Author Archive
William M. Frazier
Digital Government
WinFax Pro is still best fax software
Real-life requirements: WinFax Pro is still the Lexus of PC fax software in spite of Microsoft Windows 95's inferior fax bundle, which has to be installed manually under Windows 98, by the way. Users who send faxes frequently need and appreciate the features in WinFax Pro, now up to Version 9.0. Installation is as easy as it gets.
Digital Government
Tracker Pro takes file management a step further
Tracker Pro is a one-of-a-kind utility. Similar utilities at the server level do data mining or knowledge management, but this seems to be the first designed for the desktop PC user. Tracker Pro periodically looks at your hard drive, network drives and the Web, tracking and organizing the data created by business programs, e-mail and personal information managers.
Digital Government
ViaGrafix's CAD software makes drafting easy to learn | GCN PRoduct Review
Throw away the T square and plastic triangles. Stop drawing lines that are too thick or thin, too dark or light. I used to commit all those errors in a single drawing. That's why I turned to computer-aided design software. DesignCAD Pro 2000 from ViaGrafix is a vector-based, 2-D and 3-D CAD package with nearly a decade of development behind it, and the system requirements are quite modest. When I
Digital Government
SmartSuite's price and variety of features balance software bloat
Pros and cons: + Year 2000-ready + Good program integration and very good price – Word Pro short on features common in its rivals – Speech recognition still not accurate Real-life requirements: Win9x or NT 4.0 or later; 16M of RAM; 150M free storage for default installation or 250M for full installation; CD-ROM drive
Digital Government
Adobe improves on an already good thing with Photoshop 5.0
Pros and cons: + History Palette finally allows multiple undo + Vastly improved text handling – Not for novices Real-life requirements: Win95, NT or Apple System 7.5.5 or higher, at least 32M RAM, 80M free storage, CD-ROM drive Now that Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect have reached their eighth editions, Adobe Photoshop 5.0 sounds like a relative newcomer. Surprisingly, though, the image editor has been at the top of
Digital Government
Adobe PageMill 3.0 is an inexpensive way to build Web pages
Pros and cons: + Easy for making complex Web pages with frames, forms, tables, sound, Java and ActiveX controls + Entire-site view from your local hard drive – Upload functions not compatible with all FTP servers – Most documentation in PDF Real-life requirements: Win95 or NT 4.0 or later with 24M RAM for NT, 20M free on hard drive, CD-ROM drive, Internet connection
Digital Government
Graphics app's upgrade caters to Web designers on tight budget
Pros and cons: + Supports most new Web graphical formats, such as PNG and progressive JPEG + Compatible with after-market plug-ins – Some common operations harder than they should be Real-life requirements: Win95 or NT (24M RAM for NT), CD-ROM drive, 65M free on hard drive
Digital Government
PackRat 6.0 was no keeper, but 6.1 is worth saving
Pros and cons: +Drag-and-drop simplicity for e-mail and document management – Printouts need polish Real-life requirements: Win95 or NT 4.0, 16M RAM, 8M free on hard drive In 1993, Polaris Software Inc.'s PackRat was the government's personal information manager of choice. But many users moved on because PackRat 5.0 for Microsoft Windows had bugs, slow response and an imperfect interface.
Digital Government
Design in Motion packs FreeHand 8.0 for Web page creation
Macromedia Inc. once again has released a new suite with its upgraded FreeHand drawing program. This time, the suite is Web-oriented. FreeHand 7.0 [GCN, May 26, 1997, Page 34] came bundled in the FreeHand Graphics Studio, which included xRes, Extreme 3D and Fontographer. The new Design in Motion suite, of which FreeHand 8.0 is part, has other new components: Flash 2.0 and Insta.HTML 2.0. Each program comes on its own CD-ROM and has a
Digital Government
Total Xaos helps deal with chaos of using Photoshop art plug-in
The Total Xaos, pronounced like chaos, plug-in trio now runs under Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT. The applications are Paint Alchemy 2.0, TypeCaster 1.15 and Terrazzo 2.0. Also on the CD-ROM is Fresco, a collection of 80 royalty-free backgrounds. To install, double-click the CD's setup icon. The installer gives you the option to install the plug-ins as a group or individually. The user guide comes in three sections, each having a table of contents,
Digital Government
SearchPad's Internet metasearches improve as you search
Web search engines such as InfoSeek and Yahoo were revolutionary when they appeared. Next came the metasearch sites that transferred a query to several different search sites at once. Then client-side metasearch programs such as WebFerret from FerretSoft LLC of Pickerington, Ohio, speeded searches even more [GCN, June 16, 1997, Page 40].
