Info-Mac 3/Info_Mac_1994-01.iso/Periodical/TidBITs/TidBITS#189

Internet Message Format | 1993-12-31 | 29KB

From: [e-mail] (Adam C. Engst)
Subject: TidBITS#189/16-Aug-93
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 93 21:24:45 PDT

TidBITS#189/16-Aug-93
=====================

This week we have information about free software that makes
   LaserWriter Pros snooze, more on mysterious Duo shutdowns,
   unfortunate news about attaching an AudioVision monitor to a
   Quadra 840AV, additional details on the Prodigy gateway, more
   on PageMaker 5.0 with a clarification of last week's mention,
   news about a possible bug with overtraining the MessagePad's
   handwriting recognition, and the start of a multi-part,
   technical look at the Newton.

This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 -- [e-mail]
   Makers of hard drives, tape drives, memory, and accessories.
   For APS price lists, email: [e-mail]  <---- New!

Copyright 1990-1993 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue.
   Automated info: <[e-mail]> Comments: <[e-mail]>
   --------------------------------------------------------------

Topics:
    MailBITS/16-Aug-93
    Empowering Your Duo II or How Dumb Can I Be?
    PageMaker 5.0, Finally
    Using the Newton MessagePad
    Reviews/16-Aug-93

[Archived as /info-mac/per/tb/tidbits-189.etx; 29K]


MailBITS/16-Aug-93
------------------
  Adam is in electronic hiding for a few weeks as he finishes
  writing The Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh. Although he claims
  he will read his email, please don't expect responses to anything
  but the most urgent messages. Thanks for your understanding.
  -Tonya


**PageMaker's not alone** -- Mark H. Anbinder writes to clarify
  his comments about PageMaker's capability of dragging objects
  between document windows in TidBITS #188_. "Thanks to everyone
  who's commented that XPress has offered this feature for some
  time. As a long-time XPress user myself, I am aware of this but
  was attempting to focus on the fact that Aldus, in giving
  PageMaker the capability to handle multiple documents, had done it
  right. I never intended to suggest that no one else had done so,
  just that much of the rest of the market has not."


**Newton's Law** -- One's affinity to Newton is directly
  proportional to how well it recognizes one's handwriting. -Ross
  Scott Rubin. [However, it is fun to consult the Newton Oracle by
  drawing squiggles in the NotePad and seeing how it interprets
  them. And then there's the Newton's unfortunate predilection for
  recognizing "call" as "kill" - a wee problem when entering to do
  items. -Adam]


**Too much of a good thing** -- We've heard a number of complaints
  that indicate you can overtrain a MessagePad to your handwriting.
  Too much training may confuse the poor little thing, causing
  recognition to decrease after significant usage. The only solution
  that seems to make any difference is to toss your preferences and
  start over. We hope Apple will have some suggestions about this
  problem soon.


**The Quadra 840AV** surprisingly does not come with a cable for
  Apple's new AudioVision Monitor. This in itself would be
  understandable if the monitor came with a working cable, but the
  cable doesn't plug into any of the 840's ports. Evidently, Apple
  plans to add the proper port to future 840s, but in the meantime
  you have to call Apple and order a special cable. Russ Black
  <[e-mail]> posted a note about this on
  comp.sys.mac.announce and said that Apple charged him for the
  cable and that their current computerized ordering system didn't
  even know about it. Apple, you can do better!


**Putting printers to sleep.** We've recently caught wind of a
  useful and politically correct freeware program released by
  Apple's Energy Star group. The program lets a LaserWriter Pro go
  to sleep after a specified amount of inactivity to save energy. We
  applaud Apple for creating a program that not only decreases wear
  and tear on the printer but also saves energy. So if you own a
  LaserWriter Pro that spends most of its time turned on, check it
  out and give your printer some much needed rest. It's available
  for FTP from <sumex-aim.stanford.edu> as:

    info-mac/prn/laserwriter-pro-sleep.hqx


**Prodigy/Internet** email details are still fuzzy, but Jeff
  Needleman <[e-mail]> said that the software for Macs to
  receive Internet email works fine, but the software for sending
  only works for DOS machines. So, Prodigy has to decide if it will
  allow one-way Internet access for Macintosh users, at least until
  a version of the software that can send Internet email appears on
  the Mac side of things. Why do we suspect this will slow the
  entire process down a good bit?


