eu Macworld 1999 04 OCR

PASSING THE TEST: NEW C3 MACS RATED, ALP? Reese 9 79 9 | THE ESSENTIAL MACINTOSH® RESOURCE www.macworld.com AN iMAC MUST-R BESTMACSITES! _ BEST MAC BROWSER! TOP SEARCH TIPS! \ ESSENTIAL WEB UTILITIES! | f : . Ke is “* et Se Say : Mee . Se Se ie logo aire trademarks www.lacie.com/mwtx.htm LaCie 1x8 joGie, Lid. ©1998 LaCie, Lid. All rights reserved. ASTRONOMICAL. The capacity of the LaCie TX-8000" is simply colossal. It can store up to one quarter terabyte in eight RAID accelerated drives with either Ultra2 Siem — _—— eee, SCSI or Fibre Channel host controllers. And four scaleable towers combine to total one terabyte (1000 GB).So, go ahead, think as big as you please. Made for ideas. Features Cover Story 66 The Macworld Web Traveler's Companion BY SHELLY BRISBIN All plugged in with too many places to go? Streamline your online excursions with Macworld’s guide to the best the Web has to offer. Plus: the best browser, search tips, and utilities every traveler should have. [as rest] 74 Put Your Files in the Fast Lane BY BRUCE FRASER Fasten your seat belts! Which server operating tem is the swiftest for the wa you work? Macworld Lab put Ms OS, Windows N'T, and Unix to the test to see which gives your files the fastest ride. 80 The Beauty of the Beast BY STEPHAN somoGyY! The power of Unix can be yours on the Mac today—but it’s not for every one, how Linux and Mac O! can bring speed and stability to a Mac near you. 2 April 1999 MACWORLD APRIL 1 9 99) Wor 93 97 BEST MAP SITE) MANAGEMENT SI _ The definitive travel guide for discerning Web wayfarers, page 66. Are you being served fast. ‘enough? page 74. Incorporating MacUser ON THE COVER Uluseration by Paul Rogers Create Motion Presenting with HTML Use the language of the Web to make truly portable BY JIM HEID presentations. Web Dynamic HTML without Tears By TOM NEGRINO CI DHTML effects—but avoid learn- ing a new dialect. ate groovy Print Extend QuarkXPress BY DAVID BLATNER Learn why QuarkXPress is built for compan- ionship, and which are its choicest X'Tensions. All sped up with nothing to burn: media-less 8x CD-R drives, page 29. 27 28 28 29 30 News “a 23 NetBoot Your Mac Apple’s new Mac OS X Server opens up the door to network computing. 164 QuickTime Sprites Finally Take Flight New animation programs take advantage of interactive features in QuickTime 3. 10 Packin' In the Pixels Epson unveils the high-resolution Expression 800 flatbed scanner. Product Watch ‘The latest products for your Mac, including a slide scanner from Polaroid and 3-D-modeling soft- ware from auto-des: Building for the Forbidden Interface Micro Conversions and Formac offer expansion cards for the iMac's off-limits mezzanine port. 87 89 Underused QuickTime animation goodies finally get their day in the sun, page 28. Opinion The Vision Thing BY ANDREW GORE What lurks in the dark shadows of e-commerce? The Desktop Critic BY DAVID POGUE The unvarnished truth about cable modems. How to Contact Macworld Bigger, faster, better: the new lomega Zip 250, page 56. Secrets URL Magic Tricks sY JOSEPH scHoRR Wrangle and reorganize unruly URLs. Quick Tips BY LON POOLE and shortcuts. Tips, tricks, 32 34 36 a1 42 46 46 48 51 53 55 56 58 Reviews 98% Power Macintosh G3/300; #888 Power Macintosh G3/350; 68% Power Macintosh G3/350 DVD; 88% Power Macintosh G3/400 Professional systems 998% Macromedia Director 7 Multimedia authoring suite $864% Dreamweaver 2 Web-page design tool $49 Surflet Agent 1 $8%y% Web Buddy 2. 99% WebWhacker 3.0 Offline Web tools $869 Shadow Filter 1.12; 988% Three-D Luxe Filter 3.0; 98% VariFocus Filter 1.1 Photoshop plug-ins 9% Extensis Intellihance Pro 4.0 Image-correction Photoshop plug-in 988% DiskWarrior 1.0 Disk-repair utility $99 Hard Disk ToolKit 3.0.1 Disk-drive utility $9% pix Pro; $99 =PanoTouch 1.01; #98 VR ObjectWorx 1.01; $98 VR PanoWorx 1.01; $88 VR SceneWorx 1.0 QuickTime VR tools $¢ Stuff-It Deluxe 5.0.2 File-compression utility $849 Boris AE 2.0; $88¢ CineMotion 1.0 for After Effects After Effects plug-ins $899. Font Reserve 2.0 Font-management software $$$ Consultant 2.5.3 PIM for Palm organizers 989% lomega Zip 250 Removable-media drive $8 CommuniGate 3.01 Integrated mail-server system #¢%%% Monsoon MM-1000 Speakers Multimedia speakers $¢9%% Myth Il: Soulblighter Adventure strategy game www.macworld.com April 1999 3 BUY YOUR MAC FROM APPLE BUY YOUR PRINTER DIRECT FROM GCC. Cer H Ee R a : S WHY. oe We're GCC Technologies, and our printers are sold direct against some of the most famous names in the computer industry. This creates a buying opportunity for those who understand a basic principle of free enterprise: Selling direct is better for the manufacturer and buying direct is better for the customer. Therefore, we sell our printers direct, eliminating many prosperous middlemen, and lowering your costs. We also provide direct technical support, eliminating other middlemen who can’t solve your problems. And we are compassionate hand-holders. We offer unlimited free technical support, not just on business days, but on Saturdays too — throughout the one-year warranty period. If during that period you have a problem that our technical support people can’t solve, our Platinum Exchange program guarantees you a replacement printer by the next business day. We invite you to buy your next printer direct from GCC and join our growing family of satisfied customers. All GCC printers come with an unconditional thirty-day money-back guarantee. For complete details, call the 800 number below. And, for the record, yes, our printers have wonderful technology too. It’s just that you don’t have to pay extra for it. ELITE 12 Series 12 pages per minute Maximum Print Area: 8.5" x 14" Letter/A4, legal, envelope 250-sheet Universal Tray PostScript® Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 35 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts, 45 downloadable fonts RAM expandable to 64 MB Ist year Platinum Exchange Warranty EtherTalk®, LocalTalk®, TCP/IP Ethernet (10 BaseT), Bi-directional Parallel 2nd Paper Feeder* (Includes 500-sheet Universal Tray) Add $299 20 pages per minute Maximum Print Area: 12.6" x 35.1" Letter/A4, tabloid/A3, legal, envelope, poster 500-sheet Universal Tray PostScript® Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 35 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts, 250 downloadable fonts RAM expandable to 64 MB Ist year Platinum Exchange Warranty EtherTalk®, Localfalk®, NefWare™, TCP/IP Ethernet (10 BaseT, AAU!), Bi-directional Parallel 2nd or 3rd Paper Feeder* (Includes 500-sheet Universal Tray) Add $299 ELITE XL 20 Series | { ELITE XL 8 Series 8 pages per minute Maximum Print Area: 11" x 17" letter/A4, tabloid/A3, legal, envelope 250-sheet Universal Tray PostScript® Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 35 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts, 45 downloadable fonts RAM expandable to 64 MB Ist year Platinum Exchange Warranty EtherTalk®, LocalTalk®, TCP/IP Ethernet (10 BaseT,10 Bose2), Parallel 2nd Paper Feeder* (Includes 250-sheet Universal Tray) Add $319 (Includes 500-sheet Letter/A4 Tray) Add $419 ELITE 12/600 $999 600 x 600 dpi resolution 8 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB ELITE XL 20/600 $1799 600 x 600 dpi resolution 16 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 2nd year Plafinum Exchonge Add ‘$179 Business Lease $63 Month/36 months** ELITE XL608LC $1399 600 x 600 dpi resolution 8 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $139 Business Lease $50 Month/36 months** 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $ 99 Business Lease $50 Month/24 months** ELITE 1212 $1199 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution 16 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $119 Business Lease $59 Month/24 months** ELITE XL 20/800 $1999 800 x 800 dpi resolution 24 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $199 Business Lease $69 Month/36 months** To order call 1 ELITE XL 20/1200 $2199 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution 64 MB RAM installed 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $219 Business Lease $76 Month/36 months** es 12/0 i 122 a i ie 2 The Ete XL 20/600, Ete XL 20/4 0, onthe Seni Opt wo ation oy, Lacking provided i ieting companies oad isomers ease ayes ‘on. pie {month and 36-month terms. Lease terms Sot i caonge colons eokee ables ec registered trodemork of GCC Technologies, ne Ey nee, ite i228 2 Bite XL 608 LC, ‘ie XL 20/600, Elite XL /800 and the Elite XL 20/1200 are trademarks of GCC Teecoaie, eal ahar redone cerepuired reais ‘ore trodemarks their respective companies 422-7777, or visit our web site, www.gectech.com Choose 43 at www.macworld.com/getinfo Conquer Disk Damage Introducing DishWarrior a revolutionary new way to restore damaged disks! DiskWarrior is a revolutionary new utility that combats disk damage. It quickly rebuilds, recovers and optimizes your HFS and HFS Plus disk directories, eliminating all directory errors and recovering lost files. Other utilities attempt to repair disks by patching the damage. Patching can result in more damage and permanent loss of files. 1007 Recovery Assurance Only DiskWarrior builds a new optimized directory using data recovered from the damaged directory. You have 100% assurance that DiskWarrior will always restore your disks and recover your files when directory damag is your enemy.* You'll also have 100% confidence that you're getting the desired results. DiskWarrior’s exclusive Preview ability lets you preview the restoration. You can examine your damaged disk in the Finder as it will appear after the directory is restored but before any changes are made to your disk. Routine Maintenance DiskWarrior is your first line of defen: against unseen disk damage. Running DiskWarrior regularly prevents small unseen problems from becoming large ones by keeping your directories error free. You'll also keep your directories optimized to speed up overall disk performance. (01998 Alf ne: PO Hox 92, Spring ‘Tekas 77383-0927 USA. 281-383-4090 6 fax 281-383-9868 Dsk\arton ‘a ttademark of Also, In. *Visit our ‘Web se or eal for requirements. DiskWartior is nota magician. No tly ca estore directories that have been writen aver, 900-257-838 Choose 140 at www.macworld.com/getinfo 6 April 1999 MACWORLD Macworld DITOR IN CHIEF Andrew Gore EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Cynthia A, MeDonald EDITORIAL tortor ‘Michael Penwarden Semon EOITOR/NEWS AND REVIEWS. Stephen Beale SEO EOITOR/OEPARTIMENTS. Nancy Peterson sion eorTOR/FEATURES Jason Snell SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS. Allyson Bates, Linda Comer, Scholle Sawyer ASSOCIATE EOITOR Brooke C. Wheeler ASSISTANT HOITOR Michael Gowan CONTRIBUTING EDITORS David Biedny, Henry Borunan, Christopher Breen, Broce Fraser, Ted Landau, Deke McClelland, Rie Myslewski, ‘Tom Negrino, David Pogue, Lon Poole, Stephan Somogyi, Franklin N. Tessler INTERNATIONAL EDITORS Steven Noble, Australia; Bernard Le Du, France; Andreas Borchert, Germany; Enrico Lott, Italy; Yoshio Moriya, Japan; Tomasz Bitner, Poland; Daniel de Blas, Spain; Lennart Hikansson, Sweden; Fred Jame, Taiwan; Bahattin Apaky Turkey; Simon Jary, United Kingdom tae THCHNIEAL BinKeTOR Jeff Pittelkau cas omecton Kristina De Nike stion Law ANALYSTS Jefly K. Milstead, Kevin Mitchell ASSOCIATE LAB ANALYST Gil Loyola inventory COORDINATOR Ulyssis Bravo copy EDIT anacine to1ron Claire H. Breen ASSISTANT MANAGING £01TOR Paul-Michael King cory cuter Jon Zobenica seNion cory toHTOR Elissa Rabellino ART AND DESIGN Esicn omecton Eleanor Leishman anv omnecron Sylvia Chevrier Associate Destontns Martha Katt, Michael Rattary DESIGN AssociATES Jackie Goodman, Jonathan Woolson ONLINE VICE PRESIDENT, SALES, & PUBLISHER Matt Sweeney DIRECTOR OF CONTENT Matthew Rothenberg SENIOR ONLINE EDITOR Philip W. Dyer ‘CONTENT ENGINEER Jeff Cheney ASSISTANT CONTENT ENGINEER Jessica Graves DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FOR ONLINE Nicholas Harvey [ACCOUNT