August 2007

August 2007
MaUsE DoubleClick
Summer Holidays Issue
From The Editor
What you are looking at is the August 2007 Summer edition
of the MaUsE DoubleClick magazine from the Macintosh
Users East, (MaUsE), a motley collection of mostly harmless cranks who reside in Southern Ontario with their motley collection of old and new Macintosh computers.
2007 MaUsE Executive
• President: Michael Shaw
wazooster@gmail.com
• Vice President: Aaron Vegh
aaron@vegh.com
• Apple Liaison: Bruce Cameron
rbcameron@rogers.com
• Treasurer: John Kettle
hjke@pteron.org
The August 2007 DoubleClick is published using Quark
XPress 7.2. This issue was created with help from an OWC
Mercury Extreme 1.4 GHz G4 Power Macintosh AGP
Graphics tower, (with our thanks to OWC), and a 1 GHz G4
iBook. A Kodak DX7590 is used for all pictures. Everything
not specifically attributed to someone else can be blamed
on the Editor. Back issues can be downloaded from the
<www.mause.ca> website. Submissions from MaUsE Club
members are almost always welcome.
Send articles to me at < mause.doubleclick@gmail.com >,
especially if there are files or pictures attached. I have
never refused a submission yet. There is always room for
another piece on ANY Mac-related topic and I’ll make room
if there isn’t. I would like your submissions. But I won’t beg.
• Publicity Director: Jim Danabie
Apple, Macintosh, and the Apple logo are trademarks of
Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other
countries. The MaUsE (Macintosh Users East) is an independent Mac user group and has not been authorized,
sponsored, or otherwise approved of by Apple Computer,
Inc. Its very much like they donʼt even know we exist.
Shhhh.
• DoubleClick Editor: Michael Shaw
ducati860@gmail.com
Notice
• Logistics: Chris Greaves
cgreaves@i-zoom.net
• Secretary: Stan Wild
Halston.Wild@gmail.com
• Director: Guy Lafontaine
• Director Marcel Dufresne
Macintosh Users East
208 Winona Avenue
Oshawa, ON L1G 3H5
Message Line 905-433-0777
This is the August 2007 Issue.
These summer MaUsE DoubleClick issues may be shorter than
the usual issues because we have
no scheduled MaUsE activities
during the summer months. The
next MaUsE Meeting will be September 28th. Check the <
www.MaUsE.ca > website for updated news. See you in September.
Meeting Notice
The next MaUsE Meeting will be held on
the evening of Sept. 28th at 7:00 P.M. at
the Whitby Public Library on the southeast corner of Hwy. 2 and Henry Street
in Whitby. The Meeting is open to the
public but only MaUsE members in attendance will receive raffle tickets for
the items raffled at this meeting.
iF am ily fo r Tig e r
By Guy Lafontaine
Through using other genealogy or family tree data base software I have
developed a sense about the softwareʼs purpose and the features that
are expected and useful to genealogical researchers. Selecting software for storage of research data is very personal. It is not just about the
features, but it is how the user interacts with the program that is important. A genealogistʼs researching style, whether ʻvisualʼ or ʻtextʼ focussed, is key in determining whether the selected software is a good
ʻfitʼ. Keith Wilson and his team at iFamily for Tiger (iF4T), from down
under, got it right side up to satisfy these concerns.
I dove in without reading any documentation. Over the years I have
used and evaluated many types of software. Users learn much by this
method. Right from the start, I liked the feel of iF4T. Its focus on each
individual person, rather than on a family unit, is what makes this software simple to use, intuitive, yet powerful.
The split screen view further enhances the ease of use. The upper window has a descendent / ancestor horizontal hourglass chart with the
Focal Person colour highlighted (see Queen left). In the bottom window
you can view: the immediate family, the extended family, life events,
notes, source citations, pictures, ancestors, descendants and individualʼs stories. You control the depth of information by toggling on or off
those you wish included - siblings, cousins, parents, in-laws, etc. For
the stories, the interface has a word-processor so there
is no need to leave iF4T to record the stories.
Finding people is easy with iFamily. You have three
ways to search:
1 - By using the search field
at the right hand end of the
toolbar. It is based on
"words that start with", so to
search for Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor you could
enter e, a, m, w, or eliz win. This ʻintelligentʼ completion
saves time in searching. This works during data entry
of repetitious data like names, cities, counties, events
and so on.
2 - By going to the index list which can be sorted
by given name or surname field, or you can perform a Boolean search.
3 - By using your mouse (clicking) to meander
back and forth in the ancestor / descendant
hourglass chart (upper window of split screen
display).
Throughout my exploration of iF4T I was impressed by the implementation of these features
which make it so user friendly:
• Rollover pop-up contextual hints.
• Many preferences available while working with specific functions or in
specific sections.
• Extensive use of the ʻRIGHT clickʼ for contextual actions.
Photographs are incorporated easily via either the Finder or iPhoto. No
preparation is needed since the image can be cropped and / or adjusted
right in iF4T when it is linked to the data base. The image can be readjusted at any time, even months after its inclusion in iF4T. The actual
image data does not sit in the data base file, only a reference to it is
created. This means the iF4T data file does not become huge. It is very
important to ensure that picture files are moved with the data file when
migrating to another computer or flash drive. This extra step is worth
the time it takes.
Ancestor and descendant charts and reports are easily created by simple mouse clicks. How they will print, including when printed over multiple pages, is clearly previewed. The software supports export and
import of data via GEDcom files. The designers have applied a simple
but powerful concept in their design of adding or editing data that makes
this one of the easiest pieces of genealogy software I have used: If you
can see it, you can change it. There is no need to go to a special edit
screen. While entering data you are not always required to save after
each entry. I recommend iFamily for Tiger if you want a no nonsense genealogy data base with the tools needed to properly add, edit, search,
view, cite and annotate data, include photos and to tell the stories.
