HMS Newsletter

The History and Macintosh Society

volume 3, no. 3 (3.3)
Fall 1993

HMS Now Electronic

As most of you now by now, the History and
Macintosh Society has gone completely electronic. The
newsletter will be produced in electronic form only, and
we hope to add a number of new services soon.
Information on those will be available soon.

HMS will no longer charge membership dues. If you
know anyone who's interested in joining, have them
contact Marc Bizer or Joe Coohill at the addresses listed
below.

This is the second electronic HMS newsletter and we
hope it's a good one. Electronic newsletters will be
much shorter than the old paper versions and will
contain only one major article, but they will appear more
frequently. The format will, for now, be in plain-text
only, but we hope to be able to liven things up a bit

soon.
In this issue, you'll find interesting reading with Marc
Bizer's article on Macintosh Utilities. Although our
prime goal is to introduce HMS members to advances in
academic applications for the Macintosh, occasionally
we take time out to review important, basic software of
interest to all users. Academic users will ignore these
important utilities at their peril.

Marc has not only reviewed important "safety"
programs, but handy, time-saving utilities which will
make your Macintosh more personal and
understandable.

HMS Enquires

If you're having trouble getting this newsletter, please
e-mail Joe Coohill at Oxford. His electronic mail
address is: coohill@oxford.ac.uk

Any other HMS enquires should be addressed to Marc
Bizer at the University of Texas. His e-mail address is:
mlbizer@bongo.cc.utexas.edu

The HMS postal address is:

HMS
1603 Woodlawn Blvd. #4
Austin TX 78703
USA

Macintosh Utilities

Marc Bizer

Most will agree that System 7 is a considerable
improvement over System 6. The Apple menu, aliases,
drag-and-drop program launching, built-in file sharing
are but a few of the precious new features. System 7
requires a great deal more memory and is slower than
System 6, but these drawbacks are generally considered
acceptable, especially to those who own newer and
faster Macintosh computers. Yet in spite of the many
innovations it introduced, System 7 is nevertheless
incomplete. The utilities reviewed below have been
developed to make it even easier to use your Macintosh.
Others allow you to verify and maintain its proper
functioning. Although this is far from an exhaustive list,
these programs are highly regarded in their respective
domains. Once you begin to use them, you will find
many to be invaluable.

System 7 enhancements

Now Utilities 4.0.1

Kiwi PowerMenus

One of the most annoying characteristics of the
Macintosh interface, an inconvenience which many
users unfortunately put up with, involves having to
click through innumerable folders in order to reach the
files that they want. As mentioned above, the System 7
Apple Menu was a wonderful step toward eliminating
this frustrating drawback. The ability to make aliases,
pointers to files which occupy but a fraction of the space
of the original file, perfectly complements the Apple
Menu. By placing aliases of your files, folders, and
programs in the Apple Menu items folder (contained in
your System Folder), you can access them simply by
pulling down the Apple Menu. Unfortunately, however,
System 7 does not make the contents of folders
immediately accessible: for example, you can choose to
open the Control Panels folder, but not any Control
Panel in particular. NowMenus, part of the Now
Utilities package, puts an end to this drudgery. It places
a rightward-pointing arrow to the right of a folder, so
that when your mouse highlights this item, up pops a
list of all of the items in the folder, including other
folders with rightward-pointing arrows, to a depth of
five levels. By adding an alias of your hard disk to the
Apple Menu, suddenly all of the files on it, up to five
folders deep, become accessible. In addition, you can
easily set up the Apple Menu from within NowMenus,
so that you don't have to make aliases and manually
place them in the Apple Menu items folder. You're not
limited to alphabetical order or to placing weird
characters in front of names in order to change the order
of appearance, since NowMenus allows you to change
the order of items merely by dragging them, and to
group them functionally by means of separator lines.