MANAGER Diana Berry COMUNE TRAFFIC MANAGER Nicole Nestel cond More connected. Kate Hunter Dancer The Times review of Buy another half-dozen leg warm Synchronize and back up my Pal simply Pé Www.palm.com Mag USB Floppy Disk Drive HLT LT) ' from VST Technologies, Inc. Works with all USB equipped r ASSISTANT TO THE CEO Sharon Sanderson Macintosh:computers i CHIEF FINANCIAL OnnICER Stephen Daniele Reads/writes standard IT ASSISTANT ‘Christian Semmel 1.44MB floppy disks nei = earee ‘Transfers data easily from™ = NUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER Marisa Chow floppy disks to/from your hard drive DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALES Dimensions (in/mm): Width 4.075/103.5 cate r Depth Vossiteas enenerire Steve Plevin (419/243-3509) Height -929/23.6 SALES COORDINATOR Karla Kyrias (415/278-8542) ie lb 2oz/ 544g suas asta Bayan Farnworth (415/248-3877) waryonsvaccounrswmanacan, Joke Roms (418/243:0588) wanionas ACCOUNTS Aanncan Sara Calley (970/327-4499) ads & writes | | wsrumsoveswe omtcron Cyuia Rey 973/248-1197 anda! 14M Nappy dats = hen drive Account executive Margaret Level Green (415/243-3582) VST Products are available at NATIONAL ACCOUNTS MANAGEX Paul Bonattign (508/533-4020) Es) WWW. vsttech. COM and inrousn ae Jo Zoarli(S16/277-4134) i Siecaors e ie mall houses wort accouwe wanscan ‘Nik Sane (15724-2660 Ce Rn worms account anscin Carol Johnntone (415/243-3691) furniture for the way you do business. SHOPPER ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Alison Mach (415/243-3628) RESEARCH SeIOR RESEARCH ANALYST Phillip Hibbert MARKETING MARKETING MANAGER Francesca Koe "TRADE SHOW/EVENTS COORDINATOR Nancy Galanty MACWORLD GLOBAL PRODUCT SUPPORT CENTER coonoinaton Sharon Sanderson (415/243-3640) PRODUCTION VICE PRESIOENT OF MANUFACTURING Anne Foley ‘»RODUCTION DiREeTOR Cynthia Neustade MANUFACTURING TECHNICAL OIRECTOR Clayton Haberman DIGITAL AD COORDINATOR Mac Score ‘AD SALES COORDINATOR Rick Sandoval Shopper, MWY, MW Lab, MW Shope, The Desktop Cite, Expert mo ave rgstared rademarts of free aalol | acioO DESIGNS” reserved Choose 265 at www.macworld.com/getinfo 8 April 1999 MACWORLD Revision #|: 2:00 pm Revision #2: 333° pm Believable Color So Fast It Even Keeps Up With Your Most Unbelievable Clients. make you look great. Because no matter how many last-minute = revisions, unreasonable deadlines or pressures you put on them, they still deliver Pantone* accurate, high-speed output right on demand. Start with the impressive 6ppm color of the affordable DocuColor 5750 (with up to 12"x 18" capability). Or try the DocuColor 5799, a proven workhorse at Sppm, with near photographic image Xerox Digital Color Printers always ia hss quality. Or move all the way up to the _ award-winning color technology of the ‘« DocuColor 40, which offers astonish- inely true color at 40ppm. Each one delivers high performance backed by the Xerox Total Satisfaction Guarantee. And 24-hour/7-day service is available. So call 1-800-ASK-XEROX ext. 949 today to speak with a Xerox Color Specialist. Because Xerox always helps you get it done. And get it right the first time. Even if your clients don’t. THE DOCUMENT COMPANY XEROX NEROK{® The Document Company® the dg X° andthe identtyng Yerx product names ar rubers herein re aes of XEROX CORPORATION. Pantone® is registered trademark of Pantone lc In contin wt Xerox ear ore the company’s pact onthe eevee, Nerox equpment ices New, epocased, and/or record ars and assembles Visi Us BE vw XOX CaCO Choose 100 at www.macworld.com/getinfo The Document Project Scheduling Made Easy! 'm not a project management expert, but everyone thinks | am, ‘Most of my time is spent completing tasks, so | need a scheduling tool that's easy, fast, and flexible. FastTrack Schedule 6.01 fills the bill, It keeps me organized and in control displaying all my project details in rich, colorful timelines. FastTrack Schedule provides just the right amount of power because it's more sophisticated than day-planners, but easier to use and halt $ \* the price of traditional, high-end project ‘managers. The presentation-quality schedules clearly illustrate project objectives and deadlines keeping team members and clients informed and up-to-date. In asingle schedule, | can outline multiple projects, ‘make assignments, track cash flows, set- up dependencies— even add graphics. = = oS Whether | use it “n= ihe once a week or every day, | "> FastTrack Schedule makes project scheduling easy. For the free Demo CD, more info, or to place an order call 800-450-1982. © FastIrac Version 6.01 Schedule Tomorrow's Success Today.” At mm (198 AEC Smee Ag a Conor aS a (aed. use td Sues, pa el a Si aan ‘MacOS 85 ‘erent he ce ews Esa nt Pen $98 ea ay ‘Works best with Choose 203 at www.macworld.com/getinfo 10 April 1999 MACWORLD Macworld HOW To CONTACT MACWORLD ‘Subscription Services Phone 100/627-2247 or 303/665-8930, United States only 303/604-7445, outside the United States US. Mail ‘Macworld Subscription Services PO. Box 54529, Boulder, CO 80322-4529 World Wide Web www.zdnet.conv/zdsubs/macworld/service Subscription Rates ‘The one-year (12-4ssue) subscription rate is $34.97 in the United States and $54.97 in Canada and Mexico; forall other counties, send either $54.97 for surface mail or $104.97 for ait mal, The two-year US. rates $59.97, and the three-year rate $79.97. Checks must be made payable in US. curreney to Macworld. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks to recelve your fist sue, Back Issues of Macworld Back fsues (subject to availabilty) are $8 per lssue for US, delivery (812 outside the United States); propayment in US. currency to Macworld Is Fequired. Send check oF money order to Back isues Department, Zit Davis ine, PO. Box 53131, Boulder, CO 60322-3131 Reprints and Permissions You must have permission before reproducing any mateal rom Macworld ite to Macworld, Reprints and Permissions, 301 Howard St, 16th Fl San Francisco, CA 94105; include a phone number. To order reprints of your company's editorial coverage, call Repent Services at 800/217-7874 .0r 651/582-3800; fax 651/639-1862 Newsstand CD-ROM. Subscribers Interested. in receiving CD-ROMs monthly should all 303/665-8930 for more information. ‘Malling Lists We periodically make tists of our customers avalable to males of goods and services that may interest you, f you do not wish to receive such mailings please write to us and inchide a copy of your maling label, ‘Macworld on Microfilm ‘Macworld (s available on microti and microfiche from UMI, 300 NV Zeeb Ra, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346; 313/761-4700, ‘Macworld Editorial The editors of Macworld welcome your tips, compliments, complaints Stories and product reviews from past iksues can be located at www ‘macworid com, We are unfortunately unable to look up stores from past loses; recommend preducts phone, e-mail or fax. Contact Apple toll-free at 800/538-9696, ext, 500, ‘or diagnose your Macintoth probleme by for information on user groups in your area ‘Our offices are located at 307 Howard St, 16th Fl, San Francico, CA ‘94105; 415/243-0505, fax 415/442-0766 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Direct all comments and suggestions ‘regarding any aspect of the magazine to letters@®macworld.com. Oue to the high volume of mail received, we can't respond personally to each letter, We reserve the right to edit all submisions, Al letters published in ‘Macworld or Macworld Online become the property of Macworld QUICK T1PS_ Send your questions oF tips on how to use Mac comput- , peripherals, or software to Macwarld, Quick Tips, 30% Howard St 16th FL, San Francisco, CA 94105; fax 415/442-0766; e-mail quictips@ ‘macwotid.com. Pease include your name, address. and telephone number ‘WBPA. Be Fast, Be Smart, Be Productive... TTT, bars} MAChSpeed G9. Introducing the New MACh Speed G3” Performance Package From XLR8. Welcome to a new generation of Macintosh” performance - exclusively from XLR8. We've combined the talent and soul of DayStar Digital’, with the market leading performance of XLR8" to bring you this incredible performance package! You get G3 speed, plus dual USB ports... a new scrolling mouse, and exclusive software tools! Now, you can have the world’s fastest Mac with new tools and new capabilities! All for the same price you'd normally pay for an upgrade alone. Be Fast - As benchmarked by Mac industry pros, nothing beats a 400 MHz upgrade card, not even the newest G3 PowerMac. Be Smart - Our new software intelligence tools give you superior control and performance. These tools can even configure RAM and SCSI on most Macs! milgelstemerfocntand create...on your Mac! 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XLR8 by Interex, Inc., 8447 E. 35th St. N., Wichita, KS 67226, 316-636-5544, 316-636-4616 fax ‘ther brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Product specifications are subject to change without notice.©1999 Interex, Inc gn En op 2m YD yan) QuarkXPress When you work ata $3 million commercial print facility, you want your software to be just as professional as your equipment. For Jim Mowreader, Prepress Manager, that means QuarkXPress” 4.0. It gives Jim the power and versatility he needs to keep the presses Tunning continually — and keep customers happy. “I called in the order for version 4.0 the day Quark” announced that it was for sale. I installed it and started using it as soon as it arrived. QuarkXPress is extremely stable, it’s fast, and it does what you tell it to.” The multi-ink feature is just one of the new 4.0 features Jim depends on. Tt lets him create new colors based on percentages — or a combination — of several existing process or spot colors that print to more than one plate. “I use it to mix black ink with PANTONE’ colors and to mix two PANTONE colors together. So customers can get three colors for the price of a two-color job — a nice cost savings for them. It’s also a great feature to use for varnishing.” “QuarkXPress 4.0 never fails to have one more neat feature, just waiting to be found.” Call (800) 676.4575 to upgrade to QuarkXPress 4.0 now. http://www.quark.com ‘for a list of resellers, product information, and to download updoters OUAT ‘Choose 77 at www.macworld.com/getinfo Any workstation can do graphics. Only one is specifically designed to you say, IS Introducing the newest addition to the Silicon Graphics” family of visual workstations. The operating system | STARTING is Windows NT® And the computer is pure Silicon Graphics. Featuring our Integrated Visual Computing $3 395 (IVC) architecture with the Cobalt” graphics chipset, these breakthrough machines move graphics data six times faster than AGP 2X-based workstations—a massive 3.2GB per second. What's more, our IVC architecture integrates 10/100 Ethernet, IEEE-1394 USB and professional video I/O for a blistering |2-fold increase in bandwidth over other PC workstations.” Finally, you can get the outrageous 2D, 3D and digital media performance you expect from Silicon Graphics—for about the price of a mere clone. The Silicon Graphics 320" workstation starts at just $3,395, Or choose the Silicon Graphics 540” workstation" from only $5,995. Supporting up to four Intel® Pentium® Il Xeon” processors, it's the most scalable Windows NT workstation around. Either way, your computer will scream. And so will you | Silicon Graphics 320 Visual Workstation | : Silicon Graphics Integrated Visual Computing architecture ‘Microsoft® Windows NT* Workstation 4.0 with Cobalt graphics chipset Scalable up to |GB ECC SDRAM Supports up to two Intel® Pentium® Il processors (up to 450MHz) Add the SuperWide" | 7.3” Silicon Graphics 1600SW™ © Ultra ATA or optional Ultra2 SCSI drives up to 28GB total capacity digital flat panel monitor (shown) for only $2,495 “unit bso opis to mn meer Pees ation tere unde Wows NT Wx 0 “YO bth scopes 3 FL froma on the 185 ay te Son Cah 0 wast ple cl a8 Sl ces ted US ey 9 nC gre nC tea el on Gath, hn Gah ha hs $0, gee an Hn aps SY a ak Sag, a i let eget and etn cn 6 aes cto rk Wed and Woes NT ae ese adr fies Copan Mabe aden pop he phe S& SiliconGraphics To get information, find a local reseller or to order, call | 888 SGI-4450 or visit us at www.sgi.com/go/visual Choose 215 at www.macworld.com/getinfo Think Gig. Asanté Introduces Gigabit Networking for the Macintosh. Apple is leading the digital revolution with its They're incredibly fast. They work on any platform new Power Macintosh G3. Asanté is making sure regardless of OS. You can set them up within all of your existing machines can keep up. minutes. And the price can't be beat. Our new FriendlyNET” 7000 series FriendlyNET Gigabit solutions stand up of affordable, easy to install to the bandwidth demands of today Gigabit switches ensure that no with flexible expansion options for the one will be waiting on the network future. And we stand behind our products with because of large file sizes or Internet traffic. free technical support and a limited lifetime Combined with our cross-platform GigaNIC” waren PCI adapters, your entire office can soon be So what are you waiting for? You won't find a performing at Gigabit speed. faster, more reliable and cost-effective Gigabit oo . . - networking solution anywhere. Think Gig. Our Gigabit solutions offer multiple expansion slots, fiber connectivity, push button uplinks, and For complete details on the entire line of Asanté more. What does it all mean? What does it matter? networking solutions call 1-800-303-0283. 