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Digital Government
Use ColorSafe1.1 filter plug-in to draw up Web-safe palettes
I soon discovered that World Wide Web browsers such as Mosaic, Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer can use only 216 distinct colors out of a 256-color palette--and not the most visually pleasing ones, either. When you design a page that has a color not in the 216, what users see varies depending on their browsers and platforms.
Digital Government
Micrografx Inc.'s Graphics Suite 2 sheds pretender image
Formerly the ABC Graphics Suite, it used to be considered lightweight. Now it has morphed into a contender alongside heavyweights such as Corel Corp.'s CorelDraw. And at less than $350, it's competitive. You'll find enough programs in Graphics Suite 2 to meet nearly all computer art requirements. FlowCharter 7.0 draws diagrams and flowcharts.
Digital Government
100 new brushes improve Fractal Painter's effects
When Fractal Design Corp. and MetaTools Inc. merged to form MetaCreations Corp., they upgraded Fractal Design Painter to Version 5.0.1. It has the largest collection of mind-blowing image brushes I've seen in a single program. Painter installs easily and takes up about 37M on a hard drive. It will run on Apple Mac OS, Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT, but unfortunately it no longer supports Windows 3.x. If you don't have a Pentium
Digital Government
Plug-in for graphics apps adds power to special effects
Kai's Power Tools 3.0 from MetaTools tops the list of these plug-in filter collections, both in ease of use and in number of filters. But its installation is difficult. Instead of accepting the setup defaults and clicking OK, you first must decide which image-editing application you want the filters to work with, then switch to its plug-in directory to install.
Digital Government
UltraSlate improves control of freehand drawing on computer
A good graphics tablet does two things to improve computer drawings. First, it gives fine control over pen movements. Drawing a smooth, freehand arc with a mouse is nearly impossible. With a graphics tablet it's easy. Second, and more impressive, pen pressure gives a range of expressiveness to your drawings, depending on which tool is selected. Change the width of a line by pressing harder or softer. Use the airbrush to make a line darker or
Digital Government
FreeHand Graphics Studio gets upgrade for the Web
This isn't low-end software. It takes up more system resources than garden-variety desktop applications, and I applaud Macromedia for resisting the trend toward less documentation and technical support. Each program in the suite has its comprehensive user guide. Online help is extensive and context-sensitive. FreeHand 7, this suite's vector drawing component, has full-color autotrace to convert bit map drawings into full-color, editable vector line art. The search-and-replace function can find each occurrence of a graphical characteristic
Digital Government
DataViz translator ends binary Babel
After all, most PC programs today have import and export filters for competing applications. And a networked PC running Corel WordPerfect can easily open word processing files created on an Apple Macintosh and saved on the network. But in some situations, DataViz Inc.'s Conversions Plus makes sense. It translates between PC and Macintosh programs in either direction, and from one PC application format to another. It can handle word processing, database, spreadsheet and some graphics files.
Digital Government
Revised uninstaller is a polished polishing package
Quarterdeck's CleanSweep, an uninstaller program released shortly after Microsoft Windows 95, was rough around the edges. Version 3.0 has evolved into a polished package that's almost indispensable. I'm always amazed at how quickly a computer fills with extraneous or duplicate files. I bought my present PC just two months ago, and it already holds more than 7,000 files. Unresolved registry entries and icons that connect to nothing sprout up like garden
Digital Government
Leading fax package adds features for phones and mailboxes
Because the fax qualities remain outstanding in Version 7.5, I'm going to concentrate on its two new features: TalkWorks telephony software and Internet faxing. TalkWorks was available in previous versions as a cost-added option. Originally it supported few modems, but simultaneous voice-data modems now are common on new PCs. Plug one of these into a single phone line, and you'll have a fax/telephone answering machine with multiple mailboxes, eavesdropping capability and call screening. This could