NowMenus adds special features to the Apple Menu
and to System 7 in general. For example, highlighting
the chooser now produces a list of all of the different
printers available to your Macintosh, so that you no
longer have to open the Chooser and only then select the
printer you want (for those of you with color monitors,
NowMenus also does this for the "Monitors" control
panel). You can choose your favorite font for displaying
the Apple Menu and/or all menus. You can also
configure a variety of "pop- up" menus to appear by
typing a combination of keys and clicking the mouse, in
order to list for example recently opened files or
currently opened applications wherever your mouse
pointer is located. If you so desire, NowMenus can
cause menus to drop as soon as the mouse pointer is
waived over them, without clicking, and to stay open
until a selection is made. Best of all, NowMenus offers
one other absolutely marvelous feature. It seems almost
axiomatic that the more experienced a user of the
Macintosh you become, the more you want to avoid
using the mouse in order to give commands to your
computer. Most programs have a certain number of
commands which can be executed by typing a series of
keys, usually preceded by the cloverleaf key (AKA "the
command-key"). NowMenus not only allows you to
change these pre-existing "command- key equivalents"
or add them to functions without them, but also "on the
fly," while you have the menu item highlighted (because
of Microsoft's unorthodox programming practices,
however, this cannot be done from within Word or
Excel, which have their own way of assigning key
equivalents). It is hard to underestimate the value of this
feature. You can add "command-M" to "Make alias" in
the Finder without having to use ResEdit or a shareware
program. (it can be removed in a flash, too, via the
delete key, something that the shareware hacks can't
do). I added command-keys to the different list views in
the Finder so as to change between them quickly.
Perhaps most importantly, however, you can add
command-key-equivalents to items on your Apple
Menu. This means that you can run programs merely by
typing keys: I run Microsoft Word by typing command-
option-5, EndNote Plus by typing command-option-B
(for "bibliography"). Need I say more?

NowMenus is actually conceived as part of an
integrated software package whose pieces function
together in a very useful manner. Another utility in the
package, SuperBoomerang, makes the open/save dialog
boxes in programs much more useful by allowing you
to configure them to include lists of folders to be
associated with a particular program (Word 5, for
example) or to search for files, even using a particular
phrase. It allows you to rename files, too. The name
"SuperBoomerang" comes from the fact that it can
return to the exact file you last opened.
SuperBoomerang becomes most powerful, however, in
conjunction with NowMenus, since SuperBoomerang
will add a "Recent items" entry in the Apple Menu,
showing recently opened files and programs;
furthermore, using rightward- pointing arrows, it will
list next to particular programs the files that were
recently opened by them. This last feature is even
available from within programs themselves, via a
rightward-pointing arrow next to the "Open" command.
SuperBoomerang is an immensely useful utility whose
versatility does come at the price of slowing down your
Mac (significantly if you have an SE or a Classic) and
using up more of its memory.

NowMenus also includes NowSave, a utility which
can perform saves at automatic intervals (by time or by
number of keystrokes), Now Startup which allows you
to control which control panels and system extensions
actually load when you start your Mac, Now
WYSIWYG which takes over Font menus to display
fonts in their own typefaces and regroup them so that
Helvetica Bold and Helvetica Bold Oblique appear via a
rightward-point arrow after "Helvetica." Now Profile
produces lists of different characteristics and features of
your Macintosh and the software that is installed on it.
These utilities are useful but not essential.

The most essential part of the package is NowMenus.
However, Now Software is far from being the only
developer of an Apple Menu utility; there are many
commercial and shareware programs (Menu Choice
comes to mind) available. One such program is Kiwi
PowerMenus, the commercial version of BeHierarchic,
a shareware program which I used happily for a long
time. Kiwi PowerMenus uses less memory and
accesses the hard disk less frequently than NowMenus,
an advantage to PowerBook users. It also has the
unique feature of not being limited to displaying five
folders deep, so that you could access the deepest
recesses of your hard disk from the Apple Menu, for
example. However, it does not have NowMenus's
unique ability to bypass the Chooser in order to select
printers. It does not allow you to rearrange items by
simply dragging them (of course, you can always add
spaces or other characters to the beginning of names to
change their order of appearance). It also doesn't allow
you to add separator lines which further facilitate the
organization of the Apple Menu. Lastly, it cannot assign
key equivalents to menu items as NowMenus does, a
feature which I find invaluable. NowMenus (Now
Software), $99.95 Kiwi PowerMenus (Kiwi Software),
$39.95