7 ASANTE MAKING NETWORKING SIMPLE www.asante.com Copyright © 1999 Asanté Technologies, Inc. All brand names and products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Al features and specifications subject to change without notice FE NEUMANN On the Road N HIS ESSENTIAL EXTRAS FOR THE PowerBook G3 (“Road Gear,” January 1999), Stephan Somogyi noted that unless you own the PowerBook G3/300, you'll need to get the DVD-Video Kit from Apple. T’ve had an order in for a DVD-Video Kit since July 1998. My local Apple deal- er has received zero kits. I’ve been round and round with Apple’s customer rela- tions, all to no avail. The bottom line is, if you already have your PowerBook, forget about getting a DVD-Video Kit. You'd be better off returning your existing machine and purchasing new, because the only way you are going to get the kit is to buy one of the high-end machines that includes it. CuristopHer RaNTs Sioux City, Iowa N “ROAD GEAR,” YOU MENTION THE wireless modem service of Metricom’s Ricochet but miss the best part. Rico- chet works in many airports, in addition to the areas it officially covers. By stay- ing ata hotel close to an airport, I always have access to the Net without any hassles. I used to run an ISP, and I know—Ricochet is a very good ISP. MARK SHAPIRO San Jose, California Ricochet does work in several airports. For a full list of coverage areas, go to www.ricochet.net /eoverage/citylist.btml.—Ead. PowerBook Blues FOUND MANY OF THE TIPS IN I David Pogue’s “Survival Skills very interesting (January 1999). At one point he says there is never any need to shut down the PowerBook between routine uses. While this is theoretically true, I have discovered some problems with the sleep feature. Often, when the Power- Book is reawakened for the second or third time, I run into memory problems, slower processing, more frequent freeze- ups, and control-strip malfunctions. Over- all, the PowerBook G3 has not met my expectations for performance and often does not meet my modest needs. Jonan Victor Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Share More ERIOUS SHAREWARE” ONLY SERVES as a reminder that Macworld should regularly cover shareware, since it is such an important part of the Macintosh expe- rience (January 1999). I suggest that you make shareware coverage a monthly fea- ture. I am sure every reader will be disap- pointed that some favorite item was not ~~ Tellers covered (although previous issues have mentioned many shareware applications and utilities in passing). Outside such indis- pensable interface enhancements as Finder- Pop, GoMac, Kaleidoscope, and Window Monkey, my favorite is the PIM Consul- tant, which is so sophisticated it could easily be marketed as a commercial product. Dana SUTTON Corona, California We love shareware and agree that it is worthy of as much coverage as it can get. However, until someone finds a way to download shareware by clicking on paper, the Internet is still the ideal medium for shareware coverage. :-) That is why ‘we maintain the www.macdownload.com site (through ZDNet), which is loaded with reviews of shareware products—Philip Dyer Making the Grade READ DEKE McCLELLAND’S REVIEW of Illustrator 8 (Reviews, January 1999) and was surprised to see in the summary, “Cons: Gradient Mesh tool is more sizzle than substance.” Maybe it needs more control, but I think it is the best tool I have ever seen in 2-D design. What it can do is very impressive and high-quality. In addition, some effects are quicker with this tool than with the previous gradient. Berry FARAH Montreal, Quebec, Canada NUM-ing Upgrade COMPLIMENT STEPHAN SOMOGYI on his review of Norton Utilities for Macintosh 4.0 (Reviews, January 1999). It was thorough, fair, and deservedly critical. Pve relied upon Norton’s software since continues www.macworld.com April 1999 17 Go early for a change! Work faster, not harder, with QuicKeys! Ever wonder what it would be like to knock off early? QuicKeys turns dreams of extra time into reality. It automates any task you do on your Mac. Launch apps, check E-mail, type your name, select a printer, a server ... whatever. Total control over your Mac is just a keystroke away. Plus, new version 4.0 makes automating your Mac easier than ever. Upgrade for as little as $35.95 and get all these new features: > Compatible with Mac OS 8.5 > Over 50 brand new features » Revised and updated interface » Easy-to-use Setup Assistants > New drag-and-drop toolbars > Plus much, much more ©1999 CE Software, Inc. QuicKeys is a registered trademark of CE Software, Inc, q 18 April 1999 MACWORLD LETTERS my first Mac purchase five years ago, and I have always found it strong and reliable. But that changed with my upgrade to version 4.0. Merely opening the program freezes or crashes my PowerBook 1400. Norton hasn’t been able to suggest how to get the program to even run. Somogyi hit the nail on the head in stating that this was not yet ready for sale, TERENCE A TUNGSETH Los Angeles, California Into Intuos EKE McCCLELLAND'S REVIEW OF D the Wacom Intuos (Reviews, January 1999) described its innovative new axial rotation, simultaneous multiple pointing devices, tool memory, zoom, combination buttons, and ergonomic design (am I for- getting anything?), then marked it down because current software doesn’t yet sup- port all of its newest features and its driv- er isn’t compatible with older tablets. Th most Web sites’ search engines don’t sup- port it. C Intuos I’ve read give it excellent marks. GAGGAN Boparal is like docking Sherlock because me on! All other reviews of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania The Missing Link S CHRISTOPHER BREEN NOTED, MacLinkPlus Deluxe has room for improvement (Reviews, January 1998). If MacLinkPlus Deluxe wasn’t like the opposite sex (can’t live with it, can’t li without it), it would be When is someone who understands Macs going to work for DataViz? Apart from the problems Breen pointed out, there are sier to take, several others, ranging from annoyances to serious problems. For instance, Apple- Works 5 isn’t supported, and the program crashes regularly on Word files. I'm thinking of divorcing version 10 and going back to my old flame—version 9.7. Davio Crowe via the Internet Remember the Faithful HY IS THERE NO SERIOUS COVER- W age of high-end programs such as wtek’s Lightwave 3D? I appreciate David Biedny’s fondness for Electric- Image Animation System 2.8 (Reviews, January 1999), but that is not the only high-end 3-D program on the Mac! In general, Macworld doesn’t seem to bother with high-end applications, The iMac is here—we know already. T under- stand that you want to pick up all the new members of the Apple family, but you must remember who else is reading your magazine. A lot of us are trying to push the envelope a little, and we would like to stay on the Mac platform. Scorr Davis New York, New York Game Options ) HILIP DYER FORGOT ONE OTHER low-cost option for playing PC games—the low-end PC (The Game Room, January 1999). Especially when compared with the cost of Orange Micro's “solutions,” you really come out ahead. Right underneath my copy of Maeworld is a pile of PC ads and cata- logs that have 200MHz to 300MHz PCs for under $600! A good PC box and an A/B monitor switch work great for my job, where I constantly encounter both platforms, We tried the Orange Micro cards and, for the money, we were sadly disappointed. Jay Drew Valparaiso, Indiana VE ALWAYS BEEN JEALOUS OF THE variety of titles available for Windows. As Philip Dyer points out, PC emula- tion—using software or hardware—is slow and expensive. ‘There's another, hidden problem with PC emulation: it reduces the incentive for game companies to make Macintosh ver- sions of their games. Why hire Mac-savvy programmers and pay more production costs if the Mac users are buying the Win- dows versions? PC emulation is fine for translating an occasional spreadsheet, but if we use it asa long-term solution to gaming, Mac-native games will always be too little, too late, and too slow. ‘The Mac just isn’t a gaming platform. Why make a silk purse from a sow’s ear? Either bite the bullet and buy a full- fledged PC, or save yourself a thousand bucks and get a game console. ARTIE MOFFA Amberst, Massachusetts continues io Now available with Intel® Processors Silicon Graphics 320, Base System $3,395 © Integrated Visual Computing (IVC) architecture with Cobatt™ graphics chipset ‘© Single (dual capable) Inte Pentium® lI processor 400MHz (Intel® Pentiun’® Ill processor available up to 500MHz) |28MB ECC SDRAM (expandable to |GB) ©6GB Ultra ATA hard drive (expandable to 28GB of storage) or optional Ultra2 SCSI hard drive © 3 available PC slots on two 64-bit PCI buses © |.44MB floppy drive, 32X max. CD-ROM @ Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethemet e IEEE-| 394; parallel, serial, USB, video and audio ports @ Integrated analog video; composite and S-video © Microsoft® Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 © 3-year limited hardware warranty with |-year onsite service performance. Wicked pricing. 