Empowering Your Duo II or How Dumb Can I Be?
--------------------------------------------
  by Bill Dickson -- [e-mail]

  In TidBITS #183_, I gave a brief account of a simple solution to a
  common Duo problem - poor contact between the battery and the Duo,
  resulting in frequent shutdowns. The solution, to rehash for a
  moment, was to reach into the Duo with a small, non-metallic
  object and carefully bend the power leads up so they would make
  firmer contact. And it worked.

  For a while, anyway. One day, my Duo shut down again, and I
  cleverly thought, "Aha! The leads need a little more
  encouragement."

  Well, I learned something. I learned that it is, in fact, possible
  to bend one of the leads just far enough that, when you push the
  battery in, the lead will bend the wrong way and flatten against
  the back of the battery chamber. It is then very difficult to bend
  it back. So be warned that this little fix can fix you but good.

  Now, you might be interested in a bit more helpful info on the
  problem. Some Duos do indeed have a problem with the battery
  connections. Apple knows about it, but hasn't deigned to tell the
  world. Apparently the foam pad under the leads isn't quite thick
  enough in some cases, and doesn't provide enough resistance.
  However, if you call Apple at 800/SOS-APPL and describe your
  problem, they will send you a prepaid shipping box and return your
  machine in several working days, (in my case anyway) complete with
  a new logic board and new rubber bumpers for the sides of your
  machine. The woman I spoke to was extremely friendly and helpful,
  and my machine arrived back a day earlier than expected.

  Also, you may be suffering from this shutdown problem even if
  there isn't anything wrong with your power leads. Apple sanctions
  this fix (they just forgot to put it in the manual), so try it
  without fear (if you're still nervous, talk it over with Apple
  first):

1) Take your battery out.

2) Note that the battery shutter appears to be all the way in the
  "open" position.

3) Ignore this fact, and slide it another quarter-inch in the
  "open" direction. You will have to pull hard the first few times,
  but it loosens up later. You'll hear a loud snap, and then the
  shutter will stop again.

4) Resting it on a table or some such object, tilt the Duo
  carefully back onto its back edge.

5) Carefully slide the battery most of the way into the
  compartment, then _drop_ it the last half-inch. Really. That's how
  Apple's repair folks do it.

  When finished, the seam between the battery and the Duo's case
  should be indistinguishable from the seam on the other side of the
  mouse button.

  If you don't follow these steps, the battery does not seat
  correctly, and you get - surprise! - poor contact with the leads.

  I apologize for the bad advice last time and hope nobody suffered
  from it. Give the battery trick a try and see what happens. If you
  still have problems, call Apple and have your machine fixed,
  quickly and for free. I did, and I didn't turn to dust without my
  machine, much to my surprise.


PageMaker 5.0, Finally
----------------------
  by Thomas A. Overfield -- [e-mail]

  Thankfully for Aldus and the many users of its PageMaker page
  layout software, one of the most eagerly awaited upgrades of the
  year is here. PageMaker was once the premiere package for creating
  publications, but years of stagnation on the feature front and
  cut-throat competition from arch-rival Quark XPress has steadily
  eroded Aldus's user base. With Quark providing users with advanced
  typographic control, built-in color separation, multiple open
  windows, floating control palettes, and an extensible program
  architecture through Quark Xtensions, Aldus had a lot of catching
  up to do. The new version keeps the old PageMaker interface
  (arguably the best in the business) and adds most of Quark
  XPress's features plus a few new ones for good measure.