PBTools 1.0.1 CPU (Connectix PowerBook Utilities) 2.0

This software is designed for PowerBooks; non-
PowerBook users need not read any further.
PowerBook users who frequently operate their
computers from the internal battery can benefit from
installing one of these control panels which help to
manage battery power more efficiently. How? For one,
both are much more convenient (and precise) than the
Battery DA which comes with System 7: they give an
indication of battery charge level in the menu bar, and
thus are always visible. More importantly, however,
they give the user much more control over the parts of
the PowerBook which drain the battery. Optimal power
conservation and thus the longest battery life are
obtained when inactive parts of your computer are kept
off as long as possible. PBTools and CPU allow you to
set precisely the amount of time of inactivity after which
the backlight, the hard drive turn off and finally when
the computer itself goes to "sleep". In addition, both
give you control over an often-understood feature called
"system sleep" or "processor cycling." This is a feature
built into the PowerBooks which makes them work
more slowly (and hence conserve power) when you
aren't typing or inserting floppy disks. Those users
who complain about their programs slowing down
inexplicably after a certain interval are experiencing the
effects of this feature. CPU allows you to set the precise
interval (usually only a few seconds) after which
processor cycling occurs; both CPU and PBTools allow
you to specify that processor cycling will not occur
when operating off of the AC line. Another source of
battery drain is AppleTalk, a network protocol used
when your computer is connected to other Macs or a
LaserWriter or Deskwriter printer with the AppleTalk
driver. AppleTalk prevents your computer from going
to sleep (since that would disrupt its network
connections). AppleTalk can be turned off from within
the Chooser, but both programs let you turn it off and
on from their pull-down menus in the Finder.

With CPU and PBTools, you can discharge your
battery quickly and completely in order to correct the
"memory effect" which Nickel- Cadmium batteries (the
PowerBooks 140, 145, 160, 165c, 170, 180) suffer
from. You can assign key equivalents in order to control
your hard drive, backlighting, and sleep intervals
independently of your automatic settings. CPU goes
even further, not only giving you keyboard control of
your backlight (on/off and intensity), but also allowing
you to switch between active applications (and hide
those in the background). A separate freeware utility
called ApplWindows performs this function much
better, however. CPU also allows you to pretend that
you have an extended keyboard, simulating the function
keys F1--F10. Furthermore, CPU adds a Windows-
like capability which assigns key equivalents to all
menus and dialog boxes by means of an underlined
letter.

Both programs offer some other features designed to
enhance PowerBook use. They allow you to set a
password to prevent unauthorized hands and eyes from
using your PowerBook. They can substitute a thicker,
more visible cursor for the thin one normally used on
the Macintosh. They provide more effective indication
of when the Caps Lock key is down and can even
disable this key or make it more difficult to activate it
inadvertently.

PBTools and CPU accomplish battery conservation in
different ways. PBTools opts for simplicity and
efficacy: it allows for two groups of settings, one for
AC operation and the other for battery use. Both
PBTools switch automatically between the two sets, yet
CPU also allows the user to define many additional sets
to be selected manually; this feature seems to be of
dubious usefulness. PBTools, which concentrates
mainly on battery conservation, displays remaining
battery charge more accurately than CPU. In addition,
by means of an extremely well thought-out graph
system which keeps track of battery voltage over 96
hours, CPU can even be precisely calibrated to reflect
the precise discharge curve of two (and soon four)
batteries.

The CPU package includes an "EasySync" extension
which allows file synchronization between a
PowerBook and another computer.

PBTools is straightforward and efficient at conserving
battery power. CPU, although much improved over
version 1, does not seem to be as well-designed in this
area. CPU does offer many more features, yet some of
these are better implemented in other utility programs,
and they come at the cost of simplicity despite CPU's
redesigned interface. PBTools 1.0.1 (Inline Design),
$99.95 CPU 2.0 (Connectix), $99.95

Master Finder 1.2.1

Master Finder is one of the most useful and ignored
system enhancements available. It is not an extension
(although it includes one) or a control panel, but rather a
program which greatly facilitates manipulating files on
your hard disk. People familiar with the NeXT
computer will immediately appreciate Master Finder's
interface, which offers four "panes" used to display the
contents of disks and folders. Once a disk has been
opened in a pane, double-clicking on a folder
immediately causes the folder's contents to be displayed
in the pane to the right, until a non-empty or the last
pane is reached, at which point the contents "stack" in
the same pane. This makes it extremely easy, for
example, to copy files from the "recent publications"
folder inside the "research" folder on your hard disk to
the "1992-93" folder inside the "Writings" folder inside
the "Backup" folder on a floppy disk. Doing the same
thing without Master Finder is tedious and frustrating
on the Macintosh because of all of the windows
involved. Master Finder has a very nice "find" feature
which allows searches by creator and type, so that for
example you could search for all of the Microsoft Word
files scattered all over your disk, select them via
command-A, and drag them into a special folder. If you
have installed, command-dragging a file or a folder
automatically compresses it. Master Finder also offers a
variety of other "views" such as a useful "catalog" view
which shows the hierarchy of files on your hard disk,
or a "network" view. The more one uses Master Finder,
the more one wonders how life was possible without it.
Master Finder 1.2.1 (Olduvai), $149.00

