chip, will not be widely available until theend of 1995 and will likely equal the 604’s speed.

I NEED TO PURCHASE a new Mac. Do pro-grams from older Macs still run on PowerMacs? And what are the advantages of aPower Mac over a 680x0 with equalmemory?Ryan [email protected]

/ Most applications that run on 680x0-basedMacs will run on a Power Mac at about the speedof a Quadra 605. An exception: 680x0 applica-tions geared for tasks such as 3-D modeling re-quire the 680x0’s FPU chip, which the Power Macdoes not emulate. A Power Mac runs native appli-cations from two to four times as fast as it runs theequivalent 680x0 versions with the same amountof RAM. However, Power Mac applications gener-ally require more RAM, so you’ll want to get 16 MBto maximize speed on the Power Mac.

SHOULD I BUY an AV Power Mac or justget a Power Mac and attach a third-partyAV card? I hope to create AV teachingprograms or tutorials with it. Would aQuadra AV Mac be a more cost-effectivemachine?Charles Chen, [email protected]

/ If you’re doing serious video, get a used Quadra840AV and a third-party card. The quality you’llget with a Power Mac’s built-in AV card is 15frames per second (fps) at 320 x 240 pixels or 30fps at 160 x 120. The SpigotPower AV card, fromRadius, provides a significant boost in quality andframe rate over the standard AV Power Mac, butyou need to have an AV Power Mac to use it.


two-year-old who is just learning how themouse works. Your guide will be a big helpfor sorting through software for them.Lonnie Hatmanvia ZiffNet/Mac

YOUR SUGGESTIONS TO parents are use-ful — especially the age-appropriate cau-tion, the two sources for reviews, and theparent-involvement advice — but thereisn’t anything in the article about the learn-ing children are supposed to experiencewhile using these products, other than thatthree or four experts say interactivity isgood.

Would it have hurt to say somethingabout how educators feel about these prod-ucts? There are a lot of teachers out therewho are using software as a part of theirrepertoire. And there are a lot of expertsworking on developing the best kind ofcomputer learning environments. It wouldbe nice to hear from some of them.Laurie Dieffenbach, Ph.D., New York [email protected]

We Can't Relate

I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED with your ar-ticle “The Database Dilemma” (December’94, page 143). Your article misrepresentsthe reasons for using relational databasesand oversimplifies the difference betweenflat-file and relational databases.

None of your reasons for considering aswitch from a flat-file database to a rela-tional database are valid. You say that theuse of repeating fields is an indication thatyou may need a relational database, but vir-tually all FileMaker Pro users use repeatingfields. They are an integral and unique fea-ture of FileMaker Pro. You mention that us-ers should consider moving to a relationaldatabase if their database is too slow or toolarge. But there are relational-database pro-grams that are slower than FileMaker Pro,and nothing about the relational modelhelps solve either of these two problems.

Of course, nobody expects to seeFileMaker used for banking transactions orairline reservation systems, but your articlemerely reinforces inaccurate stereotypesinstead of debunking myths about the dif-ferences between flat-file and relationaldatabases.Anthony JacksonSan Francisco, CA


YOUR ARTICLE managed to be wrong onvirtually every point. Most flat-file data-bases haven’t required duplicate data entrysince punch cards and garlic were consid-ered high-tech — lookups work fine andare easy to specify. FileMaker Pro is not lim-ited to a single file structure. We commonlyuse two or more files tied together withlookups and scripting to show and handlethe same data completely differently.

Flat-file forms do not have to be “unpro-fessional” because of “blank fields andduplicate records.” FileMaker’s “slide” func-tion gets rid of blank fields, and usingmultiple layouts or data-driven layout tech-niques allows the creation of forms com-pletely adapted to the specific data in everyrecord.

The step up to the relational productsmentioned is a huge one when it comes totime, cost, and dependence on a specificdeveloper. Users interested in getting workdone, rather than becoming programminghobbyists, should stick with flat-file. Yourstatement that moving to a relational prod-uct is a way to “preserve your sanity” terri-fies me beyond sensible comment.Michael Harris, Watertechnics ConsultantsWatsonville, CA

/ We stand by our contentions that repeating fields

generally waste space, that lookups are not as pow-

erful as relational links, and that some relational

databases (although not all of them) can offer speed

advantages over flat-file databases with many

records. We regret that we did not have room to ex-

plain how features such as FileMaker’s lookups can

be used to create more-complex structures than

that of our example flat-file structure. We did em-

phasize that, as you point out, switching to a rela-

tional database is not a step to be taken lightly or

without programming expertise. Users who are not

ready to take this step would be well advised to fully

explore the capabilities of their flat-file database

before abandoning it. / KO

Internet till You Drop

I WAS VERY GLAD to see your article“Shopping for Internet Access” (December’94, page 133). It is encouraging to see thatthis major Mac magazine is keeping itsreaders informed about what is current inthe computer world. However, I feel that youdid your readers a disservice by comparingthe archaic text-based shell-account inter-face to the hip graphical SLIP/PPP account.You failed to mention a wonderful product

called The Internet Adapter. This gem of aprogram allows you to convert a UNIX shellaccount into a MacTCP-based account, giv-ing you graphical access to all Internet fea-tures. This requires adding an extra layer ofsoftware but can be practical for peoplewho can get a shell account much morecheaply than a SLIP/PPP account.Jonathan [email protected]

/ Right you are. You can reach SoftAware, maker of

The Internet Adapter, at 310-314-1466, or via e-mail

at [email protected]. / SB

Out of Sync

I WAS DISAPPOINTED to read in your Mo-bile Mac section (“New for the Road,” De-cember ’94, page 147) that Sharon Akerfeels that because she and her colleagues donot use any file-synchronization programs,the category is of little importance.

The people at our company, which pro-duces PowerMerge, think the category ispretty important. Apple thinks it’s worthyenough to bundle its own file-synchroniza-tion program with every PowerBook thatgoes out the door. To dismiss the entire cat-egory because the writer doesn’t use one ofthe programs seems a little grandiose.M. Nelson Greenwood, Leader TechnologyNewport Beach, CA

GX Wrong

IN THE ARTICLE “Golly GX” (December’94, page 119), you mention a text editorfrom Apple called GXWrite that supposedlycomes with the System 7.5 upgrade. Am Imissing something? I bought the 7.5 CD-ROM and couldn’t find it anywhere on thedisc using the new Find command. Whatgives?Matt [email protected]

/ The GX scene is even bleaker than we thought:

GXWrite was available only with beta versions of the

System 7.5 CD-ROM, because Apple feared includ-

ing this test application in the shipping product

would have led to too many demands on its tech-

support staff. Apple says it’s working on ways to

make GX more accessible to users “in the future.”

/ PP

A Reason for Dvorak

JOHN DVORAK’S COLUMN “Time’s A-Wasting” (December ’94, page 222) just jus-tified his entire career as a columnist.

As an Apple II and Mac user and pro-moter since the late 70s, I have seen Applescrew up so many grabs for market share: Ittried to milk the aging 6502 with the AppleIII just as the IBM PC was being designed,tried to sell the Lisa for $12,000, andhobbled the first Mac. Everything it madewas oddball: the floppy drives, the printers,the video scheme.

Apple is, as Dvorak states, a softwarecompany — it has consistently skimped onits overpriced hardware by assigning tasksto a single overburdened processor.

I used to think Apple’s slogan “The com-puter for the rest of us” referred to peoplewho did not want to be technogeeks. I nowrealize that it means “the rest of us” are a de-luded elite who are willing to pay throughthe nose to avoid running with the herd.Alex Funkvia the Internet

Push the Button, Frank

I WAS STARTLED — and tickled — to findtucked in among the engaging and infor-mative reviews and articles in your Decem-ber ’94 issue not one but two references tomy all-time favorite TV show: ComedyCentral’s ongoing forum of hysterical ge-nius, Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Not only did Michael Swaine’s piece onOLE and OpenDoc (December ’94, page 29)lift its title and subhead from MST3K’stheme song but the column itself alsosported references throughout. And thenthere was the entry on handwritten fonts(Help Folder, page 153), which included afigure presenting text featuring MST3Kcharacters TV’s Frank and Dr. Forrester.

I’m very happy to see that your contribut-ing editors are people of such refined taste.Tavia [email protected]

LETTERS

CORRECTIONSOur guide to children’s software incorrectlylisted the format of Great Bear Technologies’Willy Wabbit & His Magical Books (December’94, page 102). That product is available onlyon CD-ROM.

The phone number listed for BrøderbundSoftware (New on the Menu, January ’95,page 35) was incorrect. The correct numberis 415-382-4400.

The toll-free number listed for Apple Com-puter (December ’94, page 86) was incor-rect. The correct number is 408-996-1010.


MAGGIE CANON

10 Years of Excellence

Hand he weighs 10 pounds wetor dry (and that’s solid bronze).

E STANDS 18.5 INCHES TALL

Sculpted by Mac artist Mike Saenz, he wasnamed in 1985 by MacUser’s art and designdirector, Lisa Orsini. Since then Eddy hasremained basically the same, except that in1989, we upgraded the 128K machine in hishands to a Mac SE.

This issue marks the tenth anniversary ofthe MacUser Editors’ Choice Awards. Eachyear, the editors survey the hundreds of newproducts introduced during the year, holdthem up against a year’s worth of lab tests,and vote for the top products of the year.From the very beginning, the Eddy Awardshave gone to products that represent the in-novation and excellence on which this in-dustry was founded.

The awards, which now encompass bothhardware and software, began as software-only in 1985. (Back in those days, there re-ally wasn’t much hardware besides Apple-labeled products available, and there wasn’tvery much of that, either.)

Rather than recap each year’s awards, Ithought I would go out on a limb and saywhat I think have been the most importantproducts in the history of the Macintosh.Here goes:Aldus PageMaker. Started the desktop pub-lishing phenomenon.Microsoft Excel/Microsoft Word. Real busi-ness apps for real businesspeople; the Mac’sfirst pin-striped software.Apple LaserWriter. Another pioneering DTPproduct, producing business communica-tions in startlingly crisp high resolution, forjust slightly less than a new Audi sedan.Radius Full-Page Display. Sweet relief fromthat little 9-inch screen.Adobe Illustrator. A PostScript drawing pro-gram for grown-ups.Apple Mac Classic. Apple’s first break with its

tradition of gouging people who want a bet-ter interface — or, in nicer terms, Apple’sfirst true low-cost computer.Connectix’s RAM Doubler. With each newMicrosoft product, we appreciate it more!MacroMind Director. This pioneering desk-top-video product putthe gleam in the eye ofthe budding multime-dia industry.Adobe Photoshop. Be-came an industry untoitself as the softwarethat opened the digitaldarkroom up to theworld.Apple PowerBook. Thenotebook that showedthe rest of the industryhow, albeit only afterthe debacle of the MacPortable.Apple Remote Access.The industry has yet tocatch on to this mis-sion-critical application.Apple Power Mac. Enough said.

And let me mention one more productthat isn’t really for Macs, although Applewould be quick to point out that some Macscan run it:Microsoft Windows. Validated the GUI and, atthe same time, forced Apple to wake up andsmell the competition.

People Behind the Products

Two Eddys, the John J. Anderson Distin-guished Achievement Award and the DerekVan Alstyne Rising Star Award, are espe-cially important to the MacUser editors, be-cause they honor two of our colleagues who

From the verybeginning, the EddyAwards have beengiven to products thatrepresent theinnovation andexcellence on whichthis industry wasfounded.

were killed during the 1989 Loma Prietaearthquake. I did not know John and Derekpersonally, but they are fondly remem-bered by the MacUser staff for their pas-sion for technology, their dedication toexcellence, and their generous spirits. Al-though he was only 33 at the time of hisdeath, John was already a legend in com-puter publishing — both for his wit andfor his acumen. Derek, who was 22, had

impressed MacUserstaffers with his desireto create somethingtruly significant thatwould stand the test oftime. The project theywere working on waspart multimedia ex-periment, part on-lineservice, and all vision-ary. Reality has justbegun to catch up withwhat they hoped to do.

The special awardsnamed for Derek andJohn honor the peoplebehind the products;without those vision-aries and innovators,

this would be a very dull business indeed.Over the years, I have been pleased to seeseveral of the “rising stars” who have wonthe Derek Van Alstyne Award go on to dogreat things. Perhaps the most prescient ofthese awards went in 1991 to Rand andRobyn Miller, the authors of some rela-tively obscure HyperCard stacks. Now ev-eryone knows them as the creators of thephenomenal, best-selling Myst CD-ROM— a brilliant and beautiful piece of pro-gramming as art and art as programmingthat John Anderson and Derek Van Alstynewould instantly have recognized and rec-ommended for the Eddy Award it receivedlast year.


ANDY IHNATKO

IAs The Word Turns

PROBLEM:

Which word processorshould you use?

SOLUTION:

It’s time to look beyondMicrosoft Word 6.0.

T’S TIME TO SAY GOODBYE TOa trusted companion. Pour yourselfa nice hot cup of tea, sit back, and

relax while I vent a little.This won’t come as a fantastic surprise to

many of you, but the naked truth is that col-umnists are a superstitious, cowardly lot,accustomed to lives of comfort and ease.When you meet them in person, they don’thave the physical bearing of people whomake their living through good, honest toil.Their hands don’t bear the calluses of thestonemason; their arms lack the sinews ofthe lumberjack; and if they didn’t have towalk out on the porch every morning tomeet the UPS man, their skin wouldn’t getany exposure to sunlight at all. Suffice it tosay, if you missed yesterday’s episode ofAnimaniacs, the first person you should callup and ask for a synopsis would be a colum-nist. What else would they have been doingon a weekday afternoon? Working?

That’s why I and others of my ilk lovedMicrosoft Word 5.1 so much; it relieved usof yet another distraction from our Segamachines. The question “Which word pro-cessor should I use?” is asked often enough,and in Word 5.1, I had a ready and enthusi-astic answer. No matter what you do for aliving and which Mac you own, the wordprocessor of choice was the same: “BuyWord 5.1, me laddie, and let naught stayyour hand,” was my standard response.

After all, I’ve used Word exclusively foreight years. Other word processors havecome and gone, and although there wasmuch I liked about many of them, I alwayscame right back to Word. The dang thingjust kept getting better with every new ver-sion — bigger, too, and requiring increas-ingly impressive hardware, sure. However,all the good reasons for using it continuedto be good reasons for using it.

Then along came the latest version.

The crushing fall began before I evencracked the shrink-wrap, when I read thecompatibility chart and saw that it wouldn’teven run on my PowerBook 100, Lilith. Ibought Lilith for asong, when the modelhad been discontin-ued and Apple wastesting whether or notAmerica was willingto pay next to nothingfor a Mac notebook.The answer was yes.In any case, althoughLilith is the perfectbeach, bed, and vaca-tion computer, it isalso just a plain old 68000 machine, so mydisillusion was brief. Installation on mydesktop machines proceeded anon. My of-fice (which has been accurately likened tothe bridge of the Millennium Falcon) con-tains a boatload of Macs; would I haveguessed in a million years that Word 6 wouldrun well on just one of them? Compared toWord 5.1 (about which I had no complaints),the new-and-improved Word ran just fine onthe Quadra 840. But it was sluggish on theQuadra 650; slow on the Power Mac 7100(because I didn’t have the native version);and unusable on the most important Mac ofall, the Performa 400, which is dedicated toword processing. The thing couldn’t evenkeep up with my typing . . . . Word 6 was al-ways about two seconds behind me.

To be fair, after doing some performancetweaking (turning off a bucketful of fea-tures), I got it running acceptably, and inmany areas (search-and-replace, for in-stance) it beats the competition handily.

But do I have the right to be angry that on

my Performa, my Main Ax, my lone writ-ing tool for years, Word needs eight min-utes to launch and is still far too torpid forme to use any but its most basic features?The Performa’s 16-MHz 68030 is old, sure,but is it really so broken down that it can’tformat text in three columns any more? Ordid I leave KPT Bryce running in the back-

ground and forgetabout it?

These performanceissues are all fine fod-der for debate, withthe delegation repre-senting the Stick aCrowbar in Your Wal-let and Upgrade Al-ready, You Deadbeatscrowd squaring offagainst the team fromGeez, I Didn’t Realize

I’d Need a Computer Like the One That RanJurassic Park Just to Write a Stupid One-Page Letter. If you’re satisfied, I’m happyfor you. That’s not my main beef.

My main beef is that Word 6’s user inter-face is disgusting. It’s a disgrace. I’ve heldon to this manuscript far longer than Ishould have, in order to be certain I’m notmissing something about Word; I alwaysquestion myself before I use such an abso-lute superlative. But still, I keep comingback to the same opinion: It’s a completeand utter disgrace. Word will always haveits roots in its more popular Windows in-carnation, of course, and 5.1 was a nice (ifnot completely successful) mating of WordFor Windows’ general structure to the Macinterface. But what happened between 5.1and 6.0? Has Microsoft forgotten that youcancel an ongoing process by pressingCommand-period and not the Escape key?Did they decide that the entire rest of theworld was wrong and that the best place toput a progress indicator was to hide it at


ANDY IHNATKO

the bottom of the screen? And that, actually,putting things in a fixed, immovable stripwas better than using a palette? Why isWord the only major Mac product thatdoesn’t use the Chicago font for its buttons,dialog boxes, and whatnot?

I could go on for hours here. I can’t re-member the last time I saw menus that rannearly the height of the screen and con-tained nothing but items leading to dialogboxes. What excuse can Microsoft possiblyoffer us? This is not Word for Macintosh.This is undeniably Word for Windows forMacintosh. Look, I kid around about Win-dows, but in the end, I think people shoulduse whatever operating system they’re themost comfortable with. Microsoft, however,seems to have forgotten that the fact that weown Macs means we prefer the Mac. Whatdo I think of Microsoft simply porting theWindows version directly, without evenmaking cosmetic changes to make it moreconsistent with the Mac’s user interface? It’sthe most supreme display of arrogance in asoftware publisher I have ever seen. WithWord 6, Microsoft appears to be making a

clear statement: We have a huge staff ofsome of the most talented people in the in-dustry. We have vast resources and vision.It’s not that we can’t create a true Mac ver-sion of Word; it’s just that we don’t want to.You’re not worth it. You will be assimilated.

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t see a vast con-spiracy in this. I’m not Oliver Stone, and thiscolumn isn’t JFK (“Notice that even thoughall other Mac programs draw a pull-downmenu down and to the right of the mousepointer, Word draws it back . . . and to theleft. Back . . . and to the left. Back . . . .”).Nonetheless, I’ve had it. I don’t need this,especially when so many great Mac wordprocessors are coming into their own.

Look at WordPerfect. It has its interfaceproblems (Palettes, people! Palettes! Notimmovable boxes!), but the program waswritten with the Mac interface in mind andis slick, professional, and responsive. NisusWriter, like a young adult, has shed the awk-wardness of its adolescence and has devel-oped into a studly power tool for writing.Although parts of its interface are cumber-some, it’s a Mac product through and

through. It was a close call, but I’ve settledinto Nisus as my new Main Ax for word pro-cessing. It runs nice and fast on all of myMacs right out of the box and is loaded withgoodities and niceties geared towardwordslingers. I wish Claris would get on itshorse and bring MacWrite Pro into the mid-’90s — Claris has a gift for creating clean,friendly interfaces — but for now I’m ashappy as a pig wallowing in that stuff pigsare fond of wallowing in.

As for Word, I’d like to continue to use 5.1(it’s still the best Mac word processor ever),but I need the modern features of System7.5. For the first time in eight years, Word isgone from my Mac, wiped off all of my harddisks except the one that stores my “refer-ence” software. A completed novel; a nearlycompleted Mac book; dozens of short sto-ries, articles, and columns-in-progress —nearly 400,000 words in all — have beenconverted from Word format and will staythat way.

So see you later, Word. It’s been niceknowing you. Write if you get a clue. Youbroke my heart in 6.0 places.


NEW ON THE MENU

REMOVABLE-STORAGE SYSTEMS are convenient, but currenttechnologies are limited both in how much data the media can holdand how quickly the mechanism can access that data. Now two newremovable-storage systems from Nomai and Panasonic are tacklingthese problems with the latest technologies. Nomai’s MCD (Mag-netic Cartridge Drive) delivers fast speeds and the highest capacityever in a 3.5-inch removable cartridge at a low price, andPanasonic’s PD mechanism offers a quad-speed CD-ROM readerand 650 MB of rewritable optical storage in the same device.Nomai MCD. Nomai (best known for deliv-ering 5.25-inch cartridges for SyQuestdrives), in cooperation with partner IBMand others, has come up with a new kindof storage device called the MCD. De-pending on the mechanism,an MCD stores either 540 or680 MB of data on a single 3.5-inch cartridge. To achieve such high capac-ity, the MCD employs technologies new to removable-media sys-tems: PRML (partial response maximum likelihood) data chan-nels, which provide more-reliable writes, and MR (magneto-resistive) heads (in the 680-MB mechanism only), which allow forgreater data density. A laser servo aligns the heads by tracking areflective strip embedded in the media, so more data tracks can bepacked on each disk. These high-capacity technologies, combinedwith data-transfer rates that rival those of a fast hard drive (as highas 8.5 MB per second), mean that you can store digital video andplay it back from removable media.

The 540- and 680-MB drives and media are not interchangeable,

software connect to the Net. Because theOneWorld Internet hardware acts as a networkconnection, users simply launch applicationssuch as Netscape Communications’ NetscapeNavigator (see related story, next page), andthe GlobalCenter software automatically con-nects them to the Internet.

The OneWorld Internet will be available invarious models, depending on e-mail require-ments and the connection speed (28.8 kbps orISDN). Pricing for the OneWorld Internet pack-age is expected to be less than $2,000, with con-nection costs of $6 to $10 per hour. 800-736-4821 or 408-523-1000. / SJS

INTERNET /

Global Village Connects Small Businesses to the NetCOMPLEX AND FRUSTRATING often describegetting your business connected to the globalcomputer network known as the Internet. NowGlobal Village’s OneWorld Internet makes theprocess a lot easier. The OneWorld Internet pro-vides everything a business needs to set up full

connectivity to theInternet, includinge-mail services andaccess to vast storesof information.

The OneWorld In-ternet product com-bines hardware that

supports 28.8-kbps or ISDN connections to Glo-bal Village’s GlobalCenter service and softwarethat provides e-mail gateways and IP services.

Critical to connecting to the Internet is theproduct’s software, called GlobalCenter, whichincludes gateway software for QuickMail andMicrosoft Mail that installs directly on the mail-server host. Users then add all Internet ad-dresses as special addresses to their addressbooks. GlobalCenter acts as a store-and-for-ward mail connection and also provides do-main name services, so a small business canhave a custom name such as surfshop.com.

The GlobalCenter software lets any Internet

STORAGE SYSTEMS /

The Future Is RemovableFast cartridge drive and dual-purpose device boast high data capacity.

but Nomai intends to offer higher-capacity backward-compatibledrives: A 750-MB drive that reads 540-MB cartridges and a 1.2-GBdrive that can use 680-MB cartridges will be available in 1996.

Nomai’s 540- and 680-MB drives are expected in the secondquarter of 1995, at a street price of less than $600 and with mediacosts under $70 per cartridge. Drives from IBM and European li-censees may appear in 1995. 407-391-1216.Panasonic PD. While Nomai has been making great strides with

magnetic media, Panasonic has beentaking on the challenge of bringingoptical-storage technology to themasses. The PD is a 5.25-inch half-height mechanism that reads andwrites 650-MB optical cartridges andreads CD-ROMs. Insert a CD-ROMinto the drive, and the PD operates asa quad-speed (600-kilobyte-per-sec-ond) CD-ROM drive that reads all com-

mon formats, including audio and Photo CD. Insert oneof Panasonic’s rewritable cartridges, and the drive, which employsMatsushita’s phase-change optical technology, reads and writesdata in a single pass. At 870 kilobytes per second, the data-transferrate for the cartridges is slightly higher than that for CD-ROMs.

Panasonic has not announced OEM partners, but a PD driveshould list for less than $1,000. Compared to a 5.25-inch magneto-optical drive, a PD drive will offer half the capacity (650 MB versus1.3 GB) but at half the cost. Considering that the PD doubles as aquad-speed CD-ROM reader, it’s quite a deal. 800-742-8086 or 201-348-7000. / Sean J. SafreedPH

OTO

GRA

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ED S

TIM

SON


NEW ON THE MENU

RULING THE UNIVERSE of Mac personal-finance software isn’t enough for Intuit, themaker of Quicken. Now it’s setting its sightson the small-business accounting marketwith its introduction of QuickBooks for

Macintosh ($119) — and just in time for taxseason.

QuickBooks 3.0 (so numbered to matchup with the long-standing Windows versionof QuickBooks) is Intuit’s attempt to makeaccounting software as easy to use asQuicken. QuickBooks avoids using wordssuch as debit and credit, instead replacingthem with more-familiar terms such asdeposit and withdrawal. Like Quicken,QuickBooks offers windows with checksand check registers similar to the ones youmight find in your pocketbook. Addition-ally, QuickBooks has invoice and purchase-

order forms, which also look like their pa-per counterparts. You can define your owninvoice styles, so invoices printed fromQuickBooks can be personalized.

Like Quicken, QuickBooks includesa list ofcommonaccou nt

categories, so you can begin entering andcategorizing your financial data immedi-ately, without having to spend time settingup a series of new account types.

The QuickZoom function makes gettingan in-depth look at reports easy — zoom inon any field in a report, and find out whatitems generated that figure. And becauseQuickBooks includes a step-by-step audittrail, you can retrace your steps and find outjust where you made a mistake. Once you’vemade a correction, the figures in all relatedcategories are immediately updated. 415-322-0573. / Jason Snell

INTERNET /

New Net Navigator Spins Support Webversions. Individuals can download NetscapeNavigator from the Net for free (it’s available atURL ftp://ftp.mcom.com/pub/netscape/mac/);businesses must buy thecommercial version ($99 forone user; site-license dis-counts available), which in-cludes printed documentation and 90 days’ freetech support. (Extensive Web-based documen-tation — featuring Mozilla, Netscape’s green

lizard mascot — comes with it.)Although Netscape Navigator’s creators

helped develop the popular NCSA Mosaic Webbrowser, this is a new application with newfunctionality. In addition to letting you surf theWWW and Gopher and ftp sites, Netscape can

read Usenet newsgroupsand access Internet WAISdatabase servers.

Setting Netscape Navi-gator apart are its speedy performance over14.4-kbps modem links, the ability to decodeGIF and JPEG-compressed images on the fly,and encryption functionality (an important fea-ture for commercial transactions on the Net) li-censed from RSA Data Security. It offers cross-platform compatibility with Windows and UNIXX Window systems.

Netscape Navigator also differs from otherWeb browsers in its support for extended stylesand formatting. Although a Netscape-savvyWeb page looks normal to users of Mosaic orMacWeb (both available free on the Internet),Netscape users can see centered text, flashingtext, and a wide variety of font sizes, giving youmore control over how your documents appearto readers on the other side of the Internet. 800-638-7483 or 415-254-1900. / JS

THE INTERNET’S BEEN HYPED a lot recently, butmost Internet software for the Mac is stillfreeware or shareware. That’s a boon for indi-vidual Internet users, but it can be a problem forbusinesses that need the on-demand tech sup-port commercial software publishers provide.

Bridging the gap is Netscape Communica-tions’ Netscape Navigator, a World Wide Web(WWW) browser and Usenet newsgroup readerthat’s available in both free and commercial

GAMES /

Top of the ChartsMUSIC-TRIVIA FANS, come on down, sign inplease, and give the wheel a spin: Radio Ac-tive, a new CD-ROM from Sanctuary Woods,tests knowledge of pop music from the ’60s,’70s, and ’80s in a high-energy game-showformat. Hosted by glib emcee Bobby Arpeg-gio, Radio Active is a challenging game foras many as four players. After spinning awheel that determines your question cat-egory corresponding to a five-year periodbetween 1960 and 1990, you select fromthree difficulty levels. Choose your answerfrom arrays of 16 multiple-choice options;fast responses are rewarded with bonustimer points. Two “special” categories —Videos and Song Puzzles — use music andaudio clips to challenge your knowledge ofpersonalities and songs. Fun, fun, fun. $25.415-286-6000. / Jim Shatz-Akin

ACCOUNTING SOFT WARE /

Put Your Books in OrderQuickBooks for Mac simplifies bookkeeping.

MACUSER/ZMAC UTILITY OF THE MONTH

Sounds Good to MeLISTEN UP: If grabbing parts of a song off a CD and turning them into system beeps

sounds good to you, then you’ll want this month’s ZMac Utility. ZMac’s SoundSmith makes iteasy to adjust the sampling rate of recorded sounds and trim the clip down to just the portionyou want — for instance, converting a captured voice and cutting out the introductory um. Thisdrag-and-drop utility can open and save files in almost any format, including Mac systemsounds, Windows WAV files, and QuickTime audio tracks. You can even use it to open tracks ona music CD and save portions of them to your hard disk (for personal use only, of course).

Created by Jeff Moore, ZMac’s SoundSmith is available exclusively from the ZiffNet/Mac ser-vice on CompuServe (GO ZMC:MACUSER), ZiffNet Selections on AppleLink, and ZiffNet/Macservices on eWorld (Shortcut: MacUser). / Mark Simmons


POWER MAC UPDATE

Power Macs Go for BrokeBut new models won’t break the bank.MORE BANG for thebuck is what Apple’s lat-est crop of Power Macsis all about. Apple isreplacing the 6100/60,7100/66, and 8100/80with new models thatprovide faster speedsand larger hard drives— at lower prices. Thenew 6100/66, 7100/80,and 8100/100 are identi-cal in terms of available ports and NuBusslots (one in the 6100, three in the 7100 and8100) to the machines they replace.

The 601 chip in the new entry-levelPower Mac, the 6100/66, runs at 66 MHz, asopposed to its predecessor, which ran at 60MHz. Like all the new Power Macs, the6100/66 includes a 256K cache SIMM thatspeeds up many tasks. Although the price ofa system with 8 MB of RAM and a 350-MBhard drive remains $1,819, the 6100/66 is abetter deal, thanks to the included cache (itwas a $299 option for the previous 6100 and7100 Power Macs) and a larger hard drive(the 6100/60 came with a 250-MB model).

Apple’s new midrange Power Mac, the7100/80, runs at 80 MHz. The base configu-ration includes 8 MB of RAM and a 500-MBhard drive and costs $2,899 — the sameprice as the 7100/66, although the new ma-chine includes the cache. The 7100/80 runsas fast as the previous high-end 8100/80,but it’s $1,350 cheaper.

Crowding the highend, Apple is offer-ing a better value inthe 8100/100. Basedon the same 601+chip as the high-end8100/110, the new8100/100 runs at 100MHz, just shy of theclock speed of thetop model (see Newon the Menu, Janu-

ary ’95, page 31). Unlike the 8100/110, how-ever, the 8100/100 comes in a variety of con-figurations, starting with a base model thatincludes 8 MB of RAM and a 700-MB harddrive and costs $3,699 — about $550 lessthan the previous base configuration,which had a 500-MB hard drive. Like the8100/110, the 8100/100 includes the newNuBus controller that allows for high-speedblock transfers and chassis expansion.

The net result? Apple’s low-end system isnow more attractive. On average, it’s 38 per-cent faster than the 6100/60, thanks to thecache. Similarly, the 8100/100 represents amuch better deal than the 8100/80, offering13 percent higher speed and a better NuBussystem at a lower price than its predecessor.If you’re looking for a high-performancemachine, the 8100/100 will do nicely; un-less you absolutely must have the fastestMac available, there’s little reason to spendthe extra $2,680 for the 8100/110. 800-776-2333 or 408-996-1010. / Sean J. Safreed

Maximize Memorywith 64-MB SIMMsTHE POWER MAC 8100 can hold only 256 MB ofRAM, right? Wrong. Thanks to new 64-MBSIMMs available from SimmSaver Technology,you can expand your Mac’s RAM to in-your-dreams levels — double the amount specifiedby Apple. For instance, you can pack the PowerMac 8100 with 512 MB of RAM. Special decod-ing circuitry used on these 72-pin compositeparts allows most Power Macs and Quadras (ex-cept the Quadra 660AV and 840AV) to double themaximum RAM allowed per SIMM slot.

You’ll pay handsomely for each 64-MB SIMM,however — $2,995 apiece. Double that amountfor Power Macs — they require SIMMs to beadded in pairs. For those who aren’t quite readyto take out a second mortgage, SimmSaver of-fers more-affordable 5-, 20-, and 48-MB SIMMs.

For owners of older 30-pin SIMMs, Simm-Saver has modules that combine multiple 30-pin parts into a single 72-pin SIMM. A low-pro-file version for the Power Mac 6100 and 7100 fitsinto either model and costs $59. Owners of cur-rent machines looking for flexible upgrade op-tions can get modules that combine multiple72-pin SIMMs into a single 72-pin part. And ifyou’d prefer to trade in your old SIMMs, you canuse SimmSaver’s trade-up program. 800-636-7281 or 316-264-2244. / Jeffy Milstead


SLOWER

TIME IN SECONDS

0 35 70

Power Mac 8100/100 Power Mac 8100/80 Power Mac 7100/80 Power Mac 7100/66 Power Mac 6100/66 Power Mac 6100/60

35.9�39.1�41.4�50.9�47.8�68.4

SLOWER

TIME IN SECONDS

0 30 60

38.7�43.6�43.3�47.2�47.1�57.8

SLOWER

TIME IN SECONDS

0 40 80

49.7�59.9�60.4�73.2�72.5�81.1

SLOWER

TIME IN SECONDS

0 10 20

8.7�10.0�

9.7�14.0�11.0�21.8

SLOWER

TIME IN SECONDS

0 30 60

37.0�40.8�40.6�49.7�50.2�57.5

NATIVE POWER MAC APPLICATIONS

THE FOLLOWING IS a list of recently shipped nativePower Mac applications.

MultimediaMediaFactory 1.0 Nuts Technology 408-441-2166

Publishing/GraphicsKPT Bryce 1.1 HSC Software 805-566-6200

3-D/CADElectric Image 2.1 Electric Image 818-577-1627

OtherLabVIEW 3.1 National

Instruments 512-794-0100

L ABSZD

Power Mac Time TrialsAdobe Photoshop 3.0Rotating a 6-MB colorimage was 90 percentfaster on the 8100/100than on the 6100/60.

Aldus PageMaker 5.0The 8100/100 changedpoint size in a longdocument 50 percentfaster than the 6100/60.

Macromedia FreeHand 4.0The 8100/100 redrew acomplex graphic 150percent faster than the6100/60.

Microsoft Excel 5.0A complex stock-analysismacro ran 55 percentfaster on the 8100/100than on the 6100/60.

Fractal Design’s Painter 2.0/X2The Apply Lighting filterran 63 percent faster onthe 8100/100 than on the6100/60.


NEW ON THE MENU

MONITORS /

Put Your Mac on DisplayColor screens debut in all sizes for all budgets.LOWER PRICES, more controls, higher per-formance, fewer parts — that pretty muchsums up this latest round of monitors.Nanao FlexScan series. Nanao has an-nounced an entire new family of monitorswith an advanced, all-digital, on-screencontrol system. From the $564 15-inchF2•15 to the $2,957 21-inch FX2•21, all themembers of Nanao’s family of nine moni-tors feature ScreenManager, which lets youcontrol contrast and brightness; Screen-

Manager Pro,a stand-aloneutility that letsyou adjust var-ious functionsfrom your Mac,is optional. The21-inch mod-

els, the FX2•21and the F2•21, also

feature digitally corrected convergencethat’s calibrated at the factory. All thesedisplays sport a new, all-digital chassis

designed with fewer parts to cost less.Nanao’s optional FlexColor Color Calibratorprovides excellent color matching. Nanao’suniversal Mac adapter is now free of charge.310-325-5202.NEC XV15. NEC’s new Value series debutswith the XV15, the company’s lowest-cost15-inch display. It features analog controls,a tube with a .28-millimeter dot pitch, andsupport for Mac resolutions as high as 1,024x 768 pixels. The $460 price tag includes aMac adapter and DPI-on-the-Fly software.The 14-inch XV14 ($330) and the 17-inchXV17 ($860) complete the line. Both featuredigital controls, and the XV17 also includesan on-screen manager. NEC Technologies.800-632-4636 or 708-860-9500.Samsung SyncMaster 20GLs. Samsung nowhas a 20-inch offering for the Mac at theunheard-of low price of $1,599 list. TheSyncMaster 20GLs features a .28-milli-meter dot pitch; an antireflective, antistaticscreen coating; an Invar shadow-mask tubewith dynamic focus; and digital on-screen

DIVERSIONS /

Gross, Yucky, Cool!PRETTY FISH, cuddly kittens, and staid TV ormovie stars are grist for screen savers. NowBerkeley Systems shows its dark side withthe Totally Twisted Screen Saver. This collec-tion of 14 oddball modules includes Free Fall(a lady and a Scotsman plummet down yourscreen, skirts flapping), Mowin’ Boris (alawnmower and a cat are locked in mortalcombat), Mime Hunt (annoying streetmimes face a deserved fate), and Flying Toi-lets. Most frightening is Coming Soon, amodule displaying fictitious Berkeley Sys-tems products even sicker than this one.$30. 510-540-5535. / Jason Snell

controls — all the features you’d expect on amuch more costly “big” monitor. SamsungElectronics America. 201-229-4000.Mitsubishi DiamondPro series. Mitsubishihas been hard at work refining its Dia-mondTron offerings. There’s an improved21-inch model, the $2,275 DiamondPro21TX, which now supports resolutions ashigh as 1,600 x 1,200 pixels at a 75-Hz re-fresh rate. Also, Mitsubishi is shipping a 17-inch DiamondTron tube in the $1,199DiamondPro 17TX, which features a 0.25-millimeter dot pitch tube and support forresolutions as high as 1,280 x 1,024 pixels ata 75-Hz refresh rate. Both aperture-grilletubes feature a new chassis that’s smallerand uses fewer parts, for higher reliability.DiamondControl adjustment softwareis available for both models. MitsubishiElectronics America. 800-843-2515 or 714-220-2500.Sony Multiscan 17sf. Sony is shipping its 17-inch Multiscan 17sf display, with all-digitalcontrols and a SuperFine Pitch Trinitrontube with a .25-millimeter dot pitch. Itoffers resolutions as high as 1,024 x 768pixels. The 17sf lists for $999, and a Mac-View adapter is $19. Sony Component andComputer Products Group. 800-352-7669or 201-368-9272. / Jeffrey S. Pittelkau

THAT STYLISH SWOOP doesn’t belong to an ath-letic-shoe maker but to the laser printers in thenew Optra series, from Lexmark, the former IBMsubsidiary’s first line of self-labeled printers.The Optra printers target corporate environ-ments with their fast engines, some rated at 12ppm and others at 16 ppm; resolutions as highas 1,200 dpi; and a host of network and paper-handling options.