Visit http://www.iFamilyforTiger.com
The version of iFamily for Tiger used in this evaluation / review is V2.227, Copyright 2005-07. KS Wilson & Associates, Australia July 29, 2007.
SKYPE - Calling All Computers
by Marcel Dufresne
I had heard about Skype many years ago and I knew it was
some sort of application to help telephone calls. It does do
this but also a whole lot more. The program of choice by
most teens to connect computer to computer is MSN. While this is fine for PC
to PC connection (it allows video and audio), all you can do with MACs is to
text message. We have kept in touch with all of our daughters at University this
way. It works fine but you have to type all that you want to say. The first question I had about Skype was how did it compare to iChat or MSN. I am going
to use my daughter as a testimonial to what Skype is like.
Due to my high level of computer illiteracy, I was extremely reluctant even to
download Skype. My Dad eventually got tired of trying to convince me and
went on my computer to download it himself. I then followed the steps to create an account, which were self-explanatory even for me. I have barely used
the phone since I have had this program, which is incredible for a girl my age.
I now use Skype to make almost all my long-distance calls. It is easier to use
than a regular phone since you donʼt even have to dial. You simply select your
contact and click the call button. It is also great to be able to walk around the
room hands free while talking. The ring can be heard from other rooms in the
house, making it as practical as a regular telephone. Even better than a landline, Skype offers the possibility of seeing the person you are talking to by use
of a webcam, which really makes it feel like the other person is right there in
the room with you. Best of all, Skype is cheaper than using a telephone. Computer to computer is free, which has almost eliminated all my long distance
charges. All in all, it is one of the most practical, useful and efficient programs
I have ever used on my computer. And if I can use it, anyone can.”
The day after she set it up. her boyfriend was looking to find a webcam. He
could see her but she couldnʼt see him. She has not used MSN since and she
is getting all her friends to try it out. Another thing she likes is that she can be
on Skype to one person and take a phone call from someone else.
Skype has two types of interactions. You can call computer to computer for
free. You can also use your computer as a landline. This is called SkypeOut.
In this mode you add a phone number to Skype and it will dial the other personʼs phone. There is a charge for this, even for a local call. Skype is not
meant to be a replacement for your normal phone. The sound quality is that
of a cell phone or a speakerphone.
Once you are set up with Skype it is very easy to add someone to your phone
list. One method is to search their name or their Skype user ID or part thereof.
Once you type it in, Skype will give you a list of possibilities with their real
name and city. As long as the person you are looking for has Skype
turned on, you will easily find them. To “call” someone, you simply push
the green phone button next to their name in your buddy list. Their computer will ring just like a phone would do at home. They can choose to answer or not as they can see who is calling them. A second method of
using Skype is to put the personʼs phone number in the appropriate spot.
Now when you click the phone icon your computer will call directly to their
own home phone. This is called SkypeOut and there is a fee for this type
of usage. You can get Skype Unlimited which is $35 for a year calling
anywhere in Canada or the US using SkypeOut.
The MAC has iChat which is an excellent system, but it requires the other
person to also have a MAC. The best system thus is Skype which will
allow audio and video from any computer. There is no end of the ways to
use Skype. I caught another daughter using her cell phone for audio and
Skype for video when talking to her boyfriend. If I was in business or had
a network set up, Skype would be invaluable. I am totally sold on this
system and I will be passing the word along. Logitech Wheel Mouse Optical
Although I donʼt find them very often, I still look for treaures a garage
sales. I picked up a gig of PC133 RAM (four 256-meg chips) for a Sawtooth AGP Graphics G4 tower at the beginning of the season but not
much since then. A few weeks ago I was out at a local garage sale and
saw some brand new Logitech optical USB wheel mice still in the original boxes and grabbed one. Says PC ? Mac right on thebox. The asking
price was just one dollar and I did not dicker. As you can see from the picture I took (bottom right) this really is new old stock. I plugged it into the
iBook and it worked like a charm under OSX 10.4.9. I was also pleased
by the easy software installation and setup. Since the mouse was not
new I went directly to the Logitech website and got the newest version of
the Mac OSX drivers.
I really didnʼt get much of a chance to use it because Irmaʼs mouse was
acting up at the same time that the Logitech Wheel Mouse Optical was
on its way into service so it pretty quickly wound up on her computer instead of mine. I did get to use it for a few weeks but Iʼll have to find another one for myself if I really want to have
one. She has mentioned on a few occasions that its a much better mouse than the
genuine Apple Pro mouse she had been using. The Apple Pro digital mice
are prone to failure in a specific way. The cable or cord that attaches the
mouse to the computer is completely unsupported as it exits the mouse
body and I have had several Apple mice suffer from a premature death because the cord was bent or twisted severely right there, probably from running up against another cable or something. On the other hand, Apple
optical Pro mice do make excellent Christmas tree decorations !
As a general rule, I prefer digital mice. No more finding cat hair wrapped
around the rollers, no more cleaning mice rollers & balls with Iso-propyl alcohol, and no more dependence on mouse pads. If you are looking for a
sturdy, reliable, easy to install, comfortable, versatile, no frills optical mouse
then I highly recommend the Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse. The buttons
and the wheel are programmable and the acceleration is adjustable and the
touch is very sensitive.
The best place to find a terrific selection of Macintosh-compatible digital
mice is on eBay. Shipping should be under $10.00 from anywhere in
Canada or the States and there are so many colours and styles to chose
from. A little research on the internet will tell you which ones are the four or
five star models and which ones retailed for big bucks when they were first
released.
What to do, What to do...
Although it doesnʼt happen very often now, there
once was a time when my enthusiasm for all things
Macintosh kept me out too often and too late visiting with people whose Macs were misbehaving.
That was especially true before MacOS X.