CopyDoubler 2.0

Under System 7, you can start to copy files or even
backup a hard disk and then switch back to your word
processor. This is accomplished, however, at the
expense of speed. CopyDoubler is a control panel
included with AutoDoubler which decreases the time it
takes to copy files by a factor of 2 and to empty the
trash by up to a factor of 10. Since I backup my internal
hard disk by simply copying it to my external hard disk,
I really appreciate CopyDoubler. It offers another
valuable feature for paranoid types like myself who
wonder whether the data is being copied perfectly or
not. While copies are verified normally only when
copying to a floppy, CopyDoubler allows you to verify
copies to any disk. This does slow down copying, but it
is well worth the speed decrease in my opinion (it is still
faster than the Finder, though). Version 2.0 not only
allows you to copy in the background, meaning that you
can start to copy a long file or a hard disk and then
switch back to typing in your word processor while the
copying continues, but also schedule copies for a later
time and date. As a stand- alone program CopyDoubler
is not inexpensive ($59.95); a version of CopyDoubler
without the background copying and scheduling
features, called CopyDoubler Lite, is included with
AutoDoubler. In conjunction with AutoDoubler, both
CopyDoubler Lite and CopyDoubler allow you to
compress while copying. CopyDoubler 2.0 (Fifth
Generation Systems), $59.95.

Thunder7

Many will have noticed the proliferation of spell
checkers. Of course word processors have them, but so
does my copy of Excel came, and Inspiration. This is a
great waste of disk space. Apple is developing an
extension to System 7 which will put dictionaries at the
disposal of all programs, but until then, Thunder 7 is
the closest solution to a universal spell checker and
thesaurus. Not only can it function within any program
(it can also be excluded), but it verifies spelling as you
type. Custom dictionaries can be added too. All of this
comes at a price, however: Thunder7 uses up a sizable
amount of memory, even more if you install the
thesaurus. I don't use it for that reason. Thunder7
(Baseline Publishing), $99.95.

AlSoft Power Utilities

ALSoft offers a very complete set of utilities for the
Macintosh. The highlights of ALSoft Power Utilities are
DiskExpress II, a hard disk optimizer, Screen Eclipse, a
screen saver (reviewed below) which unlike many other
screen savers (such as AfterDark) uses little memory
and CPU time to protect your screen, DiskFlash, a
trouble-free utility (unlike Norton's DiskLight in the
Norton Utilities package, known can cause conflicts and
even crashes) which flashes a hard disk icon in the
corner of your screen whenever your hard disk is being
used, and MasterJuggler, a font, sound, DA, and
program manager. MasterJuggler, the cornerstone of
this package, provides so many features that it is
difficult to list them all here; the only other comparable
product is Suitcase from Fifth Generation Systems. As
MasterJuggler's manual states, MJ "provides
simultaneous access to hundreds of fonts, DAs, FKeys,
and sounds without having to install them in your
system file." It not only allows you to view and hear
sounds and fonts, but it compresses and automatically
decompresses them when they are needed, saving
considerable disk space. Fonts can be displayed in their
own typefaces, and sounds can be associated with a
large variety of activities on your Macintosh;
MasterJuggler also resolves ID conflicts between fonts.
This utility is obviously of interest to those involved
desktop publishing.

DiskExpress II 2.11

DiskExpress II is generally acknowledged to be the best
and safest disk optimizer (defragmenter) available for
the Mac. Defragmenting or "optimizing" makes your
hard disk more efficient by insuring that individual files
are stored in one place instead of being spread out over
several locations. It is by no means necessary for most
of us, but those who like to optimize should use
DiskExpress II over other optimizers. It can be set to
optimize automatically and even base the optimization
on your actual hard disk use, but even with these
features turned off, it is better than Norton's Speed
Disk. DiskExpress II can be purchased separately, but it
is a better deal when included in the Alsoft Power
Utilities Package. Note: DiskExpress II 2.2 has been
shipping for a couple of months now. It can now build
its temporary data file in memory, which should speed
optimization. Another change (it's about time!) is that
version 2.2 is supposedly 'System 7 aware' - it know
about control panels and extensions os that it puts them
together with the rest of the System softaware. The
upgrade to DiskExpress II 2.2 costs $15 plus $5
shipping. Unfortunately we were unable to test
DiskExpress II 2.2, as AlSoft refused to furnish us with
a review copy of the upgrade. ALSoft Power Utilities
(ALSoft), $129.00. DiskExpress II (ALSoft), $89.95.