The Optra R ($1,739) and the Optra L ($2,299)are rated at 12 ppm; and the Optra Rx ($2,399),Optra Lx ($2,999), and Optra Lxi ($3,699) are allrated at 16 ppm. In addition tothe standard 300 dpi and 600dpi, all offer 1,200 dpi, but atthat resolution, the enginespeed drops to 8 ppm. Allfive of the PostScript Level 2printers have a 25-MHz RISCprocessor.

The primary differencesamong the five units are theamount of RAM (the L shipswith 2 MB, the Lxi with 8 MB,

and the rest of the units ship with 4 MB, but allare expandable to 64 MB), the amount of paperthey handle (200 sheets standard for the R andthe Rx, 500 sheets standard for the L and the Lx,and 1,000 sheets standard for the Lxi), the inter-faces they include (all ship with a parallel port,and the R, Rx, and L ship with a serial port too),and the network protocols they support (Ether-net is standard on the Lxi and optional for therest). Token ring and LocalTalk connections areoptions for all five Optra-series printers, as areduplex printing and flash memory.

With Lexmark’s Mark-Vision software, network ad-ministrators can check theprinter configuration, moni-tor printer traffic, and trackusage. An external printerserver, the MarkNet XLe, pro-vides support for more than18 network protocols. Pricesrange from $519 to $699.800-891-0331 or 606-232-2000. / Pamela Pfiffner

LASER PRINTERS /

Lexmark Manages Network Printing


COLOR PRINTERS /

NEC EntersLow-Cost-Color FrayDual-technology unitcosts less than $1,000.SEEKING ITS PLACE in the low-cost-color-printer market, NEC Technologies has in-troduced a compact dual-technology print-er that targets the niche between low-costinkjet printers and more-expensive ther-mal-wax printers.

The SuperScript Color3000M producesboth thermal-wax and dye-sublimationoutput at 300 dpi. When using the thermal-wax mode, users can opt to print with avariable-dot dither pattern, which booststhe number of printable colors to 274,000(65 gray levels), from 17,500 (26 gray lev-els). The NEC-developed engine is rated at10 minutes per page for variable-dot anddye-sublimation printing and 1 page per

CD-ROMS /

The World on a DiscIF YOU’VE EVER WISHED that you could travelmore, read more, or watch more on PBS, checkout the following CD-ROMs.The Way Things Work. Ever wondered howdampers in a grand piano work? Now you cantake a peek behind the ivories — and delve intoother inventions — with this CD-ROM based onDavid Macauley’s best-selling book. Charming-ly animated, this CD-ROM invites hours ofexploration — withthe help of a woollymammoth. $99.95.Dorling KindersleyMult imedia. 800 -225-3362 or 617-272-1500.A Brief History of Time. If the thought of phys-ics alternately frightens and fascinates you, whynot take a lesson from the distinguished astro-physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking? This disc con-tains the full text of his book of the same namebut takes it one step further with animations,video, and narration. You can watch Hawkinghimself plummet into a black hole. $60. Scien-tific American. 800-777-0444 or 515-246-6671.Material World: A Global Family Portrait.What do your possessions say about you andyour cultural background? Narrated by CharlesKuralt, this CD-ROM gives you a glimpse intodiverse cultures of the world simply by examin-ing what the average family holds dear. Travelto such far-flung locales as Thailand, Israel, andBosnia, and discover the people behind thestatistics. $60. StarPress Multimedia. 800-782-7944 or 415-274-8383. / Kristen Balleisen

HOME SOFTWARE /

Adobe Wants to Put Designs on Youwall coverings, and car-pets, so you can see whatthat carpet will look likein your living room beforeyou buy it. $49 each; $79 forall three on a CD-ROM.Adobe QuickPublish. Anoffshoot of Adobe Home-Publisher, the three Quick-

Publish packages ($29 each) are designed to letusers create and print attractive materialswithout needing much design expertise. TheQuickPublish Letterhead & Forms packageincludes letterhead templates, forms, andsamples for such items as invoices and pressreleases. It also has a collection of clip art. TheQuickPublish Brochures & Flyers package in-cludes templates, sample text, and clip art forbrochures, mailers, signs, and flyers. Quick-Publish Cards & Invitations includes templatesfor creating greeting cards and invitations ofall kinds. The package also includes blankcard stock and envelopes, so you can printand mail your card creations. 415-961-4400./ Jason Snell

HOME IMPROVEMENT maybe Tim Allen’s territory, buta group of new productsfrom Adobe’s ConsumerProducts Group (formerlythe Aldus Consumer Divi-sion) attempts to give therest of us more power in de-signing everything from abackyard to a letterhead for a home office.Adobe Designer. With a simple interface basedon a bookshelf metaphor and drawing onIntelliDraw technology, Adobe’s new Designerproducts let users sketch home improvementswithout touching a pencil. Home Designertakes an overhead perspective, allowing you tochoose walls, windows, doors, and furniture —all drawn to scale — to create a floor plan. Land-scape Designer provides you with a palettefilled with vegetation, patio furniture, fences,and other outdoor items. A season-control but-ton shows how a summer outdoor setting willappear in the fall. Interior Designer offers athree-dimensional view of a room and comeswith a collection of furniture designs, fabrics,

POWERBOOK BATTERIES /

Technöggin RecallPOWERBOOK USERS who use batteries inTechnöggin’s PowerPlate series should bewary of leaking acid. In November, Tech-nöggin ceased selling the batteries and ad-vised its customers to stop using the Power-Plates. Owners who have not sent in theirregistration cards are encouraged to mail orfax them to Technöggin. 513-321-1777;513-321-2348 (fax).

Although some of VST Power Systems’ThinPack batteries are from the same sourceas the PowerPlates’, VST says it hasn’t hadany significant problems. VST is offering arebate for Technöggin customers towardthe purchase of a battery in the VST Thin-Pack series. 508-287-4600; 508-287-4068(fax). / JS

minute for standard thermal-wax printing.Paper is fed through the top into a slot thatholds as many as 50 thermal-wax and 20dye-sub sheets at a time. Per-page costs are61 cents for standard thermal-wax, 81 centsfor variable-dot, and $3 for dye-sublima-tion output.

The SuperScript is a QuickDraw printerthat connects through the serial port (anadapter cable ships with the printer). Withan estimated street price of $999, theSuperScript costs several hundred morethan color inkjet printers but about half theprice of the Fargo Primera Pro, another low-cost QuickDraw dual-technology printer.Unlike the Fargo Primera Pro, however, theNEC printer does not currently have a Post-Script option. 800-632-4636 or 508-264-8000. / Pamela Pfiffner


MACINTOSH PRICE INDEX

THE UNITED COMPUTER EXCHANGE indexreflects average sales prices of new andused Macs as of December 5, 1994. Prices(except those for compact models andPerformas) do not include a monitor or akeyboard. The United Computer Exchangeis a national clearinghouse of used micro-computer equipment.

Mac Model New Used

SE/30 (5/40) • $550

Classic II (4/40) • $475

Color Classic (4/80) • $700

LC II (4/40) • $375

LC III (4/80) • $475

Performa 475 (4/160) $1,299 $950

Performa 550 CD (5/160) $1,599 $1,375

Performa 575 CD (5/250) $1,849 $1,550

IIsi (5/40) • $400

IIci (5/80) • $600

IIfx (8/160) • $875

IIvx (4/80) • $825

Quadra 605 (4/80) • $625

Quadra 610 (8/160) • $975

Quadra 650 (8/230) • $1,625

Quadra 660AV CD (8/230) • $1,400

Quadra 700 (8/230) • $1,350

Quadra 800 (8/230) • $2,100

Quadra 840AV CD (8/230) • $2,300

Quadra 900 (8/230) • $1,700

Quadra 950 (8/230) $3,599 $2,350

Power Mac 6100 (8/250) $1,749 $1,450

Power Mac 7100 (8/250) $3,349* $2,100

Power Mac 8100CD (8/250) $4,699* $3,350

PowerBook 145 (4/40) • $825

PowerBook 145B (4/80) • $800

PowerBook 150 (4/120) $1,449 $1,300

PowerBook 160 (4/80) • $1,275

PowerBook 165 (4/80) • $1,350

PowerBook 165c (4/80) • $1,425

PowerBook 170 (4/40) • $1,300

PowerBook 180 (4/80) • $1,700

PowerBook 180c (4/80) • $1,950

PowerBook 520 (4/160) $2,099 $1,800

PowerBook 520c (4/160) $2,699 $2,275

PowerBook 540 (4/240) • $2,625

PowerBook 540c (4/320) $4,499 $4,000

Duo 210 (4/80) • $750

Duo 230 (4/120) • $900

Duo 250 (4/200) • $1,475

Duo 270c (4/240) • $1,875

Duo 280 (12/240) $3,099 $2,550

Duo 280c (4/320) $3,599 $2,775• = Discontinued model. *For 16/500 configuration.

For more pricing information on these and othermodels, call 800-755-3033 or 404-955-0569, or find iton ZiffNet/Mac, in Library 1 (Special Reports) of theMacUser Forum (GO ZMC:MACUSER). On AppleLink,look for it in ZiffNet Selections:MacUser Software: Refer-ence. On eWorld, go to shortcut MACUSER, in MacUserSoftware Library:MacUser Special Files.

NEW ON THE MENU

NEW & NOTABLEHARDWARE /Microtech Genesis 230. The latest addition toMicrotech’s Genesis drive line, the Genesis 230is a 3.5-inch magneto-optical drive with a 230-MB storage capacity. It’s available in external($1,167) and internal ($1,125) configurations.203-468-6223.▼ ASF Associates NCL 480. For PowerBook us-

ers who have a hard time using abacklit screen, this portable light at-taches to the PowerBook screen andruns on NiCd rechargeable batteries.$40. 800-771-3600 or 516-868-3638.

QMS 3825 Print System. Ratedat speeds as high as38 ppm, this 600-dpiprinter can print on pa-per sizes as large as 11 x17 inches. The 3825 PrintSystem offers emulatedPostScript Level 2 and

PCL 5; duplex printing; and simultaneous paral-lel, serial, and LocalTalk connections, with op-tional Ethernet ($799) and token-ring ($899)connections. $21,999. 800-523-2696 or 205-633-4300.Sharp XG-E650U. This 24-bit-color active-matrix LCD projector is intended for multi-media presentations. It can project images thatmeasure 30 to 150 inches diagonally at a resolu-tion of 640 x 480 pixels and is compatible withMac-, PC-, S-Video-, and composite-video sig-nals. The unit weighs just 19.5 pounds. $7,995.201-529-8731.MicroNet Master CD. This CD-ROM recorderdoesn’t require a dedicated hard drive and of-fers a drag-and-drop interface for CD master-ing. It features a 1.2-MB cache and records inMacintosh, ISO 9660, CD-ROM XA, Mac/ISOHybrid, audio-CD, and other formats. $2,495.714-453-6100.Optical Access International CD/Maxtet 4x. A quad-speed CD-ROMserver, the CD/Maxtet 4x allowsaccess to seven quad-speed CD-ROM mechanisms simultaneously,via one SCSI connection. Cachingtechniques let multiple users simul-taneously access any of the CD-ROMs, making this product an op-tion for workgroups that need to have access tothe same discs. $7,395. 617-937-3910.

SOFTWARE /PowerMerge 2.5. New features in this up-graded file-synchronization utility include au-tomated timed file transfers, automatic backupof files when a volume is mounted, and supportfor the synchronization of multiple Macs across

a network. $149; upgrade, $35. Leader Tech-nologies. 714-757-1787.Read-It! OCR 5.0. Boasting a new optical-char-acter-recognition engine, the latest version ofthis OCR package offers improved accuracy,optimization for faxes and other low-resolutionoutput, the retention of a document’s font sizesand character styles, a table-reading feature,and even a “speak text” function that usesApple’s text-to-speech engine. $395; upgrade,$59. Olduvai. 305-670-1112.Understanding Breast Cancer. This CD-ROMincludes animations of proper breast self-examtechniques, with optional voice narration;video showing breast-cancer diagnostic proce-dures; and text-search features. $80. ISM. 410-560-0973.AlphaBonk Farm. This package for childrenages 4 and up includes a CD-ROM, a book ofpoetry, and a poster. The disc includes poems,stories, and games set on a farm and hosted bya frog, a parrot, a pig, and Farmer Bonk himself.Subjects covered include agriculture, biology,foreign languages, history, and zoology. $35.Headbone Interactive. 800-267-4709 or 206-323-0073.Instant Replay. This utility lets users capturescreen activity — either full screens or smallerareas that move with the cursor — inQuickTime movies. $99. Strata. 801-628-5218.Imagination Express. Developing children’sstorytelling and writing skills is the goal of thisCD-ROM. Included is a group of backgrounds,character “stickers,” and other clip media thatlet children create scenes and stories on-screen.$40. Edmark. 800-426-0856 or 206-556-8400.▼ Complete World Bartender Guide. For theparty host who can’t tell the difference betweena Rumrunner and a Rob Roy, this CD-ROM ver-sion of the popular bartending book containsover 2,500 drink recipes, including ones fornonalcoholic and low-calorie beverages. Alarge wine section is also included, and a Find

function allows hoststo match the con-tents of their barswith potential drinkrecipes. $30. InSoft.800-709-7773 or 404-892-1268.Tabula Rasa. Busi-nesses that need to

design and use data-collection forms are thetarget of this package, which lets users createcustom forms (including forms that change de-pending on the answers given) on a Mac andthen download them to a Newton MessagePadfor data collection. Information can be sentback to the Mac for processing. Starter package,$275; additional licenses vary in price. Brand XSoftware. 800-356-8040 or 804-355-0374.


Reviews Rating Key

mmmmm Outstanding

mmmm Very Good

mmm Acceptable

mm Poor

m Seriously Flawed

b Dangerous

REVIEWS & Quick Clicks(such as crashes, sluggishness, and lostfiles). MacTools then uses your choices todirect its disk-checking and -fixing opera-tions. The Custom QuickAssist dialog box,which has a more detailed list of problems,is also available, but most expert users willprobably find even Custom QuickAssist tooelementary to be useful.

The best enhancement in this version ofMacTools Pro is the speed of DiskFix, whichperforms disk checks and repairs. DiskFix’sdisk scans are much faster than in previousversions and finally rival the speed ofNorton Utilities’ scans.

A new feature is RAMboot, which savestime by letting you repair your startup diskfrom a RAM disk rather than from a floppydisk. However, you still need to keep anemergency disk on hand, in case your Macwon’t start at all.

A welcome enhancement to MacTools’handy TrashBack feature, which lets youquickly and easily recover any files you’veinadvertently deleted in the Trash, is aviewer for deleted files. MacTools’ securityfeatures have been beefed up as well — anew DOD Wipe option permanently erasesfiles according to U.S. Department of De-fense specifications.

MacTools Pro is clearly based on the be-lief that an ounce of prevention is worth apound of cure. The program’s AutoCheckfeature runs in the background and checksdisk structure while your system is idle, al-lowing MacTools Pro to identify problemsbefore they become serious. You can chooseto have AutoCheck run at specified intervalsor continuously. It fixes minor problemsautomatically, without requiring you to runDiskFix, and creates weekly or monthly re-ports on any problems it finds. Network ad-ministrators can use AutoCheck to compilereports on any networked Mac. One caveat:AutoCheck requires 500K of memory, and itcan slow down your system.

MacTools Pro is the most comprehensivedisk-utility package you can buy. LikeNorton Utilities, it provides disk-repair,disk-optimization, and file-recovery facili-ties in addition to backup and disk-copy

DISK DISASTERS ARE THE BANE of ev-ery computer user’s existence, so it’s nicehaving two data-recovery packages at handto deal with emergencies. MacTools Pro andNorton Utilities for Macintosh have com-peted head-to-head for years, so it’s no sur-prise to find their feature sets growing in-creasingly similar with each new release.The recent acquisition of MacTools bySymantec, maker of Norton Utilities, posesquestions about the future direction of bothdata-recovery products. For now, however,we took a close look at the latest releases of

MacTools Pro and Norton Utilities — bothof which run native on Power Macs — to seeif there were any significant differences be-tween them. What we found is two very ca-pable disk-utility packages that differ onlyslightly in their ability to repair disks andrecover data but that offer distinctly differ-ent interfaces.

MacTools Pro

Of the two packages, MacTools Pro offersthe greater degree of hand-holding when itcomes to identifying and fixing disk prob-lems, which makes it an excellent choice forless experienced users. MacTools Pro 4.0combines disk-repair and optimizationtools, antivirus functions, diagnostic facili-ties, and file-recovery tools into one mainwindow, called the MacTools Clinic.

By default, the first thing you see whenyou launch MacTools Clinic is the Quick-Assist dialog box, which is where you indi-cate the symptoms you’re experiencing

MacTools Pro and Norton Utilities forMacintosh / Powerhouse toolkits offernear-foolproof disk repair.

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REVIEWS UTILITIES

utilities. However, unlike Norton Utilities, italso provides networkable diagnostic re-porting and antivirus capabilities.

Norton Utilities for Macintosh

Norton Utilities is easy enough for novicesto use, but if you consider yourself a diskjockey — a hard-disk jockey, that is — thenyou’ll feel especially at home with NortonUtilities. Like MacTools Pro, it fixes and op-timizes disks, recovers files, and provides abackup utility (FastBack, formerly a FifthGeneration product), but unlike MacToolsPro, it offers less in the way of automateddisk repair and assistance for basic tasks.On the other hand, it provides more controlover advanced disk-repair functions thanMacTools Pro does, making it the bestchoice for knowledgeable users.

For example, a newly added componentin the latest release is Norton Disk Editor,which lets you examine and edit data any-where on a disk. Experienced users can useDisk Editor to manually repair and recoverlow-level file-system data. You can accessthe bits and bytes of a file and view file con-tents in either hexadecimal or ASCII for-mat. A search facility lets you search disksfor phrases or sentences, and you can viewthe contents of documents without openingthem. Disk Editor is an invaluable tool forsophisticated users but an extremely dan-gerous tool in the hands of novices. If youdon’t know what you’re doing, steer clear ofDisk Editor — you can potentially damagefiles and disks beyond repair.

FileSaver, Norton Utilities’ facility fortracking deleted files, has been enhanced inthe latest release to perform backgrounddisk scans at startup, shutdown, or idletime. It lets you know if it detects a problem,

but unlike the AutoCheck feature inMacTools Pro, it does not automati-cally repair the problem — you mustdo so manually, using Norton DiskDoctor. However, FileSaver requiresonly 80K of memory. It also lets youknow when you need to optimizeyour disk or perform a backup.

Also new in version 3.0 is SystemInfo, a benchmarking utility thattests the speed of your CPU, floating-point unit, video monitor, and anywritable-disk systems. The utilitysubsequently compiles a report and com-pares its findings with reference bench-marks for the Mac model you’re testing.

Torture Tests

To test the effectiveness of MacTools Proand Norton Utilities at fixing disks and re-covering data, we used a 1-GB hard drivecontaining about 20,000 files. We firstscanned the disk with each program to en-sure that it was uncorrupted and then cre-ated an exact replica of it for test purposes.Using a sector editor, we placed a series oferrors, typical of those most frequently en-countered by users, on the test disk. Thenwe turned the disk over to each program forrecovery.

We found that the programs were equallysuccessful at disk repair. Each was able torecover lost file-directory entries, rebuildthe master-directory block (a critical por-tion of the disk that includes pointers to allimportant disk structures), detect and cor-rect problems in directory tables, and lo-cate and repair inconsistent index nodes.Moreover, each program successfully de-tected cross-linked files (two files that ap-pear to be on the same part of the disk) anddetected and corrected minor problemswith Finder attributes and file dates.

The second set of stress tests we devisedwas designed to simulate a variety of major,although rarely encountered, disk-corrup-tion problems. Neither package was able tohandle extremely large disk directories thatincluded map nodes, although NortonUtilities made a slightly better attempt.When the entire master-directory blockwas offset by a single byte, MacTools gaveup and Norton Utilities crashed — neitherwas savvy enough to find an uncorruptedcopy of the critical data (stored elsewhereon the disk) and use it to recover the disk.

When we erased an entire disk directorybut left the file data intact, Norton Utilitiesdid a much better job of recovering datafrom the volume. However, don’t try this athome, folks, unless you’re an expert — theprocess required a substantial amount ofmanual assistance from us.

The Bottom Line

If disk problems strike terror into yourheart, you’ll probably be better off withMacTools Pro, which offers automated re-pair; user assistance; and convenient tools,such as AutoCheck and RAMboot. On theother hand, for disk-savvy users, NortonUtilities provides more bells and whistlesand gives expert users more control overthe disk-repair and file-recovery process./ Susan Janus and John Mitchell

MacTools Pro 4.0

Rating: mmmmPrice: $149.95 (list).

Pros: Background disk checks and automaticrepairs. Improved disk-scan speed. Diagnosticreports for network administrators.

Cons: AutoCheck requires 500K. Volume-recovery facilities not as sophisticated asNorton Utilities’.

Company: Symantec, Central PointDivision, Beaverton, OR; 800-964-6896or 503-690-8088.

Reader S ervice: Circle #401.

Norton Utilities for Macintosh 3.1.1

Rating: mmmmPrice: $149 (list).

Pros: More-powerful volume-recoveryfacilities. Excellent control over disk-repairfunctions. FileSaver requires only 80K.

Cons: No automated disk-repair functions.

Company: Symantec, Cupertino, CA;800-441-7234 or 503-334-6054.


Expert users can take advantage of Norton Utilities forMacintosh’s Disk Editor. When all else fails, the Disk Editorhelps you repair heavily damaged files and view files inhexadecimal format.

New reporting features in MacTools Pro 4.0include a tally of the problems AutoCheck hasuncovered and a graph of the system crashes you’veexperienced over a specified time period.


REVIEWS FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

MacInTax and TaxCut / Tax-preparationsoftware takes you over the hurdles offilling out forms.

FOR MOST OF US, figuring out which taxforms we need and how to fill them out cor-rectly is a daunting task. It’s a lot easier,though, if you have one of the two tax-preparation programs for the Mac: Intuit’sMacInTax or Block Financial Software’sTaxCut, each of which has recently been up-dated and improved.

MacInTax

The latest version of MacInTax has a simpleinterface that makes tax-preparation dis-armingly easy. As with previous versions ofthe program, you can type information di-rectly into the tax forms or have MacInTaxlead you through the process, using itsEasyStep method. EasyStep is primarily aninterview — you answer questions aboutyour employment, filing status, and finan-cial data in a series of dialog boxes, and

MacInTax puts this information into theappropriate forms.

This year, the main window for theEasyStep interview has a row of notebook-binder-like tabs that let you move forwardor backward to any one of the seven maintax-preparation steps. In the interview sec-tion (where MacInTax does all of its factgathering for your return), you can reviewany of the questions. For instance, if youwant to look at how you answered the ques-tions about your 1994 investment income,you can click on the Topics button and se-lect the Investments topic.

You can also jump back and forth freelybetween the interview and the forms, whichis useful if you’re already fairly tax-savvyand find going through the interview tooslow. When you come across a confusingline on a form, you can pop back into the

MacInTax’s interviewguides you through yourtax forms via a friendlyinterface. If you have ahard time reading smalltype, you can magnifythe forms.

Finding the informationyou need in order tocomplete your tax returnis never a problem withTaxCut, which not only hasa robust help function butalso gives you free accessto H&R Block.

interview and let MacInTax gently promptyou for the necessary information.

Intuit has actually taken out features thatwere in the 1993 version. You can no longergenerate graphs that show your tax and in-come data. Neither can you annotate indi-vidual lines in the forms with notes or au-dio memos.

Instead, Intuit has put its energy intoadding features and enhancements thatmore users will find practical. For example,you can now magnify a form in order toread all the fine print for which the IRS isfamous. Fifteen new forms and worksheetshelp you figure out specialized tax issues,such as interest income and medical deduc-tions. Furthermore, Intuit has added stateversions for Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska,New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina,Utah, and Wisconsin — bringing the num-ber of states MacInTax supports to 28.

For those who want help deciphering theforms and worksheets, MacInTax providesthe full IRS instructions together with itsown instructions for each form. Most of thehelp is quite good, but beware of gratuitousplugs for Intuit products.

When you’ve finished your tax return,MacInTax scans it for problems. Unlike pre-vious versions, which just gave you a list ofany missing information, this year’s Mac-InTax lets you jump directly to the line youneed to fill in.

TaxCut

Like MacInTax, TaxCut lets you enter datadirectly into forms or takes you through aninterview and it allows you to jump be-tween the interview and the forms. It alsouses notebook-binder-like tabs, each ofwhich takes you to one of the program’s tax-preparation steps. Once you’ve completedyour tax return, TaxCut, like MacInTax,gives you quick access to a one-screen sum-mary of your tax liability and an overviewof your return. It can also give you a moredetailed summary that lists all the entriesyou’ve made, or it can show you a pie-chartsummary of your tax return.

Now that MECA Software has been ac-quired by H&R Block, the most noteworthyenhancement to TaxCut isn’t the softwarebut the support. When you buy TaxCut, youcan get free advice on tax-related questionsfrom any local H&R Block office. You don’teven have to look in your phone book for


the numbers, since TaxCut has a database inwhich you can find your local office by typ-ing in your area code, state, and ZIP code.Furthermore, if you use TaxCut to file yourfinal return and you subsequently get au-dited, H&R Block will help you prepare forthe audit at no charge.

TaxCut’s on-line help is strong as well. Anentry-info icon, a tiny round button markedwith an i, always appears next to the cur-rently active field. When you click on thebutton, a dialog box pops up. From this box,you can choose to look at the IRS’ orTaxCut’s instructions for the form.

You don’t have to sort your documentsbefore you start preparing your return withTaxCut. In its Shoebox window, you selectwho sent you a form (for instance, youremployer or a broker) and what it’s about(for instance, your wages or dividends),and TaxCut automatically takes you to theappropriate form for the information.

Overall, TaxCut’s interface is functional,but it’s not as elegantly designed as Mac-InTax’s. For instance, the Q&A interviewhas tiny windows that require far too muchscrolling in order to read everything. Addi-tionally, when you reduce the size of certainwindows in the program, such as in theSummary Reviews window, lines of textcrash into each other.

Unfortunately, TaxCut’s assistance forstate forms is limited — it still has stateeditions only for California and New York.

MacInTax 1994 Edition

Rating: mmmmPrice: $39.95 (list).

Pros: Polished interface. Can magnify forms.Twenty-eight state editions.

Cons: Gratuitous plugs for Intuit products.

Company: Intuit, San Diego, CA;619-453-4446.


TaxCut 1994 Edition

Rating: mmmhPrice: $39.95 (list).

Pros: Free consultations with H&R Block. Nosorting of documents required beforestarting tax return. Extensive help.

Cons: Tiny text windows in interview. Onlytwo state editions.

Company: Block Financial Software, Fairfield,CT; 203-255-1441.


Unless you live in those states — or a statethat doesn’t make its residents pay incometax — you’ll be back to using a pen and acalculator to figure out how much you owe.

The Bottom Line

Of the two tax programs available for theMac, MacInTax is the more polished, andit comes with editions for most state tax

returns. TaxCut, on the other hand, hasstate editions only for California and NewYork, but it has a slight edge when it comesto support. However, either program can doa fine job with your return. Each is an easieralternative to filling out stacks of formsmanually, and the price of the software is farless than the cost of hiring an accountant./ Joseph Schorr


REVIEWS PERFORMANCE ENHANCERS

Radius PhotoEngine / NuBus card givesAdobe Photoshop a welcome boost inspeed.

SPEED IS AT THE TOP of every seriousAdobe Photoshop user’s wish list, and thenew Radius PhotoEngine goes a long waytoward making that wish come true. ThePhotoEngine is a DSP (digital signal pro-cessor) card that accelerates a variety ofPhotoshop operations and is a must-have ifyou’re processing bigfiles or many smallones. The Photo-Engine provides thebiggest boost inspeed to Quadraowners, but PowerMac owners lookingto squeeze everyounce of speed fromPhotoshop will alsowant to consider get-ting it.

doesn’t work with any Photoshop compan-ion products, such as Fractal Design’sPainter, or third-party filters, such as HSCSoftware’s KPT plug-ins.

Installation is a snap. Once installed, thePhotoEngine card is active whenever yourun Photoshop. A green indicator dot in themenu bar tells you when the card is actuallyprocessing data.

The Photoshop filters that the Photo-Engine accelerates are Blur, Blur More,Gaussian Blur, Motion Blur, Sharpen Edges,Sharpen More, Unsharp Mask, Despeckle,

The Engine That CouldThe Radius PhotoEngine accelerator card significantly speeds a variety of Adobe Photoshop operations,especially for Quadra owners.

Start Your Engines

The Radius PhotoEngine is a 7-inch NuBuscard equipped with four AT&T 32-bit 66-MHz DSP chips. The software that comeswith the card includes a driver and aPhotoshop plug-in. The PhotoEngine sup-ports both Photoshop 2.5.1 and 3.0, but it

RGB-to-CMYKcolor conversion

SLOWER

TIME IN MINUTES

0 1 2

Quadra 950 with PhotoEngine

Quadra 950

0:55�

1:32

SLOWER

TIME IN MINUTES

0 5 10

2:28�

10:25

SLOWER

TIME IN MINUTES

0 3 6

3:05�

6:20

Apply Unsharp Maskfilter to 40-MB image

Resize 900K imageto 40 MB


Emboss, Find Edges, Custom, and HighPass. We found one slight inconsistencywhen we used the Emboss filter — withsome settings, it did not take advantage ofthe PhotoEngine’s acceleration.

Color Conversions

Other operations that take advantage of thePhotoEngine include color-mode conver-sion (RGB, LAB, and CMYK), feathered-selection creation, operations that involveresampling (such as cropping, rotation,scaling, skewing, distortion, perspective,and image sizing), and the generation ofpreview icons.

Prepress users will appreciate the Photo-Engine’s ability to speed Photoshop screenredraws when the program is in CMYKmode and the Smoother option is activated.You get a more accurate visual representa-tion of CMYK images as well as fasterzooming and scrolling.

If you opt for the PhotoEngine, you’ll stillneed a substantial investment in RAM andfast hard drives for optimal Photoshopspeed. The card is designed to take advan-tage of rather than replace additional sys-tem resources.

The PhotoEngine comes with excellentdocumentation and a lifetime warranty.

The Bottom Line

Adobe Photoshop users looking for a way tospeed image processing will definitely wantto check out the Radius PhotoEngine. Thecard is easy to install and works automati-cally to accelerate filter processing andother time-consuming Photoshop opera-tions. We recommend it without reserva-tion to Quadra owners, but even Power Macowners running the native version ofPhotoshop will benefit from the Photo-Engine’s speed boost. / David Biedny

Radius PhotoEngine

Rating: mmmmhPrice: $1,099 (list).

Pros: Provides significant speed gains withAdobe Photoshop, particularly for Quadrausers. Easy to set up and use.

Cons: Doesn’t work correctly with theEmboss filter.

Company: Radius, Sunnyvale, CA;800-345-9777 or 408-541-6100.



REVIEWS LARGE-FORMAT PRINTERS / PROGRAMMING

LaserMaster DisplayMaker ProfessionalLarge-format printer delivers stunningcolor and crisp images.

UNTIL NOW, if you wanted to print ban-ners, point-of-purchase signs, and posters,you had to either send the job to a special-

ized service bureau and pay$12 to $15 a square foot orface the purchase of an ex-

pensive wide-format printing system. Andeven then, you were lucky if the colors cameout correctly the first time around. Butthe new LaserMaster DisplayMaker Profes-sional changes all that. It producesawesome color images in a varietyof large-format sizes — and it coststens of thousands of dollars lessthan its competitors.

Big Picture

The $29,995 DisplayMaker Profes-sional has five main components: aprinter that’s 5 feet long by 2 feetwide perched on a 4-foot-high roll-ing stand; the Advanced ColorServer, a proprietary 66-MHz 32-bit computer with a floating-pointunit; a high-capacity ink system; acolor calibrator; and a color-man-agement system.

The DisplayMaker’s 300-dpi ink-jet engine can handle paper as largeas 36 inches across and 18 feet long,and it can either use a manual feedor pull paper from a roll.

The Advanced Color Server receives printjobs through your LocalTalk or Ethernetnetwork, processes the data, and sends it tothe printer. The Advanced Color Server has64 MB of RAM and a 540-MB internal harddrive that has a PostScript-compatible RIP,235 Type 1 fonts, and its own software. Thesoftware provides color calibration, jobmanagement, job tracking of media and inkusage, spooling, and previews of print jobs.

The software color-management systemgives you predictable, precise color andworks closely with the hardware color cali-brator, a densitometer connected to theserver that reads color characteristics froma test image.

The DisplayMaker Professional’s mostintriguing component is its ink-delivery

system, which automatically replenishesthe ink cartridges. The DisplayMaker’s car-tridges don’t hold any more ink thanHewlett-Packard DeskWriter cartridges,but tiny clear hoses instantly replenish thecartridges from boxes of ink on the side ofthe printer. Each of these ink boxes contains400 milliliters of cyan, magenta, yellow, orblack ink. LaserMaster claims that theDisplayMaker can create 110 E-sized (36 x

48 inch) prints at 50-percent coverage witheach set of ink boxes.

You can set several different parametersfor different kinds of print jobs. To do so,you simply select the Add Port command inthe server software and then set up param-eters in the window that appears, usingpop-up menus, and save each set as a port.Each port will appear in your Mac’s Chooseras a different printer. Once you’ve selected aDisplayMaker port in your Mac’s Chooser,you just issue the Print command to com-mence printing.

Some applications have maximum pagesizes that are far smaller than what theDisplayMaker can handle, but you can getaround this size discrepancy problem byusing the downloading utility that comes

with the printer. You can launch it from yourMac and download TIFF and PostScriptfiles directly to the server, from which youcan print files in any size.

In a Dither

We printed more than 30 full-color poster-sized QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator, andAdobe Photoshop images on theDisplayMaker, each one of very high qual-ity. From at least 8 feet away, the expectedviewing distance, each image took on aphoto-realistic quality, in part due toLaserMaster’s proprietary diffusion dither,which produces smooth, consistent output.When you look at a printout from a closerdistance, you can see the dots that make upthe dither.

In our tests, printing a full-color 36-x-48-inch image took more than an hour.Processing time varies, depending on thedocument’s complexity.

You’ll need some time to study theDisplayMaker’s software before you startusing it. It has many configuration options,and we frequently had to consult themanual to make sure we’d set the correctorientation and page size for the results wewanted. Happily, both DisplayMaker man-uals (there’s one for the printer and one forthe server) are clear and well written andhave useful reference information in theappendixes.

The Bottom Line

Wide-format printing can give you gor-geous in-house printouts for displays andtrade shows. You may even want to set upyour own wide-format-printing bureau.With its stunning output and relatively lowprice, the LaserMaster DisplayMaker Pro-fessional is an innovative product with agreat future. / Tony Bojorquez

L ABSZD

LaserMaster DisplayMaker

Professional

Rating: mmmmhPrice: $29,995 (list).

Pros: Stunning color output. Thorough,well-written manuals. Lower cost thancompetitors.

Cons: Server software takes time to master.

Company: LaserMaster, Eden Prairie, MN;800-477-7714 or 612-944-9330.


Photo-realistic color output of large posters anddisplays is a cinch for the LaserMaster DisplayMakerProfessional — a bargain at $29,995.

PHO

TOG

RAPH

Y / L

EON


Metrowerks CodeWarrior / The premierdevelopment environment for nativePower Mac applications.

SLASHING THE TIME required to developapplications on the Mac to a fraction ofwhat it was previously, Metrowerks Code-Warrior made a name for itself even beforeits official release. Offering the fastest set ofcompilers available for generating both680x0 and Power Mac-native code, Code-Warrior is an essential addition to any seri-ous Mac programmer’s toolbox.

Single Integrated Environment

In addition to speedy compilers, Code-Warrior offers programmers several otherimportant advantages. Chief among them isits full range of functionality within a singleenvironment. Shipping on a single CD-ROM (including documentation), it con-sists of compilers and integrated develop-ment environments (IDEs) for a total ofthree languages: C, C++, and Pascal. EachIDE includes a source-code editor and allessential project-management features.

Even more important, the CodeWarriorGold Edition is currently the only develop-ment environment that runs native on thePower Mac and generates PowerPC code.The Gold Edition compilers run on the680x0 platform, besides running native onPower Macs, and the compilers can gener-ate 680x0 as well as PowerPC code from ei-ther platform.

CodeWarrior’s C compiler can be set toensure that source code is ANSI C-compli-ant. The C++ compiler conforms closely tothe ARM (Annotated Reference Manual) —the de facto C++ standards document —but one drawback is that the compilerdoesn’t support templates or exceptions.Metrowerks plans to correct this limitationin a future release.

CodeWarrior’s C and C++ compilers arealso provided in the form of Macintosh Pro-grammers’ Workshop (MPW) tools, so us-ers who require MPW facilities, such ascomplex build scripts, can take advantageof the compilers’ speed.

At review time, CodeWarrior’s Pascalcompilers weren’t as evolved as those for Cand C++ in that they were not fat-binary —in other words, a single compiler did not

contain both native Power Mac and 680x0code. Metrowerks plans to remedy this inan upcoming version. The Pascal compilersthemselves have one primary shortcoming— they support only procedural Pascal andnot Object Pascal, which comprises much ofthe Pascal code in use today. According toMetrowerks, Object Pascal support is in theworks for a future release.

Although CodeWarrior’s speedy compil-

ers and Power Mac support are unmatchedby any other programming tool, theproduct’s IDEs themselves aren’t a majorleap forward. Closely resembling Syman-tec’s Think environments, CodeWarrior’sIDEs present a familiar project metaphorfor managing source files. The environmenteditors let you color-code keywords andcomments to differentiate them from othersource code.