In several many cases people called me simply because their Mac would not start up at all: they went
through the usual startup process and got absolutely no response from their Macintosh. No
chime, no video, no snap, crackle, pop, nothing. If
this happens to you, hereʼs a few suggestions for
you to check out before you panic and assume the
worst.
1. Check the power cord at the wall or power bar. Is
it securely plugged in? Is it securely connected to
the computer? Unplug it from both sources and
plug it back in. They can come loose. People who
repeatedly adjust the viewing angle of their new
iMacs can often accidentally wiggle the power cord
until it becomes loose.
2. Is your surge strip turned on and plugged in? A
while ago I drove to Whitby to plug in a power bar
that had been secretly unplugged from the wall receptacle to make room for a vacuum cleaner.
3. Try another outlet on your surge strip. The one
you are currently plugged into could have gone
bad. It doesnʼt happen very often but it happpens.
4. If #3 does not accomplish anything, try plugging
the surge strip into another wall outlet. Preferably,
the outlet would be on another wall, or even another room.
5. Plug a lamp into the wall outlet to verify that it
has power. Not the outlet? Plug the computer directly into the wall to determine if the entire surge
strip has died.
6. Find another power cord, and plug that into
your computer. Your power cord could have
gone bad or been munched on by four legged
creatures in the middle of the night.
7. Unplug everything FireWire, SCSI, and USB
from your computer, except for the keyboard,
mouse and power cord and see if it works. One
of your external devices could be causing the
problem.
8. Try any combination of the above.
9. This is extreme, but you can always try the
computer in another office or house as a last
resort.
10. This is one of my favourites: replace the
PRAM battery if the computer is a desktop
model or give it time to charge up if its a
portable.
11. And hereʼs another suggestion: if all
else fails remove all of the memory
from your Mac except one
stick of RAM and try to
start it.
If all of the steps above prove to be
useless, it might be time for a new computer
or a visit to the repair shop. Of course, you could
bypass all of these steps and use this power issue
as an excuse to get a nice, new, shiny Apple computer.
And when your old Mac finally dies, or gets too old,
tired and stupid to carry on with the latest operating
systems, as one day it surely must, remember the
box of delights that it once was and remember that
it can still do everything that it could when it was
new. There are lots of Mac users who still have and
use computers ten years old so see to it that your
old goes to a good home. It may not be worth
much but RAM for older computers is cheap now
and to someone who it struggling with MacOS9.1
on an old PowerMac 8600 or 9600 your antique G3
tower or iMac could be the beginning of a new adventure.
IPEVO USB Phones
by Marcel Dufresne
As a Skype user, the experience is so much better if you
have a webcam. The newer MAC has this built in and a
lot of others already have an iSight. It is not a necessary
item but it does allow us to feel more like "The Jetsons".
Another item that I heard about was a USB phone. I contacted a few companies and IPEVO was kind enough to
send me three of their MAC friendly phones. The company's headquarters is in Taiwan, but it was their office in
the US that responded. It is a relatively new company that
has been developing hardware for Skype since 2005. All
three phones are installed the same way. Put in the CD
that comes with the phone. Add one small application to
your folder and that's it. There were a lot more instructions
for the PC users but they did not apply to me. The application allows you to control the audio output device, either
the USB phone or your computer. It also allows you to control the input and output volume. The rest of the work is
done by Skype.
The three phones I tried were the Free.1, the Free.2 and
the Trio. The IPEVO motto is smart design, good price and
the first two phones look really good. They have a sleek and
stylish appearance. They have a solid casing but are very compact. They have won numerous design awards, much to their merit.
The third phone is more of an office type heavy duty phone but it still has
a real good feel to it. Look at the photos to see what I mean.
All three phones have a button that opens up the Skype application so you
don't have to search for it.
They also let you control the
buddy list with some simple
clicks right on the phone so
that you can use the USB device to do all the work. The
Free.1 and Free.2 both have
the numeric keypad for dialing
out. You would use this only if
you had not already added
that person to your buddy list.
Otherwise, only one button is needed. The Free.1 was the first Skype phone
for both the PC and MAC systems. The Free.2 has a LCD display which allows for easy Skype control right from the phone. It has quite a few Skype
specific hotkeys. The third phone is called the TRIO. It acts as a handheld
phone, a speakerphone and a recording device if you wish to keep an audio
record of the call. It has a 360° microphone and is definitely for the business
world. All three phones are USB powered which means they get their power
right from the computer without an extra electrical cable. The Free.2 will be
on sale in Canada later this year for $45. It is available online now from
http://www.ipevo.com. The other two sell for $35 and $80 online.
The question that I had was why use a USB phone when the internal mike
and speakers will do the job. I have two answers. First, the phone has echo
cancellation built into it. The biggest difference between normal telephone
calls and SkypeOut calls is that it sounds like a cell phone is being used. The
echo cancellation
makes the audio
sound better. Secondly, the USB
phone offers privacy.
If you are using your
computer, it is like
using a speakerphone. Everyone can
join into the call, whether
invited to or not. Also if I am
calling someone long distance it
just feels better to have a phone in my
hand. Old-fashioned, I guess.
Other Skype add-ons include the headset-microphone combination that you see with bluetooth. There is
also a special phone that allows you to use Skype without a computer. And
there is a Wi-Fi phone that can be used with any wireless network.
As far as I can tell, Skype works fine with the built in audio and video equipment that comes with the MAC. Skype works more clearly with the USB phone.
Because all MACs come with a built in microphone and speaker, I would not
rush right out and buy a phone. I would try Skype first and then delve into the
add-ons.