Repair and diagnostic tools

Norton Utilities 2.0

Public Utilities 1.0.1

All of us will experience disk problems sooner or later.
The dreaded disk icon with a question mark could
appear on startup, or your Mac could begin to act
unexpectedly. Turning off your Mac without choosing
"shutdown" is bound to create disk problems. Some
problems develop gradually over time. Human error is a
factor, too: you may empty the trash and then regret the
files that you have just deleted. Both Norton Utilities
from Symantec and Public Utilities from Fifth
Generation Systems are invaluable because they can
help resolve these problems and others, preventing a
trip to the local campus computer center where you will
most probably be asked to spend a considerable amount
of money for "hard disk recovery" using the very same
or similar program. Every Macintosh user should own a
copy and use it periodically to make sure that problems
are not developing.

Norton Utilities (version 2.0) is the most widely-used
of these so- called disk utilities. In addition to its "Disk
Doctor" and "Unerase" functions, it can erase files in
such a way that you can never recover them (not even
using Norton Utilities) or "encrypt" them so that only
users with a "key" may use and view them. In addition,
it can backup and defragment your hard disk. Other
programs perform these last two tasks more safely.
Norton also offers a diskette utility called "Floppier"
which facilitates making copies of floppy diskettes.

Public Utilities (version 1.0.1) is a much more recent
program than Norton Utilities, and it claims to be able to
repair more disk problems than Norton, a claim which I
cannot test. It does not include encryption or backup
functions, which is an insignificant disadvantage. On
the other hand, it has the ability to "optimize." Both
utilities include a control panel to be installed in your
system folder, which keeps track of disk information,
especially of files as they are deleted, so as to facilitate
file and disk recovery. However, these control panels
do not have to be installed in order to make the
programs work properly, and indeed some find them to
be a rich source of conflicts with other software (I
didn't install mine). The control panel included with
Public Utilities, baptized "Prevention," sets PU apart
from Norton in that it can be set to automatically verify
your hard disk for problems after a preset interval of
inactivity or upon startup or shutdown. This preventive
action does not interfere with other programs, and even
after it has initiated verification, hitting a key or moving
the mouse cause it to wait until your Mac is inactive
again. "Prevention" could be a helpful feature for some,
but I have no difficulty in remembering to check my
hard disk for problems. Norton Utilities (Symantec),
$149.95 Public Utilities (Fifth Generation Systems),
$149.95

MacEKG 2.06w

Snooper 2.06

These two programs, which attempt to determine
whether your entire computer and not just your hard
disk is functioning properly, are designed for people
responsible for the maintenance of Macintoshes or
paranoid Macintosh users like myself. The fact that they
perform sophisticated tests does not mean, however,
that they require special knowledge in order to use
them. They are in fact as easy to use as Norton Utilities
or Public Utilities. Another parallel can be drawn
between MacEKG and Snooper on the one hand and
NUP and PU on the other, for MacEKG is a control
panel which verifies the operation of your computer
upon startup, shutdown, or both at intervals you select
(each startup/shutdown, daily, or weekly); it is designed
to detect problems as they arise and alert you. Snooper
is a program which you run manually (MacEKG can
also be run manually); it is the program of choice for
those situations where the unhappy Mac symbol or an
error code is displayed on startup, since it comes with a
special boot disk which you can use in these situations,
while MacEKG does not (nor can it be used in this
way).

Unlike Norton and Public Utilities, however,
MacEKG and Snooper are radically different in
conception. MacEKG is a very cleverly designed
control panel which records information about every
aspect of your system when it is run: it is futuristic in its
conception, with fancy displays and an echoing
feminine voice guiding the user through the tests. While
its being a control panel instead of a stand-alone
program makes it useless in situations where your
computer is unresponsive, this format is exploited to
help isolate software problems: MacEKG not only
tracks such parameters as mouse tracking speed or the
sound level, but also which system extensions and
control panels have been loaded and which ones have
been changed. The user is alerted to changes in system
settings at the end of the tests; the considerable amount
of data accumulated over time is available for display
and for export (the most convenient method) in a variety
of formats; tab-delimited format works very well with
spreadsheets such as Excel. MacEKG can also be set to
perform repetitive tests in order to catch intermittent
problems; it is furthermore designed to function with the
accessory PowerKey(TM) so that it can turn desktop Macs
on and off.