CodeWarrior also includes two easy-to-use debuggers, one for 680x0 and one fornative Power Mac software. The debuggers,which are identical except for processor-specific features, allow source-level debug-ging and provide standard features such asthe ability to view variables and set break-points. CodeWarrior’s compilers generatedebugging information in Apple’s standardformats, which the CodeWarrior debuggerscan read.

Also on the CD-ROM is PowerPlant,Metrowerks’ C++-based object framework.The advantage of a framework is that it

provides a collection of basic componentsused by almost all types of Mac applicationsso programmers can make better use oftheir time by concentrating on application-specific features. One particularly nice as-pect of PowerPlant is that it lets you choosesingle objects, whereas the Think and MPWobject libraries make you use unnecessaryancillary code, because their objects comein conglomerates.

Metrowerks wins big points for its up-date strategy. The company is constantlytweaking the product to make it better anduses a subscription model for distributingCodeWarrior, continually sending usersupdates. Purchasers of CodeWarrior receive

the initial CD-ROM anda year’s subscription tofurther CD-ROMs (at leastthree per year). BetweenCD-ROM releases, Metro-werks provides enhance-ments free of charge(other than the cost of thedownload) via all thepopular on-line servicesand Internet archives.

The Bottom Line

CodeWarrior offers obvi-ous advantages to Macprogrammers. Not only

does it provide the only compilers that runnative on the Power Mac and can generatePowerPC code from either 680x0 Macs orPower Macs but its compilation speed isalso nothing less than astounding for aMac-based environment. If you’re lookingto write native Power Mac applications on aMac, CodeWarrior is only the way to go./ Stephan Somogyi

Metrowerks CodeWarrior

Gold Edition CW4

Rating: mmmmhPrice: $399 (list).

Pros: Fast compilers. Runs native on PowerMacs and generates native Power Mac codefrom either 680x0 Macs or Power Macs.Source-code debuggers available for both680x0 machines and Power Macs.

Cons: No Object Pascal support. No templateand exception support for C++.

Company: Metrowerks, Austin, TX;800-377-5416 or 512-346-1935.


CodeWarrior’s development environment presentsprogrammers with familiar project windows and tools, but thecompilers’ ability to run native on the Power Mac and generatePowerPC code is unique.


REVIEWS DRAWING

ClarisDraw / Versatile and simple, Claris’new draw program scrambles to catch upwith the competition.

THE LATEST INCARNATION of Claris’venerable MacDraw draw program,ClarisDraw keeps the easy-to-use, stylishdesign we’ve come to expect from Clarisproducts and has a bevy of well-imple-mented new features, many clearly culledfrom its rivals’ feature lists. Streamlinedand simple, it’s tolerably fast on 680x0 Macsand downright zippy on Power Macs, on

which it can run in native mode. But for thesame price or less, Deneba’s Canvas andAldus’ IntelliDraw have more featuresgeared toward more-sophisticated illustra-tion work.

Smart Design

Many of ClarisDraw’s new features haveSmart in their names — appropriate, be-cause many of them emulate similar fea-tures in IntelliDraw, the first draw programthat let you create links between objects toautomatically keep alignment, proportion-ing, and other relationships in effect. Butwhereas IntelliDraw’s brainy links can bebewilderingly complex, ClarisDraw’s aresimple and spare. For example, to useSmartAlign, you select two or more objectsin your illustration and use the Alignmentpalette to choose the way you want them tobe aligned with each other. As you move oneobject, the other objects remain aligned toit, according to the relationship you’ve setup between them.

SmartAlign isn’t the only smart feature.SmartConnectors are lines that remain at-tached to objects — if you want to useClarisDraw to create flowcharts, for in-stance, lines can remain connected be-tween boxes no matter where you move theboxes on your chart. And if you need precisemeasurements, you can create AutoSizelines, which tell you how long they are. (We

were disappointed, however,that you can’t turn the Smart-Connector lines into AutoSizelines.) SmartEmbossing andSmartShadow, just as theirnames imply, let you create ru-dimentary 3-D effects anddrop shadows.

The PointGuide cursor,which changes its appearancewhen it’s over an object’s centeror corners, and Guideliner,which provides guidelines thatshow you how objects alignwith other objects, are handyfeatures for positioning items.ClarisDraw’s Object Info pal-

ette lets you precisely reposition, rotate, andresize objects, using numerical values.

ClarisDraw ships with 2,400 pieces of clipart, called SmartSymbols. You can drag aSmartSymbol out of a library palette anddrop it right into your document — repeat-edly if you wish. You can replace anySmartSymbol with any other by using theReplace Clones command. It’s somewhatlike a Find/Replace command in a wordprocessor, and although it’s not as fast andelegant as IntelliDraw’s method of auto-matically updating your documents, theReplace Clones command does get the jobdone.

Creative Writing

ClarisDraw has drastically improved text-handling tools compared with MacDraw’s.You can bind text to a path on the inside orthe outside of a closed shape and converttype into outlines, which you can reshapeby using Bézier points and fill with gradi-ents or patterns. You can link text boxes to

each other and wrap text around objects,both of which can be useful for simple,artistic desktop-publishing tasks, eventhough you can’t kern or track type at all.

Although it’s no substitute for MicrosoftPowerPoint or Aldus Persuasion, you canalso use ClarisDraw to prepare simple busi-ness presentations and slide shows. Theprogram lets you use as many as ten differ-ent on-screen pointers and create fades be-tween slides.

When it comes to color control, Claris-Draw will disappoint more-demanding us-ers. It can import and export 24-bit-colorimages, which MacDraw never could, but itstill has the 256-color palette that datesback to the days when most Macs had only8-bit color, if any. It still doesn’t supportCMYK mode or popular color systems suchas Pantone. Not surprisingly, ClarisDrawcan’t output color separations, althoughyou can save documents in EPS for place-ment in, and printing from, more-color-savvy applications.

Besides providing the basic manipula-tion tools we’ve mentioned, ClarisDraw canlighten and darken images, distort themvertically or horizontally with a new shear-ing feature, and scale them by percentage.But unlike its competitors, it doesn’t haveenvelope warping, shape extrusion, orcropping.

The Bottom Line

ClarisDraw is a versatile and easy-to-usedraw program, but we found ourselveswishing it had more of the tools its rivalshave. If you need to create basic graphicsquickly and don’t have the time to learn touse new tools, invest in ClarisDraw. But ifyou want more-sophisticated tools, otherdraw programs will give you more to workwith for a similar price. / Eric Taub

Lines that stay connected to the boxes they’re attached toand easy, precise positioning are some of ClarisDraw’s bestnew features.

ClarisDraw 1.0

Rating: mmmhPrice: $399 (list).

Pros: Easy to use. “Smart” links for accuratepositioning. Basic page-layout andslide-show features. Power Mac native.

Cons: Restriction to RGB and 256-colorpalette. Lacks features available in similarlypriced competitors.

Company: Claris, Santa Clara, CA;408-727-8227.



REVIEWS PRESENTATIONS

MovieWorks / QuickTime-basedpresentation program is too slow towin points.

time, regardless of the level or kind of com-pression you specify. And once Composerhas compressed a scene, it does a poor jobof actually playing it: Animations and mov-ies are so jerky they’re practically unview-able. You have to turn your project into astand-alone file and play it back with thePlayer application to see how your presen-tation really looks.

MovieWorks’ awkwardness is com-pounded by a truly poor user guide, whichis at best a sketchy reference manual. If youhave experience with multimedia presenta-tion programs, you’ll be able to get up andrunning quickly in spite of the manual, butnewcomers will have a hard time compre-hending the application’s subtler aspects.

Interactive Solutions is aware of many ofthese problems and promises a rewrittenuser guide in future releases as well as a CD-ROM of tutorials and animations to supple-ment the 8 MB of files that come with thecurrent version of MovieWorks. However,the company blames many of Composer’sperformance problems on QuickTime 2.0,even though many other programs thatwork with QuickTime 2.0 do so at an ac-ceptable speed. Interactive Solutions alsosays it is working on a native Power Macversion of MovieWorks.

The Bottom Line

If you absolutely have to use compact, por-table QuickTime-based presentations, getMovieWorks, the fastest Mac you can af-ford, and a ten-cup coffeemaker for all thebreaks you’ll have to take. Otherwise, con-sider Gold Disk’s Astound or Pierian SpringSoftware’s Digital Chisel (see review, Janu-ary ’95, page 56), which are faster and easierto use, offer more features with less aggra-vation, and come with user guides that ac-tually instruct. / Eric Taub

MovieWorks 2.2

Rating: mmhPrice: $295 (list); 50-percent educationaldiscount.

Pros: Creates compact, QuickTime-basedpresentations. Easy-to-use Composerapplication.

Cons: Frustratingly sluggish. Sketchy, poorlyorganized manual.

Company: Interactive Solutions, Pleasanton,CA; 800-668-4353 or 510-734-0730.


QUICKTIME IS ONE of the tightestimage- and sound-compression formatsaround, and it also has sophisticated tim-ing features. As a result, QuickTime pre-sentations with 16- and 24-bit-color im-ages and 16-bit sound can be played backon Macs with relatively modest amounts ofRAM. And simultaneous events are justthat — simultaneous. MovieWorks, com-pletely QuickTime-based, makes themost of QuickTime 2.0’s advantagesfor creating presentations. But usingQuickTime has its drawbacks. Al-though MovieWorks-created stand-alone presentations play back nicelyon almost any QuickTime-capableMac, creating those presentations is atorturously slow process.

Five-in-One

Rather than being a single, all-in-oneapplication, MovieWorks is a suite offive. You use the central application,Composer, to combine elements fromother programs or ones you’ve createdor modified in the Paint, Sound, andText applications into presentations calledprojects. You can import TIFF, PICT, andMacPaint images; AIFF and SND audio;PICS animations; and QuickTime images,sounds, and movies into Composer andplay your project, once you’ve compressedit into a QuickTime movie. When you con-vert this movie into a run-time version, thefreely distributable Player application canplay it back.

Because different functions are handledby different MovieWorks applications, youcan choose to run only the applications youneed, which is useful for those with limitedRAM. However, closing and opening appli-cations when working with a variety of filetypes can be cumbersome. Since Com-poser automatically opens the Paint,Sound, or Text applications for you when-ever you double-click on an object createdwith one of them, you’ll probably just leaveall the applications open if you have the8 MB required to run everything at once.

For text, MovieWorks provides a fairly

Using a timeline to bring together the elementsof a presentation, as MovieWorks lets you do, iseasy, but the sparse manual won’t teach you theprogram’s subtler features.

bare-bones text formatter, but both thePaint and Sound modules have a useful as-sortment of features. Paint has a standardvariety of paint tools, and although it isn’t achallenge to Photoshop, it’s handy enoughfor quickly creating and modifying pic-tures. Sound lets you record and editsounds and easily add simple effects suchas echoes, fade-ins, and fade-outs.

Staccato Composing

The basic concept of the Composer applica-tion is easy enough to understand and mas-ter: You create a project file and combinesounds, pictures, and movies to create mul-timedia scenes. You use a simple timeline tocontrol when and how long every objectappears in the project, define visual fade-inand fade-out transitions, and draw anima-tion paths for the objects. To create inter-active presentations or programs, you canassign links to certain areas or buttons forinteractive presentations.

There are two big problems with Com-poser, however. For starters, it’s sluggish.Repositioning objects can take such a longtime that it’s a struggle to place them pre-cisely. Although the anti-aliasing you canassign to text objects helps create high-quality images, you may tear out your hairin frustration when you position objects.Next, in order to play back a scene afteryou’ve modified it, you have to compress itinto a QuickTime movie, which takes a long


REVIEWS PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS

WordPerfect Envoy / New portable-document software misses the mark.EXCHANGING ELECTRONIC documentswith those who don’t have the same fontsyou do, much less the same applications, goteasier with the release of three products:

entry in this field is WordPerfect Envoy,which has many of the same features as itscompetitors — but decidedly more quirks.

Envoy uses a Chooser extension, whichyou select instead of a printer. You can thenconvert any document into Envoy’s formatby issuing the Print command. Unfortu-nately, this conversion process can be anightmare if you use page-layout programs.Incompatibilities with PageMaker’s printarchitecture make converting PageMakerdocuments a completely undocumentedprocess that lets you convert only a fewpages before memory errors cause the en-tire procedure to abort. Converting simpleQuarkXPress documents is no problem, butprinting files with embedded graphics re-quires multiple steps. If you want to sharefiles containing embedded PostScriptgraphics, you’ll be disappointed with theirquality in Envoy — the graphics are dis-played as low-res bit maps. WordPerfectsays it will include a PostScript-to-Envoytranslator in a future release.

Unlike Acrobat, Envoy doesn’t requireyou to install SuperATM to view files; it

Adobe Acrobat, No Hands Software’s Com-mon Ground, and Farallon’s Replica. Theseprograms are all able to create portableelectronic documents. The most recent

A disappointmentoverall, Envoy doeshave one noteworthystrength — itsannotation features,which includehypertext links, textnotes, and color-coded highlighters.


WordPerfect Envoy 1.0

Rating: mmPrice: $189; upgrade from competitiveproducts, $99 (list).

Pros: Good document-annotation features.Readers can view files without installingextra software.

Cons: Problems converting PageMaker andQuarkXPress files. Weak documentation.PostScript graphics convert to bit maps.Primitive font-replacement technology.

Company: WordPerfect, Novell ApplicationGroup, Orem, UT; 800-861-7270 or801-228-9929.


The Bottom Line

If you just need to distribute word-process-ing documents with rudimentary graphics,Envoy’s small size and good annotationfeatures may make it a reasonable alterna-tive to Acrobat and Common Ground. How-ever, Envoy’s problems with printing frompage-layout applications and its weakdocumentation make it a dubious choice forcreating portable electronic documents./ Jason Snell

works by itself and takes up only 350K ofdisk space. But if you use uncommon fonts,you may have trouble with Envoy’s font-handling method. Unlike Acrobat, whichcreates facsimiles of unavailable fonts, En-voy uses whatever available font is mostsimilar to the original.

A quick-reference card is the only printeddocumentation in the Envoy box. The fulldocumentation exists only as an Envoy filewith hypertext links, so it can be frustratingto navigate, particularly for first-time En-voy users.

Envoy does have good annotation fea-tures — hypertext links, text notes, andcolor-coded highlighters — which you andthe people you share files with can use tomark up documents. It even has a cleverImport Annotations feature that lets youcombine everyone’s annotations into onefile. Although Envoy can embed a run-timeversion of itself with its portable docu-ments (at the cost of an extra 350K), astand-alone viewer, such as the ones thatship with Acrobat and Common Ground, isnot yet available.

Except for a quick-reference card,Envoy’s documenta-tion is available onlyas an Envoy file andcan be quiteconfusing.


REVIEWS SCANNERS

Agfa StudioScan II and UMAX Vista-S6Agfa’s affordable scanner gets the nod forbest color image quality.

PRICED AT LESS THAN $1,000, two newcolor flatbed scanners make it more afford-able than ever to add scanned color images

to your documents. Like itspredecessor, the $995 AgfaStudioScan II gets high

marks for color image quality and softwarecontrols. We were less impressed with thequality of the $945 UMAX Vista-S6’s colorimages, but the UMAX scanner excels inspeed and line-art quality. Both scannersare easy to set up and use, which makesthem an attractive buy for novices.

Agfa StudioScan II

The hardware specifications of the Studio-Scan II include an optical resolution of 400 x800 dpi and a maximum interpolated reso-lution of 2,400 x 2,400 dpi. The maximumscanning area is 8.5 x 14 inches.

L ABSZD

Where the StudioScan II really shines isin its software. For novices, the simple-to-use FotoSnap plug-in handles a variety oftasks automatically — it calibrates density,sets the scanning area and resolution, andperforms color correction based on aprescan and profiles of your monitor andprinter. Experienced users can opt forFotoLook, which provides sophisticatedfeatures such as white- and black-point set-tings, unsharp masking, and DMin/DMax.

The FotoTune Light color-managementprogram lets you fine-tune the process ofcolor matching between your scanner andyour monitor or printer.

In addition to StudioScan II’s feature-rich software, one other strong point is theblack, nonreflective inner surface of thescanner’s lid, which reduces light bounceand keeps moiré patterns to a minimum.

UMAX Vista-S6

The Vista-S6 has an optical resolution of600 x 300 dpi and a maximum interpolatedresolution of 4,800 x 4,800 dpi. The maxi-mum scanning area is 8.5 x 11.7 inches.

For software, the Vista-S6 comes with alimited edition of Adobe Photoshop andthe VistaScan plug-in, which provides con-trols for gamma, highlights/shadows, light/dark, and other options. If you want to useVistaScan without running Photoshop, youcan run it as a DA. We found VistaScanstraightforward and easy to use, but itdoesn’t provide the same level of automa-tion as FotoSnap, the StudioScan II’s plug-in. For color correction, the Vista-S6 comeswith MagicMatch, a simple color-calibra-tion program that works with Apple’sColorSync software.

The Vista-S6 and the StudioScan II eachcome with OmniPage Direct OCR software,an optional 50-page document feeder, anda transparency adapter.

To see how the Vista-S6 and the Studio-Scan II compare in image quality andspeed, we scanned three different test


two scanners reviewed here, we recom-mend the StudioScan II for those who planto work frequently with color images. Ifcolor scanning isn’t critical, the Vista-S6 is aspeedy alternative. / Roman Victor Loyola

Agfa StudioScan II

Rating: mmmmPrice: $995 (street).

Pros: Affordable. High-quality color scans.Full-featured software controls.

Cons: Single SCSI port. Slow.

Company: Agfa Division of Miles, Wilmington,MA; 800-685-4271 or 508-658-5600.


UMAX Vista-S6

Rating: mmmhPrice: $945 (list).

Pros: Affordable. Fast. High-qualityline-art scans.

Cons: Single SCSI port. Mediocre-qualityscans for midtone ranges.

Company: UMAX Technologies, Fremont, CA;800-562-0311 or 510-651-8883.


documents. Two were color photographicimages with distinctly different colorranges and intensities. We printed eachcolor image to a Tektronix Phaser 480 dye-sublimation printer. The third test docu-ment, which we printed to a GCCSelectPress 1200 laser printer, consisted ofline art.

With both types of color images, theStudioScan II provided the best results. Thefirst image tested the scanners’ ability to ac-curately capture a range of skin tones, shad-ows, and colors. The image captured withthe StudioScan II was very consistent withthe original — it showed excellent skintones and good detail in shadow areas. TheVista-S6 produced an image with accept-able skin tones, but the overall quality wasnot as good as that from the StudioScan II.

Our second test image was characterizedby bright colors and a gradient background.Again, the StudioScan II outperformed theVista-S6, producing an accurate, sharp im-age with well-saturated colors and smoothgradients. The Vista-S6 also produced well-saturated colors, but the gradient was not as

smooth and the colors not as accurate asthose in the StudioScan II’s image.

Test results from our line-art imageshowed the Vista-S6 to be the top per-former, but not by a very wide margin.When we examined the images with aloupe, the Vista-S6 image boasted cleanerlines and fewer jaggies. However, you’d behard pressed to judge the difference with-out magnification. To test the speed of thetwo scanners, we used one of the color pho-tographic images. We found the Vista-S6 tobe faster by far — it scanned our image in46 seconds, compared to 90 seconds for theStudioScan II using the FotoLook plug-inand a whopping six minutes for theStudioScan II using the FotoSnap plug-in.Keep in mind, however, that FotoSnap per-forms color correction automatically as youscan an image, whereas with VistaScan andthe UMAX scanner, color correction is aseparate, manual process.

The Bottom Line

The cost of color scanners continues to dropwhile the quality keeps improving. Of the

REVIEWS SCANNERS


QUICK CLICKS

Aquazone and El-Fish / Digitaldesktop aquariumsALTHOUGH AFTER DARK’S fish screen-saver modules give brain-locked workers a col-orful diversion, their flat fish leave a lot of roomfor improvement. Tecsys Computers’ Aquazoneand Maxis’ El-Fish have leaped into this digitalfish vacuum and created two very differentkinds of aquarium simulations.Aquazone. Aquazone attempts to re-create thehome aquarium experience: Its digital aquari-ums require heating, filtration, and water-conditioning chemicals.You have to feed the fish and check them for disease. Exhaustivereports on your fish and your tank help you maintain youraquarium, as does Aquazone’s wonderful manual — which, due tothe accuracy of the simulation, is a solid primer on real-world fishkeeping.

Fail to check on your fishy friends in Aquazone, and they die —and you have an inventory of only 40 fish with which to stock yourtank (although you can cheat and reinstall the program to get a newstock of fish). Events take place in real time, whether the program isrunning or not: After neglecting Aquazone for a week, we discov-ered that our fish had tragically died of hunger. You can speed up thesimulation or pause it completely. As a nice touch, Aquazone canreplace your desktop with a fully functional aquarium that runsbehind all your open applications.El-Fish. El-Fish ambitiously uses artificial-life algorithms to try tocreate a better kind of fish. Aquazone ships with only two fish spe-cies; El-Fish has over a dozen colorful artificial ones. And if you get

tired of those, you can go fishing in an oceanand catch some new specimens or you cancreate new species by splicing together fishgenes. (Aquazone fish reproduce the old-fashioned way — they lay eggs.) El-Fish thenrenders and animates the new fish in 256 po-sitions. The results are visually stunning, butone fish can take anywhere from ten minutesto ten hours to render, depending on thespeed of your Mac.

El-Fish’s aquarium isn’t as satisfying asAquazone’s, or even After Dark’s. The fish move flatly, whereasAquazone’s seem quite aware of each other and their environment.Worst of all, the El-Fish aquarium extends far beyond the bound-aries of your screen. Minutes often passed without a single one ofour tank’s eight fish swimming into view. El-Fish also bears everylast fingerprint of its Windows origins, to the extent of apparentlybelieving the screen is only 400 pixels high.

If you want to splice genes, get El-Fish; if you want an engagingsimulation, get Aquazone. And if you think it makes more sense toscoop out the insides of your old compact Mac and fill it with realwater and fish, look for my MacQuarium plans on ZiffNet/Mac. Theresulting tank might smell a bit and it’s not as easy to maintain asAquazone, but it is the cheapest way to get Power Mac performance— at least when it comes to fish — on a Mac Plus. / Andy Ihnatko

Aquazone 1.0 mmmm / Price: $49.95 (list). Company: Tecsys Computers, New-port Beach, CA; 714-955-4968. Reader Service: Circle #415.

El-Fish 1.0 mm / Price: $39.95 (list). Company: Maxis, Orinda, CA; 800-336-2947or 510-254-9700. Reader Service: Circle #416.

FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ever lain awake atnight puzzling over the origin of an ache,pain, or sniffle, HouseCall, from AppliedMedical Informatics, brings sound medicaladvice to the Mac. And although the com-pany is the first to assert that nothing canreplace a doctor’s diagnosis, the program isan excellent addition to anyone’s home soft-ware library.

Developed in conjunction with 40 physi-cians, HouseCall is a powerful medical ref-erence many users will find both useful andpractical. Using plain English, the softwareprovides in-depth information on morethan 1,100 diseases, such as Alzheimer’sand AIDS, as well as on more-common ail-ments, such as influenza and chicken pox.Each entry in its extensive, cross-refer-enced database provides clear definitions ofthe conditions as well as causes, symptoms,common treatments, and alternativenames. HouseCall has an elegant, easy-to-use interface that includes a window withhints on using the program.

Additionally, HouseCall gives you detailson common tests and on nearly 3,000 pre-scription and nonprescription drugs. Thedrug-interaction feature lists the possibleside effects of a drug when used alone orwith other medications and potential reac-tions when used with caffeine or alcohol.Digital Diagnoses. The symptom-analysisfeature first asks which part of your body isailing and then runs through a series ofquestions, with eachquestion based on theanswer to its predeces-sor. The program thenprovides a list of possiblediagnoses, listed by per-centage from most prob-able to least. For a com-mon headache, for ex-ample, the software of-fers a variety of causes,ranging from the mostlikely — stress — to theleast likely — a tumor.

HouseCall / Diagnosis at your fingertipsThe symptom-analysis feature is helpful indiagnosing problems, but we wouldn’t besurprised if it alarmed those with hypo-chondriacal tendencies.

Although HouseCall provides well-re-searched diagnoses for all kinds of prob-lems, the manual always reminds users toconsult with their doctor.

Updates to the program will be offeredseveral times a year, keeping users current

with the latest medical infor-mation. At present, the pro-gram consists of four disks andrequires 11 MB of hard-diskspace; a CD-ROM versionshould be available soon.

HouseCall is a great refer-ence tool to have on call, espe-cially when your doctor is hit-ting the links. / Steve Rubel

HouseCall 1.0 mmmm / Pr ice:$89.95 (list). Company: A ppliedMedical Informatics, Salt Lake City,UT; 800-584-3060 or 801-464-6200.Reader Service: Circle #417.IL

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Special Delivery 2.0 / Presentation programmakes you jump through hoopsTHE ORIGINAL VERSION of Special Delivery had a convolutedinterface and no animation features, but its slide-based approach tocreating interactive presentations showed real potential. Unfortu-nately, instead of giving Special Delivery the overhaul it needed,Interactive Media has made only modest changes, such as givingyou the ability to highlight buttons and adding a run-time player. As

a result, Special Delivery 2.0 is hardly better thanits earlier version.Multimedia Gateways. To create a presentation, youadd media elements by drawing frames, calledportals, on each presentation slide in Layout View.

Then you import the pictures, sounds, text, and movies you wantand place them in a portal.

After you’ve created your layout in Layout View, you switch toButton View and use the Button tool to draw links between the por-tals on each slide. If you want the slide to contain buttons that allowusers to interact with the presentation, you draw portals for those inthe Layout View. Then in the Button View, you might link a buttonportal with a portal that has a QuickTime movie. When you’re play-ing the Special Delivery presentation, you click on the button to playthe QuickTime movie.

The buttons let people viewing your presentation play movies orsounds, adjust the volume settings, and move to any other point inthe presentation. You can also set up the buttons to trigger them-selves automatically, so you can create kiosk-style self-running pre-sentations. You can even add pop-up buttons that not only let usersflip to different slides but also let them switch to another presenta-tion or even to another application altogether.Tale of Two Views. Setting up these links and triggers is exasperat-ing, however. When you’re creating links between portals in ButtonView, you can’t move or resize the portals or in any other way editthem. And when you move to Layout View to change your portals,you can’t adjust, or even see, the interactive links. Even though youhave the option to see the Layout View behind the Button View, youhave to constantly jump back and forth between the views as youwork on your slides.

As a general multimedia tool, Special Delivery is still quite lim-ited. There are no path-animation tools, and although you can ap-ply transitions between slides and portals, they aren’t very elegant.A portal may have a transition effect as it appears on-screen but notas it exits, which means portals pop off the screen ratherungracefully. As a workaround, you can apply an exit transition byusing the Clear Data command; however, this actually purges yourdata from the portal and does not hide the portal itself. And there’sno zoom tool — a glaring omission in a program for creatinggraphic layouts.

You can create professional and powerful integrated presenta-tions with Special Delivery, but navigating the interface and settingup links is simply too much work for most people. If you’re lookingfor an entry-level multimedia tool, consider instead Gold Disk’sAstound, which has a simple, elegant interface and gives you moreanimation options for the same price. / Joseph Schorr

Special Delivery 2.0 mmh / Price: $399 (list). Company: Interactive Media, LosAltos, CA; 415-948-0745. Reader Service: Circle #418.

QUICK CLICKS


VirtualDisk / Automatic diskcataloging

WITH CONTINUUM SOFTWARE’S VirtualDisk, even the organi-zationally challenged can easily keep track of all the files on any re-movable media, including floppy disks, SyQuest cartridges, andmagneto-optical discs. Whenever you eject a cartridge or disk fromthe desktop, VirtualDisk automatically creates a catalog of its con-tents. VirtualDisk can also catalog the contents of CD-ROMs, harddisks (fixed or networked), compressed archives, Retrospect back-ups, and disk images created by Apple’s Disk Copy or ContinuumSoftware’s own — and excellent — DiskDup+.Click and Find. The VirtualDisk catalog shows up on your desktop asa volume, and each disk or cartridge for which VirtualDisk has cre-ated a catalog shows up as an icon within the volume. When youdouble-click on the icon for a disk, you see aliases of all the files andfolders on that disk. When you double-click on a file alias, Virtual-Disk prompts you to insert the disk containing the original file.

Each VirtualDisk catalog starts out needing at least 1 MB of freehard-disk space, which is enough room for about 8,000 entries. Thecatalog file can grow large enough to hold as many as a millionaliases. You can create as many VirtualDisk catalogs as you need.

VirtualDisk is fast and easy to use, and if you frequently keep fileson floppies or removable disks and cartridges, it can save you moretime than almost any other productivity tool. / Eric Taub

VirtualDisk 2.0.1 mmmm / Price: $79.98 (list). Company: Continuum Software,Portland, OR; 800-603-7446 or 503-848-7112. Reader Service: Circle #419.

Living Album / Electronic photo albumLIVING ALBUM LETS you lookthrough digital pictures and QuickTimemovies just as you would with picturesin a photo album. Instead of the imper-sonal dialog boxes and links you get intraditional presentation programs, ar-chives, and databases, each album you create with Living Albumshows you an album page with a full-screen picture bordered by 36thumbnail pictures. You can add text or link other files and AIFFsound files to any picture and search for pictures by using keywordsyou’ve added to them. When you click on one of the thumbnail pic-tures, it becomes the full-screen picture on the album page.

You can import an entire folder full of pictures or QuickTimemovies with a single keystroke. Living Album doesn’t actually usethe original pictures: It makes a copy of each one (or of the firstframe of a QuickTime movie) and compresses it into one frame of aplatform-independent QuickTime movie.Floppies to Swap. You can share Living Albums with your friendsand family. Living Album ships with a free, distributable Viewerapplication that fits on one high-density floppy disk and can accom-modate an album with as many as 36 pictures.

Living Album does have a couple of drawbacks: The programcan’t display TIFF files, and linking files can be a bit confusing. Wewere able to run Living Album with less than the 5 MB of RAM sug-gested, but it runs more smoothly with more. / Ken Gruberman

Living Album 1.2 mmmh / Price: $79.95 (list). Company: QuickMedia Labs,Santa Clara, CA; 408-749-9200. Reader Service: Circle #420.


SAM Administrator / Flexibility for networkadministratorsCOMBINING EASE OF USE with a high degree of configurability,Symantec’s SAM (Symantec AntiVirus for Macintosh) Administra-tor is strictly a vehicle for network distribution of SAM and updatesto it. It works by sending packages containing compo-nents of SAM to client machines. These packages con-tain scripts that automatically place the component filesin the correct locations on the client’s hard disk. Trans-porter and Transporter Assistant, also from Symantec,must be installed individually on each client before thepackages can be sent.Easy to Configure. SAM Administrator’s strength is itsconfigurability. Users are always grouped automatically by theirnetwork zone, but with SAM, a network administrator can creategroups, using any criteria. The administrator can also set pass-words for individual clients, all clients within a network zone, or agroup. The administrator can choose to have the packages auto-matically installed on the clients or just sent to them, allowing eachuser to install them at a convenient time.

Also useful are SAM Administrator’s flexible scheduling capa-bilities, which allow for installations and updates after-hours. SAMAdministrator also includes a handy log feature called the Distribu-tion Manifest, which allows an administrator to check whetherpackages have been transferred successfully — and then resend orcancel those that were not received by the client machines.

One of the features SAM Administrator lacks is the ability for ad-ministrators to define their own packages. New versions of SAM orVirus Definitions Files (VDFs) can be substituted only into apredefined package, and the entire package must be resent to eachclient — you can’t send just the updated files. Also, unlike Data-

watch’s Virex Administrator, SAM Administrator cannotinitiate virus scans on clients remotely and compile re-ports based on the results of those scans.Slightly Slower. On a range of Macintoshes, from an LC IIto a Power Macintosh 7100, a virus scan with SAM tookfrom 20 to 40 seconds, whereas the same scan took twoto four minutes with Disinfectant, the widely availablefreeware antivirus program. Virex was slightly faster,

taking only 14 to 25 seconds.Like Virex, SAM offers users a choice of options, such as whether

to scan a floppy when they insert it into a drive.Overall SAM Administrator offers more flexibility than other ad-

ministrator programs, including the ability to schedule calls toSymantec’s free BBS and automatically download the latest VDF foreliminating new viruses. / Alan M. Chan

SAM Administrator 4.0 mmm / Price: Available with ten-packs of SAM 4.0, $792(list). Company: Symantec, Cupertino, CA; 800-441-7234 or 503-334-7474. ReaderService: Circle #423.

Demo versions of selected programs mentioned in Quick Clicks areavailable in the MacUser and ZiffNet/Mac areas on CompuServe andeWorld. See page 4 for instructions regarding on-line access.

QUICK CLICKS


Four Paws of Crab / Culture and cuisineCD-ROMTHAI CUISINE IS CURRENTLY as hot a food fad as the tiny chiliesthat characterize many of its dishes. And there’s no better way tobecome introduced to this sublime cuisine than through the ex-quisite CD-ROM Four Paws of Crab.

Four Paws of Crab is organizedinto four areas: Recipes, Happy Mar-ket (ingredient descriptions), Mir-rors (a comparative look at Thai andAmerican cultures), and TimeRomp (a look at 300 years ofThailand’s rocky political history). Although the Recipes section of44 dishes is sparse compared to most printed Thai cookbooks, thedishes, appetizers, and desserts are classics such as Phat Thai andSticky Rice with Mango.Recipes and More. The best ethnic cookbooks do more than providejust a catalog of recipes. Part cookbook, part travelogue, they trans-port you into another culture. Four Paws of Crab accomplishes thesame admirable feat in a CD-ROM by making exceptionally gooduse of pictures, narration, and text, even though the QuickTimemovies are often choppy. Exploring all that Four Paws of Crab has tooffer is as easy as clicking your mouse.

Four Paws of Crab is a visual feast for both the cook and the cul-turally curious. / Gregory Wasson

Four Paws of Crab 1.0 mmmmh / Pr ice: $44.95 (list). Company: Live Oak Multi-media, Emeryville, CA; 800-454-7557 or 510-654-7480. Reader Service: Circle#421.

Autoscore / Composing by voiceAUTOSCORE, A SOFTWARE pitch-to-MIDI con-verter, transforms the single notes you sing or playinto your Mac’s microphone into MIDI events within

a compatible MIDI-host program. If, for example, you’d like to singa little ditty — or play it on your saxophone — and have it appear asa notation in Coda’s Finale, activate Autoscore in the Autoscoremenu and start recording in Finale. Each of the notes you produceappears on the staff. To increase the likelihood of pitch accuracy,Autoscore allows you to constrain the notes you make to a particu-lar scale — for instance, select Constrain to D Major if you want tosing “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.Sound Scoring. Autoscore tracks your input surprisingly well, al-though it is somewhat more accurate when used with notation pro-grams such as Finale than with sequencer programs. In fact,Autoscore does not support the most popular sequencers — Markof the Unicorn’s Performer or Opcode’s Vision 2.0 — at all. Al-though it can work with all instruments, it can’t recognize chords.Additionally, we found some bugs, including a general slowdown inperformance on Macs with accelerator cards. Wildcat Canyon saysit will have addressed these problems by the time you read this.

In spite of its problems, Autoscore represents an important andexciting technology for novice computer musicians who prefer torecord into MIDI acoustically. / Christopher Breen

Autoscore 1.0 mmmh / Price: $150 (list). Company: Wildcat Canyon Software,Berkeley, CA; 510-527-5155. Reader Service: Circle #422.


The 10th Annual

Editors’ChoiceAwards

What a year. In 1994 Mac users witnessed the dawnof the Power Mac era, Apple’s next-generationRISC hardware architecture. Software developers

scrambled to revise their products to take advantage ofthe PowerPC chip’s muscle, creating a midsummer lull inthe market. Rocked by an uncertain economy, companiessynonymous with innovation and independence com-bined forces through mergers and acquisitions. And then,the incredible happened: Apple decided to license the Macoperating system to other computer makers.

With such fundamental changes shaking the Mac uni-verse, it’s easy to overlook the great products that shippedfor the Mac in 1994. But not for the editors of MacUser.This year, as in every year for a decade, the MacUser edi-tors recognize the best new products with the MacUserEditors’ Choice Awards, a.k.a. the Eddys.

The Eddys are not the result of a popularity contest. Wespend months evaluating and arguing the merits of all theproducts released during our eligibility period. In pickingEddy finalists, we look for utility and value as well as inno-vation and overall quality.

In addition to choosing the best overall hardware andsoftware products of the year, we give three specialawards. We reward the year’s best new technology, onethat will have an impact on future product development.And we recognize individual contributions to the indus-try with the John J. Anderson Distinguished AchievementAward and the Derek Van Alstyne Rising Star Award. Andnow, the envelope, please . . . .

By the Editors of MacUser



Business Tools

where spreadsheets fail at analyzingcomplex corporate data. From demo-graphic studies to environmental analyses,MapInfo offers the most powerful andsophisticated set of desktop mapping toolsavailable to Mac as well as PC users at anaffordable price.

FinalistsFileMaker Pro has long been the standard for flat-file-database management on the Mac. With theintroduction of FileMaker Pro Server 2.0 v1, Clarishas significantly boosted the program’s performance inmultiuser environments. Excellent data-managementtools, a vastly improved charting module, and helpfulWizards make Microsoft Excel 5.0 a must-have forspreadsheet dilettantes and jockeys alike.

Word-Processing ToolWordPerfect 3.1The success of the Power Mac depends onexcellent native software, and Version 3.1was actually the second native version ofWordPerfect to ship last year. On the PowerMac, this is one word processor in whicheverything happens as fast as yourthoughts permit. In addition, WordPerfect3.1 offers a full suite of power features;Apple Guide support; and ease-of-usegoodies such as QuickCorrect, which fixesmistakes on the fly.

FinalistsAlthough a native Power Mac version isn’t yet available,Nisus Writer 4.0 took a giant step forward in its newversion with significant speed gains and a completelyredesigned interface. Xerox’s TextBridge 2.0 offerspowerful OCR features (such as the ability to distinguishbetween word and numerical patterns) at a bargainprice.

Data-ManagementToolMapInfo 3.0By displaying information geographically,MapInfo 3.0, from MapInfo, succeeds

Fast and easy — that best describes business tools in 1994.Applications that harnessed the Power Mac’s horsepowerenabled busy executives to work faster, while simplified

interfaces, active assistance, and just-add-data templates madecreating documents and presentations a snap for corporate typesas well as home-office workers.