FullMeasure 4.0 by Michael Shaw
Badia FullMeasure is an XTension for QuarkXPress that creates a powerful control palette that gives the user instant access to more than 160 functions, attributes and tools in one
easy-to-use palette. This latest update, FM v4.0, is designed
expressly for the new QXP7. The FullMeasure tool palette is
organized into 12 panels that comprise text and paragraph
formats, rule settings, picture information, item and frame
settings, document preferences, table functions, guide management, item alignments, search tools and value conversions. Along the top of the FullMeasure 4 control window
there are 12 buttons that give the user access to the 12
themed controls panels. Each panel is full of useful tools so
the FullMeasure tools palette is the key to what might be
considered twelve different Quark 7 XTensions. And single
licenses start at only US $89.99.
FullMeasure allows you to view and change dozens of attributes – no more travelling through menus, opening dialogs
or squinting at screens cluttered with palettes. It can also be
configured to be context-sensitive, meaning that its panels
switch automatically to present only the information relevant
to the current context. In addition, you get many tools otherwise unavailable in QuarkXPress, such as box reference
points, functions for redefining style sheets, character and
paragraph count, nudge controls, complete picture information, keyboard shortcuts and more.
New to FullMeasure 4.0 for QuarkXPress 7 is the ability to
search for item attributes, including box dimensions, background color, shade and opacity, suppression status, offsets,
text columns, frame style, picture format, resolution, color
model and status. FullMeasure 4.0 has a powerful set of
useful tools that can very quickly become highly addictive.
Unique FullMeasure Tools
• Complete Picture Information and Linking Tools: picture
name and full path, reveal picture/folder in Finder, open picture with creator or any application you choose, file size,
color model (RGB, CMYK, etc.), format (EPS, TIFF, etc.),
picture compression, picture suppression, resolution and effective resolution, update picture, link status, embedded EPS
fonts/colors.
• Update All Modified Pictures: in one step, updates all pictures that have a 'Modified' status.
• Picture Alignments: aligns picture to the top/left/right/bottom side of the picture box.
• Redefine Style Sheet: redefines the current style sheet incorporating local formats.
• Remove Local Formats: reverts paragraph or character settings to those specified by the style sheet.
• Case Conversion: changes the text case to sentence case,
title case, all lowercase or all uppercase.
• Fit Box to Text: shortens or expands the text box to fit tight
to the text inside.
• Character, Word and Paragraph Count.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: allows you
to set keyboard shortcuts for several FullMeasure functions.
• Up/Down Controls: allows you to
increase/decrease any field value
using Up/Down buttons.
• Font Menu: includes at the top a
list of fonts used in the document.
• Add Guide at Baseline: adds a
page guide along the baseline of
the selected text.
• Apply Insets to All Boxes: globally applies the same box insets
to the entire document.
• Remove All Tabs: removes all
paragraph tabs in one step.
• Rules Panel: allows you to set
paragraph rules and modify all
settings.
• Table Panel: allows you to
quickly access common table
functions.
• Find Panel: searches for item
and picture attributes in the entire
document.
• Reference Points: allows you to
specify item coordinates and dimensions relative to any reference point (top-right of the box,
center, etc.). This allows you to increase the box width by its center
point, for example.
• Nudge Controls: gives you buttons for moving items up / down /
left / right by any custom amount that you specify.
• Convert Measurements Between Units: allows
you to convert measurements between inches,
picas, points, millimeters, centimeters, ciceros,
agates and pixels.
• Guide Placement: allows you to view the exact
position of all horizontal and vertical guides.
• Delete All Guides: deletes all horizontal or vertical
guides at once.
• Step and Repeat Guides: allows you to place
guides numerically and step and repeat guides.
• View Slider: allows you to change the document
view percentage using a slider.
• Add Custom Views: allows you to save any document view.
Puzzle Pro 2.2 by Michael Shaw
There are useful Photoshop plug-ins and filters for
the pros designed to help fix up pictures that have
problems and there are neat & nifty Photoshop
plug-ins and filters that are designed to make working with pictures more fun by allowing anyone to
create special features and achieve amusing effects. If you are not using your Mac to play with
your digital images and photos yet then you soon
will be. And you donʼt need to drop awad of cash
for Photoshop to join the fun. Adobe has made
Photoshop Elements a real bargoon and plug-ins
that work with one will work with the other.
AV Bros. Puzzle Pro 2.2 is an extremely high quality, powerful and flexible Photoshop plugin, which
greatly increases your creativity and productivity. I
showed a slide show of images created with Puzzle
Pro 2.2 at the June MaUsE Meeting that demonstrated the types of effects that can be achieved
with Puzzle Pro and Iʼm pleased to say that it was
grabbed up pretty fast in the June MaUsE Raffle.
When you first invoke Puzzle Pro from your Filters
menu in Photoshop, you're presented with your picture in the Cutter portion of the interface. This is
where you define the size and shape of the jigsaw puzzle sections and the
number of rows and columns in the puzzle. Not only can you load preset
shapes and create your own, you can adjust every conceivable element of the
shape--even apply an element of randomness to the puzzle sections. After the
cutting stage, you enter the puzzle mode where you can select and modify individual puzzle cells. You can set certain cells to be hidden, adjust the bevel
effect, and apply other effects. You can also save the image as a PSD file with
each puzzle section on its own layer. This way, individual sections can be moved, rotated and manipulated with filters, layer effects, and other tools.
A great feature!
Puzzle Pro offers more customizable options than
any other similar plug-in. You may never use all
the customization options in Puzzle Pro, but
they're sure to open up a whole new world of creative opportunities for you.
The selection of images created with Puzzle Pro 2.2 on the AV Bros website
will delight and amuse you with the wide range of possibilities.
Although this Photoshop filter is targeted to help you create a jig-saw puzzle
effect, it also produces a plethora of various high quality image effects. Thanks
to both the superb engine and the convenient graphic user interface, this plugin gives you absolute control over the process of creating the desired effect.
