As we've said, Macworld wasn't a show full of innovation this year. We did see some neat things, and we saw some stuff so expensive we didn't even bother to look at it, but mainly it was the show of the upgrade. Unfortunately, many of the upgrades weren't to be had for mere mortals.

The most notable absentee upgrade was HyperCard 2.0, though developers were able to show their stuff running under beta versions. Kevin Calhoun, the project leader, gave a nice demo of HyperCard 2.0 to the brave souls assembled at the User Group Breakfast at 7:00 AM, including a stack listing the top ten tongue-in-cheek reasons why HyperCard is not shipping. I stopped taking notes when I graduated from Cornell, so you'll have to guess at what they are.

CE Software demoed QuicKeys 2.0 (shipping soon for a $49 upgrade fee, $39 if you picked up a form at Macworld), and it looks like it has added nice features, like a recorder that records your movements and plays them back with the same timing as the original. The Quick Reference Card is "hot" now, in that you can click on a macro listing to run the macro, rather than having to quit the card and remember the keystrokes.

Later this fall, WordPerfect 2.0 will become a true Macintosh word processor (while still retaining the code system for people who find it an aid in analyzing document weirdness), with a better interface that allows easy manipulation of column, tables, rulers, and the like. WordPerfect 2.0 includes a hefty graphics editor that can put graphics under text, on top of text, or within the text. The macros are editable and are probably pretty similar to the macro language in WordPerfect 5.1 for the PC. Good, but my money's still on Nisus.

Adobe hasn't been sitting around either. It announced version 3.0 of Illustrator, its high-end graphics package. New features include improved text handling - ATM 2.0 will be bundled with it - graphing abilities, and an improved interface.

CE Software -- 515/224-1995
WordPerfect -- 800/336-3614 -- 801/226-5522
Adobe Systems -- 415/961-4400

Information from:
Adam C. Engst -- TidBITS Editor

Related articles:
MacWEEK -- 07-Aug-90, Vol. 4 #27, pg. 3
MacWEEK -- 31-Jul-90, Vol. 4 #26, pg. 1