Snooper offers perhaps more comprehensive tests of
the Macintosh, particularly of the video and sound
circuitry. It also comes in a version with a NuBus(TM)
card to plug into Macintoshes (II series, Centris,
Quadra) in order to resolve particularly difficult
problems. Snooper displays a picture of the logic board
of your Macintosh, and you can waive your mouse
pointer over different parts of it in order to identify
different chips and their functions. All tests can be set to
repeat ad infinitum if necessary.

Snooper is obviously more appropriate for repair or
technical support personnel; MacEKG can also be used
by them (although it must be installed on all of the
Macintosh computers for which they are responsible),
but it is obviously well-suited for paranoid individuals
like myself who need to know that their computer is
functioning perfectly at all times. MacEKG (MicroMat),
$150 Snooper (Maxa), $249

Accessory programs

DocuComp II 1.0.3

The word processor has made revisions so easy that we
are often confronted with many different versions of a
document without any easy way to compare them.
DocuComp II is a program that ingeniously resolves
this problem, being designed to compare two
documents, which can be in any of the popular
Macintosh word processor formats. After a certain delay
which could be long depending on the length of the
documents to be compared and the speed of one's
computer, DocuComp II shows both in a comparison
window divided in two where the changes that each has
undergone with the respect to the other are displayed.
More specifically, text that has been removed is
displayed by default with strike-out characters, text that
has been moved is underlined, and inserted text is in
bold. These conventions can be changed to suit the
user. In addition, each text has its own cursor, yet the
cursors are interdependent: moving to a specific place in
one text moves the cursor to the corresponding place in
the other text; it is also possible to move forward and
backward "by change." Saving (in MS Word,
WordPerfect, or text format) or printing produces a
composite document showing all of the modifications
followed by a comparison summary and revision list.
DocuComp II (Advanced Software), $179.95

Grammar Checkers

Users of Microsoft Word 5.0 and 5.1 are probably
familiar with computer grammar checkers, since these
versions are supposed to be able to verify English
grammar when called upon to do so from the "Tools"
menu. Far from being limited to subject - verb
disagreements and the like, they even purport to make
comments on matters as complicated as style. However,
as one might suspect, grammar checkers are woefully
inadequate even with cut-and-dried grammatical issues;
sentences involving syntax more complex than subject-
verb-object overwhelm them (yet it reproaches us with
"sentence too long" or other such remark), as does
punctuation. Fortunately, it is possible to turn off their
features which seem particularly inept, such as style
verification. Curiously, while Word 5.x allows the user
to use different language dictionaries and thesauri by
choosing from pop-up menus under "Preferences,"
there is no way to choose different grammar checkers,
nor are any besides English available in the U.S.
However, the version 5.1 of Word sold in France
includes both British (of course!) and French grammar
checkers; it is the language chosen for the spelling
dictionary which determines the specific grammar
checker used. Unfortunately, the French grammar
checker for Word seems even more incompetent than its
English version; I found that the curly or "smart" quote
option confused it thoroughly, causing it to report a
subject-verb disagreement in the case of "j'ai"!

For those interested in purchasing a French grammar
checker in the States, a Quebecois company called
Logidisque markets "Hugo Plus," a stand-alone
program which can read Microsoft Word 4 and 5,
WordPerfect 2.0, Microsoft Works 2.0, and MacWrite
II files, as well as simple text files. In addition, Hugo
Plus runs on DOS and Windows platforms. It is more
flexible than the built-in Word grammar checker in that
in case of disagreement, you can teach it forms that it
doesn't recognize, but Hugo remains slow and suffers
from the same inability to analyze "complex" sentences
as the Word grammar checkers.