Integrated ApplicationClarisWorks 3.0ClarisWorks 3.0 adds expert “assistants”that not only guide you through complextasks but also supply appropriate docu-ment formats — and even sample content— based on your goals. As in previousversions, the word-processing, spread-sheet, database, presentation, drawing/painting, and communications modulesare supremely integrated. Plus, to the reliefof home users, ClarisWorks’ disk-spaceand RAM requirements remain modestcompared to those of its main competitor. PH

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Presentation SoftwareMicrosoft PowerPoint 4.0There’s never enough time in a businessday, so any program that helps youaccomplish more in less time is a godsend.Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0 is one of thoseprograms — never has it been faster andeasier to pull together an effective businesspresentation. Need to present the board ofdirectors with up-to-the-minute informa-tion? From design to content, PowerPointprovides the tools that get the job done.

FinalistsAldus Persuasion 3.0, from Adobe Systems, is afeature-rich presentation-software program that offersseveral special talents, including the ability to createinteractive slides and basic animations. The mostcomplete business-charting tool available,ClarisImpact 1.0 features a slide-show module, soyou can chart and present your information with asingle program.

Accounting SoftwareM.Y.O.B. 5.0M.Y.O.B. 5.0, from Best!Ware, makes small-business accounting easy and — dare wesay it? — even fun. To help you get started,M.Y.O.B. includes a brief interview, 100templates you can use as is or customize,

and a jargon-free help system. In addition,opening screens clearly illustrate therelationships among the various modules.New features include automatic backup;professional invoicing; and expandedreporting, job-tracking, and payrollfunctions.

FinalistsKudos to two high-end client/server programs. GreatPlains’ Dynamics C/S+, a distributed-processingapplication, is highly customizable, has a graphicalinterface, and is widely supported by consultants.Maconomy 2.3, from Maconomy NE, is fast, flexible,and secure and offers multidimensional activity-basedaccounting.

FinalistGreatly improved integration made Microsoft Works4.0 a strong challenger to ClarisWorks this year — nomore switching back and forth from one module toanother. Version 4.0 adds a calendar; an address book;paint tools; table and slide-show creation; andWorksWizards, which help you create newsletters,greeting cards, and certificates.

Hardware Product of the Year

Power Macintosh 6100/60 / Apple made history in1994 when it broke away from the pack and offered the first personal comput-ers fueled by the power of RISC technology. The aptly named Power Macintoshseries, based on PowerPC microprocessors from the Apple/IBM/Motorola con-sortium, provides a startling level of computing power at prices unimaginableonly a few short years ago. As we go to press, nearly 400 native Power Macapplications have been released by a broad range of developers and PowerMacs are finding their way into offices, graphics and DTP shops, homes, andeducational institutions across the country and around the world. The PowerMac has arrived — and is prospering.

While acknowledging the success of all three members of the Power Macseries, our nod for Hardware Product of the Year goes to the Power Macintosh6100/60. At street prices hoveringat around half of the $2,495 eagerlypaid a decade ago by early 128KMacintosh enthusiasts, the 6100/60 delivers a powerful 1-2 punch oflow price and high performance.

Apple achieved the affordabilityof the Power Macintosh 6100/60without sacrificing engineering ex-cellence and design elegance. Thecomputer’s now familiar “pizzabox” case contains not only a mus-cular 60-MHz PowerPC 601 micro-processor but also — as with theother Power Macs introduced so far — a sophisticated motherboard designthat keeps the 601 humming and a rock-solid 68040LC emulator that protectsusers’ software investments.

Apple created a dozen new support chips for the Power Mac series that en-able snappy DRAM-based video, improved I/O management, 16-bit stereoaudio input and output, and efficient memory and cache management. In ad-dition, the 6100/60’s 7-inch NuBus slot stands ready to accept Apple’s upcom-ing Macintosh DOS Compatibility Card, an Intel 486DX2/66-based option forMac users who need Microsoft Windows performance beyond that provided byInsignia Solutions’ SoftWindows.

With the introduction of the Power Macintosh 6100/60, the vanguard of theRISC revolution became accessible to every user — reason enough for us tovote the 6100/60 our Hardware Product of the Year for 1994.


Innovation is still the watchword in the Mac’s most maturemarket, especially in the areas of image processing andcolor matching. Image collections on CD-ROM grew in

number and quality; it’s easier than ever to add great-lookinggraphics to publications. Pulling it all together is a snap too,thanks to key native Power Mac applications that shipped last year.

Desktop Publishing and Graphics

Imaging SoftwareAdobe Photoshop 3.0.1Several worthy contenders tried todethrone the champ last year, but AdobePhotoshop 3.0.1 answered the competitionwith multiple floating layers, redesignedcustomizable palettes, and drag-and-dropbetween open files — features that makecomposing images in Photoshop moreflexible and less tedious. Improved color-correction tools and enhanced filters withpreviews make this upgrade a must-havefor anyone who works with images.

FinalistsHSC Software’s Live Picture 1.5 presents a radical newway of manipulating images, making it possible to workwith huge color images in near real time. With theaddition of animation tools and an innovative featuredubbed the Image Hose, Fractal Design’s Painter 3.0expanded its reach beyond the natural-media paintingfor which it’s justly famous.

Drawing SoftwareFreeHand 4.0Users may balk at new interfaces, but inthe case of FreeHand 4.0, change isdefinitely for the better. This venerableillustration tool (formerly from Aldus butdeveloped by Altsys, now Macromedia)helps you work faster by running native on

Power Macs and offering suchfeatures as a centralizedcommand center called theInspector, drag-and-drop colorhandling, and screen-savingpalettes. FreeHand also handlesoversized pages (up to 54 inchessquare) and lets you work onmultiple pages at a time, making itpowerful enough to double as apage-layout program.

Prepress ProductColortronImagine the ability to work with color insuch a way that it remains consistent acrossmedia and lighting conditions, fromT-shirts to plastic tchotchkes, from printto television. That’s the achievement of theColortron, a futuristic-looking handhelddevice from Light Source that combinesthe abilities of a calibrator, light meter,densitometer, and spectrophotometerand ultimately promises device-independent color.

FinalistsFrom input to output, DayStar Digital’s ColorMatch 1.0offers the caliber of color calibration professional usersdemand by incorporating Eastman Kodak’s high-endcolor-matching technology. TrapWise 2.1, from AdobeSystems, not only receives a welcome speed boost byrunning native on Power Macs but it also offersexcellent automation capabilities and supports bothprocess and spot color.

FinalistsIllustrators who dabble in 3-D artwork will like AdobeDimensions 2.0, which sports a reworked interface.Adobe Illustrator 5.5 improves the few weak areas ofthis drawing tool, including new text-handlingcapabilities and a trapping filter.


with Drag and Drop. Cumulus PowerProtransforms the task of creating a usable,searchable library of images into a simple,intuitive process. And searching throughthat library later, even across a network, iseven easier.

FinalistsPerfect for portable documents, Ares’ FontChameleon1.0 uses a revolutionary technology that stores entiretypefaces as tiny “font descriptors”; use it to createcustom typefaces too. The king of Photoshop-plug-incollections, Kai’s Power Tools 2.1, from HSC Software,offers Power Mac-native speed, a revamped interface,and a bevy of valuable filters.

Visual ResourceTextureScape 1.5Graphic artists who prefer their ownbackgrounds and textures will likeSpecular International’s TextureScape 1.5,the best of several texture generatorsreleased this year. With it you can combineready-made patterns and then add

lighting, beveling, bumpiness, transpar-ency, and other effects. Multimedia artistscan even morph one texture with anotherand save the result as a QuickTime movie.Best of all, it’s Power Mac-native.

FinalistsOf the uniformly excellent CD-ROM image collectionsreleased by PhotoDisc this year, its Signature Series ofhigh-resolution, color-corrected images is noteworthyfor composition and quality. Xaos Tools’ Terrazzo 1.0puts a new twist on pattern generation by letting yousnip patches from an existing image for stitching into atiled pattern based on quilt symmetries.

Computer-Aided-Design SoftwareArchiCAD 4.5In ArchiCAD 4.5, Graphisoft adds newcapabilities that make this program a greattool for every step of the architecturalprocess. Included in this version are true-2-D solids modeling, expanded materialslistings, and texture-mapping in therenderer for creating more-realistic fly-throughs. Less expensive tools offer someof the features of ArchiCAD, but its cross-platform functionality and the professionalquality of all its components make it thearchitect’s choice.

FinalistsGraphsoft’s MiniCad 5.0, for all types of computer-aided design, offers a new plug-in architecture that letsyou find just the right tool. PowerCADD 5.0, fromEngineered Software, continues the tradition of easy-to-use drafting software, with a revised interface andbetter isometric-drawing tools.

Graphics/PublishingUtilityCumulus PowerPro 2.0Exploiting System 7.5’s Drag and Dropfunctionality to the max, Canto Software’s

CumulusPowerPro 2.0catalogs imagesquickly andeasily. Almostevery function,from assigningkeywords toperformingcomplicatedsearches, can beaccomplished

Software Product of the Year

CodeWarrior / In the normal course of events, a compiler is anunlikely candidate for Software Product of the Year. A compiler is a special pro-gram that lets application developers convert the code they write, in a human-comprehensible language such as C or Pascal, into instructions a computer canunderstand. Compilers are esoteric, behind-the-scenes stuff.

But 1994 was not a normal year for Mac users. That was the year when thePower Macs made their debut. If there’s one thing everyone knows aboutPower Macs, it’s that they’re fast. If there’s a second thing everyone knowsabout Power Macs, it’s that to take advantage of their speed, you need softwarecompiled specifically for their PowerPC processors.

Apple, of course, had a PowerPC compiler of its own. A slow one. A really slowone. So slow that most developers found they couldn’t be pro-ductive with it. And then there was IBM’s RS/6000-basedcompiler. It wasn’t slow: It was expensive. Really expen-sive. So expensive that most developers found theycouldn’t afford it.

Metrowerks’ CodeWarrior saved the day. With-out CodeWarrior, most of the native Power Macapplications available today would still be un-der construction. And Power Macs would be a flop.All but a small handful of the hundreds of native PowerMac applications available today were compiled with Code-Warrior. That’s a pretty impressive achievement for a software prod-uct many Mac users have never even heard of. So impressive, in fact,that we decided that it deserved the distinction of being the MacUserEditors’ Choice for Best Software Product of the Year.

After all, a great hardware platform is only as good as the software that runson it. Thanks to CodeWarrior, Power Mac users can count on a robust supply.


Nowhere was the impact of the Power Mac’s horsepower feltmore keenly than in multimedia and 3-D rendering, wheredaylong operations were cut to hours. Although buggy in its

initial release, Apple’s QuickTime 2.0 opened up opportunitiesfor full-motion, full-screen video on the Mac. The number ofmultimedia CD-ROM titles exploded for both Macs and PCs, butthe Mac remains the platform of choice for developing titles.

3-D-ModelingSoftwareAlias Sketch! 2.0Alias Research is well respected in theworkstation world for special-effectssoftware that can create realistic dinosaursand fantastic spaceships. Now Alias Sketch!2.0 brings much of that modeling power tothe average desktop in an interface anyillustrator who works in two dimensionscan understand. A familiar Bézier-pathtool, new path-extrusion and lofting tools,and a killer lighting preview make Sketch!2.0 the best tool for creating just about anythree-dimensional shape.

FinalistsRay Dream Designer 3.1 is a great choice for graphicdesigners who want to try out three-dimensionalsoftware, because it runs well on LCs and Power Macsalike. If you’re looking for animated warping tools andmetaball modeling, look no further than Strata’sStudioPro 1.5, a hot upgrade to last year’s finalist.

Animation SoftwareAfter Effects 2.0If two-dimensional animation is part ofyour business, you had better ownAfter Effects 2.0, now from Adobe Systems.The first version of the program was so

powerful that animatorsbought Macs for the solepurpose of running AfterEffects and Photoshop.After Effects 2.0, with itseasy-to-use timeline,Power Mac acceleration,and exciting new plug-ineffects, is more accessiblethan ever.

FinalistsProfessionals will appreciate many of the newdeformation features in Electric Image’s ElectricImageAnimation System 2.0, and new users will find thisversion more approachable. Besides running native onthe Power Mac and sporting an improved interface,VIDI Presenter Pro 3.0, from VIDI, includes a timelinewindow for controlling simultaneous animations andfeatures astounding sound.

Multimedia SoftwareDigital Chisel 1.2Digital Chisel 1.2, from Pierian Spring,may not be the most powerful multimediaauthoring application available on the Mac,but its ease of use, smart set of features,and liberal licensing scheme make it anobvious choice for educational and homeuse. Its streamlined interface makescreating multimedia projects simple.Digital Chisel’s database helpsteachers keep track of students’progress, and the companyencourages students to make afree copy for use at home andpay only $20 for a manual.

Multimedia


FinalistsApple Media Tool 1.1 offers improved interactivity,supports styled text, includes dissolve effects, and more.The de facto standard for authoring, completelyrewritten by Macromedia, Director 4.0 sports arevamped interface, improved scripting, and anapplication compiler.

version adds significant newfeatures, such as a QuickTimeCODEC, 60-field resolution,support for Photoshop plug-ins,true timeline editing, and pan andaudio-volume control. Overall, Avid hasdelivered a program that can transform aMac into a fast, sophisticated video-editingtool — great news for anyone who wants tocreate video on the desktop.

FinalistFavored by Hollywood types, Radius VideoVisionStudio 2.0 was the first video-capture board to deliver60 fields of interlaced video per second and still offersthe best picture quality.

Music ProductVivaceThis technically astonishing hardware/software combination provides students ofbrass and woodwind instruments withsmart orchestral accompaniment that

Breakthrough Technology of the Year

QuickTime VR / The number of CD-ROM titles exploded last year.Too bad so many of them are lackluster. Realizing the full potential of CD-ROMrequires something more than just converting movies to QuickTime clips.What’s needed is a breakthrough such as Apple’s QuickTime VR.

Although considered an extension of the QuickTime architecture, Quick-Time VR owes more of its technology to static photography than to dynamicdata streams. QuickTime VR allows developers to create, from a series of pho-tographs, a seamless, 360-degree panorama. The useris then able to navigate around the scene as if locatedinside it.

The QuickTime VR toolkit can take a series of 35mmphotos and stitch them together, taking into accountthe perspective changes from one photo to the next.Once the photos are stitched together, the QTVR toolkitallows developers to assign hot spots or jump points towhich other images can be attached.

Finally, the file is compressed — a single panoramatakes up less than 1 megabyte of memory. The QTVRplayer decompresses the image on the fly as the user scrolls across it, also cor-recting for perspective distortion. It’s a rich, all-encompassing experience inwhich the user is immersed in the scene but the technology doesn’t intrude.

Simon & Schuster Interactive’s CD-ROM Star Trek: The Next Generation Inter-active Technical Manual is a beautiful example of what is possible thanks toQuickTime VR technology. This disc lets users travel throughout the Starship En-terprise and explore in detail the original sets from the television series.

That’s just one example. QuickTime VR opens up new vistas for more-worldlyobjectives, from teaching history to traveling distant lands to exploring thecreative mind. It fulfills the promise of CD-ROM and beyond.

Special-EffectsSoftwareTypestry 2.1Flying titles and logos can add spice to apresentation or pack a wallop on television,thanks to Pixar’s Typestry 2.1. Professionalsand amateurs alike will love the power tocreate waving flags and sparkling lettersand rendering them with the professional’schoice, Renderman. Typestry’s new Scorewindow makes animation much easierthan before, and the rendering is moreflexible with the program’s built-in Lookseditor. Another plus: It supports GX fonts.

FinalistsElastic Reality brings us Elastic Reality 1.2, morphingsoftware that offers precision Bézier curves and PowerMac speed that rivals that of a Silicon Graphics Indy.Last year’s finalist MetaFlo’ offered humorous warpingeffects on static images; now MovieFlo’ 1.05, fromThe Valis Group, goes a step further with morphing andwarping of QuickTime movies as well.

Desktop-VideoProductAvid Media Suite Pro 3.0

The Avid Media Suite Pro3.0, from Avid, continuesto set the standard for a

reliable Mac video-editing system thatdelivers professionalresults. The latest

adapts to thespeed of their performances.Unlike earlier single-tempo, ensemble-minus-one accompaniment tools, CodaMusic Technology’s Vivace and its extensivelibrary of classical selections enable the“orchestra” to slow down to let studentswork on tricky passages, or to subtly varytempo along with the student.

FinalistsMark of the Unicorn’s Freestyle 1.0 is an innovativesongwriting tool that packages a MIDI sequencer andaccurate notation software with a new, intuitiveinterface. Practica Musica 3.06, a music-theory andintonation training system from Ars Nova Software,offers an easy-to-use interface plus rhythm training andother useful new features.


Internet mania swept the newsstands of America, andeveryone seemed to plug in. Making connections is easierand faster than ever too. New groupware applications and

remote-access hardware improved the usefulness of LANs as well,whether for people working at home or for those collaboratingwith coworkers via the office network.

CommunicationsSoftwareEudora 2.1Managing Internet e-mail is a joy withQualcomm’s Eudora 2.1. You can reach yourdial-up or network-based Internet account

from this flexible mail reader,which includes such advancedfeatures as message filtering,APOP and Kerberos security,and support for Apple events.With a refined interface andsimplified mail sorting, Eudorabrings the often arcane world ofInternet access to the desktop.

FinalistsMail is also a strength of SoftArc’s FirstClass 2.5, a BBSsystem with sophisticated new e-mail-routing featuresand support for DAL- and SQL-database queries.TCP/Connect II 2.0, from InterCon Systems, providesintegrated Internet access. You get mail, news, ftp,Gopher, and directory services plus several terminal-emulation modules.

Best ConnectivityProductRunShare 1.0.2If you’re waiting megaminutes to transfermultimegabyte files over a network,RunShare 1.0.2, from RUN, is for you.RunShare simply and transparently speedsnetwork file transfers by a factor of 5 to 7,reducing a minute-long file transfer tounder ten seconds. RunShare is completelyinvisible to the user too — you drag anddrop files to mounted Finder volumes asyou normally do. Best of all, it’s compatiblewith standard network protocols.

FinalistsThe DaynaLink ARA Server 1.1, from DaynaCommunications, is an innovative ARA server that has aRISC processor for fast communications and workswith as many as eight PCMCIA modems. Shiva’sLanRover/PLUS 3.0 is a high-end ARA server thatsupports more network protocols than any other server,allowing Macs and PCs to dial in to a mixed network.

Network-ManagementProductSkyline/Satellite 1.0Skyline/Satellite 1.0, a brand-new,innovative package from the ag group,pairs an application for archiving networktraffic (Satellite) with a graphic network-traffic display-and-analysis application(Skyline). Skyline/Satellite monitorscurrent and past network activity,including utilization as well as byte andpacket counts. It also supports animpressive number of protocols.

FinalistsFileWave 2.0, from Wave Research, provides a holisticapproach to automated software distribution andmanagement, with an interface that’s tightly integratedwith the Finder. Neon Software’s network-mappingand -analysis tool, LANSurveyor 2.0, now features IPsupport, improved reporting, and the ability tocustomize maps.

Connectivity and Communications


his issue marks the fifth anniversary of the John J. Anderson DistinguishedAchievement Award and the Derek Van Alstyne Rising Star Award, named aftertwo MacUser editors who were killed during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

John served as MacUser’s senior features editor for many years before he formed anadvanced projects group with Derek, a new employee acting as John’s right-hand man.The two saw potential in fledgling technologies that have become today’s hot topics —multimedia and on-line services. John created multimedia presentations that were asartful and thought-provoking as any of today’s CD-ROM titles. While he was working onwhat later became ZiffNet/Mac, John’s vision encompassed putting multimedia as well asadvertising on-line, developments we are just beginning to see realized today.

These awards embody the creative spirit of John and Derek, which we hope will inspiretoday’s developers.

Special-Achievement AwardsJohn J. Anderson Distinguished Achievement Award

T

Douglas C. EngelbartAsk what made Macs different from their com-mand-line predecessors, and the average per-son will probably name two features first: miceand windows. Press a little harder, and a savvyuser might point out that from the very start,Macs were designed to be used together; theycontained built-in network circuitry before anysoftware existed that could connect them toone another. How extraordinary, then, that allthese innovations — mice, windows, and per-sonal computers as communication devices —were originally invented or envisioned by asingle man, Douglas C. Engelbart.

When Doug began his research at the Stan-ford Research Institute in the late 1950s, com-puters were enormous; expensive; exclusive;isolated; and, to the uninitiated, incomprehen-sible as well. During the next 20 years, however,he began a lifelong quest to match the real

computing — which is just now beginning tobe realized through applications such as Mosaic(itself a descendant of Doug’s pioneering workwith hypertext) and Lotus Notes — promises abetter way to develop and share knowledge.We hope that computer science will catch upsoon — for Doug himself is still moving aheadwith new ideas. People everywhere would reapthe benefits.

Peter N. LewisThe Internet may be thehottest thing in com-puting these days, butMac users trying to surfthe Net would be muchpoorer if it weren’t forPeter N. Lewis. From his

home in Perth, the remote capital of WesternAustralia, this 26-year-old has written morethan a dozen applications that improve the wayMac users interact with the Internet.

Peter’s most notable achievement may beAnarchie, which began as a simple means of

Derek Van Alstyne Rising Star Awardsearching for files on the Internet. Since then,it’s grown into an intuitive Internet file-transferapplication that makes moving files onto andoff the Internet a drag-and-drop process.

But that only scratches the surface of themany contributions — most of them freewareor shareware — Peter has made in just the pastfour years. He wrote FTPd, which allows Macs toact as file servers on the Internet; MacTCPWatcher, a powerful tool for debugging MacInternet connections; several file-decodingutilities; and even an extension that speeds upyour CD-ROM-drive performance.

Although supplemented by shareware pay-ments from his programming efforts, Peter’s

potential of computers — a potential it some-times seemed only he could see — to the needsof humans. He was the first to see that comput-ers could be more than giant adding machines,that they could be tools for change of the mostprofound sort.

If Steve Jobs is the father of the Mac, thensurely Doug Engelbart is its great-uncle. Theconnections between Doug’s research, XeroxPARC’s Alto computer, and the Mac are easy totrace. A short list of Doug’s breakthroughs in-cludes the mouse (which he patented in 1963),on-screen windows, real-time collaboration,teleconferencing, and hypertext. It’s impossibleto imagine using a personal computer today ortapping into worldwide networks such as theInternet without his contributions.

Doug’s greatest dream, however, has yet tobe fully realized. It is that people can learn to usecomputers to create a whole that’s greater thanthe sum of its parts. Collaborative or workgroup

main job is as a computer-support staffer at asmall research center just off the campus ofCurtin University in Perth. After spending hisday advising Mac users, Peter turns to writingsoftware (and consulting long-distance withprogramming peers such as last year’s Eddywinner John Norstad and Eudora author SteveDorner). He even pays Curtin University for theafter-hours use of its equipment.

Especially considering the explosive growthof the Internet, Peter Lewis’ youth, productivity,and creativity suggest that he’s a face we’ll beseeing a lot more of in the years ahead — eitherin person or on the other side of a distantInternet connection.



Hardware

This CD-ROM changer enables you to loadseven discs at once — no caddiesrequired. Best of all, it’s a breeze to hookup, the software is solid, and the pricetag is not easy to beat.

FinalistsThe FWB SledgeHammer3500FMF II RAID systemintegrates fast hard-drive mechanisms, well-engineeredSCSI host adapters, and elegant software. The next stepin a family of high-speed storage systems, theMicroNet RavenPro 3600 PDS has two separate Fastand Wide SCSI-2 channels, making it possible to create aRAID disk array from a single host-adapter card.

Monochrome PrinterXanté Accel-a-Writer 8200For flexibility, you can’t beat the XantéAccel-a-Writer 8200. Its versatile paperhandling includes gatefold printing onpaper as large as 11.75 x 25 inches. Withresolutions of 600, 800, and 1,200 dpi, itcan serve as a business printer or a plain-paper typesetter. When it comes to speed,it’s no slouch either: The 8200’s RISCprocessor speeds letter- and legal-sizedoutput to 16 ppm. Halftone and fine-lineoutput are outstanding too, a boon forgraphic artists.

Mac users no longer have to pay a premium for Apple’s plug-and-play advantage. Prices for Mac hardware in 1994declined to PC levels, while quality and performance

improved. Multiple-frequency monitors became a commodity,CD-ROM drives became mainstream accessories, color printersbecame affordable, and high-capacity hard drives became a realityfor PowerBook users.

Color PrinterLaserMaster DisplayMakerProfessional

What’s the next big thing?Poster-sized printing,

and a clear choiceamong large-format

color printers is theLaserMaster DisplayMakerProfessional. Using itsmultiplatform AdvancedColor Server and Big InkDelivery System, thiscomplete four-color systemoutputs beautiful, richlycolored, high-quality printsas large as 36 inches wide by

18 feet long. The integration of hardwareand software makes large-format printinga snap.

FinalistsOf the many color inkjet printers that came out in 1994,the Epson Stylus Color stands out, with 720-dpiresolution and unparalleled image quality at a pricethat’s right for most home users. For photo-realisticprinting, the quick Tektronix Phaser 440 bringstogether glossy dye-sublimation color with full-bleedletter-sized output.

Storage ProductNakamichi MBR-7Choosing the best storageproduct can be like selecting thebest toaster — it’s hard todifferentiate one from another.But the Nakamichi MBR-7 —Nakamichi’s first Mac product

under the company’s name — has all thethings you hope to see in a Mac peripheral.


FinalistsThe Apple LaserWriter 16/600 PS cranks out 17letter-sized pages per minute and produces stunning600-dpi gray-scale-enhanced images. Another winnerin the company’s long line of printers, the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4MV gives you rapid output at600 dpi with enhanced gray scale and support fortabloid-extra output — at an unbeatable price.

the speed of the Power Mac, you simplyclip this replacement crystal-clockoscillator onto the back of the one installedby Apple. Newer didn’t invent “clockchippers,” but the compact design of thePower Clip allows it to work with mostPower Mac models, and its programmabilityallows a range of operating frequencies.

FinalistsHarnessing the power of four DSP processors on a single7-inch NuBus card, the Radius PhotoEngineaccelerates key Photoshop functions to speeds beyondthose of even the fastest Power Mac. Accelerated RGB-to-CMYK conversion, integrated QuickDraw, andPhotoshop acceleration make the Radius Thunder IIGX•1600 a good display card for graphic designers.

ScannerEpson ES-1200CScanners used to be a luxury, but the EpsonES-1200C gives you 600-x-1,200-dpiresolution at a bargain price. Low-cost,high-resolution scanning doesn’t stop thereeither: You also get interpolated resolutionas high as 4,800 dpi, plus 30-bit color,Adobe Photoshop, and Second Glance’s

Display ProductNEC MultiSync XE17A monitor that’s easier to use with a Macthan Apple’s own? That’s what you get withthe MultiSync XE17 from NEC. Its on-screenmenu controls are animated, so you cansee what they’ll do before you makeadjustments. Unlike most third-partymonitors, the XE17 comes with all Macessentials inside the box, including a cableadapter, software for resolution switching,and automatic power-down.

FinalistsThe Proxima Desktop Projector 2800 combinesgreat image quality and convenience in a smart-lookingLCD-based multimedia projection system with built-inspeakers and optional Cyclops capability. The RadiusSuperMatch 21T•XL features a 21-inch MitsubishiDiamondTron aperture-grille tube, for a sharp, brightpicture at resolutions as high as 1,600 x 1,200 pixels.

Accelerator ProductNewer Technology Power ClipExtract maximum speedfrom the Power Mac withthe Newer TechnologyPower Clip. To increase

versatile ScanTastic plug-in and DA. Of themany excellent flatbed scanners on themarket this year, the ES-1200C is the bestall-around package.

FinalistsWhen flatbed scanners won’t do, turn to the KodakProfessional RFS 2035 Film Scanner, which scansslides and film quickly with great quality. ThePixelCraft Pro Imager 4000 provides the excellentaccuracy and color-separation capabilities found in thecompany’s high-end, big-ticket scanners.

Input DeviceSoftBoardCorporate types have a real time-saver inthe Microfield Graphics SoftBoard, Model

201. You no longer have toscramble to copy whiteboard notesduring meetings or lectures if youhave the SoftBoard. Whatever isdrawn on this large digitalwhiteboard appears on the screensof connected Macs. You can save,play back, and edit the images andsend them to other Mac users.

FinalistsNot only can you mouse around withoutstrain when you use the KensingtonThinking Mouse but you can also program

any of its four buttons to print a document, double-clickon a selection, and so on. The Connectix QuickCam, a4-bit gray-scale digital-video camera about the size andshape of a cue ball, is one of the best bargains of theyear — and the ultimate desktop accessory.



Personal MacintoshHot-selling Performa models with built-in CD-ROM drivesbrought the Mac experience home, fueling the demand forproducts that appeal to everyone’s desire to make a personal

statement with their Macs. You can’t turn around withoutbumping into wacky screen savers, time-saving PIMs, hair-raisinggames, and educational and entertaining CD-ROMs. Easy-to-useutilities help you master your Mac when the wild and wackywreak havoc.

System EnhancementRAM Doubler 1.5Finally, something that’s not too good tobe true: Connectix’s RAM Doubler 1.5really does double your RAM, almosttransparently, and — surprisingly —without serious problems. As applicationscontinue to place greater demands on yourmachine’s memory, RAMDoubler helpsyou get more mileage out of your Mac. Forless than $60, it’s one of the cheapestupgrades you can get.

FinalistsEasy-to-use locking and encryption features combinedwith welcome emergency unlocking make Symantec’sNorton DiskLock 3.0 ideal for basic security. Accessingfiles and folders is easier and faster than ever withNow Utilities 5.0. Now Software’s updated classicfeatures old favorites such as SuperBoomerang andsnazzy new ones such as FolderMenus.

Diagnostic UtilityMacTools Pro 4.0Novice and power users alike appreciatethe easy-to-create RAM startup disk and

diagnostic features in MacTools Pro 4.0,from the Central Point Division ofSymantec. MacTools efficiently diagnosesand repairs disk problems, and you canuse it to recover erased data (or trash datairrevocably) as well. If you’re having hard-disk problems, running MacTools Pro 4.0is the place to start.

FinalistsExtension- and control-panel-conflict tester ConflictCatcher II 2.1, from Casady & Greene, now spotsslowpokes on your Power Mac by telling you whichstartup files have non-native code. In addition tochecking your Mac’s speed, Symantec’s disk-diagnostictool Norton Utilities 3.1 plays bookie by giving youthe odds on successful file recovery.

Best DesktopDiversionStar Trek: The Next GenerationScreen SaverAlthough Trekkers might take their favoriteshow very seriously, the joy of BerkeleySystems’ Star Trek: The Next GenerationScreen Saver is its sense of humor.Highlighted by Lieutenant Worf ’s


hyperactive weapons-training session andCommander Data’s instructive dancelesson, this collection of 13 After Darkmodules is a hoot for hard-core and casualTrek fans alike.

FinalistsBerkeley Systems’ After Dark 3.0 is an update of theold favorite — complete with even more-intricateFlying Toasters and Fish (and an unfortunatelyunforgettable karaoke anthem) plus a Power Mac-native module. Delrina’s The Far Side Screen Saver isboth bizarre and beautiful, featuring 256-colorpaintings depicting the history of Earth through thecracked worldview of Gary Larson.

Reference SoftwareMicrosoft Bookshelf ’94If Microsoft Bookshelf ’94 were simply whatits name implies — seven reference books(including a dictionary, a thesaurus, anencyclopedia, an atlas, and an almanac)packed onto one CD-ROM — it wouldalready be a huge time- and space-saver.But Bookshelf goes further: It adds anintuitive interface for easy searching, astrong collection of multimedia elements,and enough book-to-book links to makeexploration of any topic a joy.

FinalistsMicrosoft Cinemania ’94 includes more than 20,000movie reviews from respected critics, plus links to stills,songs, video clips, and film lore. IVI Publishing’sMayo Clinic Family Health Book is an excellenthome resource on health and medicine, with detailedanatomy drawings and animations linked to clearlywritten text.

Best EdutainmentSoftwareCartoon History of the UniverseEver wanted to see the inside of the GreatPyramid of Cheops? Putnam New Media’s

Cartoon History of the Universe gives youthat and more — 13 billion years ofhistory, including topics ranging from theOld Testament to the origin of sex. Putnamenhanced Larry Gonnick’s comic-bookseries with animations, sound, games,creative graphics, and no-brainernavigation. Adults and kids alike willfind this a fun and engaging way tolearn history.

FinalistsFreak Show, from The Voyager Company, featureswriting, music, and characters by the performancegroup The Residents that are every bit as strange as thecarnival sideshow it depicts. You don’t have to be aTrekker to enjoy exploring the Starship Enterprise, usingone of Apple’s latest technologies, QuickTime VR, inSimon & Schuster Interactive’s Star Trek: The NextGeneration Interactive Technical Manual.

continues

Personal-Organizational ToolClaris Organizer 1.0A simple yet powerful integrated personalinformation manager, Claris Organizer 1.0offers a refined, intuitive interface and easylinking among personal information,calendar events, and items in a to-do list.And with all of its functionality, it doesn’tuse a lot of RAM or disk space. For userswho want to go electronic with theirpersonal information, Claris Organizer isa great choice.

FinalistsCommon Knowledge’s Arrange 2.0 is a high-end PIMfor people who need to carefully organize largeamounts of personal information in any number ofcombinations. The program that made tracking personalfinances easy, Intuit’s Quicken 5.0 adds a paper-tapecalculator, graphing capabilities, and the ability todownload stock information from CompuServe andautomatically update your portfolio.

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Personal MacintoshChildren’s SoftwareOdell Down Under 1.1When your kids play Odell Down Under 1.1,from MECC, learning sneaks up on them

from behind — like thepredators they’re trying toavoid. In this colorful simula-tion game, they start out astiny, nearly defenseless fish andthen work their way up thefood chain by digesting a richbouillabaisse of underseaecological facts. If your kidslearn what to eat, what’s eatingthem, and which fellow fishthey can count as allies, they’llachieve their goal: sharkdom.

FinalistsBrøderbund’s Math Workshop provides a wittycollection of challenging games that teach reasoningand pattern recognition at skill levels ranging fromelementary to parent-befuddling. Thinkin’ ThingsCollection 2 is the latest proof that its publisher,Edmark, is the acknowledged leader in inspiringimagination through astonishingly inventive play.

Best GameSimCity 2000 1.1Did last November’s election leave youvoting for the lesser of two evils? WithMaxis’ SimCity 2000 1.1, you can be mayor,city planner, and every other electedofficial wrapped into one. The gorgeous3-D graphics are enough to instill civicpride, and the new ability to build a watersystem, highways, and subsimulationswill keep you meddling in pseudopolitics

for months.

FinalistsFind treasures in abandoned mines inDynamix’s revamped classic arcade-stylegame, Lode Runner: The LegendReturns. Battle your evil twin and, onceagain, save the beautiful princess inBrøderbund’s Prince of Persia 2:The Shadow & the Flame.

Eddy Watch: Canvas 4 (Deneba): If rumoredplans bear fruit, a redesignedinterface plus GX and OpenDocsupport may position Canvas tosiphon users away from Illustratorand FreeHand.Citizen PN60 for the Macintosh(Citizen America): PowerBook-toting travelers will want thisflashlight-sized printer forchurning out color or mono-chrome pages on the road.FreeHand 5.0 (Macromedia):Wrested away from Adobe by itsdeveloper, Altsys (which thenmerged with Macromedia),FreeHand 5.0 is taking onIllustrator with a vengeance, withthe addition of plug-in tools andfilters plus the ability to useIllustrator 5 filters.The Journeyman Project 2: Buriedin Time (Sanctuary Woods/PrestoStudios): This sequel promises aricher story as you once againprotect the past from evildoerswith live-action video, advancedsound, and killer 3-D graphics.Marathon (Bunjie Software): Anetwork-playable game that putsyou into an alien spacecraftsurrounded by enemies, it offersbetter graphics, sounds, andexcitement than current champDoom.


h: 1995 ContendersTaxi (News Electronic Data): Whenyou’re in a strange town, thispackage helps you find a hotel ordining spot based on the well-known Zagat rating system.Maps and directions guide you toyour destination in several largeU.S. cities.TextureMaker 1.0 (Adobe): Secondin the Aldus/Adobe Accessoriesline, it creates interesting, usefultextures quickly and easily at abargain price.Toshiba MK 2728 (Toshiba):Toshiba will deliver the first1-GB, 2.5-inch drive mechanism,which should be the perfectcompanion for multimediapresentations on a PowerPC-based PowerBook.Total Distortion (Rocket Science):This long awaited CD-ROMcombines an interactiveexploration/quest game andarcade-style diversions with toolsfor creating your own musicvideo with a library of music,video clips, and effects as well asfootage you “shoot” as youexplore several virtual worlds.Turbo 601 (DayStar Digital): At lastMac IIci owners can get thebenefit of PowerPC acceleration,which pushes the IIci to speedsrivaling those of Power Mac

6100s, without buying anew machine.UltraStor Drives (IBM): IBMpromises a whopping 10.1-GB,3.5-inch mechanism withblistering speed. It may not becheap, but it will offer thecapacity necessary to accommo-date minutes of digital video oryears of your company’s records.UniQorn (SoftPress Systems) andVivaPress Professional (InterpressTechnologies): Two fresh takes onpage layout, these newcomersoffer features and capabilitiescurrently lacking in PageMakerand QuarkXPress, such as fullsupport for Apple’s GX technol-ogy (UniQorn) and free-formframe creation (VivaPress Pro).XRes (Fauve Software): Thisimage-editing program promisesto challenge the heavyweightswith its Live Picture-like ability todeal with large images and thenatural-media tools of Painterwhile requiring just 4 MB of RAM.Zip Drive (Iomega): Iomegareturned to the drawing board todeliver Bernoulli technology in a3.5-inch form factor. A $200 listprice and a 100-MB disc thatcosts only $20 could finally makebackup painless, at least on thepocketbook.