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Il processor 400MHz c Silicon Graphics 320 Dual intel” Pentium® Il! processors SOOMHz $670 & © |28MB ECC SDRAM © 10GB Ultra ATA hard drive #17" (18" viewable) monitor with Tinitran™ technology © Upgrade to the Silicon Graphics 1600SW” 17.3” digital flat pane! monitor for $1,895 © |28MB ECC SDRAM ©9.1GB Utra2 SCSI hard drive 17" (16" viewable) monitor with Trnitron™ technology © Upgrade to the Siicon Graphics 1600SW 17.3" digital fiat panel monitor for $1,895 $3,395 | ie pentiume/// S% SiliconGraphics To get information, find a local reseller or to order call | 888 SGI-4450 or visit us at Www.sgi.com/go/visual ‘qian stare unde Wado NT Wotan 4. Prices queda te US. on. ey a apis. Ms ame Sn Capi apd at at i Co en, Shon Gps nd e Cee a ae as en ca Intel the Intel inside logo and Pentum are regstered ademas, cote Viedows ad Wore NT Se sad Vader ol ec Caparo Ws Wasa a Opry OB pe OMT, Choose 215 at www.macworld.com/getinfo LETTERS Put the ‘Book Back ANADA'S NEW NATIONAL NEWS- paper, National Post, launched Octo- ber 26 using Macs from end to end. Our executive editor gave every reporter a choice: we could take either a desktop or a PowerBook. After wrestling with the choice, almost every reporter here, including me, went with the desktop. Yes, it would be convenient to take the PowerBook home, but it would be a hassle to plug in the power cord and hook into the corpo- rate network every day. tOcmonk itor The desktop’s full-size keyboard is still more comfortable than a portable’s, and a 17-inch monitor is still a lot more screen real estate than a PowerBook offers. And while the TrackPad is a great pointing device, I’ve yet to find the per- son who prefers it to a good old-fashioned one-button mouse, Portable computing devices, includ- ing the PowerBook, may one day free us from our desks. Here in Toronto, though, reporters of National Post, when given the chance to be free, decided to stay down on the cubicle farm, Davip AKIN Oakville, Ontario, Canada Let the Macworld Lab help you make the Letters should be sent to Letters, Macworld, 301 “ = Howard St., 16th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94105; via tight purchase decisions. Whether you fax, 415/442-0766; or electronically, to letters@ macworld.com. Include a return address and day- depend on the stamp of approval of an Editors’ time phone number, Due to the high volume of mail received, we can’t respond personally to each letter. Choice award, a five-mice We reserve the right to edit all letters. All published , ‘ letters become the property of Macworld. rating, or the authoritative is test data presented in ese Rk nse tog Ns | ‘Ta clear the RAM disk on a PowerBook, our benchmark charts — (press %-option-P-R (“Survival Skills,” you can put our lab to January 1999). work for you. In “Comin’ at Ya” (January 1999), the captions for Micro Conversions’ Something obvious happens when a publication is backed by Game Wizard and ATI Technologies’ the most experienced, capable and thorough product testing in Xclaim VR 3-D accelerators were the Macintosh industry — more serious Mac buyers rely on it to reversed. Also, Tornb Raider II needs make smart purchase decisions. Rage II or better for RAVE to work, not Rage Pro. In the infographic “The Lay of the bets Land” (‘Road Gear,” January 1999), the VGA-out and S-Video—out labels on the PowerBook G3 were reversed. mn 20 April 1999 MACWORLD We could tell you lots of nice things about "Deneba's SpriteLayers ™ "SpriteLayer technology technology lets you create represents an industry some interesting transparency rj breakthrough because effects that would be.diffieult if it allows users to apply an not impossible tomake in a dedicated "With its elegant interface, Canvas unlimited variety of compositing effects a drawing program... In the competi> is a compelling alternative to suite- to any type of object or group of objects... tion of the gfaphics titais, Canvas 6 based solutions:thatrequireseparate [SpriteLayer] technology is an excellent is fighting with a unique set of and image editing pro) piece of programming wizardry. With it, weapons.” the same functions... lesigners can easily experiment With OMS - LE one has always performed well > lex graphic ideas that Would have ig with technical illustrations, featuring | - ‘ohibitive or impossible it i i “ -y;dimiensioning capabilities i the’software’s inte recision drawing aids. increased user a e a Du ider énient than ever to i | x dalone graphics: nm sh skillfully integrates its | components, including raster- editing, vector illustration, 4 ayo ics prodi “Canvas 6's array of new transparency a huge el Hee peeps x uctlons tools allow you to create awesome Windows Magazine — M, depth and*fayering in your images — ee - sl and it does so better than other graphics products on the market today.” Macworld — Mar., 1999 MacAddict Magazine Find out for yourself why everyone's talking about Canvas” 6 and the revolutionary new SpriteLayer™ technology. Visit www.deneba.com/macworld/ to download a FREE fully functional 30-day evaluation kit. The graphics revolution is here, and it begins with Canvas 6. Includes: PS Ree SF 30,000 Clip Art images! % ip Art Images! Order today! ( N V § 2,450 URW" Font! ww Designed for the way you design. 1.800.6CANVAS & 2S 3 = Gus 8 a Poin en 78 This ad was created and color separated using nothing but Canvas 6. "Exim sat ny US ata. Pin et cheng an handing. Sty many ak arte ces ng an hating cc. Cap 128 Dea Ste Line ne ein Mr Amer A eae rep aes te rope sete, Choose 57 at www.macworld.com/getinfo Introducing VectorWorks The Next Generation of MiniCAD (haces Duncan, Py: Ld www.diehlgraphsoft.com After 14 years of constant research and development, Diehl Graphsoft is proud to introduce Vector Works— the next generation of MiniCAD. VectorWorks improves MiniCAD’s proven CAD technology and merges new state of the art Object-Based design philosophy. This integration makes you more pro- ductive without sacrificing flexibility and control. Increased Productivity with Object-Based Design Vector Works’ state of the art Object Technology helps streamline the design process by making it easy to create common design elements. Now, Objects like doors, windows, nuts and bolts, can be created and edited with a click of the mouse, making it easy to explore design ulead alternatives, consider "what if” scenarios, and handle last- he minute client changes. y | The Strength of a Proven CAD Technology Vector Works offers a solid \ =| e 6 \ | | foundation based on proven CAD | — : | p— technology—giving you the power L— —— and flexibility to tackle any design problem. — New features such as Workgroup Referencing, = = DWG (v.14), Round Walls, Multiple Undo/Redo and an improved scripting language, strengthen Vector Works’ core CAD capabilities. And, with RenderWorks, VectorWorks’ new photo-realistic rendering plug-in, you can bring your designs to life with textures, shadows and dramatic lighting. The VectorWorks Advantage With VectorWorks, you get it all—the flexibility and control of proven CAD technology and the productivity benefits of Object- Based design. VectorWorks ships FREE solutions for Architecture, Landscape Design, DTM and HVAC among others. Best of all, you aren't limited to the solutions we provide, VectorWorks is completely customizable, allowing you to create your own custom business solutions. Special Offer to Readers of Macworld 79 by purchasing VectorWorks with Vet, photorealistic rendering direct for $820 or, without rendering for only $595. Includes ech Support and a 90-Day Diehl Graphsoft Inc Software for Today's Professional 1-888-646-4223 Bargain Hunters, Beware The Vision Thing by Andrew Gore WITH A LITTLE COMMON SENSE, YOU CAN SHOP THE WEB SAFELY F YOU'VE EVER BEEN IN midtown Manhattan, you’ve probably seen the Going Out of Business businesses. You know: “Lease Expired! Closing After 20 Years! Our Loss Is Your Gain!” Banners like these are spread across the windows of dozens of little shops, declaring unbelievable discounts. Of course, most of these shops have been going out of business for a decade or more. In fact, the only thing you're less likely to find in New York than a polite cabbie is a Going Out of Business business that actually has. And as for those big discounts, it’s true you can save 50 percent or more—if you don’t mind that the original price was double the normal retail price. These stores bank on the gullibility of casual consumers, impulse buyers, and tourists. Only in New York, right? Caveat Emptor As it turns out, the Internet has proved to be fertile ground for its own unique breed of hucksters. With just a little bit of pocket money, a savvy designer, and a Web server, anyone can set up an elec- tronic storefront that looks slick, profes- sional, and credible faster than you can say Ponzi scheme. Internet newsgroups are bulging with stories of Web merchants who have overcharged customers, not delivered products as promised, or just plain taken the money and run. Even with the Web’s honest operators it can still be hard to know if you're really getting the best deal. It’s amazing how many Web sites claim to have the lowest prices for a particular item, Let’s say you're trying to buy a copy of The Truman Show on DVD, First you check out Amazon.com and find your DVD in stock for $20.99— about 30 percent off the retail price. Not bad, but at VideoBuy.com it’ only $14.99. And even at that kind of price, the ‘Web's not necessarily a bargain. None of these discount prices include shipping and handling or taxes. At VideoBuy.com and Amazon.com that’s an extra $4.95. That can kill your savings in a hurry. Of course, all this assumes that the products you want are in stock. Suppose you're ordering several DVDs, and one is on back order. You have two choices: wait several weeks for that one title to arrive, or split your order in two parts and pay sepa- rate handling charges for each. And just because all this shopping is being done via computer, don’t assume there’s no opportunity for human error. T’ve ordered products that weeks later I was told never existed. This past Christ- mas I used Amazon.com to buy my mother a book about yoga for people over 50. The company shipped her a book on modern architecture, complete with festive holiday gift wrapping. To its credit, Amazon.com quickly shipped her the correct title and credited me the shipping charge. But still, imag- ine my mother’s surprise when she unwrapped her Christmas present. Tips for Safe CyberShopping Now, you might think I’m down on Internet commerce. I’m not. What I am down on is the unqualified enthusiasm with which buying over the Net is being pushed these days. I believe shopping on the Web is a good thing, since it gives busy consumers another way to save time and money, but it’s good only when used wisely. To help you avoid some of the pit- falls I've run into, here are five tips: 41. Size Matters For now, it’s too hard to tell the good guys from the bad, so stick with the big-name sites, unless you know someone who's already had a good experience with a no-name vendor. 2.Research Go toa good newsgroup site, like DejaNews, and do a search on the name ofa site. If you find 10,000 mes- sages that start off with “Boy, these guys stink,” you may want to shop elsewhere. 3. Shop Around Even among the major brands there can be a real difference in price. And don’t forget to fig- ure in the shipping charges! 4. Start Small Keep your first purchase from an unfa- miliar site relatively inexpen- sive. This way, ifyou get stuck, you won't be out much money. 5. Click “No" When in doubt, just click “no.” You can always come back later and pick up where you left off, hopefully with a higher com- fort level. ‘Take these few common- sense precautions, and you increase the odds that your online buying experience will be a good one. It amazes me that while people will obsess over sending their credit-card number over the Web, they won’t give a second thought to the much more likely possibility that what they order will come late, broken, or not at all. Oh, yes, and one final tip: just like those Going Out of Business com: cnt if a deal seems too good to be true. Has Andy got a deal for you: send i your comments at visionthing@macworld.com, and he'll read them—no charge! www.macworld.com April 1999 23 IT TAKES ONLY ONE LITTLE THING TO RUIN AN ENTIRE PRESENTATION. If your reputation hinges on accuracy, consider that Tektronix has been making color printers for more than 15 years, You might also like to know about the Phaser® 780 color printer. It’s loaded with color management tools that take the guesswork out of getting what you want. There's our exclusive PhaserMatch™ ICC software, which allows you to match the output of a specific press, paper, or ink. Want to know how your work is going to look on newsprint? Use one of the newsprint profiles, or create your own using International Color Consortium standards. And it supports ColorSyne, so what you see on your screen is what comes out of your printer, Avoid embarrassment. Call toll-free 1-877-362-6567 ext. 1616. Or visit www.tektronix.com/Phaser780x1616 Tektronix: When your Macintosh computer is not functioning properly, it is important that you have the right tool to find and correct the problem. And as any knowledgeable robot will tell you, one can never have too many tools when important data is at stake. TechTool Pro 2 checks and rep; more aspects of your Macintosh than any other