AV Bros. Puzzle Pro 2.2 provides you with an almost absolute freedom in the
creation of a puzzle's shapes, a large number of built-in effects for modifying
the content of a puzzle's pieces, the possibility of not only being able to split
an image into pieces, but being able to draw the splitter's shape too, an option
to save the shapes in .EPS or .AI formats for using them in such applications
as Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Flash, Corel CorelDRAW as well as many
other features.
Alien Skin Exposure by Michael Shaw
In this issue I will be continuing with some more scathingly brilliant plug-ins
from Alien Skin, the people who make the BlowUp plug-in we featured last
month. First up is Exposure. The sad truth is that to a great extent digital photos do not capture th nuance, feel and immediacy of film any more than CDs
capture the clarity and range of vynal recordings. Something usually gets lost
in translation. For many of us who are merely gifted or ungifted amateurs there
is no discernable difference between images captured by digital and images
taken using film cameras but for photograpers who deliberately use specific
film a lot the differences are apparent and obvious. Thats where Alien Skin
Exposure steps in. Exposure brings the look and feel of film to digital photographs, enabling photograpers to simulate the warmth and softness of real
world film, both color and black and white. Now they can reproduce realistic
film grain, and simplify their digital photography workflow.
Some professional photographers jumped
readily across the digital divide from film to digital photography. Others are crossing over
more reluctantly. One thing they all have in
common is nostalgia for their favorite film
stocks. Alien Skin Software is making them feel
a bit more at home with Exposure, a Photoshop
plug-in that simulates the look of photographs
shot with a variety of color and black-and-white
films. With one click, your digital photographs
can be given a treatment indicative of real film
cameras.
Alien Skin Software developed Exposureʼs many
film simulations by carefully analyzing real films and
using that information to emulate the characteristics of each,
and paying special attention to film grain. Exposure re-creates the size,
shape, color, and location of real grain, rather than just throwing singlepixel digital noise into images. The plug-in also includes some imageoptimization and darkroom-effect presets such as cross-processing
(which mimics processing slide or negative film with incompatible
chemistry) and soft focus.
You access Exposure right from the Filters menu in Photoshop or Elements. The plug-inʼs detailed interface is well organized and relatively
easy to use, considering the number of controls it packs in. Besides
the two main Settings windows (one for colour film, one for black &
white) with lists of actual film types, there are four anciliary windows for sliders to control Colour, Tone, Focus and Grain. The Tone tab features an intuitive set of sliders for individually adjusting shadows, midtones, highlights, and
contrast. The Color tab contains a useful Cooling/Warming slider for varying
color temperature while preserving image luminosity. The preview screen is
large and offers a choice of split or toggle previews. Itʼs easy to save your custom recipes for reuse or export them to share with colleagues. The product
performs well, applying its presets within seconds. And it ships on a CD with
a comprehensive 48-page manual, Help files, and demos of all of the other
Alien Skin plug-ins..
At a MSRP of US $199.00, Exposure is more expensive than most of the other
other Photoshop plug-ins that we have looked at for the MaUsE DoubleClick,
but Exposureʼs cost is justified by its realistic film-grain simulations and its
comprehensive controls, and by
the fact that it is marketed primarily to photography professionals. In the Puzzle Pro 2.2
article previous to this one I
mention that there are some
Photoshop add-ons that are just
neat & nifty filters that are designed to make working with
pictures more fun by allowing
anyone to create special projects and achieve amusing effects, and there are other
plug-ins that are used as tools
by serious photograpers. Alien
Skin Exposure is definitely one of the latter. You would not buy this plug-in simply
to amuse yourself with. As a film emulator based on detailed analysis of actal
film stock Exposure is designed to reproduce in digital images the size, shape
and colour of real world film grain as it is
encountered in the process of taking and
developing pictures with real film. The
plug-inʼs film emulations look quite authentic and are easy to preview and
apply.
Alien Skin Exposure at any price is a
good tool choice for professional photographers who want a quick way to simulate and reproduce the look of a
favorite film stock. Look up Alien Skin
Exposure on the internet to see what
can be done with this amazing plug-in.
And while you are there have a look at
the other Alien Skin software as well.
This stuff is scathingly brilliant.
Alien Skin has kindly provided
MaUsE with raffle copies of
BlowUp, Exposure and Snap Art !
Alien Skin Snap Art by Michael Shaw
Alien Skin Snap Art creates beautiful, natural media artwork in a single step.
It installs into the Plug-ins folder in your Photoshop or Elements Folder and you
access it through the Filters menu. As you can see, when you select Snap Art
you get a list of TEN possible rendering styles to choose from. Render any
image in an unlimited variety of real-world art styles including oil paint, pencil
sketch, pen & ink, comics, and more. Great for stylizing photos or graphics,
Snap Art works without laborious hand editing and is more versatile than Actions or brushes.
Conventional artists often use an underdrawing to outline key objects within a
composition. This lightly drawn sketch serves as a guide and is usually painted
or drawn over in the final composition. Similarly, Snap Art uses edge detection
to discern the objects, edges,
lines, and shapes of an original image. Then, using this
outline, an advanced paint engine strokes and fills this outline using the brushes and
colors you specify. This allows
realistic reproduction of detail,
but balances that realism with
convincing artistry.
Loaded with hundreds of settings, Snap Art distills this complicated process
down to a single step. Simply find the factory setting that works for your image.
And for the advanced user, detailed controls are available to fine tune a composition for the desired effect.
In this review, we're taking a look at
Snap Art, which takes your images to
another level altogether--and probably another dimension, considering
the vast amount of possibilities Alien
Skin is famous for with their plug-ins.
Snap Art is unlike any other painting
plug-in for Photoshop, because it
meticulously recreates a more realistic representation of real-world art
styles. Snap Art is a special plug-in for
those graphics editors and photographers who want more realism to their
images, while retaining the individuality of the effect itself.