First Impressions
  You won't find any surprises when you first boot PageMaker 5.0.
  Other than a spiffy new picture of Aldus Manutius on startup, it
  looks much like the previous incarnation. You may notice that the
  toolbox has a new tool that looks much like the rotate tool in
  Quark XPress. In fact, it is a rotate tool and you can now freely
  rotate text or graphics to any angle with text remaining editable.
  Previous versions limited you to 90 degree rotational increments
  and text that you couldn't edit without using the Story Editor.

  More surprises await in the menus. Under the Window menu you'll
  see Tile and Cascade. Yes, after all these years PageMaker can
  finally open more than one document, supposedly as many as memory
  allows [although we've heard rumors that PageMaker has some memory
  leaks as a result of this feature. -Adam]. And just like XPress,
  you can drag elements from window to window without using copy and
  paste.

  Other menu options include the traditional style, color, and
  control palettes plus a new one called Library. If you're familiar
  with XPress then you will have no problem using PageMaker's
  libraries, because they function identically to XPress's. You can
  store often-used graphic elements in a library for future use. You
  can group libraries by subject or job, or call them up and have
  their contents conveniently available. To use a library object,
  all you do is drag it onto the page. Yet, unlike XPress, you
  cannot drag objects into a library, you must use a select and
  paste method. PageMaker's libraries improve upon XPress's in two
  important regards: they have a search function and support Fetch,
  Aldus's multimedia cataloging program.


Palette Changes
  PageMaker's old palettes have improved. Most changed is the
  Control palette, which in the past did little more than let you
  move elements around the page. XPress's similar Measurements
  palette was capable of specifications like font selection,
  leading, kerning, tracking, justification, skew, and rotational
  angle in addition to positioning. Now Aldus has one-upped Quark
  with a superb Control palette that does all of what XPress's does
  and somehow includes the kitchen sink as well. For textural work
  the Control palette adds the functions of baseline shift and
  horizontal scaling to XPress's standards. One click on a button
  with the pilcrow symbol and the palette changes to one centered on
  style functions. Here you can choose a text style; first line,
  left, and right indent, and paragraph spacing. In graphics mode
  this palette matches XPress with mirroring, cropping, skewing,
  positioning, and rotating.

  The new Color palette works somewhat like its equivalent in
  FreeHand, allowing you to specify whether to apply the color to
  line, fill, or both. However, PageMaker lacks the handy menu on
  FreeHand's palette that allows you to create new colors and modify
  old ones, although the command-click color editing shortcut still
  works. Also, PageMaker now supports a multitude of color libraries
  including Pantone, ToyoPC, Focoltone, DIC, and Trumatch.


Additions
  Aldus is also trying to best Quark XPress in Additions, modules
  that add functionality to the program. PageMaker's Library
  function itself is an Addition. Many other Additions ship with
  PageMaker, including ones that make initial dropped capitals,
  traverse text blocks, balance columns, get information, and do
  something unique called "Expert Kerning," which theoretically goes
  through selected text and kerns character pairs better than the
  font's built-in kerning tables.

  The Additions don't always work well. Expert Kerning takes about
  as long as flying in an expert to kern your text. A small
  paragraph took in excess of five minutes. Reserve this feature for
  an unattended overnight run when working on an entire document.
  The results of this process are mixed and its methods are a
  mystery. The automated drop cap feature is also a disappointment.
  PageMaker creates a drop cap by tabbing in the number of lines
  equivalent to the drop cap's height and placing it on the line
  where the letter's baseline rests. This method can cause some
  sticky situations later with editing or reformatting. Quark does a
  better automatic drop cap, where the drop cap is considered a
  character on the first line and doesn't cause future editing
  problems.


Notably Good
  On a more positive and useful note is PageMaker's support for font
  matching schemes. PageMaker uses the Panose matching scheme which
  interactively asks for replacement typefaces if those used by the
  document don't exist. It keeps a record of these substitutions for
  future use. Panose also can attempt to duplicate the font metrics
  of the missing typeface using a default font. This feature makes
  the best of bad situations, and is worthwhile because it
  eliminates the possibility of ever seeing courier taking the place
  of another face. PageMaker also supports Adobe's SuperATM.