utility available. Besides repairing and recovering damaged drives (including those with the new HFS+ format), you can also test all those other critical parts of your system that other utilities ignore like RAM, CPU, floppy drives, scanners. modems, Internet connections, CD-ROM drives and much, much more. TechTool Pro will even help your computer run faster by optimizing your disk drives. MicroMat Inc. 800-829-6227 707-837-8012 FAX: 707-837-0209 info@micromat.com www.micromat.com Fix different: vl Macintosh troubleshooting utility available doesn’t mean that it's difficult to use. In fact, we've added an your Macintosh a snap. For the advanced user, our expert mode allows you to control and configure TechTool Pro in almost any way you wish. So if Macintosh troubles are making you feel like a bubble-headed booby, check out TechTool Pro. After all, you have the most powerful computer in the galaxy. Shouldn’t you be using the most powerful utility? Choose 67 at www.macworld.com/getinfo “Limited time offer expires April 30th, 1999. Price subject to change without notice. Upgrade available only from MicroMat Computer and some select distributors. Not all distributors will be offering this special upgrade price. (©1999 MicroMat Computer Systems, Inc.All rights reserved. TechToo! Isa registered trademark twademark of Appic Computer, Inc. ©1999 Space Ticeased by New Line of wicroNet Computes Sptems nc. Fx Dillercat ea trademark of MicroMatComputr Systems ne Macintosh 8 Tae. All rights reserved. Norton and MacTools are trademarks of Symantec, INC. APRIL 1999 NETBOOT FEATURE LETS MACS SHARE SYSTEM FILES, APPLICATIONS by Stephen Beale he scene during Steve Jobs's Macworld Expo keynote was impres- sive: a network of 49 iMacs, mounted in a grid of metal racks, each run- ning a QuickTime movie from the same server. It was a dramatic demonstration of NetBoot, a feature in Apple’s new Mac OS X Server that allows multiple Macs to be booted and configured from a single machine. NetBoot comes close to fulfilling the dream of a net- work computer: cheap PCs that share applications, data files, and other resources stored on a powerful server. You don’t even need a hard drive or any other local stor- age on your Mac. Instead, the Mac boots from a partition on the server, which you also use to store your documents and rem preferences. On a fast network it should be nearly transparent: you might have to enter a password to access your files, but otherwise the Mac experience won't be much different. Diskless iMac? Thanks to NetBoot, Apple could theo- Apple Introduces 0S X Server retically offer steeply dis- counted iMacs, sans local storage, in bundles that include Mac OS X Server. Indeed, as part of his demon- stration, Jobs showed an iMac, its hard drive removed, booting from the server. However, citing econ- omies of scale, Apple says a diskless iMac would not be much cheaper than a standard model, and the company has made it clear that it has no intention of offering such a machine. NetBoot’s main sell- ing point, in Apple’s view, is the control and convenience it offers network administra- tors, not cost savings made possible by stripping down a popular consumer machine. With NetBoot, you can perform a single installation of system software and appli- cations and make them avail- able to any Mac on the net- work. NetBoot also includes system-management tools that allow you to control access to applications and other files. For example, some users on the network might have rights to all applications, while others are restricted to using Microsoft Office. Be- cause the files reside on a server, you can use them from any Mac on the network as long as you have the correct access privileges. continues www.macworld.com April 1999 27 Going to School “The cen- tralized control that NetBoot permits will have particular appeal for schools, which can use the software to run a classroom full of iMacs from one Mac OS X Server. Even if schools have to pay close to retail price for the iMac clients, the server itself won’t strain most budgets: Apple charges $995 for a software- only version or $4,999 for a version bundled with a 400MHz Power Mac G: NetBoot, of course, is just one part of Mac OS X Server, which evolved from Apple’s Rhapsody development efforts. At the server’s core is the same Mach microkernel that will provide the basis for Mac OS X, Apple’s next-genera- tion operating system. The server also includes the BSD 4.4 version of Unix; the Apache 1.3.3 Web server; and WebObjects 4, a development tool for large-scale dynamic Web sites. The latter repre- sents the Macintosh debut of the Web authoring software, which was previously avail- able only for Unix and Win- dows NT workstations. Adobe Brings CyberStudio into the Fold GRAPHICS TITAN GETS PRO-LEVEL WEB TOOL by Jason Snell hen Adobe Sys- tems (408/536- 6000, www.adobe .com) announced in January that it was buying GoLive Systems, maker of the popular GoLive CyberStudio Web authoring package, many industry ana- lysts asked, “What took them so long?” But for loyal C Studio users, about the acquisition has to be Midrange Scanner Packs In the Pixels IT’S NOT THE CHEAPEST FLATBED SCANNER YOU CAN BUY, but the new Expression 800, from Epson America (310/782- 0770, www.epson.com), offers 36-bit, 800-dpi optical reso- lution for less than $1,000. Three versions are available: the $699 Executive bundle, which includes Xerox Textbridge OCR software and a limited edition of Adobe Photoshoy \ the $799 Artist bundle, which adds Monaco Profiler Lite fot scanner calibration; and the $999 Professional bundle, which further adds a transparency adapter—MACWORLD STAFF 28 April 1999 MACWORLD mixed with some trepidation. The deal appears to make sense. CyberStudio users tend to be professional designers and developers, the same folks who rely on such Adobe prod- ucts as Photoshop, Illustrator, and ImageReady. Adobe's only foray into HTML edit- ing is PageMill, a consumer- level tool that has long been eclipsed by CyberStudio, Macromedia’s Dreamweaver software, and other packages. Lessons Learned? Adobe's track record with PageMill is raising fears among Cyber- Studio boosters that their favorite Web tool will get short shrift. Once the toast of the Mac Web design crowd, PageMill stalled when Adobe turned its attention to creat~ ing a Windows version. The result was a dated Mac pro- gram that couldn’t handle many of the hottest new Web innovations. perStudio loyalists are understandably concerned that Adobe will again turn its attention to the Windows market and deprive Mac users of a top-notch Web design tool. There’s no doubt that Adobe will offer a Windows version of CyberStudio: GoLive was working on one even before the Adobe deal went through. Nevertheless, Adobe mar- k president Bruce Chizen says that Adobe has learned the lesson of PageMill and recognizes the need to keep CyberStudio as a Web design counterpart to its other professional-level soft- ware packages. A cross-plat- form presence could even offer unexpected advantages for CyberStudio users: many Web authors who prefer CyberStudio were forced to use Macromedia’s Dream- weaver when their organiza- tions insisted on purchasing a cross-platform product. Adobe has not said when the program will be available on Windows. CyberStudio’s develop- ment team in Hamburg, Ger- many, will continue to devel- op the software as Adobe employees, and GoLive CEO Andreas Politza will join Adobe as an Internet-strategy consultant—both signs that Adobe intends to exploit Go- Live’s Net savvy, not crush it. PageMill Prospects? Page- Mill’s future is also up in the air. Chizen and Politza say they will compare the tech- nologies in PageMill and CyberStudio and decide whether Adobe needs a con- -level Web design tool. Their choices? Merge the two programs, continue selling PageMill as a low-end prod- uct, or kill PageMill and offer an entry-level version of CyberStudio similar to Go- Live’s current $99 Cyber- Studio Personal Edition. sume QuickTime Sprites Finally Take Flight QUICKTIME ANIMATION PROGRAMS DEBUT by Jeffy K. Milstead he interactive-anima- tion features buried within QuickTime 3 will soon get their day in the sun, courtesy of new tools from Electrifier (formerly Lari Software; 919/ 968-0701, www.electrifier .com), Totally Hip Soft- ware (604/685-65 totallyhip.com), and_ others. These programs support QuickTime’s new wired sprites —graphic elements that can perform defined actions based on user input. Electrified After an ex- tended paid beta period, Elec- trifier has finally shipped Electrifier Pro 1.0, a $595 program that lets designers integrate any QuickTime- supported media into an interactive movie. The pro- gram’s long gestation has resulted in many refine- ments for an initial release, including a tab that provides an instant preview of your movie. Electrifier lets you place graphic elements known as actors in a movie window. You can then assign actions to each element by dragging icons from palettes. These actions control how an actor will respond to mouse-clicks or behave over time. For example, you can attach a URL to a moving graphic, or define on/off buttons for playing an embedded Quick- ‘Time movie. Movies can incorporate the full range of QuickTime media, including QuickTime VR panoram A 30-day trial version is available from Electrifier’s Web site. Electrifier has already announced version 2.0 of the software. Set to ship by mid- year, it is expected to add fea- tures relevant to Apple’s upcoming QuickTime 4 release. was set to ie 4 at the recent Maeworld Expo in San Francisco but delayed the announcement for unspecified reasons. The new QuickTime will reportedly offer real-time streaming capabilities.) Scripted Sprites Totally Hip’s new LiveStage software takes a different approach. ‘Targeted at Web authors who might otherwise turn to Java, DHTML, or Flash to pro- duce animations, LiveStage provides a QuickTime script- ing language that resembles Macromedia Director's Lingo. A LiveStage project con- sists of sprites driven by associated scripts. You can use expressions and variables to program complex behav- iors, from simple mouse- over button effects to a com- plete game of Tetris or Minesweeper. It’s all deliv- Web browser as a single, compact QuickTime file. ‘Totally Hip offers a $199 developer release bundled with Web Painter 3.1, the company’s Web animation program, and Apple's Quick- ‘Time 3 Pro software. The i tial version will support only bitmapped and vector images, System 7 sounds, and MIDI sound files. You can build wired QuickTime VR movi by setting up sprites—such igational controls—in Stage and then using QuickTime Pro to composite them with a QTVR panora- ma. Totally Hip offers a save- disabled demo version of LiveStage on its Web site. Although they support multiple data types, Electrifier and LiveStage rely on Quick- ‘Time's vector format to keep file sizes small. While LiveStage uses its bundled companion program, Web Painter, to generate still graphics in the vector format, Electrifier can directly import Adobe Illustrator files and convert them to the Quick- Time format. Unlike bit- mapped graphic formats, these files are minuscule and can be smoothly enlarged to full screen. More Wires Other ven- dors have introduced their own tools for creating wired user’s ered to the as sprites. Deep Forest Multi- media (www.mountain-inter cnet/~bmeikle/) is offering a demo version of its forth- coming WiredZone, which will sell for $99. Squamish Media Group (www.smgvr .com/msVRmain.html) has announced mapsaVR, a $99 program that lets you add sprite-driven directional indi- cators and navigation controls to multinode QTVR panora- mas. A freeware program called Spritz (http://home -earthlink.net/~dmegavran/ spritz/download.html) — lets you create wired QuickTime movies that function as simple interactive elements, such as a button bar for navigating a Web site. The program requires Mac OS 8.5. Media Limited for 8x CD-Rs VENDORS SLOW TO OFFER DISCS CERTIFIED FOR NEW