Since this is the introduction page, I'll
keep it brief, but the ten filters included in Snap Art, are very comprehensive, meaning you have several
settings within each filter which will
make your image unique, as well as create the realistic effect you want.
The filters are:
• Color Pencil • Pen and Ink • Comics • Pencil Sketch • Impasto
• Pointillism • Oil Paint • Stylize • Pastel • Watercolor
Some of the major key features are :
• Realistic natural media effect create uniquely styled artwork
• Canvas, paper, and other media textures further enhance realism
• Lighting controls simulate the direction, intensity, and color of a light source
• Hundreds of one-click settings offer instant results
OnOne Softwareʼs QX Tools Pro 7
by Michael Shaw
As long as so few MaUsE members are sending in contributions to the DoubleClick
to tell us about the new software they have found, I will continue to fill up this issue
with reports about my own experiences with the exciting new things that are happening in the world of desktop publishing and the excellent and amazing new software that is making it possible.
Back in the 1990s, Extensis QX-Tools was a vital set of DTP add-ons to QuarkXPress versions 4 & 5. Professional users could work faster and easier with the optimisations offered by QX-Tools. QX-Tools has been designed to help professional
QuarkXPress users get the most out of their layout software. The return of this suite
of QuarkXPress XTensions after a lengthy absence and a change of ownership is
welcome. QX-Tools is now better than ever and Iʼve got it and Iʼm loving it !
QX-Tools Pro 7 is the latest release of the popular collection
of Quark XTensions from OnOne Software. The new UB (Universal Binary) release for Intel and PowerMacintosh is compatible with QuarkXPress 7 and offers several new features
along with enhancement to existing XTensions. In all, QXTools Pro 7 comprises 15 XTensions designed to boost
Quark's capabilities and make a designer's everyday tasks
easier and quicker to complete.
One of the nicest features of QX Tools Pro 7 XTensions is
that they are recognized so thoroughly by QuarkXPress 7
that all of the QX XTensions appear in the list of XTensions
that you can chose from when you customise your palette groups. You can load as
many or as few as you want. (QuarkXPress allows you to create palette sets for
each project or document type you wish to create so only the group of XTensions you
want will load). Each XT Tool has the XT- prefix and just like other Quark XTensions
they hide discreetly in the palette until called for by clicking the little triangles beside
their names so they donʼt clutter up your Desktop with floating windows or obscure
parts of your document by floating in front of it (like the XTensions from some other
companies do).
I could fill this entire issue with descriptions of the fifteen tools that QX Tools Pro 7
but I wonʼt. For one thing, there is more information available with lots of illustrations of the features of QX Tools Pro 7 on the internet at the OnOne Software website. Every QX XTension in the list of tools has its own feature set and window and
I canʼt go into them all here. Instead I will mention a couple of the tools that I have
found useful in the short weeks that I have had QX Tools Pro 7.
One of the QX Tools that has a lot of potential is
QX-SuperSelect – a handy selection tool that lets
you select non-contiguous text anywhere in a document and then apply changes to the selected
words in one go rather than having to make a single selection over and over again.
QX-DragAndDrop lets you skip the import dialog
box when placing images or text in your document.
With QX-Tools Pro 7 installed, you can simply drag
images and text directly onto your page from the
desktop, the Mac OS X Finder, or from Adobe
Bridge.
QX-WYSIWYG is a palette that displays all of your
available fonts in their own typeface making it easier to see what your fonts look like before you apply
them to your selected text. The benefit of using QXWYWIWYG is you will have an easy place to access all of your active fonts directly from within
QuarkXPress.
Other XTensions in the collection have been enhanced including the QX-ItemStyles, which lets
you create item styles for picture/textboxes, lines
and tables and the QX-Viewer.
QX-DragAndDrop allows you to drag and drop images and text documents directly into a QuarkXPress 7 document from the Mac OS X Finder or
from Adobe Bridge.
QX-Shortcuts now allows users to create their own
keyboard shortcuts or reassign existing Quark keyboard shortcuts.
QX-Tips&Tricks: Every time I launch QuarkXPress
7 I get a Tip of the Day dialog window with some
great tips and tricks specifically for QuarkXPress 7
from the Quark guru and editor of Design Tools
Monthly, Jay Nelson. Jay is the author and presenter of the short training video included in the
QuarkXPress 7 box, as well as the comprehensive
training video at Lynda.com.
The QX Tool that Iʼve used most frequently is the
QX-Viewer. This tool provides a viewer window in
my tools palette that has navigation buttons that
moves the view to the next or previous page or
spread while preserving the page zoom and zoom
position. It provides a movable scalable red outline
box to indicate how much of the current page is
presently visible on my monitor and plus and minus
buttons that expand and contract the visible portion
of the page. It shows the size of the document as
perentage of actual size and has its own Undo button and page number indicator.
All of the XTensions have been completely re-written to take full advantage of the new palette technology in QuarkXPress 7.
Wireless Internet Options
For Older Macs
I got a call from the daughter of a Mac user whose
family had changed over their ISP (Internet Service Provider) from Bell Sympatico to Rogers wireless while she was on holidays. In other words, they
got the family off the telephone system and onto
the cable TV system while she wasnʼt looking. The
problem the family failed to notice was that the telephone DSL modem had been very close to Momʼs
old Mac upstairs and easily connected to it with an
ethernet cable but the new Rogers cable modem is
now located in the basement and not at all within
close proximity to the Mac. For the other computers
in the house it doesnʼt matter where the cable
modem is because they have wireless internet built
in but Momʼs Mac does not have an AirPort card in
it so when Mom comes back from holidays she is
going to find that she is off the internet and that the
cable modem is too far from her Mac for a cable to
reach. What to do, what to do...
Solution 1: Install an AirPort card in the Mac. Unfortunately, Apple does not make these anymoreand the go on eBay for about $80.00 US.