Adobe Dimensions 2.0$199Adobe Systems800-833-6687415-961-4400

Adobe Illustrator 5.5$595Adobe Systems800-833-6687415-961-4400

Adobe Photoshop 3.0.1$895Adobe Systems800-833-6687415-961-4400

After Dark 3.0$50Berkeley Systems510-540-5535

1994 Product Directory

As soon as we rip open the envelopes to announce this year’s winners,we’re already scoping out potential nominees for next year’s awards.Here are some products that have caught our eye.

data. This inexpensive mecha-nism delivers 650 MB of datastorage that’s expected to bebuilt in to systems in 1995.Phaser 540 (Tektronix): The firstround of color laser printers hasfallen short on image quality, butTektronix will deliver a color laserprinter that offers continuous-tone printing for when you needto print more than a simplepie chart.QuickBooks for Mac (Microsoft/Intuit): This easy-to-useaccounting package may finallycome to the Mac, if the proposedMicrosoft/Intuit merger doesn’tdelay it.Radius VideoVision Telecast(Radius): An upgrade to RadiusVideoVision Studio, thishardware/software combinationmay squeak by video-editingbehemoth Avid’s Media Suiteproducts. This system is designedto meet the needs of broadcastprofessionals.SimTown (Maxis): SimCity for thegrammar-school set. Kids cancreate and populate a town,allocate resources (natural,human, and industrial), and evenvisit households and workplacesto see how their “subjects” spendtheir days.

Media 100 2.0 (Data Translation): Aprevious year’s Eddy finalist, thishardware/software package willoffer tighter integration withQuickTime and component-videoinput/output that adds up tobetter looking videotapes.Now Contact 3.0 and Now Up-to-Date 3.0 (Now Software): Thistightly integrated tag teammanages your personalinformation while keeping youcurrent with events back atthe office.OneWorld Internet (GlobalVillage): The OneWorld Internetserver promises an easy way toconnect your site at 28.8 Kbps orover ISDN with full support forQuickMail and Microsoft Mailusers who need to send andreceive mail across the net.PaperPort (Visioneer): Scanningand OCR combine in one portabledevice that allows tightintegration with a variety ofproducts. You get scanning anddocument storage withoutpressing a button.PD (Panasonic): PD drives playconventional CD-ROMs but alsoaccept cartridges that contain the120-millimeter discs for CD-ROMdrives that use phase-changetechnology to write and store

After Effects 2.0$1,995Adobe Systems800-833-6687415-961-4400

Aldus Persuasion 3.0$495Adobe Systems800-833-6687415-961-4400

Alias Sketch! 2.0$695Alias Research800-447-2542416-362-9181

Apple LaserWriter 16/600 PS$2,500Apple Computer800-776-2333408-996-1010

Apple Media Tool 1.1$795Apple Computer800-776-2333408-996-1010

ArchiCAD 4.5$4,495Graphisoft800-344-3468415-266-8720

Arrange 2.0$349Common Knowledge800-954-3800415-325-9900

Avid Media Suite Pro 3.0$9,995Avid800-949-2843508-640-6789

Cartoon History of theUniverse$40Putnam New Media703-860-3375

Claris Organizer 1.0$49Claris408-727-8227

ClarisImpact 1.0$399Claris408-727-8227

ClarisWorks 3.0$129Claris408-727-8227

CodeWarrior$399Metrowerks512-346-1935

ColorMatch 1.0$239DayStar Digital800-962-2077404-967-2077

Colortron$1,195Light Source800-231-7226415-925-4200

Conflict Catcher II 2.1$80Casady & Greene800-359-4920408-484-9228

Connectix QuickCam$149Connectix800-950-5880415-571-5100

Cumulus PowerPro 2.0$1,495Canto Software800-332-2686415-431-6871

DaynaLink ARA Server 1.1$2,995Dayna Communications801-269-7200

Digital Chisel 1.2$159Pierian Spring503-222-2044

continues ▼


1994 Product DirectoryDirector 4.0$1,195Macromedia800-945-4061415-252-2000

Dynamics C/S+$4,000 – $50,000Great Plains Software800-456-0025701-281-0550

Elastic Reality 1.2$349Elastic Reality608-273-6585

ElectricImage AnimationSystem 2.0$7,495Electric Image818-577-1627

Epson ES-1200C$1,499Epson800-289-3776310-782-0770

Epson Stylus Color$699Epson800-289-3776310-782-0770

Eudora 2.1$65Qualcomm619-587-1121

The Far Side Screen S aver$40Delrina800-268-6082408-363-2345

FileMaker Pro Server 2.0 v1$1,499Claris408-727-8227

FileWave 2.0$895Wave Research510-704-3920

FirstClass 2.5$95 server software plus$395 five-user packSoftArc905-415-7000

FontChameleon 1.0$295Ares800-783-2737415-578-9090

Freak Show$40The Voyager Company800-446-2001914-591-5500

FreeHand 4.0$595Altsys/Macromedia800-945-4061415-252-2000

Freestyle 1.0$195Mark of the Unicorn617-576-2760

Nisus Writer 4.0$495Nisus800-922-2993619-481-1477

Norton DiskLock 3.0$129Symantec800-441-7234408-253-9600

Norton Utilities 3.1$149Symantec800-441-7234408-253-9600

Now Utilities 5.0$90Now Software503-274-2800

Odell Down Under 1.1$60MECC800-685-6322612-569-1500

Painter 3.0$499Frac tal Design408-688-8800

PixelCraft Pro Imager 4000$2,995PixelCraft800-933-0330510-562-2480

PowerCADD 5.0$795Engineered Software910-299-4843

Power Macintosh 6100/60$1,819 – $2,499Apple Computer800-776-2333408-996-1010

Practica Musica 3.06$140Ars Nova Software800-445-4866206-889-0927

Prince of Persia 2:The Shadow & the Flame$35Brøderbund800-521-6263415-382-4400

Proxima DesktopProjector 2800$8,995Proxima800-447-7694619-457-5500

Quicken 5.0$40Intuit800-624-8742415-322-0573

Radius PhotoEngine$1,099Radius800-227-2795408-541-6100

FWBSledgeHammer3500FMF II$7,599FWB415-474-8055

Hewlett-PackardLaserJet 4MV$3,549Hewlett-Packard800-752-0900

Kai’s Power Tools 2.1$199HSC Software310-392-8441

Kensington Thinking Mouse$100Kensington Microware800-535-4242415-572-2700

Kodak Professional RFS 2035Film Scanner$7,995Eastman Kodak800-242-2424716-253-0740

LanRover/PLUS 3.0$4,999Shiva800-458-3550617-270-8300

LANSur veyor 2.0Five zones, $399;unlimited zones, $695Neon Software510-283-9771

LaserMaster DisplayMakerProfessional$29,995LaserMaster800-950-6868612-944-0522

Live Pic ture 1.5$3,495HSC Software805-566-6200

Lode Runner:The Legend Returns$46Dynamix800-326-6654503-343-0772

M.Y.O.B. 5.0$140; with payroll, $240Best!Ware201-586-2200

Maconomy 2.3$9,500Maconomy NE508-460-8337

MacTools Pro 4.0$150Central Point800-445-4208503-690-8090

MapInfo 3.0$1,295MapInfo800-327-8627518-285-6000

Math Workshop$40Brøderbund800-521-6263415-382-4400

Mayo ClinicFamily Health Book$60IVI Publishing800-432-1332612-996-6000

Microfield GraphicsSoftBoard, Model 201$2,995Microfield Graphics503-626-9393

MicroNet RavenPro3600 PDS$8,595MicroNet714-453-6000

Microsoft Bookshelf ’94$99Microsoft800-426-9400206-882-8080

Microsoft Cinemania ’94$80Microsoft800-426-9400206-882-8080

Microsoft Excel 5.0$329Microsoft800-426-9400206-882-8080

Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0$300Microsoft800-426-9400206-882-8080

Microsoft Works 4.0$100Microsoft800-426-9400206-882-8080

MiniCAD 5.0$795Graphsoft410-290-5114

MovieFlo’ 1.05$699The Valis Group800-825-4704415-435-5404

Nak amichi MBR-7$649Nakamichi310-538-8150

NEC MultiSync XE17$1,060NEC800-632-4636708-860-9500

Newer TechnologyPower Clip$245Newer Technology800-678-3726316-685-4904

Radius SuperMatch 21T•XL$2,599Radius800-227-2795408-541-6100

Radius Thunder II GX•1600$3,999Radius800-227-2795408-541-6100

Radius VideoVisionStudio 2.0$4,849Radius800-227-2795408-541-6100

RAM Doubler 1.5$99Connectix800-950-5880415-571-5100

Ray Dream Designer 3.1$395Ray Dream415-960-0766

RunShare 1.0.2Two-user version, $299;five-user version, $749RUN408-353-8423

Signature Series$299 eachPhotoDisc800-528-3472206-441-9355

SimCity 2000 1.1$55Maxis800-336-2947510-254-9700

Skyline/Satellite 1.0$795ag group800-466-2447510-937-7900

Star Trek: The NextGeneration InteractiveTechnical Manual$70Simon & Schuster Interactive212-373-8142

Star Trek: The NextGeneration Screen Saver$30Berkeley Systems510-540-5535

StudioPro 1.5$1,495Strata800-678-7282801-628-5218

TCP/Connect II 2.0$495InterCon Systems703-709-9890

Tektronix Phaser 440$7,995Tektronix800-835-6100503-627-7111

Terrazzo 1.0$199Xaos Tools415-487-7000

TextBridge 2.0$99Xerox800-248-6550508-977-2000

TextureScape 1.5$195Specular International800-433-7732413-253-3100

Thinkin’ Things Collection 2$40Edmark800-426-0856206-556-8400

TrapWise 2.1$4,995Adobe Systems800-833-6687415-961-4400

Typestry 2.1$175Pixar800-888-4856510-236-4000

VIDI Presenter Pro 3.0$1,995VIDI818-358-3936

Vivace$2,295Coda Music Technology612-937-9611

WordPerfect 3.1$395WordPerfect,Novell Applications Group800-321-4566801-225-5000

Xanté Accel-a-Writer 8200$6,995Xanté800-926-8839205-476-8189


TODAY’S WELL-EQUIPPED OFFICE has atleast two printers: a monochrome laserprinter for fast, high-volume printing of text,line drawings, and gray-scale graphics and acolor printer for slower, low-volume printingof charts, presentations, and photographicimages. For years, business users have beenwaiting for the day when the speed, afford-ability, and convenience of laser printingcould expand into the world of color outputand when the two essential office printers could merge into one.Today, with the advent of three color laser printers in the $10,000range from Hewlett-Packard, QMS, and Xerox, that day has finallycome — but we recommend that you keep the champagne on ice.

Because color laser printers are based on the same technology asthe monochrome laser printers found in nearly all offices, you’dthink they would function just like those familiar workhorses —with the bonus of producing color output. You should be able toconnect a color laser printer to your network quickly and easily; tossin some color toner along with the standard black toner; fill thepaper tray with your current stock of paper; and tell everyone tostart pumping out color reports, presentations, memos, andscanned images. And, of course, the printer should hum along atprinting speeds of 8 ppm or faster while producing the sharp textwe’ve come to expect from monochrome laser printers and thehigh-quality color we’ve come to expect from thermal-wax printers.

Unfortunately, the reality of this first crop of color laser printers isnot as rosy as the promise. The printers failed to win kudos from us

L ABSZD

The Color-LaserPromiseThe all-in-one

advantage of a colorlaser printer isfinally affordable —but should youinvest in one today?

By Tony Bojorquez

in nearly every important area— output quality, speed, cost,and ease of use. Yet all is notlost. Each product provides anappealing all-in-one, plain-paper printing solution that,for some offices, may outweighany disadvantages. And since the printers we tested are first-gen-eration products, they should improve over time. Until then, here’sour report on the pitfalls and promises of color laser printers.

First ImpressionsWhen you first see the HP Color LaserJet, the QMS magicolor LaserPrinter, and the Xerox 4900 Color Laser Printer, you’ll be struck byhow big they are. Each weighs over 100 pounds and is about the sizeof a small office refrigerator. That’s significantly larger than anApple LaserWriter and even bigger than most thermal-wax anddye-sublimation printers.

The first affordablecolor laser printers: theHP Color LaserJet, theQMS magicolor, and theXerox 4900.

PHO

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COLOR LASER PRINTERS

The Bottom LineTHERE’S NO CLEAR WINNER among the three color laserprinters we tested: None received our seal of approval.

Instead, we recommend that you wait for the second generation ofthese promising products. That said, you may find that having all-in-one printing outweighs any drawbacks these products might have. Ifso, choose the Xerox 4900 Color Laser Printer for business graphics orthe QMS magicolor Laser Printer for desktop publishing. If ease of useis your top priority, the HP Color LaserJet is your best bet.

3 = OUTSTANDING

2 = ACCEPTABLE

1 = POOR

mmm HP Color LaserJet 1 3 1 2

mmm QMS magicolor Laser Printer 1 3 1 2

mmm Xerox 4900 Color Laser Printer 1 3 1 2

Listing is alphabetical.

OUTPUT

QUALITY

PRICE/

PERFORMANCE

CUSTOMER

SERVICE

PRINTIN

G

SPEED

L ABSZD

Pop open the top of any of these printers, and you’ll be greeted bysome pretty complex innards (see the “How a Color Laser PrinterWorks” sidebar). Installing and maintaining these printers is a jobbest left to your office’s network technician. To help out, QMS willsend a technician to your site for $99 to set up its printer. HP andXerox don’t offer a similar service, but unlike QMS, they do provideclear, well-written manuals that help you through the installation.

Unlike monochrome laser printers or thermal-wax or dye-subprinters, color laser printers have a multitude of parts that must beinstalled and replaced at regular intervals. You can’t just replace aspent toner cartridge or color ribbon with a new one and be donewith it. The QMS magicolor and the Xerox 4900 (which each have aHitachi print engine) have 12 consumable components apiece; theHP Color LaserJet (which has a Konica print engine) has 9. That’s alot of supplies to keep on hand.

Although monochrome laser printers have the toner, the devel-oper, and the OPC drum contained in one handy cartridge, colorlaser printers require a separate toner bottle or cartridge for yellow,magenta, cyan, and black; a separate developer base for each color;and a separate OPC drum. These are the parts you’ll replace mostfrequently. HP estimates that each toner bottle lasts for about 2,000prints (or one to two months) in a typical business environment.The developer and drum should last for about 30,000 to 40,000 prints.

The HP Color LaserJet is the easiest to maintain, since HP’s tonercomes in sealed bottles you insert into position. Pressing a leverinside the printer removes the seal on the toner bottle, thereby al-lowing the toner reservoir to fill up without any toner spilling out.You’ll find it much easier to spill toner with the QMS magicolor andthe Xerox 4900.

About every 80,000 prints, you also need to replace the transferbelt and fuser system. Again, we had problems installing all theseparts. For example, with the QMS magicolor and the Xerox 4900, ittook our experienced technicians several attempts to properly in-stall the photoreceptor module — a specially coated componentthat is supposed to slide into the printer and fit snugly. We hate toburst your bubble, but this first generation of color laser printers are

a far cry from being plug-and-play peripherals.In spite of the number of consumables and their high cost (the

total price of replacement parts for the Xerox 4900, for example, is$2,585), the price per page for output is relatively low compared tothat of other color printers, mainly because color laser printers useplain paper. A monochrome page printed at 5-percent coverage(typical coverage for a memo) costs only about 2 cents, comparableto the cost per page for output from a monochrome laser printer. Afour-color page at 5-percent coverage for each color (typical cover-age for a financial chart) costs between 15 cents and 20 cents —significantly lower than the cost per page for thermal-wax and dye-sub prints.

Getting to Know ThemLet’s suppose you don’t have to worry about maintenance or instal-lation — after all, that’s what the computer technician at your com-pany gets paid to do. If the output quality is good enough, then acolor laser printer — with its plain-paper output and all-in-oneapproach to printing business graphics — might be worth a fewmaintenance headaches.

All three printers support a resolution of at least 300 x 300 dpi.The QMS magicolor can also print at 600 x 600 dpi, and the Xerox4900 can achieve 600 x 300 dpi and 1,200 x 300 dpi. To get thesehigher resolutions with the QMS magicolor and the Xerox 4900, youneed to add more RAM. Fortunately, each printer uses standardSIMMs, so adding more memory is a reasonably priced option.

In spite of its “lowly” 300-dpi resolution, the HP Color LaserJetproduced the best monochrome text and line art of the three print-ers. Like its monochrome cousins, the Color LaserJet uses HP’s REt(Resolution Enhancement technology) to smooth the jagged edgesof text and lines. Still, none of the three printers can match mostmonochrome-only laser printers of comparable resolution in textoutput quality. Blacks were solid and well saturated, but letters andlines showed noticeable jagged edges and lacked sharpness. Inshort, the text output quality is fine for memos, reports, and busi-ness correspondence, but your documents won’t show fine detail.

Color output quality ranged from quite good to nearly unusable.We printed documents that contained only solid colors — memos,clip art, charts, presentations, and other business graphics — aswell as documents that contained complex drawings and scanned,photographic images. Both the QMS magicolor and the Xerox 4900produce glossy printouts; the output from the HP Color LaserJet hasa more subdued, matte look, reminiscent of inkjet-printer output.Your preference will depend on taste more than on any tangiblequality issues. No matter whether the output is glossy or matte,however, prints do not smear, fade, peel, melt, or rub off onto otherpages, as they do with other color-printing technologies.

When printing solid colors, none of the printers produces consis-tent color. Colors varied enormously from printer to printer; theyeven varied when printed at different resolutions on the sameprinter. For example, the Xerox 4900 produced colors that weremore saturated at 1,200 x 300 dpi than at 300 or 600 dpi, but at thehigher resolution, the colors looked muddier and the neutral areastook on a reddish-brown tint.

Only the Xerox 4900 produced acceptable gradations. The QMSmagicolor displayed slight banding problems at 300 dpi and serious


Output Quality Compared / what you can expect to getEveryone’s familiar with the output you can get from monochrome laserprinters and from color thermal-wax printers. So how does the outputfrom color laser printers compare to these standards? Unfortunately, nottoo well.

To test output quality, we printed a variety of documents, from text tosimple color graphics to complex scanned images. We printed the imagesat various resolutions and on several types of laser-printer paper. Here’s alook at the best of the lot.

COMPARING TEXT QUALIT Y

COMPARING COLOR QUALIT Y

FOR MEMOS, REPORTS, AND STANDARD CORRESPONDENCE, the text output quality produced by color laser printers is fine, but it isn’t as sharp asthat from monochrome laser printers. Of the three color laser printers, the HP Color LaserJet produced the highest-quality text, thanks to HP’sproprietary REt (Resolution Enhancement technology). The QMS magicolor’s text output was noticeably better at 600 x 600 dpi than at 300 x 300dpi. Likewise, the Xerox 4900’s text was better at 600 x 300 dpi than at 300 x 300 dpi, but there was little improvement at 1,200 x 300 dpi.

HP Color LaserJet QMS magicolor Laser Printer Xerox 4900 Color Laser Printer

300 x 300 dpi 600 x 600 dpi 300 x 300 dpi 1,200 x 300 dpi600 x 300 dpi

L ABSZD

300 x 300 dpi

FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC OUTPUT, you’ll still need a thermal-wax or dye-sub printer. Once again, the HP Color LaserJet’s halftoning algorithm makesoutput look grainy, with a significant loss of detail. Of the three color laser printers, the QMS magicolor produced the best photographic-imageoutput, although it didn’t handle light areas well. Output produced by the Xerox 4900 lacked detail, and once again, colors looked muddy whenprinted at 1,200 x 300 dpi.


300 x 300 dpi 300 x 300 dpi 600 x 600 dpi 300 x 300 dpi 1,200 x 300 dpi600 x 300 dpi

COMPARING PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES

THE SOLID COLORS produced by color laser printers can look correct, but they are not consistent and they don’t match the colors on your screen.Note the variation in color in all the samples above. The HP Color LaserJet’s halftoning algorithm makes colors look grainy. The QMS magicolor’scolors are marred by halos and misregistration. The Xerox 4900 also exhibits problems with halos and misregistration, and at 1,200 x 300 dpi,colors become muddy.


300 x 300 dpi 1,200 x 300 dpi600 x 300 dpi300 x 300 dpi300 x 300 dpi 600 x 600 dpi



Once the completed image ison the transfer drum, an evenstronger charge transfers it topaper passing between it and atransfer roller (behind thetransfer drum), not shown.

3As the OPC belt passes thetransfer drum, a strongerelectrical charge attracts thetoner image, storing it on thedrum. For color images, the beltrepeats the image-making cyclefour times: once each for yellow,magenta, cyan, and black toner.

1A precharger unit puts an even chargeacross the moving OPC (organicphotoconductor) belt. A pulsing laser beamthen scans the belt from below, removingthe charge where it strikes the OPC belt.

4

5 Finally, the paper is pulled upthrough the fuser unit, whereheat and pressure fuse the tonerto the paper, and the completedpage emerges from the printer.

2 The OPC belt then passes underthe developer/toner unit. Coloredtoner is attracted to the areas onthe belt where the laser hasremoved the charge.

How a Color Laser Printer Works / a peek insideIt all starts when you click on the Print button. First your Mac sendsPostScript image data to the color laser printer, and then the printer’smicroprocessor-controlled RIP, or raster-image processor, converts thatdata into instructions that enable the printer to produce the grid of

colored dots that will form the output. The illustration below showshow the QMS and Xerox color laser printers print a color page; theHewlett-Packard Color LaserJet uses a different method, which placesthe image directly on the transfer drum.

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ones at 600 dpi. The HP Color LaserJet’s cluster (or pattern) half-toning algorithm also produced banding; the scatter halftoning al-gorithm produced noticeably grainy output. On the other hand, theHP Color LaserJet had the best registration and was the only printerthat did not exhibit a halo effect on the border between overlappingcolors.

Our results with scanned images were even more disappointing.The HP Color LaserJet’s halftoning algorithm once again producedgrainy images. The QMS magicolor and the Xerox 4900 producedmore-solid-looking prints, but even images printed at the highestresolutions lacked detail. In fact, when we used the Xerox 4900 toprint at 1,200 x 300 dpi, patterns and lines appeared fuzzier than at300 dpi.

Our verdict? Output quality is a serious disappointment withthese printers. Instead of getting the best of two worlds — mono-chrome text and color graphics — you get acceptable text, fair busi-ness graphics, and poor scanned images. Some people, however,may find that the idea of using a single printer for both mono-chrome and color printing overpowers their need for high-qualityoutput. Those folks should opt for the Xerox 4900 if producing colorbusiness graphics is most important and for the QMS magicolor ifreproducing photographic images is most important.

The Bright SpotOK, so color laser printers are hard to set up and maintain. Theoutput is disappointing. But when it comes to printing speed, theseproducts can keep up with monochrome laser printers and, in some

cases, outpace thermal-wax ones — no minor feat when you con-sider that these printers must transfer toner four times (once eachfor yellow, magenta, cyan, and black) instead of once, maintainingaccuracy all the while.

Specifications for each printer list an engine speed — the maxi-mum speed at which a printer can grab a piece of paper and run itthrough the print engine with either one or four colors. To find outjust how close each printer can come to its rated engine speed, weprinted a 25-page monochrome text-only document. The Xerox4900 finished at the head of the pack, achieving almost 8.5 ppm atresolutions of 300 x 300 and 600 x 300 dpi (the Xerox 4900’s ratedengine speed is 12 ppm). At 1,200 x 300 dpi, the Xerox 4900 slowedto barely 5 ppm; text output quality, however, did not improve no-ticeably over that at 600 x 300 dpi.

The HP Color LaserJet and the QMS magicolor didn’t reach theirrated engine speeds either. The HP Color LaserJet came in at 8 ppm(its engine-speed rating is 10 ppm). At both 300 x 300 and 600 x 600dpi, the QMS magicolor achieved about 6.5 ppm (its rating is 8ppm). Text output quality was definitely higher at 600 x 600 dpi.

Our other tests were designed to show how well each printer faredwhen printing a variety of real-life color documents. For businessdocuments, all the printers kept up respectable paces, comparableto those of their thermal-wax counterparts. For example, we re-corded printing speeds of around 1 ppm for a business documentthat contained text, a company logo, and a pie chart. Presentationgraphics such as a 5-page PowerPoint document with a colorgradated background took 3 to 5 minutes to print on plain paper.

figure 1

Checking Out Color Laser Printers / what the printers offerHP Color LaserJet QMS magicolor Laser Printer Xerox 4900 Color Laser Printer

List price $8,463* $10,999 $8,495Street price $6,876* $10,348 $8,155Resolutions 300 x 300 dpi 300 x 300 dpi, 600 x 600 dpi† 300 x 300 dpi, 600 x 300 dpi, 1,200 x 300 dpi§

Rated engine speed (monochrome) 10 ppm 8 ppm 12 ppmRated engine speed (four-color) 2 ppm 2 ppm 3 ppmStandard RAM 8 MB 12 MB 12 MBMaximum RAM 72 MB 64 MB 48 MBDuty cycle 15,000 pages/month 5,000 pages/month 15,000 pages/monthMaximum print area (color) 8.2 x 13.7 in. 8.5 x 11 in. 8 x 10.5 in.Maximum print area (monochrome) 10.7 x 16.7 in. 8.2 x 13.7 in. 8 x 10.5 in.SCSI port 2LocalTalk interface 2◊ 2 2Parallel interface 2 2 2Serial interface 2 2Ethernet interface 2◊ 2◊ 2◊

Token-ring interface 2◊ 2◊ 2◊

Includes 35 Type 1 fonts 2 2** 2Includes 250-sheet paper tray 2 2 2Optional 250-sheet paper tray 2 2 2Energy Star-compliant 2Extended on-site support available 2 2 2Toll-free tech support 2On-site warranty 1 year 90 days 1 year*Price includes the Adobe PostScript Level 2 SIMM and HP JetDirect card, required for this printer.†Requires at least 24 MB of RAM.§Requires additional RAM.◊Optional.**Includes 65 fonts.



WE REALLY DID TRY to get a shipping model of the Tektronix Phaser 540color laser printer in time for this story. But alas, Tektronix wasn’t ready.So, for now, all we can give you are our first impressions of the new, sec-ond-generation-technology Phaser540, based on a prerelease unit.

The Phaser 540 ($8,995 list) hasseveral features in common with theother color laser printers. It sports aresolution of 600 x 600 dpi, includesAdobe PostScript Level 2, and comesstandard with 20 MB of RAM. Theprinter weighs around 100 pounds,has nine consumable components,and claims printing speeds of 14 ppmin monochrome and 3.5 ppm in color.The Phaser 540 has some impor-tant differences from the othercolor laser printers. First, it’s easy tomaintain. It uses four cartridges thateach contain both toner and devel-oper. These cartridges slide into theprinter easily, just like those formonochrome laser printers.

Second, the Phaser 540 offers con-tinuous-tone printing — the printengine can change the intensity ofeach dot of color. You can print inthree modes: Fast (300 x 300 dpi with the continuous-tone option),Enhanced (600 x 600 dpi with continuous tone), and Standard (600 x600 dpi without continuous tone). We tested only the Fast and Standardmodes; at press time, the Enhanced mode was still in development.We were impressed with the early output-quality results for text and

And Now for Something Completely Different / the Tektronix Phaser 540

You’ll be quite happy with the printing speeds you can get from thesecolor laser printers. When printing monochrome-only documents, allthree can hold their own against monochrome laser printers. And when

printing color documents, they are generally faster than thermal-wax,dye-sublimation, and inkjet printers.

All three printers slowed considerably when printing our overhead

figure 2

Snappy Printing / color laser printers compare favorablyL ABSZD

SLOWER

TIME IN MINUTES

0 2.5 5

Xerox 4900 (300 x 300 dpi) Xerox 4900 (600 x 300 dpi) HP Color LaserJet (300 x 300 dpi) QMS magicolor (300 x 300 dpi) Xerox 4900 (1,200 x 300 dpi) QMS magicolor (600 x 600 dpi)

3:00 3:01 3:05 3:53 5:01 3:54

SLOWER

TIME IN MINUTES

0 21

1:12 1:11 0:58 1:10 1:12 1:12

SLOWER

TIME IN MINUTES

0 3 6

4:14 4:13 5:26 5:41 4:12 5:44

SLOWER

TIME IN MINUTES

0 3 6

3:56 3:56 3:03 3:04 4:32 5:10

Presentation (Paper)On plain paper, weprinted a 5-pagePowerPoint documentwith saturated colorbackgrounds andgradients.

Simple Color ( Ten Copies)We used the samesimple Word document(monochrome text andsimple color graphics),but this time, weprinted ten copies.

Simple Color (One Copy)We printed a 1-pageWord documentthat containedmonochrome text,a pie chart, and acompany logo.

25-Page Text FileWe printed a 25-pagemonochrome Worddocument thatcontained double-spaced Timestype.

solid colors. In Fast mode, this printer produced monochrome text thatwas crisper than that produced by any of the other color laser printers.In Standard mode, it produced text whose output quality rivaled that

of high-quality monochrome laserprinters. In Fast mode, it producedbrighter and more saturated pri-mary colors than those produced bythe other color laser printers, andthe colors it printed in Standardmode were as rich as the colors pro-duced by thermal-wax printers.The photographic images weredisappointing, however. (Note thatwe tested a prerelease unit and thatwe were unable to test the Phaser540’s Enhanced mode.) Printed inFast mode, colors frequently lookedunnatural, and in Standard mode,patterns were often distorted. Thecontinuous-tone output a shippingmodel of the Phaser 540 will pro-duce is unlikely to rival that from adye-sublimation printer.

Tektronix is also releasing thePhaser CopyStation, a flatbed scan-ner that connects via the SCSI porton the Phaser 540. You can scan im-

ages into the CopyStation and then print them on the Phaser 540. TheCopyStation implements common copier features such as image-sizereduction and enlargement, color and contrast adjustment, and theability to select the number of copies desired. Tektronix, Wilsonville, OR;800-835-6100 or 503-682-7377; 503-682-2980 (fax).

2. Laser writes positive image on belt.

3. Toner particles areattracted to image on belt.

5. All tonerparticles aretransferred topaper at once.

4. Toner particles aretransferred (one color at atime) to accumulator belt.

1. A negativecharge isapplied tophotoconductivebelt.

6. Fuser system uses heatand pressure to bond theimage to the paper.

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Directory / vendors of color laser printers testedQMSMobile, AL800-523-2696205-633-4300205-633-4866 (fax)

Hewlett-PackardBoise, ID800-752-0900800-333-1917 (fax)

XeroxRochester, NY800-275-9376716-256-4446716-256-4499 (fax)

Overhead transparencies took significantly longer.These three RISC-processor-powered printers also impressed us

with their ability to quickly print complicated PostScript images.Again, printing speeds were comparable to those of thermal-waxprinters. At 300 x 300 dpi, the QMS magicolor took less than threeminutes to print a complex Illustrator image that contained severalcolor blends, rotated text, and a color graphic. It took 3 minutes, 23seconds to print the same image at 600 x 600 dpi. The Xerox 4900took a longer, but still impressive, 4 minutes, 52 seconds to print theimage at 1,200 x 300 dpi.

Large bit-mapped images were another story, however. When weprinted a 16-MB Photoshop file, the Xerox 4900 won the race handsdown. It took around 14 minutes to print the image at any of theprinter’s three resolutions. Its closer competitor, the HP ColorLaserJet, took nearly twice as long. The QMS magicolor, however,had us tearing our hair out in impatience — this printer took 1hour, 10 minutes to print the image.

Finding the Extra TouchesGiven the many flaws we found with these printers, it’s nice to knowthat HP, QMS, and Xerox have done a good job with the little extras.Each printer comes with the necessary driver software and applica-tion-specific files (PDF files for QuarkXPress and PPDs for olderversions of PageMaker and FreeHand as well as LaserWriter 8.xPPDs). For desktop-publishing pros, the QMS magicolor’s drivereven provides specialized options such as the ability to set linescreens and gamma.

HP and QMS include utilities that allow network administratorsto change items such as the printer’s name, zone, and configuration.Xerox’s administration software shows you a representation of theprinter, with corresponding statistics such as toner level and thenumber of pages that have been printed — especially handy forgauging when to replace various consumables. All three printers

also display messages on their front panels when consumables arerunning low. (In some cases, such as when the fuser oil is out, theprinters simply refuse to work.)

Finally, each of the three printers gives you a handful of options.You can get additional paper trays that increase the printer’s papercapacity and trays that increase the paper size the printer can acceptfrom letter to legal. (Note, however, that none of the units can printin color on an entire legal-sized page.) You can choose from a varietyof network interfaces, including Ethernet and token ring. And eachvendor offers plans for extending on-site service: HP charges $2,000for an additional two years, QMS charges $1,998 per additional year,and Xerox charges $1,200 per year for an additional two years.

To Buy or Not to Buy?Mom once said, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything atall.” Good advice for a mouthy little kid, but that advice doesn’t ex-actly work for us. So, much as we hate to ignore Mom’s advice, we’regoing to have to do it this time.

We were surprised by the sheer number of consumable partsthese printers contained. Not only does the complexity of theseprinters make them hard to maintain but stocking the consumablescan take considerable storage space and tie up a lot of money in in-ventory as well. Fortunately, some of the parts are recyclable, so youcan at least be environmentally friendly. The HP Color LaserJet isalso Energy Star-compliant.

Still, we could live with some upkeep discomfort if the outputquality and print speeds impressed us. Unfortunately, they didn’t.Color output was noticeably inferior to that from the best thermal-wax printers, and in some cases, scanned images were inferior tothose we’ve printed with $600 inkjet printers. Color-printing speedswere snappy compared to those of thermal-wax, inkjet, and dye-subprinters, but they weren’t awe-inspiringly so. Even plain-text outputdidn’t measure up to that from monochrome laser printers, al-though at least printing speeds were comparable.

If you must be on the cutting edge of technology, then one of thesefirst-generation products is for you. After all, they do offer speedy,all-in-one printing — one box can print a range of documents for avariety of users quickly. And because these printers can print onplain paper, the cost per page for color is quite low.

But frankly, we think you are better off waiting for Round 2 (andspending your $10,000 on a thermal-wax or inkjet color printer anda monochrome laser printer in the meantime). The technologyshows promise, and the allure of color laser printers is extremelystrong. When the print-quality problems are solved, we’ll be onegiant step closer to our one-printer-does-it-all dream product.

Tony Bojorquez is a MacUser Labs project leader. James Galbraith, MacUserLabs’ administrator, managed the testing for this report.

transparency. But they really bogged down when printing our 16-MBPhotoshop image. The QMS magicolor was especially slow — and QMS’tech-support staff couldn’t tell us why.

SLOWER

TIME IN MINUTES

0 3.5 7

5:23 5:33 6:29 5:35 6:07 6:53

SLOWER

TIME IN MINUTES

0 2.5 5

3:10 3:34 3:06 2:53 4:52 3:23

SLOWER

TIME IN MINUTES

0 35 70

13:40 14:00 27:19 69:16 14:45 70:13

Presentation(Transparency)We then printed thesame full-color 5-pagePowerPoint documenton overheadtransparencies.

Complex PostScriptImageWe printed anIllustrator image thathad several colorblends, rotated text,and a color graphic.

Photoshop ImageWe scanned a photointo Photoshop andtimed how long ittook to print theresulting 16-MB bit-mapped image.


CHARTING SOFTWARE

Even before the Mac — or any other computer,for that matter — people who had to make sense out of mountainsof numerical data realized the remarkable power of charts. Whetheryou draw it on paper, project it on-screen, or animate it in a multi-media presentation, a well-designed chart can prove your pointbetter than any stream of numbers, numbers, and more numbers.

In choosing the right chart-making tool, you need to consider notonly the complexity of the charts you want to produce but also howyou wish to view the results: Some programs, such as CA-CricketGraph III and Microsoft Excel, are designed primarily (althoughnot exclusively) for printed output. Applications such as Claris-Impact and DeltaPoint’s DeltaGraph Pro can create paper-basedpresentations as well as on-screen, slide-based ones. MicrosoftPowerPoint and Aldus Persuasion, from Adobe Systems, are gearedmore toward the creation of on-screen presentations or 35mmslides, as is Gold Disk’s Astound, which even supports animationand sound.

But before you rush out and buy the latest, greatest business-graphics package, first look in your Applications folder: There’s agood chance you already own a serviceable charting application —and you may not realize how powerful it is. For instance, all thepopular integrated-software packages — ClarisWorks, Symantec’sGreatWorks, Microsoft Works, and WordPerfect Works — includecharting modules. Pull the long-neglected manual down from the

shelf, and look up charting in the index; you may be surprised at thefeatures that are available.

No integrated application can produce the kinds of dazzlingcharts you can create with a stand-alone charting program or evenwith a full-fledged spreadsheet program such as Excel. However,they all allow you to chart spreadsheet data, using all the basic charttypes — bar, column, pie, line, and scatter — without having to buyor use any other software. For details on which integrated applica-tions offer the best charting power, see the “Charting the ‘Works’”sidebar.

Putting Your Charts on PaperIf you’re looking for charts with serious boardroom polish, it’s timeto switch to a more powerful charting application. If you simplywant to produce graphs and charts on paper — in reports, hand-outs, and the like — your primary options are Microsoft Excel andCA-Cricket Graph III.

Microsoft Excel 5.0 — the newest version of the Mac’s mostpopular number-crunching program — is as powerful a chartingapplication as most folks are likely to need. You can choose from 15major chart types and dozens of preformatted subtypes, and best ofall, they’re only a mouse-click away. You don’t have to export yourspreadsheet data and feed it to another program: You simply selecta range of cells on a worksheet and then click on the ChartWizard

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, a well-made chart is worth athousand numbers — and a chart makes the numbers a lot easier tounderstand at a glance. But what’s the best charting program for yourindividual needs? By Joseph Schorr

CHARTSCHARTSTOP of the


button in order to produce a new chart.Excel 5.0’s charting functions can be a little confusing at first, but

the ChartWizard provides exactly what most users need — a help-ing hand in making the journey from spreadsheet to chart. With theChartWizard, you build a chart one step at a time, using a series ofdialog boxes. First, Excel confirms your selection of a range of cells.It then asks what type of chart you want to make and lets you choosefrom several subtypes (the user guide includes a practical sectionon how to select the type of chart most appropriate to your data).Subsequent dialog boxes ask how you want the data plotted, if youwant to include a legend, and what your choices are for axis labelsand the title.

The ChartWizard is particularly useful, for two reasons: First, itgives you visual feedback as you make decisions. For example, whenyou’re deciding which series of data should be plotted on which axis,the ChartWizard provides a thumbnail view of your chart inprogress, so you can tell if you’re headed in the right direction. Sec-ond, you can easily backtrack through your steps at any time toundo your work and replot the chart. By the time Excel actuallydraws your chart, you can feel confident you’re going to get what youexpected.