  I should also mention that PageMaker has an excellent new help and
  training system.

  Of all the new bells and whistles, the most important feature for
  professionals is built-in color separation for full color
  printing. In version 4.2 you used a separate application for
  creating color separations, a tedious and complex procedure. Quark
  XPress 3.0 and up included excellent separation functionality in
  the program itself, winning many converts for this reason alone.
  PageMaker now includes a flexible and comprehensible separation
  function accessible from its print dialogs.

  In addition to the new features, PageMaker still supports the
  excellent features from past versions that Quark XPress lacks,
  such as a time-saving indexing feature and table of contents
  generator. These features alone can save hours of work on long or
  technical documents. The best feature of PageMaker continues to be
  the Story Editor, which provides word processor-like editing
  facilities within PageMaker. The Story Editor seriously eases the
  process of editing or writing text in a layout. Also handy is
  PageMaker's ability to open an embedded graphic in its original
  program for easy editing. And, although XPress has a spelling
  checker, PageMaker's is more intuitive, allows for dictionary
  modification, and just plain works better.


Room for Improvement
  Still, even after this major overhaul, PageMaker is not all wine
  and roses. Several problems still stand out. The program has an
  overall slow feel to it, even on a Quadra. It doesn't help matters
  that the new Control palette's three-dimensional buttons seem to
  respond slower than XPress's traditional ones. Aldus Additions
  continue to run as slow as molasses and are shamed by XPress's
  seamless Xtension technology. PageMaker's RAM requirements are
  quite large at 4 MB and it sucks up nearly 10 MB of disk space.

  I'd like to see PageMaker support character styles like most
  modern word processors. Another pet peeve of mine is PageMaker's
  lack of arrowheads for lines. But it does, finally, let you
  specify any line width. And, lastly, PageMaker _still_ lacks tools
  for aligning text and graphics.

  As a user of PageMaker from version 2.0 I've always appreciated
  its excellent interface and ease of use. As the competition
  excelled in providing the features users needed I, like many
  others, moved to another program for the bulk of my work. Now with
  PageMaker 5.0 users like me can come home again.


Pricing
  The retail package costs $895, but you can upgrade for $75 if you
  upgraded to version 4.2 from a previous purchase, and all other
  owners of earlier PageMaker versions can upgrade for $150. The
  only exception is if you bought a retail copy of version 4.2 after
  01-Jan-93, you get a free update. Aldus is also offering a $25
  upgrade rebate for all upgrades purchased before 31-Aug-93.

    Aldus -- 206/628-2320

  [It seems that the 800 number listed on at least one of the
  upgrade notices sent to registered users is the number for a small
  electronics firm. As of last Tuesday, they were still confused as
  to why they were receiving a lot of wrong numbers, so I hope Aldus
  has addressed the problem for them. -Adam]

  Information from:
    Aldus propaganda


Using the Newton MessagePad
---------------------------
  by Tom Thompson, BYTE Senior Tech Editor -- [e-mail]

  [This is the first of a several part series that we plan to run
  about the Newton. We'll have a look at the hardware, the operating
  system, some devil's advocacy, and third-party add-on information.
  This week we bring you a detailed look at using the Newton, with
  more real-life details than we've read elsewhere. -Tonya]

  A flick on a spring-loaded slider awakens the MessagePad and it
  comes up in the application you were last using or showing a big
  Newton logo and a window for writing the password.