RECORDERS by Michael Gowan Il CDs are not creat- ed equal. If you want to take full advantage of the new 8x CD recorders from APS Technologies, Smart and Friendly, and others, you'll need 8x-certified CD-R media. As of mid-January 1999, only a handful of media vendors were offering certi- fied discs, but most of the leading players plan to offer 8x media in the near future. Sensitive Layers A re- cordable CD is constructed of multiple layers, including dye and polycarbonate _ plastic strata. Because it records at such a high speed, an 8X mechanism requires a dye continues Product WATCH Latest LaserJet place for monochrome laser print- ers? Hewlett-Packard (800/752- 0900, www.hp.com) thinks so. The HP LaserJet 2100, which replaces the LaserJet 6P/M, offers 1,200-dpi_ resolution and a 10- pages-per-minute print engine in a $699 package. The LaserJet 2100M, with HP's PostScript clone interpreter and extra RAM, costs $799. The LaserJet 2100TN, with an HP JetDirect E10. print server and an additional 250- sheet paper feeder, costs $999. Is there still a Modeler Marches On auto- des-sys (614/488-8838, www formz.com) has released version 3.0 of Form-2, its flagship model- ing program for 3-D-graphics pro- fessionals. Added features include a customizable user interface, ani- mation tools, and a host of new modeling functions, The base package sells for $1,495; a ver- sion with rendering capabilities costs $1,995. XTension Trio Gluon (212/ 343-1755, www.gluon.com) has released three new QuarkxTen- sions. XPressimage lets you export QuarkXPress documents in a variety of formats, including GIF. The $149 utility can use hot fold- ets to automate the export process. QC is a $225 quality-con- trol tool that locates problems in text formatting, spot colors, and other document elements. Cloner XTension, priced at $129, copies an element or group of elements to any page or page range. continues Product WATCH For Older Macs Looking to resurrect that old Mac Quadra or Centris? Sonnet Technologies (949/261-2800, www.sonnettech com) has announced the Presto PPC, a $399 upgrade card that features a 100MHz PowerPC 601 and a 1MB 2 cache. Sonnet is also shipping G3 upgrades for the Power Mac 5400, 5500, 6400, 6500, and other “upgrade-chal- lenged” Mac systems; prices range from $399 to $599. Slide to Your Mac The new SprintScan 4000, from Polaroid (800/816-2611, com), scans 35mm slides, film- strips, and Advanced Photo Sys- tem film at 4,000 dpi. The scanner, with a street price of about $2,000, can capture a slide at full resolution in less than a minute. Scheduled to ship in March, it's bundled with PolaColor Insight Pro scanning software and Adobe www. polaroid PhotoDeluxe. New Homes? Don't be sur- prised to see some familiar Mac products in unfamiliar territory. lomega (801/778-1000, www iomega.com) announced that it has acquired the assets of SyQuest Technology, which declared bank- ruptcy this past SyQuest products include the November. SyJet and Sparq removable-media drives; lomega has not announced its plans for the storage devices. . .. CalComp, developer of the Creation Station graphics tablets and CrystalJet large-format print- ers, has ceased operation and is seeking a buyer for its products. —EDITED BY MICHAEL GOWAN that marks easily and a poly- carbonate layer with clearly defined ridges. You can burn 4x CD-Rs in an 8x drive, but only at the lower speed. Fortunately, you probably won't have to pay a premium for the higher-speed discs. APS Technologies (800/862- 6831, www.apstech.com) and Smart and Friendly (818/772- 8001, www.smartandfriendly .com), which sell CD-R drives that use the same 8X Sanyo mechanism, both offer 8x- certified recordable discs for $20 per 10-pack, about what you'd pay for name-brand 4x discs. The drives themselves sell for about $500 each, com- pared with $300 for 4x drives. Brand Plans Among name-brand manufacturers, TDK (516/625-0100, www .tdk.com) offers 8X discs for about $2 each. Imation (888/ 466-3456, www.imation.com) says it will soon offer 8x media—at prices 10 to 15 per- cent higher than what it charges for 4x discs. How- APS Technologies, one of two vendors with an 8x CD-R drive, also offers 8x media. ever, in Macworld testing, we were able to record Imation’s 4x-certified discs at 8x on both 8X recorders. Maxell (888/262-9355, www.maxell.com), Sony (941/ 768-7669, www-selsony.com), and Hi-Val (714/953-3000, www-hival.com) say they plan to offer high-speed discs but have not provided timetables for doing so. Maxell currently offers 6x-certified media; Sony says its CDs have been tested at up to 6X but are certified only for | Mews 4x recording. Hi-Val, a dis- count brand available at CompUSA, offers 4x CDs for about $1 apiece. iMac Boards Use Forbidden Interface NEW CARDS PLUG INTO iMAC MEZZANINE SLOT by Kristina De Nike hen Apple devel- oped the iMac, the company made it clear to hardware vendors that one component was off-limits: the mezzanine slot on the iMac motherboard. But the engineers at Micro Conver- sions (817/468-9922, www -microconversions.com) and Formac (www.formac .com) didn’t listen. Both companies have developed ex- pansion boards that plug into the forbid- den slot—despite warnings from Apple that customers may void their iMac war- ranty if they use the products. imac Wizard Micro Conversions has announced an iMac version of the Game Wizard, a 3-D-graphics accelerator igned for use with popular computer games. The $199 board features 3Dfx’s Voodoo2 chip, which has become a stan- dard for game acceleration in the PC market. It sports 8MB of RAM, compared with a maximum of 12MB for the PCI version. The card is tight- ly sandwiched between the iMac motherboard and chas- sis, and concerns about heat ventilation preclude additional memory, the company says. Thin scsi Formac, a Ger- man company that designed the Vision 3D Pro graphics cards sold in the United States by Mactell, has intro- duced a $100 Ultra Wide SCSI card that plugs into the mezzanine slot, letting you use scanners, external drives, and other SCSI peripherals with your iMac. The card fea- tures a single external SCSI 3 connector; these are thinner than standard SCSI connec- tors and the cables can be hard to find, but they are available. Drives connected to the card can be used to boot up the iMac. Formac will bundle the card with its Power RAID Control software, which lets you set up RAID levels 0 and 1 storage systems. Formac says the card will work with other drive-formatting pack- ages as well. The card is scheduled to ship by the time you read this. The company also plans to offer a $149 mez~ zanine board that incorporates a SCSI connector, a TV tuner, and an S-Video in port. No Piece of Cake Install- ing a mezzanine card can be you have to open the iMac and remove five screws that hold the motherboard in place; the slot is on the flip side of the motherboard. To install the Game Wizard, you must also reroute the iMac’s internal video cable to a con- nector on the board. Micro Conversions and Formac expect that most customers will opt for dealer installation. The new multiflavored iMacs lack a mezzanine slot, so the cards will work only in the original Bondi blue model. However, Formac says it is developing an adapter that will essentially restore the slot to the newer iMacs, allowing use of the mezza- nine cards.—JEFFY K. MILSTEAD CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT. anniouD TOs Mitsubishi Is Changing The Face Of Desktop Monitors. Introducing Mitsubishi’s Award-Winning Diamond Pro® 900u With The Breakthrough DIAMONDTRON NE™ CRT. Mitsubishi's new DIAMONDTRON NF (Natural Flat) CRT technology represents an unprecedented improvement in the way you'll look at monitors from this moment on. The revo- lutionary, truly flat-faced CRT creates distortion- free, intuitively correct images that are much easier on your eyes. Conventional CRTs produce curves and distortions that are hard on your eyes, increasing fatigue and reducing productivity. DIAMONDTRON NF CONVENTIONAL FLAT ‘Jurgen sudasy Sufeen surtuse Mine suntace Sameer ie sirice Tereanece e come to expect crisp, clear images from Mitsubishi's award-winning DIAMONDTRON monitors, and now the innovative Diamond Pro 900u takes monitor performance to an even higher level. The Diamond Pro 900u delivers consistently accurate image quality — side to side, center to corner. In addition, Mitsubishi's patented CRT manufacturing proces Diamond Pro 900u stay brighter up to twic long as conventional CRT designs. family of DIAMONDTRON NF monitors, the 19-inch (18.0-inch DVI*) Diamond Pro 900u has a maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200/75 Hz. For added flexibility it also features powered USB hub that allows two independent computers to share the display and a single set of USB devices. DIAMONDTRON NF monitors are just flat-out better. 1998 r For more information contact Mitsubishi Electronics today. Ae wae: Mac Choose 261 at www.macworld.com/getinfo ate MITSUBISHI DISPLAY PRODUCTS Innovation On Display,, Power Macintosh 63's DESKTOP MACS' ENHANCEMENTS ARE MORE THAN SKIN DEEP NE GLANCE AT APPLE'S NEW two-toned Power Macintosh G3 series reveals that the iMac was no aberration. With their bold blue- and-white design and inclu such new technologies as FireWi USB, the new Power Mac G3’s continue down the road paved by the iMac. ‘The new desktop Macs are as notable for what they lack as for what they include. For example, you'll find no floppy drives or serial ports on these machines. Thankfully, neither will you find the underpowered graphics chip sets included with earlier Macs. All four mod- els include ATTs powerful Rage 128 2-D/ 3-D. graphics card with SDRAM, along with two FireWire ports, two USB ports, an ADB port, and a 10/100BaseT Ethernet port. You'll notice no mention of SCSI. nd with this series of computers—FireWire is in, SCSI is (mostly) out. If you want SCS you'll find it in the 4(00MHz model in the form of an Ultra IT PCI SCSI card; if you s powerful Macs, you SCSI card separately. Apple has drawn a line in the want it in the le must purchase Kind of Blue Initially, the most striking features of the new Power Mac G3’s are the translucent- blue faceplate, backplate, and top; the ice- 16MB_ of colored side panels revealing the ghostly G3 logo beneath; and four sturdy handle: protruding from the corners of the case. ‘The front panel sports a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, an empty drive bay, a speaker port, a power switch, and pro- grammer’s and reset switches. The keyboard and mouse—dead ringers for the iMac’s—may disappoint some users. This keyboard feels cheap compared with the huge Apple keyboards of old, and some people may mourn the loss of three function keys, the end key, and the option and control keys on the right side of the keyboard. (Kudos to Apple, ion sle for those who plan to store their new under a desk.) And although the looks great, many users will find it eptable: because of the round design, impossible to tell the top of the mouse from the bottom by touch. Open Sesame You may forget your disappointment with the input devices of the G3’s when you see their side door, which folds down to expose the inner workings. With the door open, you have ready access to every com- ponent you're likely to touch—the moth- EAL PRODUCT REAL RATINGS Reviews you can trust: Macworld rates only final shipping products, not prototypes. What we review Is what you can actually buy. OUTSTANDING: $888$ VERY GOOD: $8$¢ coop: $#% FLAWED: $$ UNACCEPTABLE: § 32 April 1999 MACWORLD erboard containing the G3 processor, four SDRAM slots, four PCI slots (three 33MHz, 64-bit slots and one 66MHz, 32- bit slot, occupied by the graphics card), modem connector, and internal battery is attached to the door and lies flat when the case is open. This is a brilliant design. The layout for internal drives is just as remarkable. At the bottom of the Power Mac’s case is a metal tray that holds the Ultra ATA drive and offers space for two additional internal storage