Solution 2: Run an ethernet cable through the floor
& walls from a LAN port on the back of the cable
modem to the ethernet port on the Mac. This could
get messy unless its done carefully but it can be
done if necessary using the cold air returns and
without drilling too many conspicuous holes.
Solution 3: Move Momʼs Mac down into the basement where it can be closer to the cable modem. In
this particular case this idea stinks and I can tell you
right now Mom is not going to go for it.
Solution 4: Connect a wireless adaptor to the USB
port on the Mac if you have USB. At a cost of $30
to $50 this sounds like the best solution but it
can be fraught with perils. If you are considering buying a wireless adapter for your
older
computer
that's
equipped with USB 1
consider all options
carefully before investing your money in
one of these inexpensive and convenient devices.
USB 1 is
considerably slower than newer computers that are
equipped with USB 2. USB 2 wireless adapters
come in different speeds, but for explanation sake,
lets consider a standard 54 mb/s USB 2 wireless
adapter. The 54 mb/s file transfer rate on your network is only obtainable with the use of USB 2. With
USB 1, (which is what many older computer's
motherboards are equipped with) there is a slower
transfer of data onto your computer so you can only
receive files at a maximum of about 11 mb/s. USB
2 wireless adapters will still work in a USB 1 environment, being backwards compatible, but at about
20% of their potential speed. Fast enough for email,
yes. Fast enough for downloading attachments and
music while surfing the internet, no.
Solution 5: Install a PCI wireless adapter card (only
possible if you have a PCI bus with an empty slot).
PCI wireless adapters plug right into an open PCI
port on your motherboard. To receive a signal, they
often have a small antenna extending out the back
of your computer. These PCI devices can take advantage of the 54 mb/s transfer rate of your router
unlike USB 2 wireless adapters. For transfering
large files or computer gaming I would reccomend
this type of wireless device over a USB adapter.
The only disadvantage I can see is that it takes up
a PCI port. However, not using a USB
adapter means more USB ports to
use for mice, keyboards, etc. And
there is a considerably less amount of
USB ports on older computers.
The use of a USB adapter might be more convenient and cost effective, because you can just
unplug it and plug it into any computer in your
home that you need to use the internet on. Then
you don't need to buy PCI adapters for each
computer. But if you need the speed, go with a
PCI adapter.
Whichever one you choose, you will still have
the convenience of wireless internet and you
can move your computer to any area of your house
and use the internet (provided you have signal). It's
a question of what speed you need to your network
to run at, and how convenient you want your internet use to be. My own preference is to use wires
whenever possible andI have wired up my entire
house with Cat 5e cable so that ethernet is available on every floor wherever it is needed. I ordered
a RJ-45 crimping tool and a bunch of cable ends
for the job and everything works perfectly.
To preserve the data on the drive with the deleted
files, all recovered files must be saved to another
storage device or another drive attached to the system. You should not download the software to the
drive that you want to recover or try to save the files
back to the drive that you want to recover from. To
use this software you need a minimum of free hard
disk space as large as the media you wish to recover. You may also need a card reader for your
Iʼm always on the look out for Macintosh utilities
that are outstanding and for this issue I have PHOTORECOVERY for Digital Media from LC Technology. With megapixels on the rise and the cost of
entry-level digital cameras steadily dropping, and
the quality of the images they produce continuing to
increase, more and more of us are forgoing traditional film cameras for the new generation of digital
cameras. In some families every adult and child
has his or her own computer and camera. Amateurs and professionals alike are using digital cameras to capture even the most mundane events.
The ability to economically go out and take hundreds (or thousands) of photos and develop them
yourself without any added expense has made digital image addicts out of many of us. Believe it or
not, only a very small percentage of pictures taken
actually end up on paper.
Unlike their predecessors that used film, new cameras have potentially huge storage and allow images to be erased and the space on the internal
media reused. The media can also be bulk erased
or formatted, removing any images from the storage media. Sometimes this happens by accident
and that is where PHOTORECOVERY comes to
the rescue! With this program you can salvage hundreds of different types of files from camera cards
and from other storage devices.
media if the camera is not supported as a removable disk device.
Look up PHOTORECOVERY for Digital Media on
the internet and download a free demo of the software. With products available in 25 countries and
14 languages LC Technology is a global leader in
data recovery whose mission is designed to help
clients resolve catastrophic problems.
MarkzTools 7
by Michael Shaw
In the case of a badly corrupted file in which
the page layout data cannot be salvaged, the
"scavenge text" feature provides the ability to
extract at least the text stories from a document
file. This way you can quickly re-create a replacement copy of a damaged document if you
still have the images on hand. MarkzTools
alerts the user whenever they are about to
save a lower version document to a higher version.
There was more big news from Markzware in
July: Markzware's updated “UB” version of
MarkzTools XTension for QuarkXPress is just
out. And there will be more and other
Markzware UB updates soon. This makes me
and every other QuarkXPress 7 user happy.
There should be a new Intel iMac in everybodyʼs future.
If you pay attention you will see a lot of “UB”
designations from a lot of software companies
over the next few quarters as more and more
programs and utilities get updated to take advantage of the differences introduced in the
new Intel Macs. This is similar in some ways to
the “Accelerated for PowerMacintosh” labels
that we saw years ago on 68k software titles
that were being re-written to take advantage of
the improved PowerPC.
Markzware's new version of the popular MarkzTools XTension has been updated to take advantage of the way the new Intel-based Macs
operate. This improved Universal Binary update of MarkzTools has so many potent lifesaving tools that no serious QuarkXPress 7
user should be without it. It can be used to prevent corrupted QuarkXPress documents (overcoming the dreaded bad file format) and
retrieve text from corrupted documents. Users
can also use the Verify Document File... com-
mand to verify their existing documents, so
they will immediately know whether the integrity of any of their older Quark documents is
suspect. Additionally, users can first save a
temporary copy of a document before saving
the original document, so that in the event that
something goes seriously wrong during the
save process, the temporary file is still available for recovery. The MarkzTools Preferences
and a list of the operations included in MarksTools are accessed under the Utilities menu
from within the QuarkXPress 7 program.