  Once you are in, you move around the different parts of the system
  by tapping the icons below the screen: Names, Dates, Extras, Undo,
  Find, and Assist. The default application is a notepad, but by
  tapping the Names and Dates icons, a Rolodex-type application and
  a scheduling/to-do list application load, respectively. The Extras
  icon opens a window with icons for utility programs, such as the
  Prefs program which lets you adjust the MessagePad's settings.
  Extras also has In and Out Boxes for incoming serial or beamed
  data and outgoing print jobs, faxes, or beams. The icons for
  programs on PCMCIA ROM cards appear here as well. Between Extras
  and Undo sit the vertical scroll arrows that steer you up and down
  through multiple screens of text or graphics. Undo has two levels.
  Find searches for information in either the current application or
  the entire system. Assist summons Intelligent Assistance to
  perform a job for you. I checked out the Intelligent Assistance by
  writing "See Rob Monday at 10" in the NotePad. I then tapped the
  Assist button, causing the Assistance to open the scheduler, find
  the upcoming Monday's date, and put the note "See Rob" into the
  appropriate 10 AM slot.

  Certain applications will present various icons at specific times.
  For instance, a small folder icon lets you organize lists of
  information in up to 12 named folders, a keyboard icon summons the
  mini-keyboard, and a letter icon provides access to the mail,
  printer, fax, and beam functions. The letter icon also lets you
  duplicate or delete objects.

  Small diamonds indicate pop-up menus that appear with a tap. This
  pop-up menu remains present until you select a menu item or tap
  elsewhere on the screen. Small boxes with an X in them function
  identically to Mac window close boxes. In all, the interface is
  uncluttered and easy to understand.


Text Entry
  You enter information by writing or sketching on the screen. If
  the text recognizer misinterprets portions of a word, you can
  correct the error by jotting a new character over the incorrect
  one. You wipe out entries with a scrubbing gesture over the
  offending text or graphic. The MessagePad then erases it with a
  smoke puff animation. Other gestures add spaces between characters
  or convert them to upper or lower case. Tapping on a word twice
  summons a pop-up menu with alternate interpretations of the word,
  the "ink" image of the word, and a keyboard icon. If one of the
  alternate words is the correct word, you pick it on this menu. To
  save the writing as ink, you select the image. Choosing the
  keyboard icon summons a miniature keyboard where you can tap on
  the keys to make corrections in a pinch.

  The text recognizer works well and interpreted most of my printed
  text. I wrote "handwriting recognition fairly hit-and-miss", and
  the text recognizer got the first three words correctly, and came
  up with gibberish for the last three words. The dashes caused the
  gibberish. According a draft copy of the MessagePad Handbook,
  punctuation must be placed close to the word to be recognized
  properly. Because the recognizer uses dictionaries and name lists
  (your own additions to the dictionary) for the recognition
  process, results of interpreting my handwriting were either
  frighteningly accurate or a hodgepodge of obscure words and
  numbers. Nevertheless, the recognizer is adept at handling certain
  writing idiosyncrasies. When I take notes, I go back and dot the
  i's after first writing the word. This quirk didn't bother the
  recognizer at all.

  A Handwriting Practice section in the Prefs area provides practice
  words to write so that the Newton OS can analyze and adapt to your
  writing style. It takes about 150 words to train the text
  recognizer. When you use a MessagePad for the first time, it pays
  to spend a half-hour or more in this section. In the Handwriting
  Styles section, a slider lets you specify how much of your writing
  is cursive, printed, or a mixture of the two. A Recognition
  Preferences section lets you fine-tune both the text and graphics
  recognizers for certain situations (in text, whether to recognize
  numbers and punctuation; in graphics, whether to connect shapes in
  a drawing, among other options). Overall, I was impressed with the
  MessagePad's text recognition, but I print blocky letters (an old
  habit from my FORTRAN days). Still, be prepared to use Undo and
  practice the gestures to make corrections.


Selecting, Dragging, and Parking
  To select an object, you hold the stylus on the graphic or text
  until a large ink blotch appears. You then swab this ink, which
  acts like a highlighting marker, over what you want to select.
  Tapping twice on a selected object and holding the pen down makes
  a copy of the object that you can then drag elsewhere.

  After you select an object, you can "park" it by dragging it to
  the screen's edge, flip to another Newton application, and drag
  the object into that application. It's a nice visual metaphor for
  a Clipboard that should be easy for the non-computer user to
  grasp. Also, programs can control what type of information gets
  placed in an object. For example, when you enter a phone number in
  the Personal area, the window you write in only accepts digits.
  This goes a long way to reducing user errors.