devices. ‘To mount a new device, simply remove a single screw, disconnect the data and power cables from the ATA drive, and slide out the metal tray. To place addi- tional drives in any of the free, numbered spaces, fasten the drives, put the tray back, and plug in the drives. Note, however, that placing a 1.6-inch drive in the middle space makes it impossible to close the door. Two additional power connectors are included, although you must provide your own data cables. T's swell that the internal workings of the new Macs are so easily accessible, but it’s unfortunate that opening the door reveals so few PCI slots. With virtually no FireWire peripherals available at the moment, users who need fast external storage devices must rely on SCSI and therefore tie up one of the three open PCI slots with a SCSI adapter card. High Performance It should come as no surprise that these machines turned in convincing MacBench scores (see the benchmark, “Blue Blazers: New G3% Shine”). As you might expect, the new 300MHz model, with its 512K backside cache, fared worse in the Proces- sor test than our baseline system—the for- mer top-of-the-line Power Mac G3/300, which has a 1MB backside cache. The Pro- cessor scores for the more powerful Macs, with their 1MB cache, fell just about where we expected—I4 to 30 percent faster than Blue Blazers: New G3's Shine Best results in red. Reference system in italics. MacBench 5.0 scores are relative to those of a first-generation Power Mac G3/300, which is assigned ‘a score of 1,000 for each test. The Adobe Photoshop 5.02 scores are also relative to that of the baseline system, which is assigned a score of 1.0. MACBENCH 5.0 PHOTOSHOP Divereeae | RK Graphics | VOveaiisece: Apple Power Macintosh G3/300 —— R926 - 4,272 2.604 1.4 Apple Power Macintosh G3/350 —— mm-1,145 NEN 1,362 EEE 2,882 SEED. 12 Apple Power Macintosh G3/350 OVD —~ R-1,143 EEN-1.337 EE 2,869 E12 ‘Apple Power Macintosh G3/400 310 1 40 3,019 ‘Apple Power Macintosh G3/300 °° — WN-=7, 002 956 1404 1.0 Longer bars are better J Behind Our Tests Previous G3 architecture. **Test unit differed from MacBench reference system in OS version, screen resolution, and hard drive, aa We performed five tasks in Adobe Photoshop 5.02 (Gaussian Blur, image resize, RGB-to-CMYK conversion, file save, and scroll). We averaged results and then normalized them to the baseline system. For detaled information on our tests, see wwrw macwvorid.com/tests/ —Macworld Lab testing supervised by Gil Loyola that of the baseline system. More surprising—and welcome— were the Graphics scores. With the ATI Rage 128, the entry-level Power Mac achieved a Graphics score nearly twice that of the baseline machine; in the more powerful new models, the card yielded more than double the graphics perfor- mance of the baseline Power Mac. Also impressive was 3-D-gaming perfor- mance: Running the RAVE version of Quake, none of the new Macs pulled fewer than 50 frames per second (fps) from the game. The baseline system, which uses a Rage Pro graphics chip set, achieved only 23 fps. Adobe Photoshop tests revealed the benefits of having a SCSI drive for certain operations. The ATA drives in the 300MHz and 350MHz models were notas quick as the baseline system’s SCSI drive at performing Gaussian Blur and image- resize operations (adding more RAM to the new Power Macs improved Photoshop performance). On the other hand, Photo- shop scrolling was much sprightlier on the new Power Macs—approximately twice as fast on all configurations. Macworld's Buying Advice The beauty of these new Macs goes much deeper than their striking exteriors. They are clearly the fastest Macs to grace the market; they’re also solidly built, easy to upgrade, and attractively priced. Although users with legacy SCSI and serial devices will have to add a SCSI PCI card as well as a serial adapter to use their old peripherals, these components are readily available and not prohibitively expensive. Less forgivable for professionals are the small allotment of PCI slots and the inclusion of input devices that emphasize form over function. But these inconveniences are mitigated by the fact that the new Macs introduce FireWire and USB to the desktop—technologies that are sure to be staples of computing in the twenty-first century.—cHRISTOPHER BREEN New Desktop Systems Compared Mouse List Price Backside cp/DvD Zip Company Product Rating (as tested) Phone Cache = RAM _—Hard Drive Drive Drive ‘Apple Computer Power Mac G3/300 iid $1,599 408/996-1010 512K 64MB_—_6GB Ultra ATA 24x CD-ROM o Power Mac G3/350 $868 $2,499 408/996-1010 4MB 428MB__12GB Ultra ATA (24x CD-ROM e Power Mac 63/3500VD__ 4408 $1,999 408/996-1010 1MB 64MB_GGBUIaATA__32xDVD-ROM Power Mac G3/400 $008 52,999 408/996-1010 1B 128MB = SGBUItrallSCSI_ | 24xCD-ROM © = yes; O=n0. www.macworld.com April 1999 33 T Review Macromedia Director 7 MULTIMEDIA TOOL BECOMES AKE A DEEP BREATH AND recite the full name—all 18 sylla- bles of it. Macromedia Director 7 Shockwave Internet Studio is the most Web-savvy Director yet. Not that Macromedia is ignoring cre- ators of games, CD-ROM titles, or interactive kiosks; many of Director’ new features are just as welcome in these non-networked applications. But the program’s Internet focus is unmistak- able. And for creating hybrid projects— such as a CD-ROM that retrieves updates from a Web site or a multiuser game that enables distant players to lock horns—Director 7 is a dream. In Director's Chair Director veterans will feel at home in Director 7. It has all the familiar trap- pings: the Stage, where you position and arrange your project’s media elements; the Cast, which holds media elements that you import or create using Director's built-in tools; and the Score, a timeline- like window where you choreograph your project’s flow and interactivity. Creating a project in Director gener- ally involves working with these key com- ponents as well as with Lingo, Director's built-in programming language. You're also likely to work with bebaviors, which are canned Lingo scripts that perform common tasks. When you've finished, you can create a projector, a double-click- able version of your project that you can distribute to others. For Web-destined you can create Shockwave movies that rely on Macromedia’s popu- lar browser plug-in. You can also create Java applets, although these provide only limited support for Director's capabiliti Director 7's body may be similar to that of previous versions, but its engine is new. In Director 7 you can have as many as 1,000 channels in the Score window, up from 120 in Director 6.x. Projects can play back at speeds of up to 999 frames per second, up from 500. In short, it’s hard to imagine a project that would exceed Director 7s playback capabilities. One downside of this engine rebuild: Director 7 bids farewell to 680X0 Macs and to Windows 3.1. It’s 34 April 1999 MACWORLD MORE POWERFUL—AND MORE APPROACHABLE bad enough that you can no longer develop projects on these systems—you can’t even create projectors for them. If you want to create titles for elderly com- puters, Director 7 isn’t for you. New Media, New Control Director has long provided built-in tools for creating richly formatted text and bit- mapped graphics. In Director 7 there’s a new data type on the block: vectors. Direc- tor 7’s new Vector Shape window provides Better Behavior Director's heritage as an animation pro- gram has always complicated the creation of interactive projects. Implementing simple interactivity—such as creating a set of buttons that enable users to branch to different screens—meant writing scripts in Lingo. Director 6 streamlined authoring a bit by introducing behaviors—canned scripts that perform common tasks. In Director 7, behaviors are dramatically improved. A new Library a Z palette provides fast access to = dozens of behaviors in cate- cetwnioaie [corres tion [—ooterraex | gories ranging from animation oes : eit on ene ies to navigation to Internet ree streaming (see “Director Ply Mev Behaves”). ‘To assign a behav- ior to an item, you simply drag Director Behaves dozens of built-in behaviors that simplify authoring, a FreeHand-like pen tool for drawing bandwidth- and memory-friendly shapes, complete with Bézier control points and optional solid-color or gradient fills. Director 7 automatically antialiases vector shapes. Even better, you can control every property of a vector shape using Lingo scripts. Combine this with Director 7’s Internet-access features, and you could create a dynamic bar or line graph that changes depending on certain data retrieved from a Web site. Director 7 can import bitmaps con- taining alpha channels, thus simplifying the creation of special transparency effects, such as feathering and drop shadow Director 7 also adds support for the PNG graphics format and for animated GIFs. Director 7 greatly simplifies such common animation tasks as rotating media elements. For example, to create an animation of a spinning star in previ- ous versions, you had to create multiple versions of the star, each rotated to a dif- ferent angle, and then laboriously swap one for the next to animate the rotation. In Director 7 you can simply use keyframes or Lingo to rotate or skew any media element. That means much less work for you, and smaller, more mem- ory-efficient projects. Director 7's Library palette is the gateway to and drop that behavior's icon, Director 7 provides behaviors for the most-com- mon interactivity chores, and they work well. Even if you don’t know a lick of Lingo, you can create an interactive pro- duction containing branching buttons, QuickTime movies, animations, and streaming audio. Lingo still lurks beneath the surface of every behavior, and you'll need Lingo mastery to modify a behavior’s scripts. But the good news is that unlike Director 6.x behavior scripts, Director 7’s are laden with comments that make them easier to understand and tweak. And speaking of Lingo, it too has evolved. Programmers can now use space-efficient dot syntax to get and set properties. Common in modern lan- guages such as JavaScript, dot syntax makes for less verbose scripts. Text (and HyperText) Power Director has had first-rate text features since version 5 introduced the word pro- cessor-like Text window, antialiased text, kerning, and the ability to import Rich ‘Text Format (RTF) files. But Director developers always faced the specter of missing fonts: to ensure that text would look as intended, they either had to license and distribute custom fonts or set- tle for using ubiquitous (and often boring) fonts such as Helvetica and Times. Director 7 changes this by enabling you to embed any fonts installed in your system directly in a project. Director compresses its so-called Shocked fonts so that they take up only about 10K to 20K apiece. You can trim this even further by embedding only those characters that you actually need. Shocked fonts are available only to the project in which they’re embedded, so there are no licensing or copyright issues to contend with. Also new is the ability to import HTML files with most formatting intact. You can even import Web pages over the Internet by entering a page’s URL in the Import dialog box, although this often yielded error messages in our tests. Direc- tor 7 doesa reasonably good job of retain- ing a page’s formatting, recognizing tables, fonts, and common formatting tags. Director 7 doesn’t import images referenced in HTML pages, but it does retain hyperlinks. You must use Lingo programming to have a hyperlink launch a Web page, but one of Director 7's built- in behaviors can handle this for you. Director 7’s other Internet-related enhancements include behaviors that post text entries to a CGI running on a Web server, and a new multiuser server that makes it possible to create networked games and chat spaces. For bandwidth-friendly audio, Direc- tor 7 also includes Headspace’s Beatnik Xtra, which includes behaviors that let you play and control Beatnik music files. Director 7 also supports the Shockwave