MarkzTools provides the additional functionality of allowing users to save QuarkXPress 7
projects directly to Quark 4.1 document files. It
can also convert all of the image previews in a
document to grey place-holders drastically reducing the file size and storage requirements
of Quark projects. Some QuarkXPress projects
can require multiple layouts with hundreds of
megabytes of images.
Some of the updated features included in
MarkzTools 7 are:
• The conversion of Quark 7 documents directly to Quark 4 file format without the need
for the interim step of opening files in QuarkXPress 5 and downsaving to Quark 4 format files
• The prevention of corruption of Quark documents from occurring in the first place through
the use of a special temporary file
• The ability to recover many bad file format or
corrupt QuarkXPress documents
• The recovery of text data from badly damaged or corrupted documents
• The conversion of picture previews to grey
placeholders. This feature lets users archive
their Quark documents more easily by reducing
the size of the Quark documents, and leaving
image links intact. When users are ready to
work on the file again, image previews are easily restored.
Although, as MaUsE DoubleClick Editor, I am responsible for the content of this issue I can honestly say that the rest of the MaUsE Membership is responsible as well. I have asked for contributions and since there have been so very few I will continue
to fill up the extra pages in this magazine with whatever I feel like writing about. With no sanctioned MaUsE Club activities scheduled until September the summer issues run the risk of becoming more like a blog and less like a MaUsE Club magazine.
It really is a shame that more MaUsE Members are not using this latest version of QuarkXPress. There are so many fantastic things happening with new Quark software and I know that
nobody else in the MaUsE is as interested
as I am. For instance, Iʼll bet than nobody
else in the MaUsE is aware that QuarkXPress has a promotion on right now in cooperation with other members of the
QuarkAlliance to offer huge savings to
anyone who upgrades to QuarkXPress 7.
The QuarkAlliance is a partnership of Quark and
the many companies that market XTensions and
other Quark-related materials, like training materials and books. It provides technical support, product and program discounts, and other benefits that
a third-party network of partners needs to deliver
on-target solutions to customers working with
Quark software. This program assists Alliance partners with marketing, sales, training, and implementation efforts by bringing together partners with key members of Quark teams.
QuarkAlliance promotes member visibility in the Quark community and provides marketing resources, technical support, free or discounted products, and other benefits that partners can use
to expand their customer base and help their customers. If you are a customer who needs a
custom solution, this third-party network of Quark partners can help implement a Quark solution.
Over 320 certified XTensions developers have released or are working to release XTensions that
are specifically designed to extend the value of
QuarkXPress 7 by providing users with new functionalities and features.
To date, Quark has certified more than
2,000 XTensions developers in nearly 50
countries, providing millions of XTensions
to Quark customers worldwide. The names
of a few of these partners and some of their
products should be familiar to DoubleClick
readers because I have featured them in recent issues including this one.
I will continue to write about Quark XTensions in future issues but I will also include articles
about alternative desktop publishing software for those of you who are getting into it now
and do not want to shell out big bucks for InDesign CS or QuarkXPress. Watch for next
monthʼs DoubleClick to see articles about two more of my favourite Mac publishing programs, DesktopPublisher Pro and Ready, Set, Go. They are simply wonderful software
from companies with a lot of experience at producing first-rate Mac OS applications and selling them at a price that anyone can afford. And copies of these two programs will be available for the September MaUsE Raffle (for MaUsE Members only).
Markzwareʼs New Q2ID v3
By Michael Shaw
Last month designers, printers and creative professionals struggling with re-creating intricate details of
content from older QuarkXPress documents into the
latest version of Adobe InDesign CS got a big break.
They can now save themselves many hours with this
exciting new release of the Markzware Q2ID v3 InDesign plug-in that supports InDesign v5 for Macintosh, (also known as InDesign CS3) and recognises
over a decadeʼs worth of Quark files.
For people who prefer using Adobe InDesign CS over QuarkXPress it
is a tremendous benefit to be able to convert and open older XPress
document for updating rather than recreate a whole new comparable
InDesign CS document from scratch. The Q2ID document conversion
plug-in obviates countless hours of scanning, re-keying and formatting.
This product converts and transforms files created with all versions of
QuarkXPress on both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh systems, into new Adobe InDesign CS3 files. To use Q2ID with InDesign
CS, simply install it in the InDesign Plug-ins folder, relaunch InDesign,
and then select a QuarkXPress document to open just as if it were an
InDesign document. A progress bar will indicate the Q2ID conversion
process (a 16.4 Meg QXP 7.2 file was converted to an InDesign file in
under a minute on a 1 GHz iBook) and the results were very usable.
The plug-in works with Adobe InDesign CS3 for Macintosh and allows
the user to open, import and convert Quark files created with any version of QuarkXPress from v3.3 through the latest v7.x. The Mac version of QuarkXPress 3.3, released back in 1996, was seen as stable
and trouble-free, worked seamlessly with Apple's TrueType fonts, and
remained an industry standard well after subsequent versions of the
software were released.
Q2ID v3 is available for immediate download or can be ordered from
Markzware on CD-ROM, starting at US $199 MSRP for new users. Registered users of previous versions of Q2ID v1.x and above can upgrade
The converted file maintained the original Quark document's page for US $99.00. Educational pricing and volume discounts are available.
positioning, colour models, fonts and styles, images and text attributes, as well as tables, blends, linked text and anchored boxes. For more information, visit:
On several pages the text had crept behind the picture boxes and http://www.markzware.com/q2id/
their runaround had to be reset in order to restore the appearance
of the original document but no other changes were necessary.