Once Excel has created your chart, you just double-click on it toaccess the chart-editing features (you don’t need to open the chartin a separate window to edit it, as you did in earlier versions of the

program). Excel’s chart-editing controls are extensive — you canadjust everything from the thickness of bars in a bar chart to thestyle and alignment of data labels. For quick formatting, you canapply an AutoFormat — a predefined combination of characteris-tics for a particular type of chart. If your chart is three-dimensional,you can swivel the chart in any direction by dragging its cornerhandles.

Here’s one of Excel 5.0’s slickest features: Even after you’ve for-matted an existing chart, you can pop additional data into it simplyby dragging and dropping the cells containing the new data seriesdirectly onto the chart. The chart instantly updates to reflect thenew data — one of the coolest implementations of drag-and-droptechnology.

Despite these conveniences, Excel’s charting capabilities havesome significant limitations: You can’t create pictographs (graphsconsisting of stacked pictures instead of bars or columns); chartscan be saved only as PICT files or transferred to other documentsvia the Clipboard or OLE (Object Linking and Embedding); youcan’t use gradient fills on chart elements; and you can align tick-mark labels vertically or horizontally, but you can’t set them at anangle. These limitations probably won’t be serious problems formost users, but if you want your charts to be presentation-qualityworks of art, you might want to consider investing in a dedicatedchart-making program, which can handle subtle formatting tasksPH

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CHARTING SOFTWARE

more elegantly than Excel and has presentation tools built-in.CA-Cricket Graph III is a stand-alone charting program that, like

Excel 5.0, provides no built-in presentation tools. It’s strictly achart-making tool, with a few basic drawing tools thrown in so thatyou can add embellishments to your finished charts. You can exportCA-Cricket Graph III charts as PICT or EPS files for use in otherapplications.

Like all the other charting programs described here, CA-CricketGraph III starts you out with a data sheet. This particular data sheetis actually like a scaled-down spreadsheet; you can even entermathematical functions into cells for automatic calculation. Afterselecting the data you want to include, you pick the New Chart com-mand, select a row or column of data to be charted, and pick yourchart type.

CA-Cricket Graph III’s charting engine can handle 12 types ofcharts; 64 preset styles are available within those general types, butnone of them are all that inspiring. However, CA-Cricket Graphgives you plenty of control over chart elements. For example, youcan drag items such as the legend and the chart title anywhere onthe page, set the distance between the axes and the labels for tick

marks, and set the axis labels at an oblique angle for a better fit andeasier reading.

Your enthusiasm for all this flexibility, however, will be quicklydampened when you face CA-Cricket Graph’s user interface, whichis quirky and entirely too dialog-box-intensive. For example, youcan’t select and edit certain elements of a chart by clicking on them— clicking on a bar in a bar chart does nothing. Instead, you have tochoose Graph Attributes from the Chart menu; navigate to the PlotElement submenu; and then open a dialog box that lets you changecolors, patterns, and other characteristics. Accessing the color pal-ettes is particularly tedious; you have to pick colors in a screen-obscuring dialog box.

You can add depth to a chart for a pseudo-3-D effect, but you haveto set the depth level by typing a numeric amount (in inches) andthe program doesn’t give you any visual feedback. The same holdstrue with the predefined chart styles; you have to apply them bypicking their names from a submenu with absolutely no visual cluesto their appearance. (The names aren’t very descriptive either. Atypical name is Div. 644 line.fmt.)

In short, CA-Cricket Graph III has the tools you need in order totweak a chart into shape, but it takes entirely too much effort tonavigate through the maze of submenus, dialog boxes, and numericfields to get the results you want.

Charting for Paper and PresentationsIf there’s a good chance you’ll be presenting charts both on paperand on-screen, you’ll want to take a good look at ClarisImpact andDeltaGraph Pro 3.5.

ClarisImpact is more than a charting program: It’s a rich busi-ness-graphics package that handles graphs, organization charts,tables, timelines, and calendars. ClarisImpact’s strongest attributeis its uncluttered simplicity; although it lacks some of the sophisti-cation of Excel — there are fewer chart types, it has no 3-D-graph-ing tools, and the formatting options are less precise — it makesquick work of setting up and formatting business charts for use inpaper and on-screen presentations.

Not surprisingly, ClarisImpact looks and feels similar to Claris-Works; in fact, it offers the same 12 basic chart types for plottingdata. Also, like ClarisWorks, it takes an all-in-one approach: Word-processing and slide-presentation tools are included in the pro-gram, so you don’t have to export your charts to another applicationto create a finished product. As soon as you open a new Claris-Impact document, you’re asked if you want to create a printed re-port, a presentation (either on-screen or for output to 35mmslides), or a drawing for use in another application. You constructyour charts right within the presentation slides or report pages — atime-saver when you have to pull together a report at the lastminute.

When you start a new chart in ClarisImpact, you can choose from21 ready-to-use chart styles with predefined color schemes, fonts,and layouts or you can format your own chart from scratch. Youenter your data in a minispreadsheet at the bottom of the chart win-dow. (You can hide or show this data sheet at any time by clicking ona button in the window.)

Formatting with ClarisImpact is completely intuitive; you simplyclick on a chart element — a pie slice or a bar, for example — and

The Bottom LineTHERE’S NO SIMPLE WAY to approach the challenge of choosing theright business-charting application. First you need to consider howyou’re going to present your charts: on paper, on-screen, or in a multi-media presentation. Then you need to decide whether you need astand-alone charting powerhouse such as DeltaGraph Pro or if thecharting capabilities included in a spreadsheet, presentation applica-tion, or comprehensive business-graphics package can do the trick.Our recommendations are based on the charting capabilities of theapplications we tested, but the mouse ratings take into account allthe capabilities of the products.

3 = OUTSTANDING

2 = ACCEPTABLE

1 = POOR

mmmmh Aldus Persuasion 3.0 3 3 3 3

For on-screen presentations and slides, AldusPersuasion’s impressive selection of chart types, styles,and formatting tools will best meet your charting needs— although Astound’s animation and Microsoft Power-Point’s overall ease of use make them strong contenders.

mmmmh DeltaGraph Pro 3.5 3 2 3 3

DeltaGraph Pro is your best choice for reports andother printed documents. Its library of 60 chart types and200 styles is the most extensive available, and its precisecontrol over type and other chart elements make it idealfor desktop publishers.

mmmmh Astound 1.0 3 3 2 3

mmmmh Microsoft Excel 5.0 2 2 3 3

mmmmh Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0 3 2 3 3

mmmm ClarisImpact 1.0 3 3 2 3

mmmh CA-Cricket Graph III 1.5 3 2 2 3

Listing is alphabetical within groups of equal mouse ratings.

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then use standard line, fill, gradient, and color palettes to changethe formatting. You can adjust the location and appearance of tickmarks, labels, the legend, and the chart title in a single dialog boxequipped with buttons you click on to access the various options.

To make formatting easier and more consistent within yourdocuments, you can use ClarisImpact’s cleverly designed ElementStyles palette. Element styles are to chart making what style sheetsare to word processing. With the Element Styles palette, you cansave the characteristics of a particular chart element — line weight,fill pattern, color, and so on — under a unique name and then applythose characteristics to a specific data series in any other chart. Thepalette can display element styles by name or as thumbnails.

Given these features, ClarisImpact is the perfect solution forquick-and-dirty charting. No, it doesn’t offer nitty-gritty controlover each piece of a chart. You can’t control the space between barson a graph or adjust the thickness of pie slices, and you can’t changethe font of data labels or the style of the dotted data grid. Also, asmentioned earlier, 3-D chart styles aren’t available at all. However,few applications make it easier to simply type in data and plug anicely formatted chart directly into a document. In addition, forthose who don’t already own a word-processing or slide-presenta-tion program, ClarisImpact is an economical, self-contained pack-age; you don’t need to use any other software to write simple re-ports, prepare on-screen presentations, or create slides or overheadtransparencies.

If you’re really serious about creating fine-tuned charts, bypassCA-Cricket Graph III and ClarisImpact and take a look at Delta-Graph Pro 3.5, which is equipped with design tools lacking in theless sophisticated programs described previously. This is not theapplication to use when your boss asks for a sales report in an hour,

though: The sheer number of options can be overwhelming and,like CA-Cricket Graph III, DeltaGraph Pro has a few odd interfacefeatures. However, the program does allow you to create complexcharts and gives you incredibly precise control over each element. Italso offers the richest selection of chart styles you’ll find anywhere— 60 chart types and more than 200 subtypes.

Fortunately, DeltaGraph Pro provides assistance in navigatingthrough all those choices, in the form of the Chart Advisor, a dialogbox that helps you zero in on an appropriate chart type for yourdata. In the Chart Advisor, you define the general characteristics ofthe chart you want to make, and DeltaGraph intelligently displays amenu of only the chart types that fill the bill. For example, if you tellthe Chart Advisor that you’re plotting financial rather than statisti-cal data, that you’re graphing a trend rather than a comparison, andthat you’d like a high level of detail in a 3-D chart, it will fish throughits library of chart styles and display the ten styles that seem appro-priate to your description.

To get started on a DeltaGraph chart, you can import data directlyfrom Excel worksheets, import SYLK or WKS spreadsheet files, orenter data directly into a DeltaGraph data sheet. Once you’ve im-ported or entered the data and selected a chart type, using the ChartAdvisor, you drag out a rectangle to define the size of the chart andit appears plotted with the data you selected in the data sheet. Youcan then click on various chart elements to format them.

DeltaGraph is a great tool for turning out first-class 3-D bar, col-umn, area, and line charts. You can display data in 3-D ribbons, cyl-inders, pyramids, or bars. With the controls in the 3-D View dialogbox, you can swivel charts a full 360 degrees horizontally and asmuch as 180 degrees up or down and adjust the depth of perspectiveto arrive at the perfect viewing angle. A small preview window

PAPER-BASED PRESENTATIONS

▲ Creation of 3-D charts has beenstreamlined in Excel 5.0, thanks totabbed dialog boxes that make chartingcontrols easy to access. Another Excel plus:Thumbnail views of charts within dialogboxes let you preview charting optionsbefore you apply them.

▲ CA-Cricket Graph III makes you burrowthrough layers of dialog boxes to access many of itschart-editing features. As shown here, choosingcolors and patterns for one of the program’spseudo-3-D charts requires you to open twooverlapping dialog boxes that obstruct your work.


CHARTING SOFTWARE

drag and drop clip art onto a chart, is where you choose whether tostack, stretch, or scale a picture.)

You can export DeltaGraph charts as EPS, PICT, Adobe Illustrator3.2, or Scrapbook files. Like ClarisImpact, DeltaGraph includes allthe tools you need in order to create full-scale slide presentations;you get a spelling checker, outliner, and slide sorter, as well as a fullcomplement of drawing tools.

Presenting Your Charts on Slides and On-ScreenAs mentioned previously, you can create slide shows with Claris-Impact and DeltaGraph Pro. Neither of these programs offers therange of presentation features you get with either Microsoft Power-Point 4.0 or Aldus Persuasion 3.0, however. ClarisImpact, for ex-ample, offers only one type of slide-to-slide transitional effect, andDeltaGraph doesn’t support progressive builds within a slide.

containing a wire-frame minichart gives you immediate feedbackas you adjust the viewing angle, but to preview the adjustments onyour actual chart, you have to click on the Show button.

The precise control DeltaGraph offers over the alignment of texton tick marks and other labels is outstanding. Labels can be rotatedand set at any angle. In 3-D charts, you can twist labels so that theyline up in perspective with the chart walls.

The program also has a well-designed library feature that pro-vides easy access to clip art (a nice supply comes with the program)for use in pictograph charts. With a Library palette open, you cansimply drag the thumbnail of the picture you want from the libraryonto a data series in an existing chart and the bar, column, or line onwhich you drop the thumbnail will be replaced by the picture, auto-matically stacked, stretched, or scaled to fit the data in the chart.(The Pictograph Options dialog box, which appears whenever you

▲ ClarisImpact speeds up routine business charting withits Element Styles palette, a library of preformatted chartcomponents that can be applied to individual chart elements(such as the gradient-filled, exploded pie slice shown here) forquick customizing.

▲ DeltaGraph Pro’sprodigious chartingmuscle begins withan extensive ChartGallery that you canfilter according tochart type.

▲ For nitty-gritty control over specificchart elements, DeltaGraph Proprovides dialog boxes such as this one,which lets you adjust the width anddepth of 3-D ribbons and chart walls.

Once you’ve pickeda chart style, þDeltaGraph Pro’s dialogboxes provide controls forchanging the viewing angleand perspective for 3-Dcharts.

PAPER- AND PIXEL-BASED PRESENTATIONS


Eight Basic Charting RulesEVEN THE MOST DAZZLING CHART CAN BE MEANINGLESS — or se-riously misleading — if you’ve presented your data in a difficult-to-grasp format. Here are eight guidelines for creating meaningfulbusiness charts:

1PICK THE APPROPRIATE CHART TYPE. Use a bar or columnchart (rather than a line or area chart) to compare specific

values at a fixed moment in time — East Coast and West Coastsales figures for the month of June, for example. Use an area or linechart (in which one data point is connected to the next) to empha-size trends over time — such as the increase or decrease of salesin both divisions over a period of six months.

2USE A “STACKED” CHART TO SHOW A TOTAL VALUE along with re-lationships among the components that make up the total.

For example, a stacked chart might include a column for First Quar-ter Sales, with four stacked chunks making up the column, eachchunk representing a subtotal from one of the four regional divi-sions contributing to the sales total. The stacked approach lets yougraph the total sales figure while simultaneously revealing howeach division contributed.

3USE PIE CHARTS WHEN COMPARING two or more values thatcontribute to a single total amount. If you want to show how

much your company is spending on labor versus materials, forexample, you can create a single pie chart representing your totaloperating expenses, with labor and materials each making up oneslice of the pie.

4DON’T LET DESIGN OVERWHELM INFORMATION. Charts aregreat for showing overall trends and relationships among

values, but some chart styles (pictographs, for example) make itdifficult — or impossible — for an audience to read specific val-ues. If specific numbers are needed, make sure you label your col-umns, bars, and pie slices with their corresponding numeric val-ues. Virtually all chart-making programs include a Show Valuesoption that can automatically add these labels.

5USE 3-D CHARTS C AUTIOUSLY — IF AT ALL. Three-dimensionalcharts are dramatic, but the 3-D bars, cones, and columns can

often obstruct other pieces of data on the same chart. When work-ing with 3-D charts, be sure to arrange the data so that all the in-formation is completely visible. Also be careful when rotating a3-D chart; deep perspective may look exciting, but it can also makethe chart harder to read.

6APPLY A SCALE APPROPRIATE TO THE DATA. A small scale canmake even minor variations in values look more dramatic

than they really are. Conversely, a scale that’s too large will makevariations in data almost invisible and reduce the impact of thecomparisons.

7LABEL EACH DATA SERIES IN YOUR CHART; don’t assume thatthe audience will know which bar represents each value. Put

the label information in a legend only when adding labels wouldmake the chart too crowded or hard to read. (All charting pro-grams include an option for building a legend from your data.)

8DESIGN CHARTS WITH A SPECIFIC PRESENTATION IN MIND.Don’t go wild with color charting options if you’re going to

print the chart on a black-and-white laser printer. If your finaloutput isn’t going to be in color, design the chart in black-and-white, so you’re sure your final chart will be clear and readable. Ifyou’re designing for an on-screen presentation, avoid using small,italicized fonts that are hard to see on-screen.

Both Microsoft PowerPoint and Aldus Persuasion use OLE 2.0,Microsoft’s interapplication-transport software, to link directly topowerful chart-making modules. OLE 2.0 allows you to embed anobject created in one application in a document created in another.

PowerPoint 4.0, for example, comes with Microsoft Graph 5.0, acharting module nearly identical to Excel 5.0’s, but with even morepreformatted chart styles built in. To add a chart to a PowerPointslide, you simply click on the chart button on the tool bar. Doing soautomatically launches Microsoft Graph, places a dummy chart onthe PowerPoint slide, and opens a linked data sheet in a separatewindow. You can import data as text or directly from Excel, Lotus1-2-3, or Lotus Symphony.

The Microsoft Graph data sheet makes it very easy to work withdata. Individual columns and rows on the sheet can be turned on oroff (and thus included or omitted from the chart to which they’relinked) by double-clicks on the row and column headers. Also, therow and column headers are automatically marked with icons cor-responding to the chart elements in which they’re plotted; if FourthQuarter Sales is represented in the chart by a red bar, then a tiny redbar appears in the column header containing that data, so you caneasily see the relationship between your raw data and the finishedchart.

To format the chart, you can select from fourteen 2-D and 3-Dchart types pictured in a pop-up menu on the Microsoft Graph toolbar. Then, in the AutoFormat dialog box, you can pick from 103ready-to-use chart formats. Individual components of a chart canbe formatted directly too, just as in Excel.

As soon as you click outside the chart area, Microsoft Graph au-tomatically slips into the background and you’re back inPowerPoint. Whenever you want to revise the chart, you simplydouble-click on it to switch back to Microsoft Graph for in-placeediting.

Although Microsoft PowerPoint is arguably an easier-to-use andmore powerful presentation package than Aldus Persuasion 3.0, itscharting features can’t compete with those of Persuasion, whichcomes with its own powerful and strikingly elegant charting mod-ule, Aldus Chart.

To add a chart to a Persuasion slide, you simply define a rectanglewith the chart tool and Aldus Chart launches. The module offers arich selection of advanced charting features, including a library of84 chart types.

Aldus Chart is well designed from top to bottom. For example, inthe Chart Gallery window, the program provides a brief descriptionof each chart type and an explanation of when a particular stylewould be most useful and appropriate; it points out that a certainstyle of bar chart is useful for showing change over time whereasanother emphasizes relationships among values.

Once you’ve picked a chart type and plugged in your own data,Aldus Chart provides an intuitive interface for additional chart styl-ing. The formatting tools are easy to use, and most can be accessedvia a set of floating palettes.

The SFX palette allows you to apply gradients and textures (suchas stucco, rough granite, and leather) to chart objects. A library oftwo dozen textures comes with the program.

The 3-D View palette offers the best 3-D-chart manipulationavailable in any charting program by providing six kinds of control


CHARTING SOFTWARE

over the positioning of 3-D charts. Rotating a chart or shifting itsperspective is as simple as clicking on the appropriate arrows on thepalette; the results appear instantly in a full-sized wire-frame viewsuperimposed on your existing chart.

Other formatting tools are also highly visual, allowing you to con-trol virtually every detail of chart construction, and are easy to use.

Making Charts That MoveIf you’re making your presentation on a computer screen and wantcharts that will really dazzle your audience, you have yet anotheroption: Set the charts in motion with animation. Creating an ani-mated chart with a conventional animation program would be

PIXEL-BASED PRESENTATIONS

time-consuming, but with Gold Disk’s Astound, you can set up ananimated chart in about the time it takes to assemble a static chartwith PowerPoint or Persuasion.

In fact, putting together a chart in Astound is almost exactly likeworking with the other slide-presentation tools. You use a chart toolto drag out a new chart on an Astound slide, which opens a datasheet into which you can import or type data. Clicking on a buttonin the data window opens the Create Chart dialog box, in which youset the characteristics of the chart. Astound’s chart controls aren’t asprecise as those you’ll find in DeltaGraph Pro and Excel, but they areintuitive and comprehensive enough to give you quite a bit of con-trol over the look and feel of a chart.

▲ For even-more-arresting animated effects,you can set up your own animated pictographs.Astound uses your chart data to calculate howmuch the pictograph image should be moved orresized in the animation to reflect the chart values.

Pie slices can fade,ripple, dissolve, orfly into view, þwith Astound’schart-animationfeatures. In theChart Animationdialog box, you canset the timing andorder of theanimated transi-tions and view theresults in thepreview window.

þ Floating palettes in Aldus Persuasion’scharting module provide plenty of visual feedbackfor formatting and manipulating 3-D charts. Evensubmenus have a graphical interface that providesvisual feedback showing the results of yourdecisions.

þ

Aldus Persuasion 3.0Rating: mmmmhList Price: $495.Street Price: $320.Pros: Outstanding formatting tools.Gorgeous 3-D-charting styles. Goodon-line guidance for pickingappropriate chart types. Tightintegration with slide-presentationfeatures.Cons: Chart-editing controls could bemore precise.Company: Adobe Systems, Seattle,WA; 800-333-2538 or 206-622-5500;206-343-3360 (fax).

Astound 1.0Rating: mmmmhList Price: $399.Street Price: $245.Pros: Easy-to-use tools for chartanimation. Dazzling animatedtransitional effects for chartelements.Cons: Limited chart-formattingoptions.Company: Gold Disk, Mississauga, ON,Canada; 800-982-9888 or 905-602-0395; 408-982-0298 (fax).

CA-Cricket Graph III 1.5Rating: mmmhList Price: $129.Street Price: $95.Pros: Extensive control over stylingof chart elements.Cons: Cumbersome interface. No 3-Dcharts. Supports only a limitednumber of chart styles.Company: Computer Associates,Islandia, NY; 800-531-5236 or516-342-5224; 516-342-5734 (fax).

ClarisImpact 1.0Rating: mmmmList Price: $399.Street Price: $140.Pros: Simple, straightforwardinterface. Self-contained slide-making and word-processingcomponents.Cons: No 3-D charts. Lacks anextensive library of chart styles.Limited control over individual chartelements.Company: Claris, Santa Clara, CA;800-544-8554 or 408-987-7000;408-987-7105 (fax).


IF YOU OWN AN INTEGRATED APPLICATION such as ClarisWorks,Symantec’s GreatWorks, Microsoft Works, or WordPerfect Works, youmay already have all the charting power you need. If you’re thinkingabout getting an integrated application, or if you’re shopping for aPerforma and don’t know which “Works” application to ask for, payattention, because not all are created equal — especially when itcomes to their charting capabilities.ClarisWorks offers the most powerful charting of the integrated-software programs. You create a chart in the program’s spreadsheetmodule by selecting a range of cells and choosing Make Chart fromthe Options menu. This procedure opens the Chart Options dialogbox, in which you can choose from 12 chart types for plotting data. Youcan add depth to a ClarisWorks chart (al-though you can’t rotate it as you could a real3-D chart), and you can paste in your owngraphics to create pictographs. Best of all,you can use all of ClarisWorks’ standarddrawing tools to edit chart elements. To adda gradient fill to a single slice in a pie chart,for example, you click on the proper dataseries in the chart legend and then choosethe gradient from the pop-up menu on theTool palette.GreatWorks offers just eight basic charttypes. It doesn’t allow you to add depth fora pseudo-3-D effect on any of the charts, andit doesn’t support pictographs. But, likeClarisWorks, GreatWorks makes it easy to usestandard editing tools to tweak a finishedchart by changing colors, lines, fills, and

fonts. Although the program is simple to use, the results aren’t terriblyexciting.Microsoft Works offers even less. After entering spreadsheet data,you can pick from one of six very basic chart types. When you selectone, Microsoft Works automatically creates the chart as a draw object.Again, don’t look for 3-D effects or other extras to dress up the rudi-mentary charts — this is a basics-only charting tool. You can add alittle style to an otherwise humdrum chart by ungrouping the drawobjects that make up the chart and editing the components individu-ally, using the standard drawing tools and palettes, but doing sobreaks the link between the chart and its source data. In other words,if you later find you have to update the chart data, you’ll have to re-

make the whole chart from scratch.WordPerfect Works has the worst chart-ing of the integrated programs. You geteight basic chart types to pick from, butonce you’ve created a chart, you can’t back-track and change your choice of any of thecharting options. If you create a chart con-taining horizontal bars, for example, andthen decide your data would look betterdisplayed in vertical columns, you can’t goback and replot the original data in the newformat: You have to copy your data into awhole new spreadsheet document andcompletely start over. As for formatting, theprogram takes the same approach asMicrosoft Works: You have to ungroup theobjects that make up a chart to edit themindividually.

Charting the ‘Works’ / is an integrated application all you need?

DeltaGraph Pro 3.5Rating: mmmmhList Price: $195.Street Price: $135.Pros: Comprehensive library of charttypes and styles. Extensive controlsfor fine-tuning chart styles. True3-D-charting features. Chart Advisorprovides assistance in selectingappropriate chart types.Cons: Complex interface.Company: DeltaPoint, Monterey, CA;800-446-6955 or 408-648-4000;408-648-4020 (fax).

Microsoft Excel 5.0Rating: mmmmhList Price: $339.Street Price: $295.Pros: ChartWizard aids in step-by-step creation of charts. Powerful3-D-charting tools.Cons: Doesn’t support use of gradientfills or pictographs. Using editingtools is sometimes complicated.Company: Microsoft, Redmond, WA;800-426-9400 or 206-882-8080;206-635-6100 (fax).

Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0Rating: mmmmhList Price: $395.Street Price: $295.Pros: Chart-making module is wellintegrated with slide-makingfeatures. Includes more than 100ready-to-use 2-D and 3-D chartstyles.Cons: No gradient fills or pictographs.Company: Microsoft, Redmond, WA;800-426-9400 or 206-882-8080;206-635-6100 (fax).

Stacked-column charts are easy to createwith ClarisWorks, the best integrated programfor business charting. You create charts in thespreadsheet module and then format them byusing the standard drawing tools available inall ClarisWorks modules.

The fun starts when you click on the Animation button and bringthe chart to life. The simple interface lets you set animated transi-tions for each chart element. Bars in a bar chart can grow from thefloor up; fade in; or, best of all, cascade across the screen and tumbleinto place. When you combine Astound’s well-executed animationwith synchronized sound effects, the results can be quite dramatic.Obviously, flying pie slices and rippling columns can get annoyingif overused within a presentation, but used sparingly, Astoundcharts can add just the right amount of punch. Astound slides canbe exported as QuickTime movies for use in other applications —including slide-presentation programs such as PowerPoint andPersuasion.

Know Your Needs Before You BuyIf you own an integrated application, you may already have all thecharting power you need; all the integrated applications areequipped to turn out basic business charts and graphs, althoughthey lack some features, such as gradient fills, that make for excitingvisuals.

If you really want to wow your audience, however, you’ll need tochoose a full-scale charting application. Making the right choicedepends on how and where you plan to use your charts. Claris-Impact is a great all-purpose charting tool for cranking out reportsand proposals on a deadline. For desktop publishing, designers willfavor the precise controls of DeltaGraph Pro. And for those who are

looking for knockout slide- andscreen-presentation graphics,Aldus Persuasion offers the mostcontrol and the best interface —although only Astound offersyou the ability to animate yourpresentations.

Joseph Schorr serves as the Mactroubleshooter for a publishingcompany in Oregon. His writingincludes dozens of magazine articlesand Mac and Power Mac Secrets.


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SOFTWARE FOR 3-D modeling and anima-tion is getting more powerful, easier to use,and lower-priced. If you’ve shied away from3-D graphics, now’s the time to give it awhirl, especially if you’ve got a Power Mac.These Power Mac-native applications mayturn you into a 3-D artist.Infini-D 3.0, from Specular International, isan enhancement of an easy-to-use applica-tion with tools suited to professional 3-D

3-D SOFTWARE /

Enter the 3rd DimensionNew modeling programs appeal to pros, novices.

animation. The revamped modeler makesit possible to use familiar Bézier curves tocreate objects based on a spline profile anda user-defined extrusion path. Want an easyway to model an airplane body or a banana?Use the Envelope tools to scale the objectalong the path. You can change the model-ing paths and rails over time to create ani-mated bending and twisting effects.

Infini-D 3.0 also offers much more pre-cise animation controls throughthe same accessible interface.Specular has enhanced the se-quencer to allow animators tochange any keyframe parameter,including scale and position. Youcan adjust velocity parametersby manipulating a graph formuch smoother motion. Final-ly, Infini-D 3.0 offers editablespline animation paths. Pricingwas not set at press time. 413-253-3100.

Type TamersWHAT THE HECK does that font look like? Do you really need to pack allthose fonts in that suitcase? End font confusion with two must-haveutilities that help you manage your font collection.FontSqueezer. This nifty utility from FontHaus reduces hard-disk clutterby eliminating unnecessary screen fonts. A font suitcase may contain bit

maps for 10-, 12-, 14-, 18-, and 24-point sizes, each inbook, bold, light, heavy, and associated italics — if youhave a lot of fonts, these gobble up valuable disk space.But if you’re using Adobe Type Manager, you don’t needthem all. With FontSqueezer, you can pick which size bit

maps you want to keep and get rid of the rest, in batches if you want.(They’re permanently removed, but you do have the original font disks,right?) For example, running FontSqueezer on Adobe Caslon to retainthe 10- and 12-point sizes excises 30 screen fonts and saves 195K of hard-disk space. $30. 800-942-9110 or 203-367-1993.theTypeBook. Shareware stalwart theTypeBook is now available as acommercial application from Rascal Software. This type-cataloging util-ity creates type-specimen sheets on the fly from your installed fonts. Youselect from five layouts — various sizes with leadingsamples, uppercase and lowercase only, key-caps layout,and so on — which you can tailor to your needs. In version4.0, you can also preview spec sheets before printing.theTypeBook ships with 15 fonts designed byshareware fontmeister David Rakowski. It’s fast andhassle-free for seeing what’s in your font library.$60. 805-255-6823. / Pamela Pfiffner

Adobe Charts Future CourseTHE DUST IS SETTLING from the merger of Adobe Systems and Aldus,and Adobe’s product strategy is falling into place.Common Code. All Aldus applications will eventually be rewritten touse the same core graphics engine currently used in Illustrator,Photoshop, and others. The graphics engine handles on-screen dis-play and printing to non-PostScript printers. Implementing the samecode across the product line allows seamless native-file transferamong applications and across platforms — PageMaker will be ableto open native Photoshop files and display them correctly, for ex-ample. It will also allow third-party developers to create hardwarethat accelerates multiple Adobe products.Plug-ins. Adobe is creating a common extensible architecture that al-lows developers to add specific or general-purpose functionality to allcore Adobe products on Macs and PCs. Under this strategy, a special-effects plug-in for Photoshop could be opened with Persuasion or anIllustrator Bézier editor could be used in PageMaker, for instance.Future Technologies. Adobe plans to support both Apple’s OpenDocand Microsoft’s OLE technologies on the Mac and on Windows ma-chines, respectively. PageMaker already supports OLE, but Adobeplans to make it and all its Mac applications OpenDoc-compliant aswell. Acrobat is a cornerstone for future product development too. AllAdobe products will read and write Acrobat’s PDF format. / PP

Vision 3d 4.0updates Strata’s currentlow-end 3-D program, StrataVision 3d,and adds functionality from its high-endsibling, StudioPro. Vision 3d 4.0 includesthe Boolean, sweep, and skinning modelersfrom StudioPro. The Boolean modeler, forinstance, lets you build complex shapes byadding two objects together or subtractingone object from another in order to createnew objects.

Graphic artists who produce three-dimensional images for print as well as on-screen will like the new PostScript-stylerenderer, which is similar to that in AdobeDimensions. Instead of rendering an imagebased on pixels, Vision 3d renders a vector-based image, which you can subsequentlyscale without losing quality. $695. 801-628-5218. / Sean J. Safreed


FINE PRINT

TWO NEW SCANNERS bring high-qualityscanning to the desktop at prices even dab-blers can afford. Each offers 10 bits percolor per pixel, for 30-bit scanning.UMAX Gemini-D16. Based on a new, dual-lens technology, the Gemini-D16, fromUMAX, uses two sets of optics to achievetrue 800-x-1,600-dpi resolution. Accordingto UMAX, the dual-lens technology givesthe Gemini-D16 the highest possible reso-lution available without interpolation in a

low-cost flatbed scanner.The 30-bit scanner has

two settings: 400 x 800 dpiand 800 x 1,600 dpi. When

the scanner is set to thehigher resolution, the second lens

magnifies an image to capture more data.As a result, the scanner’s image area is re-duced to 4.25 x 11 inches, so scanning ahigh-resolution, letter-sized image requiresyou to stitch two halves together with animage-editing application. At the lowerresolution, the scan area is the full 8.5 x 11inches. UMAX clocks the Gemini-D16 at 20seconds for a 400-dpi scan and 60 secondsfor an 800-dpi scan.

The Gemini-D16 is available in two ver-sions: the $1,895 LE, which ships with

PLUG-INS /

Create Custom Photoshop FiltersKAI’S POWER TOOLS is known mostly for itsweird and wonderful special effects, but un-derneath the unique interface lies some pow-erful stuff. Now a new KPT Photoshop plug-infrom HSC Software lets users create custom fil-ters for any project.

In essence, KPT Convolver puts an interface

on Photoshop’s custom convolution kernels,which let users vary the brightness of adjacentimage pixels, much as the Sharpen, Blur, andEmboss filters do. Photoshop’s Custom filtercan also produce effects similar to those ofchannel calculations.

KPT Convolver centralizes all these opera-tions in one plug-in that, much like KPT TextureExplorer, lets you experiment with a variety ofeffects and preview them with 15 variations.Once you’re satisfied with an effect, you switchto Design mode to create a filter. You can setvariables for edge angle and relief amount andangle as well as for more-standard effects suchas blur and sharpen. Finally, a mode calledTweak lets you refine the filter you’ve createdand observe changes to an image on the fly.

Like those of other KPT products, KPT Con-volver’s interface sports a 3-D look. As usersprogress through the software, they’re re-warded with special features as they reach newlevels. $199. 805-566-6200. / PP

SCANNERS /

Double-Duty Duo

Classy Clip ArtThe woodcut look is in for EPS images, andtwo of its biggest promoters are Art Partsand ARRO International. If you hanker forhip graphics, grab some Art Parts — TacoBell did for its in-store marketing materials.Each $50 package (50 images) provides afresh, playful take on standard subjects suchas animals, business, people (Face Parts

works like a digital Mr. PotatoHead), food, sports,

holidays, and edu-cation. Monthly

subscriptionsare $40,or you can

get the CD-RON (named after the company’scofounder) containing 13 volumes for $399.714-771-6754. Arts Parts’ graphics are alsoavailable through FontHaus (800-942-9110or 203-367-1993). ✵ ARRO focuses on envi-ronmental issues, and although the wood-cuts — as well as engravings, markers, andbrushes — in its ARROglyphs serieshave a more refined look than ArtParts’, they’re no less compelling.The 200 EPS and TIFF images inEnvironment ($119) range fromglobal warming and endan-gered species to pollution and recycling;companion packages include Wildlife andEnergy (50 images each, $49). 800-243-1515 or 201-746-9620. ✵ For a really hand-drawn look — say, a child’s crayon render-ing of a school bus — check out the KidBAGseries, from DS Designs. As their names im-ply, Art by Kids and Environmental Art byKids ($79 each for 100+ images) were cre-ated by 5- to 11-year-olds, using crayons,paint, watercolors, markers, pastels, andpencils. The whimsical pictures of people,places, and things — saved as EPS or TIFFimages (some in color) — can liven up anypublication. 800-745-4037 or 919-319-1770. ✵Finally Aridi Computer Graphics hasfive packages of elegant decorative art, allbased on historical designs, that can giveany publication an extra touch of class. Yourchoices range from ornate initial caps (12 al-phabets) to the intricate interlaces of ara-besque ornaments. Each of the EPS imagescomes in both black-and-white and CMYK-

color versions. You canpay $129 per volumeor snag all five on CD-ROM for $399. 800-755-6441 or 214-404-9171. / Aileen Abernathy

Adobe Photoshop LE and Caere’s OmniPageDirect, and the $1,995 Pro, which ships withPhotoshop and HSC Software’s Kai’s PowerTools SE. An optional transparency moduleis available for $595. 800-562-0311 or 510-651-8883.Relisys RELI4830T. This all-in-one unit canperform reflective and transparency scan-ning at 400 x1,600 dpi. Thescanner lid con-tains an LCD forscanning slidesand trans-parencies.Like otherR e l i s y sscanners, the RELI4830T uses cold-lamptechnology, which the company says cutsdown on the dust and vibrations that affectscanned-image quality because it requiresno fan.

The maximum image area is 8.5 x 14inches. The $1,699 RELI4830T ships withPhotoshop; OmniPage Direct; Kai’s PowerTools and Tips & Tricks CD-ROM; andRelisys’ Art-Scan Pro software, which letsyou scan images as autotraced EPS files.800-945-0900 or 408-945-3113. / PP


DESKTOP PUBLISHING

CLIP ART / BY AILEEN ABERNATHY

State of the ArtProfessional-caliber photographic images are staples of any graphic artist’s toolbox, butfor something a little bit different, check out these quirky collections.

and the need to remain competitive in thisera of clip art by the pound (think CorelGallery). Among the dozens of firms thatare churning out superior photographicimages, you can rely on big names such asArtbeats, Digital Stock, and PhotoDisc.

But what if you want more than a beauti-fully composed image? These days you canmake a unique statement with the quirkyobjects, detailed maps, classic art, and un-usual frames in these innovative CD-ROMcollections.

Remembrance of Things Past

Several recent photography CD-ROMstrade on nostalgia and our appreciation ofhistorical fine art. Whether you’re lookingfor ’50s family values or Michelangelo’sDavid, you can find them among thesehigh-resolution offerings (see figure 1).

America Remembered ($70), from Bora-ventures Publishing, contains reproduc-tions of 500 penny postcards from the early1900s. The 300-dpi PICT images retain thesepia tones and hand-colored pastels of theoriginals — as well as their blurry, blotchyappearance. Subjects include scenic won-ders, cowboys on the range, urban architec-ture, and the Pan-Pacific World’s Fair. 800-648-9009 or 203-254-2959.

PhotoDisc’s $299 Retro Americana cov-ers the era of Father Knows Best and Ozzieand Harriet. The 336 black-and-whitestock photos, taken from the 1920s to the1960s, feature wholesome housewives,clean-cut businessmen, dreamy teens,

CLIP ART HAS COME a long way in ten years. Thequality and content of royalty-free photographs aregrowing by leaps and bounds, thanks to increased de-mand, the capacity and convenience of CD-ROMs,

Arabic Tiles, Medieval Alphabets, JapaneseArt, Architecture, and Icons. There are loadsof images that also make wonderful back-grounds and textures. The images do tendto be muddy, requiring color and contrasttweaks — but then so are their physicalcounterparts, after a few hundred years.800-200-3405 or 213-651-3405.