Linking to the Desktop
  What if you have hundred names and numbers on your desktop
  computer, and you'd like them in a MessagePad? Or, you've recorded
  dozens of new contacts on the MessagePad, and want the information
  on your Mac or Windows PC? Apple provides a Newton Connection Kit
  for just this purpose. You connect to the desktop computer with
  the supplied serial cable, or in the case of a networked Mac, by
  plugging the MessagePad into a connector on a LocalTalk network. A
  Newton Connection application running on the host computer
  establishes communications with the MessagePad, and
  synchronization of the data between the computer and MessagePad
  happens automatically when the machines connect. You can use this
  method to backup MessagePad data or install new programs.


Printing and Faxing
  To test printing, I plugged the MessagePad into a LocalTalk node
  on BYTE's AppleTalk network. From the Outbox, a printer selection
  window showed me the various network zones and PostScript
  printers. A tap on a printer name, then one on the close box, and
  another tap on a Print button, and a minute later a duplicate of
  the note appeared on a page coming out of a LaserWriter Pro 630.
  Faxing didn't work so well for me. Lacking a MessagePad fax modem,
  I plugged a Global Village TelePort/Gold fax modem into the serial
  port. According to the status window, the MessagePad attempted to
  connect to the modem, but never succeeded. So much for using
  third-party modems at the moment, but remember, this was beta
  hardware and software.


Thoughts
  Based on just the built-in Name and Date applications, the
  MessagePad doesn't seem much of a win. After all, you can use the
  low-tech yet practical schedule book and rolodex to arrange
  meetings and track contact information. However, a MessagePad
  equipped with a functional fax/modem and Messaging Card for email
  changes the situation and might make a MessagePad perfect for
  people who travel constantly and yet must make decision to turn a
  business on a dime.

  Third-party Newton applications may make a case for owning a
  MessagePad. For example, GeoSystems' Fodor's 1994 Travel Manager
  lets you call up the maps of ten largest cities in the U.S. and
  locate hotels with their phone numbers. Selecting a hotel in, say,
  Boston, gets you a bitmapped map of the city with a circle
  outlining the hotel's location. Tapping on the circle zooms you
  into a map of the city block, complete with street names. You can
  summon up a To/From window, where you can drop in the hotel's
  name, and the name of a restaurant you located in another part of
  the application. You then get street by street directions from the
  hotel to the restaurant. The ability to navigate through a new
  city using the MessagePad shows its value as a general-purpose
  device, given the proper software. [If this proves popular and
  MessagePads sell in other parts of the world, I see no reason why
  GeoSystems wouldn't put out software for cities worldwide. -Tonya]

  For vertical markets, the MessagePad's light weight, combined with
  the ability of the Newton OS to restrict the types of data entry
  makes it suitable for forms handling. As an example, an insurance
  company's accident form might allow text entries in some sections,
  numbers only in other sections, with an area where a field agent
  can sketch an accident scene using only ink. [More on third-party
  applications coming in a future TidBITS issue. -Tonya]

  The MessagePad, as the first implementation of Newton technology,
  is an impressive technical achievement. Based on my experience
  with the beta unit, the Newton OS is fast and stable, and the
  Intelligent Assistance does a good job performing useful tasks
  based on the information in the system and the context of your
  actions. Currently, there are few applications that can take
  advantage of the Newton technology. However, that will change. The
  MessagePad is an excellent platform from which developers can
  create the applications that can do new and innovative things on
  the handheld, mobile computer that the MessagePad represents.


Reviews/16-Aug-93
-----------------

* MacWEEK -- 09-Aug-93, Vol. 7, #32
    Now Compress 1.0 -- pg. 55
    PacerTerm 2.0 -- pg. 55
    MobileWriterPS -- pg. 60
    ARA Commander 1.0 -- pg. 62
    LinksWare 3.0 -- pg. 64


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