These tools may be well- suited for non-native
language speakers who can both use them as semi-
sophisticated spell checkers, yet students of English and
French as foreign languages might also accept as an
erroneous suggestion from the grammar checkers as an
authoritative correction. Hugo Plus (price unavailable at
press time) Editions Logiques C.P. 10 Succursale D
H3K 3B9 Montreal CANADA (514) 933-2225

American Heritage Dictionary, Deluxe Third Edition

Those who purchased Macintosh promotional "bundles"
at their university computer store are probably familiar
with earlier computerized versions of the American
Heritage which came installed on their computer's hard
disk. The third edition of the American Heritage
Dictionary, which was published in August 1992, has
now been converted into searchable form for the Mac. It
can be purchased in two versions, "standard" and
"deluxe." The deluxe version reproduces the entire
printed version of the AHD without the pictures, and
not surprisingly occupies 14 megabytes of hard disk
space. The "standard" version of the AHD fits in a
much smaller space, 5 megabytes, because it excludes
abbreviations such as "CPU", biographical entries,
geographical entries, universities and colleges, and
Indo-European roots. Both versions include Roget's
thesaurus. Of course, these computerized dictionaries
would only be moderately useful if they could only be
consulted by typing the word one wanted to look up.
Fortunately, the AHD offers "Word Hunter," which
allows the user to use "and," "or," and "not" in word
searches: for example, typing "Greek AND Goddess
AND hunt" gives "Artemis" as a result. You can also
enter wildcard characters ("?" and "*"), to search for all
five-letter words ending in -eme or all words beginning
with anti-. Once you have highlighted a word in your
word processor, the AHD can be consulted by typing
command-shift-8. Words and results can also be copied
from the AHD into your word processor. The AHD will
also find the anagrams of any given word. A wonderful
space-saving tool. American Heritage Dictionary
(WordStar): Standard edition, $59.95

Deluxe edition, $129 note: owners of the second
edition of AHD for the Mac can upgrade for $29 to the
standard edition and $39 (from AHD II college edition)
or $49 (from AHD II office edition) to the deluxe
edition.

DynoDex and DynoPage

Joe Coohill already praised both DynoDex version 2
and the original DynoPage in an earlier review. They are
now available in version 3 (DynoDex) and version 2
(DynoPage). In my opinion DynoDex is the finest
contact database (i.e. computerized address book) for
the Mac. Its superiority is immediately apparent in terms
of its interface. Other contact databases such as
TouchBase make you choose between a list view
showing all of your contacts and a detailed view which
shows all of the information you have accumulated
about a single contact. DynoDex not only gives you the
best of both worlds by displaying this information in
two side-by-side windows, it also allows you to search
for a record instantly by typing the first few letters of a
contact's name. Portfolio Software has added many
features to version 3 of DynoDex. You can define
"Shorthand(TM)" keys to automate typing in different
fields; you can set up the city field, for example, so that
typing " n" inserts "New York" and "c" inserts
"California." It now has a simple word-processor
("memo-writer") built in which allows users to do a
mail-merge without leaving the program. DynoDex also
can "synchronize" or reconcile two Dynodex address
files so that they are identical. You can also easily define
different types of searches which are then inserted into
DynoDex's "Frequent selections" menu; I have different
searches defined as "Friends in France," "Software
companies," and "Scholars" so that choosing one of
these labels instantly displays all of the contacts that
fulfill the associated search criteria. DynoDex can print
in a wide variety of formats and on papers designed to
fit in most personal organizers.

Portfolio also has developed a unique utility called
DynoPage which makes printing considerably more
versatile on your Macintosh. It functions with your
other programs so that you can print to any page size
(you could print 8 1/2 x 11" pages to your organizer,
for example) or print any document double-sided. You
can print fold-and-staple booklets from regular full-size
sheets. Furthermore, different formats can be saved as
DynoPage drop icons onto which you can drop your
files to have them printed automatically. Lastly,
DynoPage comes bundled with Printchooser which
allows you to switch printers either via a new menu
displayed at the top of your screen or from within your
applications by means of a menu extending from "Page
Setup" or "Print" under the file menu. DynoDex,
$89.95 DynoPage, $125.00 (MacConnection sells it for
$49)
Please bear in mind that all prices given above are
suggested retail prices and that software mail-order
houses such as MacConnection frequently offer them at
a 50% discount or more.

* *
* Joseph Coohill Postal Address: *
* Faculty of Modern History Lincoln College *
* Oxford University Oxford OX1 3DR *
* e-mail: United Kingdom *
* coohill@oxford.ac.uk phone: (0865) 279800 *
* *
************************************************************

jmfarmer@students.wisc.edu

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Last Update: 9 April 95