Object-Oriented

Need a picture of just a piggy bank? Full-screen photographs require editing exper-tise (and Adobe Photoshop) to separate adesired item from its surroundings. Nowseveral companies have taken the next logi-cal step: photographed objects, isolatedagainst white backgrounds (often withnaturally cast shadows) for easy selection(see figure 2).

CMCD, a branch of designerClement Mok’s company, offersthe Visual Symbols library:seven business-oriented collec-tions on CD-ROM that includeEveryday Objects, Just Tools,

cuddly couples, and oh-so-precious kids.As in all of PhotoDisc’s other superb titles,the full-page images are saved in both 72-dpi TIFF and 300-dpi JPEG formats. Forthose who are more interested in Renais-sance-era masterpieces than Americankitsch, PhotoDisc also offers Italian FineArt, Prints and Photographs (also $299), alovely collection of antique maps, histor-ical photographs, botanical and zoologicalprints, and trade illustrations that spansthe 14th to the 20th century. 800-528-3472or 206-441-9355.

Planet Art casts a wider net,bringing the world’s art treasuresto your desktop. Each $90 CD-ROM in its Classic Graphics serieshas 100 images from a specificartist, period, or style — such asMichelangelo, Albrecht Dürer, Wil-liam Morris, French Posters (fea-turing Toulouse-Lautrec), Navoi’s

figure 1 / Women through the ages, as depicted in Planet Art’s Leonardo da Vinci collection (a);Boraventures’ America Remembered (b); and PhotoDisc’s Retro Americana (c) and Italian FineArt, Prints and Photographs (d). For details about the edge effects on (b) and (c), see sidebar.

a

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figure 3 / Digital Wisdom’s Mountain HighMaps has a nifty viewer utility that providescartographic and digital data about each map(a). Photographer Mike Agliolo colorized aglobe from the collection and incorporated itinto this stock-photo illustration (b).

Just Documents, Just Hands, and Meta-phorically Speaking (a black sheep, goldenhandcuffs, a broken record). Each $129 disccontains more than 100 good-looking, well-chosen images in Photo CD format. Al-though Photo CD gives you five resolutionsto work with, it unfortunately doesn’t sup-port clipping paths — carefully drawn out-lines you can use as selection areas whencopying or manipulating an object. As a re-sult, you must spend time carefully separat-ing objects from their backgrounds, which(in case you’re thinking of using them) areoccasionally marred by dirt specks. 800-664-2623 or 415-703-9907.

Three other companies offer images thatdo include clipping paths. Digital Media hasfour Stock Options titles: Sports Equip-ment; Food & Grocery Items; Business &Medical Items; and Toys, Models & GamePieces. The 75 to 100 images on each $99CD-ROM are saved as high-resolutionCMYK TIFF files and include such hard-to-find items as fishing lures, stuffed olives,and trademarked items such as TinkerToys, so read the licensing agreement care-fully. 800-786-2512 or 714-362-5103.

The Classic Photographic Image Objects(PIO) library, from Ridgley Curry & Associ-ates, supplies vintage props and memora-bilia from the storehouses of Hollywood’s20th Century Props. The ten volumes in-clude classic Telephones, Radios, Cameras,Kitchen Appliances, Business Equipment,and Fashion Accessories. Each $70 CD-

GIVE YOUR PHOTOS AN EDGEARTISTICALLY FRAYED PHOTOS may be the nexttrendy faux-traditional look, thanks to Digimation’sPhoto/Graphic Edges, an innovative collection of 650edge effects that can be added to any digital photo-graph (see figure 1). Instead of painstakingly creatingrippled and textured edges in Photoshop or Painter,you just select one of the premade borders on the$199 CD-ROM and combine it with the desired image.

The collection of 400-dpi TIFF files has three parts.Underlay and Overlay edges are for use in page-layout programs: Place one of these edges on thepage, and layer it with a graphic (or even text) toachieve the desired effect (the overlays have trans-parent windows). The most versatile are Compositeedges, which have alpha-channel masks for creatingspecial effects in Photoshop and can be combinedwith 19 textures (such as etched, mezzo, and rice pa-per). 800-839-2008 or 603-430-8373.

figure 2 / Photographs of objects area popular niche for stock art. Thistypewriter from Ridgley Curry’s ClassicPIO (a), alarm clock from Image ClubGraphics’ ObjectGear (b), and alphabetblocks from Digital Media’s StockOptions (c) include clipping paths, forcropping the object and combining itwith other elements. CMCD images,such as this phone (d), don’t.

ROM has two views each of 20objects. The TIFF images aresaved in low and high resolu-tions and contain alpha-chan-nel masks for each object, mak-ing it easy to add transparencyto a blender’s glass, for exam-ple. 818-564-1215.

Image Club Graphics’ Object-Gear collection falters in termsof image selection, but it isthe easiest to use. Its 85 photo-graphs are saved in two resolu-tions as CMYK EPS files withembedded clipping paths, al-lowing you to import a croppedobject directly into a page lay-out without first visiting Photo-shop. The $99 disc also suppliesseparate TIFF files containingtwo types of shadows (drop andcast) for each object. 800-387-9193 or 403-262-8008.

Mapping the Terrain

If you chart the modern-day world, you maybe familiar with Cartesia Software’s MapArtCD-ROM series ($60 to $200) of excellentEPS (or PICT) two-dimensional maps. 800-334-4291 or 609-397-1611.

Nonmembers of the Flat Earth Societywill appreciate Digital Wisdom’s MountainHigh Maps CD-ROM ($995). This uniquecollection of relief maps duplicates the landand ocean-floor contours of the world, pro-viding a better sense of natural terrain thando satellite images (see figure 3). The 74gray-scale projections of continents and

countries and 39 globe views are based on aset of carefully constructed scale modelsused in atlases. Each TIFF file comes in tworesolutions. To get the most out of the maps,you’ll need a program such as Photoshop,because they look better in color and you’llwant to add details such as text, borders, orroads. Mountain High Maps gives you ahead start, with its precreated masks andhelpful hints on modifying the maps, butDigital Wisdom can also sell you Frontiers,a $120 CD-ROM of editable map outlinesthat can be overlaid on the topologicalmaps. 800-800-8560 or 804-758-0670.

Aileen Abernathy is a coauthor of The MacintoshBible, Fifth Edition, and the upcoming The ABCs ofDTP (both from Peachpit Press).

a

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GRAPHICS HOW-TO / BY JANET ASHFORD

The MaskIn PostScript illustration programs, masking lets you turn complex patterns into simpleshapes. Here’s how one artist uses Altsys FreeHand to create rich backgrounds.

MASKING IS A POWERFUL PostScriptfunction that allows you to define a closedpath as a clipping path or masking shape.Artists often use masking to clean up therough edges of an illustration. (Picturemaking a cookie: The cookie cutter is theclipping path, the dough that’s left on thetable when you lift up the cookie is themask, and the table that shows through thehole is the illustration.)

Seattle illustrator Don Baker employsAltsys FreeHand’s masking function, PasteInside, to create a complex, Cubist back-ground for an illustration of salmon. Aftercreating several types of textures and ap-plying masks to them, he assembles themasked shapes like a puzzle. The result re-sembles light slanting through water. To dothe same thing in Adobe Illustrator, selectthe textures and the polygon and chooseMake Mask from the Object menu. In Illus-trator, the masking polygon should be infront of the textures.

Janet Ashford is the coauthor, with Linnea Dayton, ofAldus PageMaker: A Visual Guide for the Mac,distributed by Addison-Wesley.

1. Mapping themasks. Based on arough sketch of theillustration, Bakercreates a series ofshapes for masks.

3. No masking necessary. To create soft ripples,Baker draws wiggly lines with a felt-tip pen. Afterscanning the drawing, he autotraces the scan andfills the ripples with a light blue in FreeHand (a).Using the diagram he made in step 1 as a guide,he draws three background shapes, fills themwith marine colors (b), and then positions theblue ripples on top (c). Because other shapes inthe illustration will cover its edges, Baker doesn’tuse masking on this element, thus reducing filecomplexity.

b

a

c

a

b a

5. Assembling the pieces. Bakerassembles the completed texturesaccording to his diagram. Anexploded view shows the separatetexture elements (a). Baker leaves anarea near the center of the back-ground blank (b), because it will becovered by a large salmon.

4. Adding photographic textures. For a differenteffect, Baker scans two photos of water andautotraces them in FreeHand (a). After adding colorto the textures, he rotates them (b). He gives thewater a background by drawing an orange-filledpolygon (shown here outlined in red) and sending itbehind the water textures (c). He then pastes thewater shapes into the polygon to mask them (d).

a

dc

b

2. Masking the waves. To createthe texture of waves, Baker drawsundulating shapes and staggerscopies in units of three (a). He fillsthese shapes with a graduated filland rotates them. Next, he drawsfree-form squiggly lines and atriangle (shown in red) over theshapes (b). He selects the wavesand squiggles and cuts them tothe Pasteboard. Finally, he selectsthe triangle and chooses PasteInside from the Edit menu toinsert the textures into thetriangle (c).

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DESKTOP PUBLISHING


DESKTOP PUBLISHING

IN LAST MONTH’S COLUMN, we talked about DCS(Desktop Color Separation), a method of substitutinglow-resolution files for high-resolution images in pagelayouts. Now let’s take a look at another method: OPI (Open Prepress Interface).

Aldus developed OPI years ago (in theDeep Prehistory of Desktop Publishing), incooperation with big-system vendors. Inthose days, prepress trade shops and print-ers were responsible for high-resolutionscanning. A shop with OPI capabilitiesscanned photos on high-end scanners andhanded them back to designers as low-resolution FPO (for-position-only) files foruse in page layouts. Designers returnedcompleted page-layout files to the prepressshop, where, for final output, a proprietaryand expensive high-performance colorelectronic-prepress system automaticallyreplaced the low-resolution FPO files withtheir high-resolution equivalents.

These days, OPI works in much the sameway from the designer’s standpoint, al-though a designer today might use a Post-Script service bureau or in-house scanningequipment instead of a color trade shop.

Strictly speaking, OPI refers to a specifictype of image-replacement scheme thatuses PostScript comments as defined in theOPI standards document. Today, however,OPI generally refers to a variety of image-replacement mechanisms available fromseveral vendors, including Compumation(now part of the Adobe Systems jugger-naut), Archetype, Helios, Scitex, Linotype-Hell, and others. The details differ, but alluse PostScript comments to tell the image-replacement engine — usually a printspooler — where and how to swap the files.

The print spooler — a separate computer

running special software or a separate pro-gram running on a file server — examinesthe PostScript code for OPI comments as itgoes to the imagesetter. The high-resolu-tion files must be accessible to the spooler,either on a disk drive attached to the spool-ing computer or on a network volume.

As a result, high-reso-lution image files don’thave to be carried aroundon your network alongwith the page-layout files,saving time, networkbandwidth, and overallhassles. But because im-age-replacement schemesare based on the assump-tion that only trade-shoppros should mess withhigh-resolution files, de-signers can’t do any image retouching, colorcorrection, or special effects on the high-resolution images. (Changes to a low-reso-lution image don’t affect its high-resolutionoriginal.) In fact, as originally defined, OPIallowed only for image cropping andresizing and could handle only TIFF files;rotation and support for other file typescame along later.

What are the differences between OPIand DCS? OPI schemes use only two files:the high-resolution file and the FPO file.DCS uses five EPS files: the low-resolution“master” file and the four linked CMYKhigh-resolution separation files that musttravel as a group. As a result, DCS requires

EXPERT TIPS / BY BOB SCHAFFEL AND CHUCK WEGER

Another OPInionImage-replacement strategies ease the burden of working with large files. But whichimage-substitution scheme is right for you?

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more file management than OPI. By defini-tion, DCS files must be in CMYK form,which means that any DCS-generating pro-gram (such as Adobe Photoshop) must in-clude color-separation capabilities. TheOPI standard says nothing explicit aboutthe number of colors or how they’re sepa-rated (although in practice, most OPIschemes deal with CMYK).

DCS is a more self-contained technologythan OPI, so it is more readily availableto desktop publishers. DCS files can beprinted directly by the page-layout pro-gram (QuarkXPress or PageMaker), which

finds the high-reso-lution files and sub-stitutes them forthe low-resolutionplaceholders in thelayout. With OPI,images must be re-placed in a separatestep, handled by aprint spooler in-stead of by a page-layout program.

Which of theseimage-replacement schemes is better foryou? DCS requires less up-front investmentin technology and is generally less compli-cated (except that you have to keep track ofmore files). OPI systems are more sophisti-cated, and you can couple them with imagedatabases to streamline your work flow. Ifyou don’t want to fuss with the details of theimage-replacement process, using OPI maybe the better strategy. In either case, dis-cuss your choice with your film-output ser-vice provider.

Bob Schaffel is technology director of the ProfessionalPrepress Alliance. Chuck Weger is an independentconsultant and publisher of the Photoshop Monitornewsletter.


NETWORKINGGROUPWARE /

FirstClass Expands to Power Mac,Windows, and TCP/IPOPTIONS FOR SOFTARC’S groupware server software are increas-ing as fast as the popularity of the bulletin-board/e-mail/database-access package. As the FirstClass server software moves to new plat-forms with Power Mac-native, Windows, and TCP/IP versions,third-party add-ons are becoming available.

Version 2.6 of the Power Mac-native FirstClass server software($395) offers speed improvements through support forApple’s Modern Memory Manager, as well as accessfrom TCP/IP networks, including the Internet. Withthe new TCP/IP module ($995), Macintosh and Win-dows users of FirstClass 2.6 client software can log invia a TCP/IP network as well as from AppleTalk andmodem connections.

Mac and Windows users can obtain a free upgrade toversion 2.6 of the client software from SoftArc’s First-Class bulletin board (905-415-7070) or from SoftArc’ssupport areas on America Online, CompuServe, andeWorld. A server-software upgrade is available withoutcost from SoftArc’s bulletin board or for $95 directly from SoftArc(905-415-7000).

Mac and PC FirstClass clients are able to access the FirstClassWindows server software ($690 for ten users) with any existing ver-sion of the client software. The server software supports connec-tions from AppleTalk, TCP/IP, IPX, and NetBios networks as well as

from modem connections. SoftArc has also announced that Win-dows NT and Windows 95 versions will follow the Windows 3.1 re-lease, which is expected to ship in the second quarter.

More than a dozen third-party gateways and extensions have re-cently shipped that expand FirstClass’ functionality. InformationAccess Technologies (510-704-0160) sells HoloGate mail gate-

ways, starting at $500;the gateways allow youto send FirstClass mailto several popular e-mail packages via theInternet. FirstClass Re-triever+ ($99), fromBlack Labs (303-938-8580), enables Newtonusers to retrieve theirFirstClass mail. Pre-press businesses can

use a suite of custom forms and gateways from Pine Island Software(317-465-9623) to track jobs and facilitate printing and file transferwithin FirstClass. FirstConnect ($995), from TGF Technologies(802-660-4911), uses FirstClass as a front end for queries to locateand display photographic images stored in Oracle, SYBASE, orother SQL databases. / Shelly Brisbin

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LINKING LANS /

Shiva Connects RemoteNetwork SitesSHIVA HAS COMBINED remote LAN-to-LAN and dial-in functions in twonew products designed to connect networks in branch offices with 25 orfewer nodes. The new hardware provides high-speed links using V.34 andISDN technologies. Shiva (617-270-8300) believes ISDN is ideal for LAN-to-LAN links, because of its quick connecting time, which allows thehardware to bring the connection down and back up during a session tosave money during idle times.

The LANRover/2E Plus ($2,799) is a two-slot remote-access router thatcan connect two LANs (Mac and/or PC) using a variety of network proto-cols over PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) links. One slot contains a 115-kbps asynchronous module for ISDN, Switched 56, or X.25 connectionsfor linking LANs. The other slot contains a V.34-modem module for dial-inaccess by telecommuters and dial-out access by users on the LAN. For cre-ating and managing LAN-to-LAN connections, the unit also includesShiva LANConnect software, whose interface is similar to that of AppleRemote Access (ARA).

Shiva’s new single-port NetModem/E 28.8 ($1,999) can also be usedfor LAN-to-LAN or dial-in and dial-out connections. The new model,which supports ARA, includes a 28.8-kbps modem based on the RockwellV.34/V.FC chip set. / John Rizzo

NETWATCH /

Keeping Track of Upcoming ProductsMODEMS BASED ON the newest standard, V.34, are now widely avail-able, and on-line services are planning to offer 28.8-kbps phonelines in a few months. Apple’s Open Transport is running a little late.The first Open Transport software will be for AppleTalk and TCP/IPand will be bundled with system software as well as with third-partynetworking products. Taligent Common Point (formerly calledTaligent Application Environment), which runs on top of 32-bit op-erating systems, has slipped a quarter. The full operating system,TalOS, was pushed into next year and will probably run on the Apple/IBM reference PowerPC platform. Some of these ship dates weregiven by the vendors; others are MacUser’s own projections.

CompuServe V.34 support America Online V.34 support Apple Open Transport Taligent Common Point Taligent TalOS

1995 19961994ORIGINAL ESTIMATED SHIP DATE

CURRENT ESTIMATED SHIP DATE N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A


NET BYTES

Acquired TargetsDCA HAS BECOME THE LATEST MEAL in thenetworking food chain, with its acquisi-tion by Attachmate. Both companies’product lines will continue, includingthe DCA OpenMind groupware packageand DCA’s popu-lar IRMA line ofmainframe con-nectivity prod-ucts. This latestmerger followson the heels ofDCA’s 1992 acqui-sition of Avatar,which had swal-lowed TriData ayear earlier. ✴ One of the products Novellpicked up when it acquired WordPerfectwas Informs, a groupware package con-sisting of automated forms that commu-nicate over networks. Novell (801-225-5000) has released the Mac version,InForms Filler for Macintosh ($199),which lets users exchange data and formswith Windows users. But unlike the Win-dows version, the Mac version can’t createforms or directly access databases. ✴

Practical Peripherals (805-497-4774) isshipping some innovative V.34 Macmodems, including the credit-card-sizedMacClass PCMCIA 288 ($459) for 500-series PowerBooks and the MacClass 288LCD V.34 ($459), a desktop model thattells you the speed of the modem you’veconnected to on the other end. ✴ Hew-lett-Packard (800-752-0900 or 800-387-3867 [outside U.S.]) is betting on 100VGEthernet (also called IEEE 802.12) to be thenext big networking standard, by allyingwith hub giant Cisco Systems to develophardware. HP’s first resulting product isthe 100VG-AnyLAN hub, a 100-megabit-per-second unit that also works with exist-ing Ethernet networks. It’s a steal at$3,750. ✴ Ethernet for mere mortals isgetting a boost from the EtherSwitchEPS-2115 (starting at $767 per port), fromKalpana (408-749-1600). This switchedhub offers modular ports and power sup-plies that can be hot-swapped while theunit is running. Also included is a specialSwitchProbe port, in to which you can di-rectly plug network-monitoring devices.✴ DataStream’s Laser Choice (606-255-6686) lets PCs access Mac-network print-ers while staying on PC networks. The ODI-compliant software is $59. / JR

NETWORK BACKUP /

More Data on TapeAUTOMATIC BACKUP becomes more automaticwith a new version of the cross-platformARCserve software, from Cheyenne Soft-ware (516-484-5110), and Dantz Devel-opment (510-253-3000) announces itsfirst step toward cross-platform sup-port for Retrospect.

Cheyenne’s ARCserve for Mac ($245for five users) offers improved auto-mation, security, and speed in ver-sion 1.5 and is Power Mac-native. Forbackup sessions that don’t fit on asingle tape, the new version of ARCserve sup-ports tape-drive cascading, so backup sessionscan be automatically continued onmultiple tape drives. You can alsocontinue sessions by using tapeautochangers from ADIC, Archive,Exabyte, and Hewlett-Packard. Auto-mation is furthered by the product’ssupport for AppleScript.

For security, ARCserve 1.5 does a byte-by-byte data verification. It scans the harddisk for viruses before the disk is backed up andleaves infected files off the backup tape. Youcan also now block folders from being backedup without having to change filenames or

MAC-TO-MIDRANGE /

New AS/400, HP 9000 ConnectionsGETTING AND KEEPING Macs in Blueshops is easier with new host-access prod-ucts from Wall Data, Andrew, and WRQ.

Wall Data (408-369-6900) has added AS/400 connections to the SNA•ps IBM suite itbought from Apple, with the release ofSNA•ps 5250 ($345). The new product in-cludes AppleTalk Direct, host software thatlinks an AS/400 to a network of Macs, pro-viding 5250 display and AS/400 printing.

Another new Wall Data product, SNA•psFolder 400, is file-transfer software thatruns on top of Wall’s Mac-based SNA•psSNA gateway software. Folder 400is the first file-transfer product forMacs that uses IBM’s APPC file-transfer standard. The price wasexpected to be about $1,000.

A/TAxcess ($200), new from An-drew (800-531-5167 or 512-314-3000), also connects networks ofMacs to AS/400 systems overAppleTalk. It includes 5250-termi-nal emulation and printer emula-tion as well as bidirectional filetransfer between Macs and AS/400

systems. Andrew’s TCP/Axcess for Macin-tosh Release 3 ($200), which connects to ahost over TCP/IP networks, now allows youto print AS/400 documents on AppleTalkprinters.

Mac users are also able to reach Hewlett-Packard 9000-series midrange systemswith a new version of Reflection 1 Plus($329), from WRQ (800-872-2829 or 206-217-7100). Version 4.1 supports multipleHP sessions, faster file transfer, and graphi-cal keyboard mapping. The upgrade is freeto current users. / SB

folder names. Tapes created from the Mac arecompatible with tapes created by ARCserve forNetWare, which runs on NetWare servers.

Although Dantz’s popular Retrospectdoes not run on NetWare serv-ers, you will be able to back up

some NetWare servers and Net-Ware PC clients to a Macintosh

with an add-on product sched-uled to be released this April.

Dantz’s Remote 10-Pack for Net-Ware ($395) will back up NetWare

servers running Novell’s StorageManagement System 2.0 software

(free with NetWare 4.x and 3.11). TheRemote 10-Pack for NetWare is Mac

software that works with Retro-spect ($249) or Retrospect Re-

mote ($449).According to Dantz, the new

add-on is aimed at NetWare envi-ronments in which Macs predominate, be-

cause the backup is being done by a Mac, not aNetWare server. Retrospect still can’t back upnon-NetWare PCs. Dantz says it is working onWindows client software but would give noship date. / JR


NETWORKING

IT’S FAIRLY EASY for an individual to get startedcruising the Internet, given the healthy range of afford-able offerings from Internet-access providers. But whatabout Internet access for everyone on your company

UNIX workstation or dedicated connec-tions to a service provider to enable yourbusiness to slip into the Internet. You cancreate your own UNIX gateway server byusing an old Mac and MachTen ($495), aversion of UNIX from Tenon Intersystems(805-963-6983) that runs on top of the Macoperating system. You can even use yourMac UNIX server to publish material on the

network? For even a small company of 25people, SLIP accounts, at around $30 a per-son each month, would add up to $9,000annually (see “Shopping for Internet Ac-cess,” December ’94, page 133). Large com-panies lower per-user costs by setting uptheir own UNIX Internet servers, a routemany small companies can’t afford.

Fortunately, you don’t need an expensive

THE INTERNET / BY KELLI WISETH

Roll Your Own Internet ServerWith an old Mac and some inexpensive software, you can put your business on theinformation highway.

MachTen

UNIX daemons

Internet users

Internet-server Mac Service-provider point of presence

Remote user accessing the LAN through the Internet

TCP/IP software Windows-PC user

MacTCP Mac user

MacTCP Mac user

MacTCP Mac user

Mosaic

ftp UUCP POP http

ftp site

The Internet

WWW sites

Usenet groups

ftp sites

WWW page

ftp client software

Usenet newsreader

A MAC RUNNING MACHTEN, configured as an Internet server, gives Macsand PCs on your network access to the Internet and Internet users access

to your server. Macs need MacTCP, and Windows PCs need TCP/IP softwaresuch as that included with Windows for Workgroups.

ACCESS FOR EVERYONE / the Macintosh as an Internet server

Internet to provide information to clientsand potential customers.

MachTen is a full-fledged UNIX operat-ing system that has all the networking soft-ware processes necessary to turn a Mac intoan Internet host. It is also a cheaper imple-mentation of UNIX than Apple’s upcomingPowerOpen, which will run on a Power Mac.(Apple’s A/UX is being replaced by Power-Open.) And MachTen is very easy to installand configure as Internet server software.

A World of Information

Even an older 68030-based Mac runningMachTen supplies all the advantages ofLAN-based Internet access without the cost

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now set up the Internet services. Setting upan ftp server is virtually automatic whenyou install and configure MachTen, if you’vechecked the Enable Incoming Connectionsbox in the MachTen control panel. Doing soenables MachTen to run a UNIX processcalled ftpd (short for ftp daemon), whichinvokes the ftp server software.

Users have access privileges on the ftpserver as long as their names are listed inMachTen’s password file. The person doingthe setup can enter the name Anonymous inthat file to allow users from around theworld to access specific files. Don’t worryabout strangers weaseling their way intoother sections of the server Mac’s hard diskor into the rest of your LAN. MachTen in-cludes instructions, via a HyperCard-basedmanual, for setting up the ftp server so thatusers are restricted to specified areas.

To offer dynamic presentations — walk-throughs of homes, using video images andsound, for example — a company can setup a World Wide Web server, which usersaccess with Mosaic or other graphic brows-ers. Tenon offers a MachTen version of theWWW server software, called httpd (forhypertext-transfer-protocol daemon), whichyou can get by accessing Tenon’s ftp server(ftp.tenon.com). Creating the hypermediadocuments is a time-consuming, labor-in-tensive task, however — harder than set-ting up the WWW server itself.

Gateway to the World

There are other ways to use a Mac to giveyour business access to the Internet, such asusing WWW and ftp server software, butthese approaches are limited. MachTenbrings you the functionality of an Internetserver without the costs of supporting andmaintaining UNIX hardware.

Because MachTen is a bona fide imple-mentation of UNIX, you can build a com-plete Internet gateway for accessing the Netfrom your LAN. And the server can becomea purveyor of your company’s marketing,tech-support, and other kinds of literatureto the millions of Internet users around theworld.

Kelli Wiseth heads NetResults, a network-consultingcompany based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

You can find MODE32 in the MacUser andZiffNet/Mac areas on CompuServe andeWorld. See page 4 for details on how to

access ZiffNet/Mac.

because most of the setup is automated, itdoesn’t require a lot of fiddling with con-figuration files.

Much of the configuration occurs in theMachTen control panel (see figure 1). Hereyou set the size of MachTen’s virtualmemory and swap-disk file and enter net-work-address and subnet information. Af-ter the configuration is complete, many ofthe network processes will start automati-cally when MachTen boots.

However, we found that there are twothings to be careful about. If you’re install-ing MachTen on a Mac SE/30, II, IIx, or IIcx,be sure to install the MODE32 extension —free for the downloading from Compu-Serve, America Online, and other commer-cial services (see end of article). Without

MODE32, the ROMs in thesefour older Macs don’t support32-bit addressing, which Mach-Ten requires. Second, avoid thetemptation to reorganize thevarious files and folders Mach-Ten installs on your hard disk.Rearranging the file and folderstructure prevents you fromlogging in at the root level,something you’ll need to do inorder to limit access to the ap-propriate individuals or groupsand to perform other adminis-trative tasks.

You can connect your Mach-Ten server to the Internet via a

SLIP or PPP dial-up account from a serviceprovider, a company that charges a monthlyfee for your link. The newer PPP is betterthan SLIP, because it handles errors andsupports compression. The service pro-vider will give you unique IP (Internet Pro-tocol) node addresses for the Macs on yourin-house LAN, which will also need Apple’sMacTCP software (bundled with System7.5) in order to access the Internet. You’llthen need to type an IP node-address num-ber into MacTCP on each Mac. You may findthe IP numbering scheme the leastattractive aspect of the entire Internet-server-setup process, but if you simplyapproach it as an organizational task —keeping track of which machine has whichnumber — it’ll be a lot easier than youmight think.

With MachTen installed on the serverand MacTCP on the users’ Macs, you can

and support burden of UNIX hardware. AllMac and PC users on your company net-work get the same type of access to theInternet that they would have with indi-vidual accounts, including access to ftp(file-transfer protocol) sites and WWW(World Wide Web) sites, as well as use ofUUCP (UNIX-to-UNIX Copy Protocol) fore-mail and access to Usenet groups. (See“Access for Everyone.”)

MachTen also offers Internet access forusers while they are on the road. For in-stance, remote users can dial in to an Inter-net server to pick up their e-mail throughthe POP server software, which is part ofMachTen. And they can also dial in to theirin-house network through SLIP or PPPserver software, also part of MachTen.

As a further plus, you can offer your ownInternet services to the rest of the world,giving your company a high-tech profilewith a presence on the most widely hypedmedium available today. Large firms arenow doing this by posting financial reportsand product information on ftp and WWWservers.

Stress-Free Installation

For the Internet-server Mac, you need atleast a Mac SE/30 with a minimum of 5 MBof RAM (we recommend having at least 8MB) and 30 MB of free hard-disk space,meager requirements by UNIX standards.You won’t need a large supply of patience,since the MachTen system is easy to get upand running, its scary-looking documenta-tion notwithstanding. MachTen doesn’ttake over your Mac, so you’ll work withinthe familiar environment of the Finder. And

figure 1 / The MachTen control panel handles most of thenetwork configuration, including the server’s IP addresses.IP forwarding automatically routes between LocalTalk andEthernet. Disabling Enable Incoming Connections preventsoutside users from accessing the server.


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THE FASTEST PERSONAL COMPUTER in theworld — a prototype of the 120-MHz PowerPC 604-based Mac expected to ship later this year — made itsdemo debut at Comdex in Las Vegas last fall. Thisprototype Mac ran about twice as fast as thefastest personal computer you could buy atthe time, the 110-MHz Power Mac 8100,which, in turn, is about five times as fast as1993’s top-of-the-line Mac.

Yet with all this impressive advancementin hardware power, users’ experience hasn’tchanged much of late. The reason? Softwareisn’t keeping up with hardware. Softwaredelays are of epidemic proportions, withapplication upgrades often several monthslate and operating-system releases — suchas System 7.0; Windows 95; and now, Sys-tem 8.0 — frequently delayed for a year ormore. In addition, Mac versions of applica-tions lag behind Windows versions bymonths and years, creating problems forcompanies that use the same software onMacs and PCs.

With a year or more between major up-grades, developers wanting a long shelf lifefor their products pack each release withevery possible feature for every possibleuser. So we get products that require the lat-est new hardware, not software that takesadvantage of the new hardware.

Apple’s OpenDoc technology, expected toship in a few months, has grown beyond itsoriginal mission of providing users with analternative to RAM-eating, monolithic ap-plications (see Mac to PC, April ’94, page119). With added technology from IBM andNovell, OpenDoc has evolved into a cross-platform technology that offers developersa way to scale the wall created by slow appli-cation development.

certifying that OpenDoc components willwork with each other is the nonprofit CI(Component Integration) Labs, which ad-ditionally serves as the caretaker ofOpenDoc standards. The current membersinclude the three founders — Apple, IBM,and Novell — as well as Adobe, Lotus, andTaligent. CI Labs has also been endorsed byBorland, Hewlett-Packard, and Xerox,among other companies.

Notably missing from this lineup isMicrosoft, owner and purveyor of the OLE(Object Linking and Embedding) technol-ogy. OLE links functions of large applica-tions, such as spreadsheet programs andword processors. As I mentioned in myApril ’94 column, OpenDoc has several

user-interface advantages over OLE — forexample, switching among parts requiresfewer mouse clicks and parts don’t have tobe box-shaped. It also has two major archi-tectural advantages:1. OpenDoc code is easier to write than OLEcode. OLE is not currently a modular soft-ware technology, so it doesn’t shorten thesoftware-development cycle. In fact, OLEcomplicates things with several APIs (appli-cation-programming interfaces) that pro-vide varying degrees of OLE compatibility.OpenDoc, on the other hand, is compatible

MAC TO PC / BY JOHN RIZZO

Scaling the Software WallSlow software development has been stalling the growth of personalcomputing. Is OpenDoc the breakthrough developers need?

TEXT

GRAPHICS

OpenDocfileCHARTS

Why does software development lag so farbehind hardware development? W. WaytGibbs sums it up in an article entitled “Soft-ware’s Chronic Crisis” (Scientific American,September ’94, page 86). He points out thathardware design is an engineering disci-pline, which means that it employs math-ematical models to create products madeof modular, reproducible parts. Program-ming, however, is still a handcrafted disci-pline involving few reusableparts. Gibbs notes that as soft-ware projects become morecomplex, the likelihood in-creases that they’ll be late oreven canceled.

Software experts tend toagree that a key to bringing thesoftware industry to maturity isto move it from building made-to-order products to using pre-fabricated, reusable compo-nents, sometimes called objects.OpenDoc offers a vendor-neutral standardfor building modular software componentsthat work together. OpenDoc documentsare also modular; they consist of parts, suchas text, graphics, spreadsheets, and charts,each of which is handled by a part editorthat provides tools that are specific to thetype of data that part contains. OpenDoc’smodularity moves programming closer toan engineering model, because new partsand application sets are assembled frompretested components.

The group that has responsibility for


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with OLE — and CI Labs claims that theOpenDoc API is actually a significantlyeasier tool for implementing OLE than areMicrosoft’s own OLE APIs.2. OpenDoc is designed to be multiplatform.OLE was designed for Windows and portedto the Mac, whereas the OpenDoc standardwas developed as a collaborative effort byvendors representing multiple platforms —and OpenDoc is expected to ship for mul-tiple platforms during the first half of thisyear. Apple has developed OpenDoc systemsoftware for MacOS, and the WordPerfectNovell Applications Group is developingOpenDoc for Windows 3.1, Windows 95,and Windows NT; furthermore, IBM is de-veloping OpenDoc for AIX (its UNIX ver-sion) and OS/2. In addition, OpenDoc willsupport operating systems, including AS/400 OS, HP-UX, and MVS, for mainframeand midrange hosts.

OpenDoc also makes it easier to buildmultiplatform software. A single API cov-ers all platforms, and about 80 percent ofOpenDoc code is multiplatform, accordingto CI Labs. Mac developers porting theirapplications to OpenDoc get access to these

other platforms with little extra effort. Infact, CI Labs claims that it’s easier to useOpenDoc to get software running on Win-dows 95 than it is to port software fromWindows 3.1 to Windows 95.

The most recent operating environmentto support OpenDoc, Taligent’s CommonPoint, will make OpenDoc developmentstill easier. Scheduled to ship in the thirdquarter of this year, Common Point featuresmany capabilities that are built in (for ex-ample, client/server communication andmultimedia support), so developers don’tneed to create them from scratch. And nowthat Taligent is supporting OpenDoc, appli-cations created within Common Point’s de-veloper frameworks can run in OpenDoc onMacs and PCs.

Opening Up OpenDoc

Just as the modular nature of OpenDocenables users to plug document parts into each other, so too does it allow previ-ously existing object technologies, includ-ing Apple’s Bento and IBM’s SOM, to plug into OpenDoc. These technologies are mod-ular and could be replaced by others if a

OPENDOC IS MODULAR NOT JUST on the outside — where users plug parts together to createcompound documents — but on the inside as well. OpenDoc’s modular architecture has al-lowed multiple vendors to plug existing technologies in to OpenDoc. Vendors are providinga wealth of services, including storage of multipart documents (Apple’s Bento), language-independent object management (IBM’s SOM) and scripting management (OSA), andinteroperability (Novell’s ComponentGlue technology) to connect OpenDoc with technolo-gies such as OLE. OpenDoc developers can also plug in additional technology modules with-out having to rewrite OpenDoc application software.

OPENDOC ARCHITECTURE / creating modularity with modules

Compound- document

services

Storage services

Object- management

services

Automation services

Interoperability services

OpenDoc

Platform- independent

libraries

(Apple) (IBM)

Component- Glue for OLE

Common PointOSABento SOM

(Novell) (Taligent)

Scripting languages

REXXApple- Script

chart

textspread- sheet

Lotus- Script

Parts

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developer wanted to use its own technologyor if something better came along, withoutthe need to rewrite any user software. Abrief look at these technologies helps illus-trate the modular nature of OpenDoc.

Bento, a storage service invented byApple, is already used in over 100 Mac andPC applications, including Lotus 1-2-3; infact, Bento is the basis of the Lotus WK4 fileformat. Bento acts as a Clipboard for mov-ing information and documents, even be-tween different operating systems over anetwork. Bento also enables the differentparts in an OpenDoc document to be storedin a single place in memory.

SOM (System Object Module), a key com-ponent of OpenDoc, is an object-manage-ment service that lets OpenDoc objectswork together. First developed for OS/2 2.0,SOM is IBM’s implementation of a pro-gramming standard called CORBA (Com-mon Object Request Broker Architecture).SOM can distribute objects over a network,a capability OLE won’t have until 1996.

A major feature of SOM is its languageindependence; it lets objects written in pro-cedural languages, such as COBOL workwith objects that are written in object-ori-ented languages, such as C++ and Small-talk. This capability is important when youconsider that asking an expert COBOL pro-grammer to become fluent in C++ is likeasking an English speaker to become fluentin Japanese — it can be done, but not with-out a great deal of study and effort.

Language independence is also a fea-ture of OpenDoc’s OSA (Open ScriptingArchitecture), which automates interac-tion among components and scripting lan-guages on desktops and over networks.Because of OSA, developers and users alikecan script off-the-shelf OpenDoc compo-nents, using any number of scripting lan-guages — including AppleScript, Lotus-Script, IBM’s REXX, and any other languagecompatible with OSA — on different plat-forms. In contrast, OLE dictates that VisualC++ be the scripting language.

No longer just an interface enhancementfor Macs, OpenDoc is building cross-plat-form momentum among vendors and cor-porate users. According to MacWEEK, theMac IS group of Mac managers from corpo-rate America put OpenDoc support high onits Top Ten wish list for Microsoft at its fall1994 convention. Also, an industry source

told me Bill Gates considers OpenDoc to beone of the Top Ten items that may adverselyaffect Microsoft’s fortunes. From a devel-oper’s point of view, however, OpenDoc isnot so much an alternative to OLE as an in-dustry-standard method of implementingOLE and Windows technology.