Audio format, which lets you deliver streaming audio using a conventional Web server (see “Making Waves with Stream- ing Audio,” Create, February 1998). Tribeworks iShell: Free Authoring at a Price IF YOU DON’T LIKE DIREC- tor—or you can't spend $1,998 to develop for both ‘Mac and Windows—look into iShell, from Tribeworks (415/ 732-7004, www.tribeworks -com). From the developers of Apple's defunct Apple Media Tool, iShell combines solid authoring features with an unbeatable price tag. Tribeworks has put a unique twist on the open- source software-distribution approach popularized by Linux. iShellis free: register at Tribeworks’ Web site, and you get a download pass- word. To create a Mac or Windows run-time version of @ project, you register for a free run-time license file Tribeworks hopes you'll like iShell enough to pay $2,000 for a one-year “full membership,” which gets you technical support, the ability to create run-times without registering each project you create, and the full source code to iShell itself. iShell’s interface differs from that of Apple Media Tool (AMT), but the pro- grams are conceptually simi- lar. As with AMT, iShell’s only content-creation function is a rudimentary text tool—you create your content in other programs and then import it As you import media ele- ments, you can assign events and commands that branch to other screens, play movies, move items across the screen, and so on. Many of iShell’s author- ing features pale alongside Director's. But iShell provides excellent support for Quick- Time, including QuickTime VR and QuickTime 3 effects. The program can't display HTML pages—as Director 7 can—but can access files over the Web, making possible CD- ROM-Web hybrid projects. Shell lacks Director's depth and maturity, and its documentation is literally a work-in-progress. Still, iShell deserves a look. Budget- minded developers will love its price tag, and Director haters will appreciate its object-oriented authoring style. If Tribeworks' open- source gamble pays off, iShell could evolve into a major contender. But remarkably, the Macintosh ver- sion of Director 7 provides no way to compress Shockwave Audio files; the manual tells you to use Macromedia’s SoundEdit 16, which is no longer includ- ed with the Director suite. Bundle of Joy How has Director 7’s supporting cast changed? Gone are the Xres image editor and Extreme 3D modeler. For image edit- ing you get Macromedia Fireworks, which is a solid, all-around image editor particularly adept at creating Web graph- ics (see Reviews, October 1998). For sound editing, Mac users get Bias’s Peak LE while Windows users get Sonic Foundry’s Sound Forge XP. Both are scaled-down versions of first-rate audio editors. We prefer Sound Forge XP to pres: ==) Peak LE—it was more stable tee | evFonttame: [Ancsiewono- {ox J} in our tests and its interface is AaBLCCD A! eignnton (nabiatens 3} less cluttered—but either is ‘AaBbCcDdl familie sufficient for simple sound- eee editing and conversion tasks. URN gi Even if you already have : . (eg ] sound- and image-editing pro- grams, you cannot buy Direc- Fonts and Vectors Director 7 can embed some or all of a font's characters in a project to ensure typographic fidelity. Also visible here: Director 7's new Vector Shape window. tor 7 separately unless you're a registered user of a previous version, in which case you can buy the upgrade for a steep $449. Macro- media should make Director 7 available separately. You'll still need to buy the Windows version of Director to create projectors for the Windows platform. Macworld's Buying Advice For a major upgrade, Director 7 is remarkably well behaved. But it isn’t per- fect. Some bugs in its text-handling fea- tures can cause crashes in text-heavy proj- ects. And a change in the way the Stage works causes display problems with movies in a window, which many Direc- tor developers use. A little Lingo script generally fixes this. But by and large, Director 7 is an outstanding upgrade, packing more power and introducing new features that finally make Director approachable for beginners.—1m He1D RATING: $$9§ PROS: Simplified authoring; excellent Web features; beefed-up playback engine; vector and alpha-channel support. ‘CONS: Mac version can't compress Shockwave ‘Audio files; some text-handling bugs; application not sold separately. COMPANY: Macromedia (415/252-2000, www.macromedia.com). LIST PRICE: $999 (Director-only upgrade from earli- er versions, $449; full Studio upgrade from ear- lier versions, $499). www.macworld.com April 1999 35 [ Reviews Dreamweaver 2 MACROMEDIA DREAMS UP IMPRESSIVE UPDATE AST VERSIONS OF MACRO- media’s Dreamweaver were solid but hard to love, with a clunky interface that discouraged the exploration that allows mere users to become wizards. But with a new empha- sis on usability, added to new cutting-edge features, Dreamweaver 2 promises to delight both designers and code geeks. Winning Features for Designers Dreamweaver 2 is packed with improve- ments to its page-design tools. The best addition, the Tracing Layer, recognizes the fact that in many shops, a designer creates a comp for a Web page in Adobe Photoshop or QuarkXPress and hands a color printout to a Web jockey, who then apply text and other formatting to rows, columns, or an entire table; select and for- mat noncontiguous cells; and sort table contents. Splitting and merging table cells is a snap, and an included JavaScript extension lets you swap the axes. Previously, Dreamweaver’s many floating palettes were a recipe for screen clutter. In version 2, you can dock palettes together into a single tabbed window. ‘The program now makes excellent use of contextual menus and has fewer annoy- ing modal dialog boxes. It also includes precoded objects, such as one that lets you quickly create image-rollover effects. And anew, sinart eyedropper tool lets you pick up a color from anywhere on your desk- top; Dreamweaver snaps it to the nearest Web-safe color. imions about the worl of avaScrit Dreamweaver takes advan- tage of all the features in the 4.0 browsers but also offers backward compatibility. You can lay out pages using layers and then convert the layers to backward-compatible tables with a single menu command. You can use JavaScript behav- iors that target specific brows- er versions, or go for lowest- common-denominator effects. Comp Tracing based on the position of the comp image in the Tracing Layer (vis- ible as a dimmed image in the background). re-creates the page in HTML. Dream- weaver lets you take a GIF or JPEG comp image and place it in the back- ground of the document window as a guide (see “Comp Tracing”). New rulers, snap-to guides, and grids make it easy to match the comp. Once you've created a page, you save it as a reusable template with both editable and locked regions. Combined with check-in/check-out page control (which tells users when a particular page is being changed), Dreamweaver’s tem- plates give designers the comfort of knowing that writers and editors can change content without inadvertently mangling the page’s design. Dreamweaver’s support for table edit- ing is also vastly improved. You can now 36 April 1999 MACWORLD I'm moving this Dreamweaver 2 layer into place, Because it’s available for both Mac and Windows, Dream- weaver tries hard to cover all the platform and browser bases. As before, you can check your pages for HTML compatibility against profiles of Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, but version 2 adds pro- files for Opera Software’s Opera and Microsoft's WebTV browsers. Happy Geeks Are Productive Geeks Nothing annoys HTML coders like hav- ing a visual tool arbitrarily rewrite their carefully honed code. Dreamweaver has always respected custom HTML, and the new version continues and extends this tradition. The program won't change tags it doesn’t recognize, instead highlighting unknown tags in yellow; italso recognizes (and won't change) code that works with server-side tools. Dreamweaver comes with a nice set of prewritten JavaScript behaviors, includ- ing form validation and layer and timeline control, and can trigger Shockwave or Flash content. You can preview multi- media content right in the Dreamweaver document window, without having to switch to a browser. The new version catches up to GoLive CyberStudio (now an Adobe product) in site management by adding a visual site map, the ability to check and repair broken links, and an improved FTP tool for uploading and downloading sites. The supercharged find-and-replace function fixes tags and files throughout a site and accepts regular expressions. A feature unique to Dreamweaver is the program’ amazing extensibility, going far beyond mere scripting. While com- petitors such as CyberStudio allow devel- pers to create new JavaScript functions, Dreamweaver supports a Document Object Model that lets programmers use JavaScript and HTML to write custom menu commands, behaviors, inspector palettes, and objects. There’s even a way to create plug-ins in C. Dreamweaver 2 seems to be faster than previous versions, though just as RAM-hungry; with larger sites, the pro- gram complained about memory until I boosted its RAM footprint from the sug- gested 20MB to 32MB. Macworld's Buying Advice Thanks to its interface improvements, Dreamweaver has outgrown its ugly- duckling phase and is much easier and more fun to use. Smart innovations like the Tracing Layer show that Macro- media has been paying close attention to the way designers work in real produc- tion environments, and Dreamweaver’s first-do-no-harm approach to HTML shows a nice appreciation of the chal- lenges that Web coders face. Fully com- petitive with CyberStudio, but with unique strengths of its own, this striking upgrade should win Dreamweaver many new Converts.—ToM NEGRINO RATING: $$$#¥2 PROS: Superb table han- dling; excellent design and layout tools; very good excellent extensibility. CONS: RAM-hungry and not always polite about it COMPANY: Macromedia (415/252-2000, www -macromedia.com). COMPANY'S ESTIMATED PRICE: $299, code control; Fool God. ‘ _ Introducing the revolutionary series of Sony FD Trinitron displays. SONY If you think God is in the details, then we have the display for you. The new, virtually flat FD Trinitron display series is the most revolutionary advancement in image technology since the invention of Trinitron in 1968. The colors are remarkably sharp and bright, the resolution incredibly high, and the focus amazingly precise from top to bottom, side to side and corner to corner. In fact, the images on screen are so real, they can fool just about anyone. 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And since Sherlock can search the Web for items that interest you—and that support Internet Explorer channels. Each of the applications also has a more comprehensive set of filters than does Internet Explorer. With the latter, you can exclude files attached to a Web page in only a general way—you can fil- ter all images, sounds, and movies. With Web Buddy and WebWhacker, you can be more selective about which MIME. types you download. While Web Buddy and WebWhacker share some advantages over Internet Explorer, they aren’t twins. Schedule S| Web Buddy is the easier to use ial Eno or eat 0.6 ad Seed ioration when you're surfing the Web, because it’s available to you ~ Dovntoad toformation gery > Ce) Eaeory sat _Lavele: (© Tako thle page on} SAN Cat tn pom iow [J ete cnn | Ci Toke entire site Cetact options for ak space timited from within your browser; to use WebWhacker, you must switch from your browser into the WebWhacker application. And if you want to perform scheduled downloads, Web- Whacker must be running; Jule Infor mation “Take thie To G0. jeg Ge ola] {W000 Time Qitvery Ellon Gites Galved lth Geri Oise Clon teh, ‘ Web Buddy launches itself at the appointed time. Web Buddy offers other convenient features you won't find in WebWhacker: you can create and file bookmarks with a single click, and a translation feature lets you turn W