OpenDoc has a good shot at succeeding,because it solves problems for developers

while offering new capabilities to users. Itwon’t be very long before we start seeingsome shareware OpenDoc parts, includingInternet-access modules and games — thetrue measure of success of any softwaretechnology.

MacUser technical editor John Rizzo is the author ofMacUser Guide to Connectivity and How Macs Work.


HANDS ON

Budgeting

If you routinely find yourself with barely enough to feedyour cats — let alone pay your rent — at the end of eachmonth, it’s time to take a critical look at your budget. Ifyou don’t have a budget, it’s time to create one. The firststep in budgeting is to figure out where all the money isgoing. A checkbook-management program such asQuicken 5 ($49.95), from Intuit (800-624-8742 or 415-322-0573), or CheckWriter Pro ($79), from Aatrix Soft-ware (800-426-0854 or 701-746-6801), will pay for itselfas it helps you discover all the black holes in yourspending.

In Quicken, for instance, you can assign every checkand deposit to a particular income or expense category.Because Quicken’s long list of categories is custom-izable, you can get as detailed as you want in recordingyour outlays; the more discrete the categories, the moredetailed the reports Quicken can produce. The programalso lets you generate a graph showing the breakdown

GET FISCALLY FIT WITH SOME HELP FROM YOUR MAC AND THERIGHT SOFTWARE. Although there are strong arguments against thesaying “you can never be too rich or too thin,” most people probablywouldn’t mind having more money. The good news is you don’t have tobecome a counterfeiter or win the lottery to do better financially. The badnews is that selecting the best strategy to meet your financial goals iscomplex. Fortunately, you can cut through the complexity by using yourMac and several financial-management packages. / BY KELLI WISETH

Smart Money Mac

of your expenses to see how income and expenses com-pare (see figure 1).

If you’re not sure how to create a budget, Quicken cando it for you automatically, based on your past expensesand income. The program gives you a list of exactlywhere your money’s going. Look for places to cut back,and then modify the budget for upcoming months ac-cordingly. Quicken’s budget report shows you how yourspending compares to the budget you’ve set up, so youcan see how realistic your plan is.

Bill Paying

If you find bill paying so tedious that you sometimesforget — and then incur late fees — or if you just wantto streamline the process of writing the same checks tothe same creditors each month, it’s time to let your Macdo the job for you. Drag and drop items such as prop-erty-tax payments from your list of transactions intoQuicken 5’s new calendar so you’ll easily be able to see

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figure 1 / Budgeting. Programs such as Quicken help youcategorize your expenses and see graphically where yourmoney’s going. For instance, this graph shows clearly whatproportion of your income is going toward taxes.

figure 2 / Bill Paying. Quicken helps you pay your bills on timeby letting you post items on their due dates. If a bill’s due datechanges, you can simply drag the item to a new date on thecalendar.

their monthly due date (see figure 2). The next version ofCheckWriter Pro will also include a calendar. If you use ei-ther Quicken or CheckWriter Pro to write your checks, youcan set the program to automatically enter the amountsand payees into the check register so you don’t have to re-type them. Unlike Quicken, CheckWriter Pro lets you printon your existing checks — you don’t have to buy specialchecks or maintain two concurrent checkbooks with dif-ferent sets of numbers.

You can also save time by paying your bills electronicallythrough an account set up with CheckFree. This on-linebill-paying service lets you send electronic checks, viamodem, right from Quicken to the entities you deal with ona regular basis. The $9.95 monthly fee covers as many as 20payments per month.

Taxes

The penalties for shortchanging Uncle Sam at tax time canrival those charged by loan sharks. Proper tax planningthroughout the year not only saves you worry but it’s likelyto save you money as well.

Intuit’s MacInTax (federal, $35; state, $25) can help en-sure that you get every possible break without setting offany alarms to the IRS. As you’re filling out your tax forms,helpful tips from MacInTax’s Tax Adviser pop up at appro-priate moments to warn you of changes in the tax code andto alert you to tax-saving opportunities (see figure 3). Be-fore you ship your return off to the IRS, SmartAudit reviewsthe completed tax return and flags errors, omissions, andpossible audit triggers.

If you’re a small-business owner, you should alwaysknow the tax consequences of how you spend your money.Quicken 5’s Tax Planner can help throughout the year byshowing you how much you owe the IRS. You can alsomodify the numbers to see how certain actions would af-fect your taxes. For example, the total tax for the year maybe approximately $12,000; if you invest $2,000 in an IRAand spend $3,000 more on business equipment, however,the tax drops by about $2,200.


have approximately $441,631awaiting you when you hit re-tirement age; if you start at 30,that drops to $255,680. And ifyou wait until 40, the returnplunges to a mere $141,522. Youcan use either WealthBuilder orQuicken to calculate such sta-tistics; each program lets youfiddle with the numbers and setup comparative scenarios.

Estate Planning

If you want to make sure yourPower Mac 8100 and CD-ROMcollection go to your favoritenonprofit agency — instead ofbeing sold to pay for your urn— write a will. State laws of in-testacy — legalese for “withouta will” — typically divide whatyou own at death according toset formulas that leave yourfriends and charities — evenyour longtime companion —out in the cold and your minorchildren in the hands of thecourts. You can save the cost ofhaving an attorney draw upyour will by using WillMaker 5($69.95), from Nolo Press (800-992-6656 or 510-549-1976). Aninterview format guides you through theprocess of bequeathing your property;naming a guardian for minor children; andmaking medical decisions for yourself, inadvance, in case you become incapacitated.

The Running Total

Money management isn’t just for the verywealthy or the economically challenged. Byanalyzing your spending patterns, creatinga budget you can live with, and investing for

Investing

The first step in developing an investmentstrategy is setting long-, intermediate-, andshort-term goals. The second step is ascer-taining the amount of risk you can tolerate.Riskier investments typically offer a higherpotential return (in the long run) but areinappropriate for people — for example,single parents on a tight budget — whoneed their assets to remain fairly liquid inthe short term.

In addition to helping you think throughsuch issues, WealthBuilder 3.0 ($109.95),from Reality Technologies (215-277-7600),tailors an asset-allocation plan to the risklevel you’ve chosen (see figure 4). The pro-gram can tie in to Reuters Money Network,which provides access to historical pricesand to research and rating databases, in-cluding Morningstar fund ratings, so youcan research various investment alterna-tives. Access to the network ranges from$10 to $30 per month (the first month isfree). You can also use CheckWriter Pro toguide you in your investment research; itlets you download stock quotes from a vari-ety of on-line services.

Although Quicken also lets you dial up toCompuServe or Intuit’s own 900 service todownload current data about your invest-ments, hands-on investors will probablywant the research capabilities of Wealth-Builder or StreetSmart ($59), from CharlesSchwab (800-334-4455 or 415-627-7000).The latter lets you do trading from your Mac(see Quick Clicks, January ’95, page 62).

Retirement

The sooner you start saving for retirement,the better. For example, say you hope to re-tire at age 70. If, at age 20, you start puttingaside $2,000 a year in a tax-deferred ac-count earning 5 percent interest, you will

Falcon-Nc ($15) is a calculator that provides basic financial func-tions, such as nominal- and effective-interest calculations, as well asregular mathematical functions.

Newton MessagePad owners should check out PocketMoney ($20),which helps you keep track of transactions in as many accounts as youwant. You can also import and export data between PocketMoney andQuicken or Managing Your Money on your desktop Mac.

You can find all these programs in the MacUser and ZiffNet/Mac ar-eas on CompuServe and eWorld and in the libraries of other major on-line services. See page 4 for instructions on accessing ZiffNet/Mac.

Software on a ShoestringIS YOUR BUDGET FOR BUDGETING SOFTWARE slimmer than you wish?That’s not a problem if you’re on-line — lots of shareware programs areavailable to help you become a financial whiz.

Loan ($15) is a simple loan calculator that can display and compareconventional and adjustable-rate mortgage-loan projections. Enter aloan’s vital statistics, and Loan generates a chart detailing the progres-sion of the loan and its payments, with running totals of the interestand equity paid.

For those who work with more than just loans, Financial InquiryTools ($20) provides over 40 different financial-calculation functions.

figure 4 / Investing. You set the risk level, and thenWealthBuilder tailors an asset-allocation plan for you. Youcan also use WealthBuilder to download stock quotes.

figure 3 / Taxes. Besides helping you fill out tax forms,MacInTax gives you money-saving tips on matters such ashow to maximize your deductions. Tips screens pop up asyou fill out your tax forms.

the future, you can make informed choices.For example, if you’d rather work less nowand have more time for personally enrich-ing pursuits — writing a novel, teachingEnglish to immigrants, or creating a CD-ROM title to rival the likes of Myst — youneed to manage your money to make itstretch.

Kelli Wiseth manages a computer-consulting businessand is preparing a new budget to keep her growingpup, Daisy, in dog food.

HANDS ON


HANDS ON

MOBILE MAC / BY SHARON ZARDETTO AKER

The Buzz About BlackbirdsWhat Apple didn’t tell you when you bought your 500-series PowerBook: howto deal with single serial ports, dumb smart batteries, and other conundrums.

owners were left cooling their heels forweeks and then months. Just as that bottle-neck eased up, Apple decided to cull non-color active-matrix PowerBooks from itsline and dropped the 540. And then therewas the bad chip in the 540c . . . .

So the early users (those who actually gotthe machines they wanted) ended up, asusual, going on the shakedown cruise.However, you can benefit from their — orrather, our — experience. Here’s a roundupof 500-series-specific issues, problems, andsolutions (or workarounds).

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

First and foremost among 500-series prob-lems are the constant random freeze-ups— caused by a defective processor chip —

THE LAUNCH OF THE 500-SERIES PowerBooks,code-named Blackbirds, was less than auspicious.Despite the daunting price tag of the high-end 540cmodel, demand outstripped supply and prospective

you’ll get everything you need in the way ofpower and convenience — except an FPU(floating-point unit).

The special low-power version of the68040 chip used by the 500-series Power-Books does not include an FPU (the full ver-sion of the processor chip does). Nor doesthe 500-series allow you to add on a sepa-

rate FPU chip.

Ift h e

s o f t -ware you need

requires an FPU, don’texpect to run it on a 500-series Power-Book. And Software FPU, the FPU-emula-tion utility so many users depend on as aworkaround for some other FPU-less Macs,doesn’t work on the 500-series PowerBooks.

A WORLD OF LOW-COST REPAIRS and installations reveals itself to youwhen you learn how to open up your PowerBook. If you have a PowerBook100, you’re probably not too worried about voiding thewarranty (which you may do when you openthe case), so we’ll start with that venerablemodel. Work slowly and carefully, taking pre-cautions against static electricity, as describedin February’s column.

To open the PowerBook 100 case, first removethe main and backup batteries, the I/O door, andthe backup-battery holder. Pry off the three rubberscrew covers on the bottom of the case, and loosenthe screws with a Phillips-head screwdriver.

Turn the PowerBook right-side-up — the loos-ened screws will fall out — and then unlatch the

case and open the computer. The halves are no longer hinged, but they areattached by the interconnect cable, so be careful not to pull it out. Lay the

display back on your work surface.Next, move the keyboard out of the way by lifting it slightly at the

rear and then sliding it backward to release it from the palm rest.You don’t need to detach the keyboard cables; you can angle the

keyboard out of the way to do a modem or memory installationor flip it over and rest it on the screen for a hard-drive installation.

If you’re installing a hard drive, you also need to remove thepalm rest: Lift it at the back (the edges at each side of the com-

puter case) and slide it forward until it’s released.When you’re ready to put the PowerBook back together,

check that the keyboard and interconnect cables arefirmly seated at both ends and not caught or pinched

during the reassembly. / Rich Wolfson

POWERBOOK SECRETS / opening up the PowerBook 100

experienced by the early production mod-els of the 540c. Although replacement chipswere scarce in the first months (which isprobably why the supply of new 540c’s wasalso slim), they’re plentiful now andavailable free from Apple (call 800-767-2775). Until you get your re-placement chip, the barely accept-able workaround is to turn offprocessor cycling in the PowerBookcontrol panel (Option-click on theCustom button to display the appropri-ate check box). Turning off processor cy-cling causes the battery to drain faster (be-cause the processor won’t use its rest state atevery opportunity), but it’s still a better op-tion than crashing every 20 minutes.

If you purchase a state-of-the-art 540c,

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A Single-Port Storm

Life with a single serial port (which is allthe 500 models have) is fraught with minorannoyances. Instead of both a printer and amodem port, you get one serial port forboth functions. Here are three areas inwhich this double-duty port requires spe-cial treatment:If you’re using a serial printer, you’ll need toturn off AppleTalk if you want the port towork for the printer — not exactly an intui-tive action. Fortunately, a dialog box in-structs you to do this when you select a se-rial-printer icon in the Chooser.The PowerBook Setup control panel hasCompatible and Normal settings in theModem section. (How’s that for a choice oflabels — as if being compatible were ab-normal.) Some communications packagesrequire the Normal mode, others the Com-patible mode; if you select the wrong one,you won’t be able to access the serial port.So if you’re having problems, try changingthe settings.Even Apple’s system software doesn’t like todeal with the combined printer/modemport (see figure 1). If you select the Image-Writer icon in the Chooser, you’ll see anicon for the combined port. But select theStyleWriter II icon, and you get a choice ofprinter or modem port. When facing thisconundrum, select the modem port to ac-cess the single serial port, even for printing.

A Bit of a Problem

Just when we were getting used to saying“turn on 32-bit addressing,” we found thatthe newest Mac models (the 500s amongthem) don’t have that option; they’re alwaysin 32-bit mode. If you have an older pro-gram that requires 24-bit addressing, it’snot going to run on your 500-seriesPowerBook. Even though some users havemanaged to get version 7.3 of the Memorycontrol panel — which displays the 32-bit-addressing check box even on 500-seriesPowerBooks — that doesn’t mean they canactually turn off the 32-bit option: You’llfind that every time you restart, the com-puter resets to 32-bit addressing.

Smart Batteries Go Dumb

The “intelligent” battery in the 500s isApple’s most expensive to date (no doubtbecause it contains an $18 chip that pro-vides its brains), and one that’s not a likely

bay is completely drained. Current wisdomdictates that you should occasionally swapthe batteries so that you’re not killing oneand ignoring the other.

Shopping List

In the space I have left this month, let memention a few noteworthy items from thesmall but growing list of 500-specific prod-ucts. The $179.95 VST Charger 500, fromVST Systems (508-287-4600), charges twobatteries in about an hour. The Lind PowerCenter 500 ($249.95), from Lind ElectronicDesign (800-897-8996 or 612-927-6303),takes about three hours to charge two bat-teries, but with two spare batteries, it canserve as a handy auxiliary power pack (itweighs just 8 ounces without the batteries)— if you don’t mind paying a premium forgetting both functions. And finally, whatlist of 500-series products would be com-plete without mention of trackpad-decorat-ing, stick-on tattoos from APS Technologies(800-233-7550 or 816-483-6100) — a sheetof 20 different ones costs just $10.95!

Sharon Aker regretfully announces that she is doingthe honorable thing and returning the 540c loanerunit to Apple. Meanwhile, Rich Wolfson is hangingonto his aging PowerBook 100, which he’s opened somany times he’s almost ready to do it blindfolded.

You can find EMMpathy in the MacUserand ZiffNet/Mac areas on CompuServeand eWorld. See page 4 for instructions on

accessing these on-line areas.

candidate for use in futurePowerBook models.

The expense is not the onlyproblem with these batteries— they also have a tendency todumb down under certain con-ditions. The contents of a smartbattery’s memory are easilycorrupted when the battery isleft uncharged for a long periodof time. Because a batteryslowly loses its charge evenwhen it’s not in use, you can geta brand-new 500-series Power-Book with a dead battery. Orif you leave your PowerBooksleeping or turned off for toolong, the battery will forget howto recharge.

Look for these symptomsof corrupted battery memory:The battery refuses to run thePowerBook or charge when it’s inside; theControl Strip doesn’t recognize the battery(there’s a blank battery icon); the batterycompletely discharges in a day or two if thePowerBook is left sleeping (instead of last-ing about a week, as it’s supposed to); andthe battery is extremely hot when you re-move it — so hot you may be surprised thatyour fingers didn’t blister.

If you can’t run your PowerBook on itsbattery, first make sure you don’t just havea regular drained-all-the-way-down situa-tion: Leave the battery plugged in for about20 minutes, and then try to turn on thePowerBook. Sometimes the drain is so ex-treme you need at least that much time toget going again.

If you’re convinced the battery is sodumb it’s dead, Apple will actually supply afree replacement: Just ship yours to thecompany, and it will ship one back (call800-767-2775). Or, better yet, fix it yourselfwith Bill Steinberg’s EMMpathy utility (itdeals with the culprit, the Energy Monitor-ing Module controller in the battery),which VST Systems has put out as freeware(available on-line; see end of article) afterinitially bundling it with one of its Power-Book products. The utility resets thebattery’s memory to its factory defaults.

In the meantime, be aware that when twobatteries are inserted, only one is used at atime: The PowerBook does not use the bat-tery on the right side until the one in the left

figure 1 / There’s just one serial port on a 500-seriesPowerBook, rather than a printer port and a modem port,but Apple’s system software doesn’t always admit it.Choosing an ImageWriter icon gets you the correct,combined printer/modem-port icon (foreground); othericons, such as that for the StyleWriter II, still give amisleading choice of ports. The nonintuitive answer:Choose the modem port.


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OVER REASONED OBJECTIONS from the on-linecommunity, the U.S. Congress passed legislation lastfall that requires phone companies to build their sys-tems so that the government can still tap citizens’

to see it. This practice will save you time atany speed, even if you’ve got a direct Internetconnection.Keep your old shell account. The InternetAdapter (TIA), which is available fromSoftAware (phone: 310-314-1466; e-mail:[email protected]), turns anyshell account into a virtual SLIP account, soyou can use Web browsers and other Mac-based tools without paying for a real SLIP

account. (Not all Internet providers arethrilled about this approach.) You can get anevaluation copy of TIA either from ftp://marketplace.com/tia/ or from http://marketplace.com:80/tia/tiahome.html; thefull version costs $25.Sell your Mac, and buy a MessagePad. Radi-cal. The Telecooperation Office at the Uni-versity of Karlsruhe in Germany is develop-ing a Newton MessagePad Web browserwith a Mosaic-like interface. Estimated costto get onto the net: $600, including Message-Pad 110, modem, and software but not theIP account. True, the browser currently alsorequires a Mac, but they’re working on that.

Don’t Know FTP from FTD?

MacUser maintains a list of frequentlyasked questions (FAQs) about the Internet,MacUser itself, and this column specificallyat [email protected]. You can reach meat [email protected].

one, send the indicated message to the indi-cated e-mail address. HotFlash has the lat-est buzz from Wired magazine: [email protected], message “sub-scribe hotflash”. Edupage providessummaries of technology news:[email protected], message“subscribe edupage <yourname>”. A list of mailing lists isavailable on the Web at http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml/or via ftp at ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/mailing-lists. After burning up somuch on-line time, you may be ready for . . .

Smart Ways to Cut Access Costs

These are particularly handy if you areamong the growing number of users log-ging on at home:Get someone else to pay. Your boss, yourschool, your favorite organization. YourScout troop isn’t on the net? Sell them on theidea, meanwhile calling your local provider(send an e-mail message to [email protected] with the phrase “sendPDIAL” to get a list of providers) to wheedlea special deal for the Scouts. Hey, can’t hurtto try.Keep your old modem. Although the claim isroutinely made that you need at least a 14.4-Kbps modem to use a Web browser, you canget tolerable performance (I have testimo-nials on file) at 9,600 bps by turning off theautomatic downloading of graphics. Youcan still manually load a graphic if you want

phones. They won’t listen to us, but theywill listen to us.

Virtual Money

You may be a good cyberspace citizen, butto truly validate your existence today, yougotta be a consumer. To that end, at leastfive companies have announced systems formoving credit-card information over theInternet safely. This is noteworthy. Employ-ing secure encryption and authentication,these systems are one step away from the e-money that may, sooner than we dream,make cash obsolete and revolutionize com-merce, especially white-collar crime.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of places tonetshop now if you don’t insist on paying inbitbucks. Such as CDnow, the Internet Mu-sic Store, at http://cdnow.com/, and theInternet Shopping Network, for computergoods, at http://shop.internet.net/.

Free Subscriptions

Shopping in cyberspace shouldn’t be con-fused with the dreaded commercializationof the net, which is about spammingpeople’s e-mailboxes with junk mail. Cram-ming your own e-mailbox by subscribing tomailing lists is entirely acceptable, however.Mailing lists are underappreciated: For theeffort of sending one e-mail message, youcan subscribe to electronic publications,join discussion groups in an area of yourinterest, or get automatic software updates.Lists are hot.

So here are a few hot lists. To subscribe to

NET TRAVELER / BY MICHAEL SWAINE

Shop AroundCyberspace citizen or info-consumer, hot mailing lists, and four ways to cutWorld Wide Web access costs.


Write to Help Folder/ Tips

c/o MacUser950 Tower Lane18th FloorFoster City, CA 94404Don’t want to wait for an answer?Post your question on ZiffNet/Mac,MacUser’s on-line service, and get areply from Bob (76004, 2076) or Andy(72511,204). We pay $25 – $100 for anyundocumented tips we publish. Sendthem to Christopher Breen (72241,1036).

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BY ANDY IHNATKO AND BOB LEVITUS / Tips compiled by Christopher Breen

Help FolderHow to best use all your RAM, what to do when plagued by a common errormessage, and the many ways to create a watermark.

*. . . BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASKLeading financial analysts across the country agree — in the upcoming decade, the one certaingrowth profession is sainthood. How can you join this pilgrimage to prosperity? Start by simpli-fying your life. Now, I’m not saying you should ditch your Sega machine or anything, but sendinga basic question for the “. . . But Were Afraid to Ask” portion of Help Folder would certainly be agood first step toward finding your jawbone encased in glass somewhere 200 years from now.To avoid the tainting influence of pride, we’ll say it was asked by one of our top-drawer saints.

PROLIFER ATING PPDSQ. What are these PPD files on my hard disk?Saint Doo-DahDoo-Dah, Doo-Dah

ANDY: They’re PostScript Printer Description files, and theyreside in the Printer Descriptions folder in your Extensionsfolder. They ensure that the printer driver can take advan-tage of any special features your PostScript printer mighthave, such as the ability to print odd paper sizes, use mul-tiple trays, do binding, brew coffee on demand — thatsort of thing. PPDs are chiefly used by the LaserWriterdriver, but certain paper-intensive applications, such as PageMaker and Illustrator, use ’em too.You don’t need to have a PPD, but as you might guess, having one means you can get the mostout of your printer. If you don’t have one, contact your printer’s manufacturer. If you’re Internet-hip, you might find the PPD you want on Adobe’s ftp server: ftp.adobe.com.

simple. The disk cache is a portion of RAMset aside to hold frequently used instruc-tions so that the Mac doesn’t have to accessthe hard disk each time it needs that infor-mation, thus making the Mac run faster. Areasonable amount to allocate to the cacheis 5 percent of your total RAM, but giving itmore or less than that probably won’t makea noticeable difference in speed.

Here’s the important thing to remember:The higher you set the disk cache, the lessRAM you’ll have for running programs.Play around with the settings, and stickwith the lowest setting that doesn’t feelsluggish to you.ANDY: I once spent an entire day fiddlingwith disk-cache settings in pursuit of agood rule of thumb for the best balance be-tween speed and memory. In the end, I

RAMping Up

Q. I upgraded my Mac from 4 MB to 10 MBof RAM. How do I adjust my control-panelsettings to get the most from the upgrade?For instance, should I turn on 32-bit ad-dressing? Should I increase the size of thedisk cache?

Also, ever since I did the upgrade, theamount of RAM my system software useshas increased significantly. Why?Larry HuntspergerSoldotna, AK

BOB: Yes, you should turn on 32-bit address-ing so you can take advantage of your full 10MB of RAM. If you don’t turn it on, yourMac will act as though it has only 8 MB. Al-most all software sold today works beauti-fully with 32-bit addressing, although someolder software is incompatible. If you needto use incompatible software, you’ll have toturn 32-bit addressing back off.

Turning on 32-bit addressing is also thesolution to the problem you mentioned —swollen system software. Once you’veturned it on and restarted your Mac, thesystem software will slim down.

The answer about how much room youshould give to the disk cache is not as

never found any rule as elegant as “just setthe bloody thing to 256K, and never give itanother thought.”

Restoring a Custom Icon

Q. Recently, after I rebuilt my desktop, thecustom hard-drive icon I had pasted into itsGet Info box disappeared. Whenever I try topaste in another icon, I get a message sayingI have a type-39 error. What is a type-39 er-ror? Can I fix the problem by using ResEdit?By the way, what is ResEdit?Frank Chezemvia America Online

BOB: A type-39-error message means “Endof file; no additional data in the format.”That’s programmer-speak for “your file ishosed.” The file in your case is the one thatrepresents the icon you pasted into your


hard drive’s Get Info window. Just removethe file. The tricky part is that it’s an invis-ible file, so in order to find it, you first haveto use a program that sees invisible files andthen make it visible so you can trash it.

The program you asked about, ResEdit,can do just that, as can other programs suchas InvisiFile 1.1 (shareware that’s availableon-line; see end of article), Now Software’sMacSnoop, Dayna’s ProFiles, and Syman-tec’s Norton Utilities. The file you’re lookingfor is called Icon and is at the root level ofthe hard disk in question. Once you’ve madethe file visible and dragged it into the Trash,you can paste a new icon into the Get Infowindow and have a nice day.

ResEdit does more than just make iconsvisible; it is Apple’s utility for editing Macresources (sets of data that define items such

as icons and the contents of menus). For in-stance, you can change your startup screenor switch an alert’s default from Yes to No.

ResEdit is available from all the usualplaces: on-line services, user groups, andfriendly Apple dealers. Or for a mere $24.95,you can get a copy of the latest version ofResEdit along with an excellent introduc-tion to it called Zen and the Art of ResourceEditing, by David A. Lai (Berkeley, CA:Peachpit Press, 1994).

And now, here’s Andy with the standardResEdit disclaimer:ANDY: Oh, sure, make me play bad cop.Ahem. If you don’t know what you’re doing,“ResHacking” a file can lead to programfailure, system crashes, depletion of theozone layer, unsightly facial hair, impo-tence, the delay of the Second Coming by atleast a fortnight, cancellation of Baywatch,and the replacement of McDonalds’ secretsauce with obviously just plain Russiansalad dressing mixed with mayonnaise-and-pickle-relish sauce. Therefore, use Res-Edit only on something you wouldn’t mindtrashing.

I dig the Zen book, but I would also liketo mention ResEdit Complete, by Peter Alleyand Carolyn Strange (Reading, MA: Addi-son-Wesley, 1994). Both of them are greatbooks, but they have different strengths.ResEdit Complete is heavy on technique andspecific usage; Zen gives you a better idea ofwhat resources are and how they work. Itwouldn’t hurt to buy both.

The Word on Watermarks

Q. Is there any way to put a watermark onmy printed Word 5.1 documents?Sean Savagevia CompuServe

BOB: Well, you can upgrade to System7.5 and install QuickDraw GX. It includesprinter extensions, such as Peirce PrintTools, that perform such magic as creatingwatermarks. Peirce Print Tools comes withthe CD-ROM version of System 7.5.

But for those who aren’t prepared to in-stall QuickDraw GX, there is a way to createwatermarks in Word (see figure 1). Thismethod works not only in Word 5.1 but alsoin 4.0 and 5.0 (version 6.0 uses a differentmethod; stay tuned):1. Open the Glossary (type Command-K).2. Choose Open from the File menu (typeCommand-O).

HANDS ON

TIPS / System

FINDING APPLICATIONS FASTWhen you use the Find command to find anapplication, the pre-System 7.5 Find fea-ture often searches the System Folder first,bringing up an application’s preferencesfile long before it locates the applicationitself. You can avoid unnecessary furthersearching by double-clicking on the pref-erences file — doing so launches mostapplications.Sophia Bennettvia CompuServe

APPLE-MENU ORGANIZINGMany people know the trick of moving filesand folders to the top of the Apple menu orFinder windows (with View by Name se-lected) by adding spaces or numbers be-fore the name. But here’s a way to do itwithout visibly changing the names oralignment.

Using any word processor, create a newdocument, highlight the first line (theparagraph mark), and copy it. Return to theFinder, click in front of the name of the fileor folder you want to reorder, and pasteyour selection. The whole name will goblank, but don’t fret. Once you click outsidethe name box, the name will reappear andthe file or folder will spring to the top of thelist.

To increase a file or folder’s “ordering”power, just paste this blank line two ormore times.Chris BloomfieldKelburn, Wellington, New Zealand

figure 1 / System 7.5 lets you createwatermarks, as long as you’ve installedQuickDraw GX. A more RAM-economicalmethod is to create them by using MicrosoftWord version 4.0 or 5.0.

3. Open the Page Layout Glossary (in theGlossaries folder inside the Word 5.1 folder).If it’s not there, you need to install it from theWord installation disks.4. Double-click on the Word Under Textglossary entry.

A block of PostScript code will appear inyour document. The code itself won’t print,because it’s formatted as hidden text, butthe word Confidential will print behindyour document text in light-gray type at a45-degree angle.

If you want to modify the watermark —say, change Confidential to Draft or changethe font — you can locate instructions inPage Layout Glossary Info in the Word Glos-saries folder.ANDY: Peirce Print Tools does it with far lessmuss and fuss. Instead of going through allthe steps to enter PostScript code, you sim-ply click on buttons.BOB: Yeah, the Peirce stuff is pretty cool, butQuickDraw GX hogs a whole megabyte ofRAM. Another space hog, Microsoft Word6.0, also allows you to add watermarks bysimply inserting graphical objects. Never-theless, the most RAM-economical way togo is to use earlier versions of Word to enterPostScript code, although this method isnot nearly as elegant.

Functional Finder Labels

Q. I know that many hard-disk-compres-sion utilities use Finder labels to excludecertain files from compression. What are


some other practical uses of these labels?Scott LewancowskiSomerset, MA

ANDY: If you had asked, “What are some im-practical uses of labels?” I’d tell you to eraseall the label names from the Labels controlpanel, close it, and then restart. The labelswill change to the names of the guys whowrote the Labels control panel.

But Finder labels have a bunch of practi-cal uses. They are a great boon to peoplewho aren’t genetically predisposed to anal-retentive organization. I use them wheneverI have a group of scattered files I want to col-lect in the future so I can perform a com-mon function on them (see figure 2). Forinstance, when preparing Help Folder, Imark all related files with a Help Folder la-bel so I can gather them later. Similarly, Igive an On-Deck Circle label to the files Idon’t need to use now but don’t need tothrow away immediately. When I need tofree up some disk space, I gather them upand do a mass delete.

You can also use labels to protect files. Forinstance, I label the files I don’t ever wantaltered in any way Kevlar. When I write anAppleScript script to do housekeeping andtransmogrify various files, I always put in a

line or two of code toprotect Kevlar-labeledfiles.BOB: Although the onlything I’ve had to sayabout Finder labels inthe past has been thatthey are pretty uselessand lame, I have to ad-mit that I did find agood use for them re-cently — speeding uphard-disk backups. Be-cause my backup soft-ware, Retrospect, letsme exclude files based on their labels, I canavoid backing up applications by givingtheir folders a common label or color, suchas ugly green. I then tell Retrospect to ex-clude all ugly-green folders from backups.

CD Database

Q. I’d like to keep track of my CD collectionin a FileMaker Pro database. Is there anyway to export the data I’ve already enteredinto the AppleCD Audio Player and put it inthe database?

Michelle Tarrentinovia the Internet

figure 2 / Finder labels come in handy when you want toperform a common function on files in separate folders. You canuse Find to highlight all the files that have the same label andthen copy or delete them, for instance, in one fell swoop.

ANDY: You’re in luck — a guy with a nameeven more difficult to pronounce thanmine, Esa Ristilä, was nice enough to createthe program CDCoyote, a freeware utility(available on-line) that turns the data fromAppleCD Audio Player programs into aplain-text file readable by any database,spreadsheet, or word-processing program.Sadly, he hasn’t yet figured out a way tomake Finder labels categorize your CDs.

You can find the programs referenced in thisarticle in the MacUser and ZiffNet/Mac areason CompuServe and eWorld. See page 4 for

instructions on accessing ZiffNet/Mac.

TIPS / PowerBook and Newton

COMPUSERVE NAVIGATORCompuServe Navigator frequently reads the hard disk when you re-view a session. In order to minimize spinup of your hard disk and savebattery power, set Disk Cache in your PowerBook’s Memory controlpanel to some number large enough to hold a typical Navigator ses-sion. I set mine to 2,048K, but 1,024K usually suffices.

After running a Navigator session, use the Find Message commandto search for some text that doesn’t exist in the session (I search forZOP), which causes the whole session text to be read into the cache.Now go back to the session start, spin down the disk with a PowerBookutility such as PBTools or the freeware SpinD FKEY (available on-line),and review the session as you normally would. The disk will still spin upto save a reply or a newly composed message, but you can turn off thedrive right afterward.Roland MailleuxBrussels, Belgium

PREVENTING PRONG PUNCTURESThere’s a simpler way to protect your carryingcase from the prongs on the PowerBook’sAC adapter than the one you publishedin “PowerBook Tips” (May ’94, page143): Use the power cord that’s al-ready conveniently attached to the

adapter. Just coil your cord in a tight spiral, roughly the size of thepower brick. Place the spiral against the brick so that the brick’s prongsstick into its empty center, and then wrap a rubber band around thewhole brick and the cord. This protects the case and creates a nice com-pact bundle for storage.A.J. CadyCenterville, MA

NEWTON WRITINGIf you need to jot down information on your Newton MessagePad andaccuracy is important but difficult (when taking down a phone numberat a pay phone, in a moving car, or in the dark, for instance), have a blankpage ready in the Notepad with handwriting recognition and shaperecognition turned off. Let the Newton function as a piece of paper;when you have time, you can go back and type in the data with perfect

accuracy. Don’t let correction delays or chancy text recognition pre-vent you from getting an important address or phone

number.Mark Zimmer

via America Online

[Only those with an original MessagePad that has not beenupgraded should need to use this tip. The Newton MessagePad

100 and 110 offer deferred handwriting recognition as part oftheir basic system. — Ed.]

HANDS ON


JOHN C. DVORAK

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A New Age, MaybeHE NEXT GENERATIONof Power Macs, using Motorola’sPowerPC604chip, should be out

soon. The 604 is considered by many chipexperts to be the real deal. Until now, thePowerPC chips available were all quasi-prototype chips designed to fill a marketneed but not the serious PowerPC chipswe’ll be seeing. This little-known factcomes from the early papers written aboutPowerPC architecture, in which the 601, forexample, is considered a proof-of-conceptchip serving two purposes: proving the chipdesign can work and getting an early foot-hold in the marketplace.

Well, congratulations to all those pio-neers out there who actually used this chipduring the past year. The experiment isover, and it’s obvious to everyone that thePowerPC is the performance leader — es-pecially with the release of the 604.

But will Apple make hay with the 604 andthe other upcoming PowerPC chips? We’vealready seen the unstoppable Intel getstopped late last year, when the furor overthe Pentium erupted into a PR nightmareand a fiasco for the company. But did Appletake advantage of this? Where were the adsshowing two executives side-by-side in acompany, one looking at the other and ask-ing, “Aren’t we both doing the same calcula-tion? Why is my answer different fromyours?” The opportunity was there for

Apple to change its mottoto “Results You Can

Count On!” Whichis a great slogan,right? Instead, the

company still triesto perpetuate the lu-

dicrous notion thatits machines are

as inexpensive asor even cheaper

than PCs. I figure they must be usingPentiums to do the calculation.

What worries me even more aboutApple’s future is that even the general publicis concerned. Hardly a day goes by withoutsomeone asking me about the future ofApple: “Do you think they are going to stayin business?” I ask back, “Why wouldn’tthey?” Then I tell them the tale of the604 and how its speed will blow awayany PC. “Too expensive,” they reply.

Until recently I argued that theadditional expense of the Mac wasnegligible, since I can add periph-erals to a Mac almost effortlesslywithout fear of losing a weekend try-ing to get the thing to work. With a PC,it’s always a hassle to get the computer toaccept extras such as a magneto-opticaldrive. Recently, though, great strides havebeen taken in the PC world, and the devel-opment of the ASPI driver standard for SCSIhas helped mucho. The promise of the Plug-and-Play PC looms over the horizon.

While the PC world has been improving,the Mac crowd seems to be going in theopposite direction. Although the Mac’s stillsuperior to the PC, its advantages are get-ting a little frayed at the edges and a wholenew operating system may be needed soon.System 7.5 is far too big and resource-hun-gry. The Mac needs too much memory towork properly. Extension conflicts are be-coming epidemic. The Mac is becomingmore like the PC even as the PC becomesmore like the Mac.

Then there’s the hopeless situation withApple’s notebook strategy. Everyone who isserious about computing uses a notebookor laptop computer. Story: I’m sitting onsome coast-to-coast flight with my little

color Toshiba Portégé. Next to me is a guywith a monochrome Mac notebook. Weboth have work to do, and his battery dropsdead in about two hours. Mine continues tooperate until the end of the flight and haspower left. I’ve gotten six hours out of thisthing. The guy laments that he’s going togive up on his Mac because of this one de-tail. Although Apple’s notebooks are wellliked, it should realize that the market isfickle. It should also hire Toshiba to designits next laptop.

Then there’s also the issue of the AppleGUI, a thing of beauty in 1984. It took thePC side of the business 11 years to get it to-

gether with the GUI. This gave Apple an 11-year head start. But what has Apple done inthe last 11 years in terms of taking us to thenext evolutionary stage? Is this basic point-and-click interface the end of the line? Is theonly reason for the 604 and future speed-demon chips to make Photoshop run faster?

And where is all the cool video stuffApple was supposed to introduce? The so-called Personal Conferencing scene is beingdominated by Intel (of all companies). Thebig trends in computing are voice recogni-tion, video teleconferencing, and Internetaccess. Where does Apple fit into this pic-ture? What is Apple doing to lead the way?The company cannot survive unless it is aleader.

Maybe just using these hot new RISCchips is enough to maintain a leadershiprole. These chips do burn MIPS like no oth-ers. But the best chip running tired andbloated software doesn’t add up to the bestcomputer.

T