Cool Mac Gear

As promised when they released NotePad Deluxe 2.3 for OS X last month, Ibrium HB of Sweden has now released version 2.3.1 which supports Mac OS8/9 as well as OS X.

I’m very pleased that Ibrium is continuing to support the Classic OS with NotePad Deluxe, one of my favorite and most-used applications -- a powerful little desktop database than I use as a storage and retrieval tool for all sorts of research material.

Aside from the Classic OS support, NotePad Deluxe version 2.3.1 is a minor upgrade, with only the following changes listed:
• Auto-sort crash bug fixed
• First 2.3 release version for OS8/9

However, version 2.3 included some significant feature enhancements, including:
• Embedded pictures (pictures within notes)
• Browser objects (QT movies, pictures, sounds, etc.)
• File links / aliases to external files
• HTML viewing of local HTML files
• Internal browser aliases
• RTF import/export
• Export to single file
• Better Mac/UNIX/PC line feeds
• Trash system
• Global scrap
• Search result listing
• Database file structure - the database is now a bundle
• Quartz rendering in OSX 10.1.5 and newer
• More than 30 chars in the header
• Better inline input

I recently did a full review of NotePad Deluxe 2.3 for OS X, which you can read here:
http://www.applelinks.com/mooresviews/npdsnc.shtml

Version 2.3.x has a new file format that is not backward compatible, so I have actually reverted to using version 2.2 In Classic Mode when running in OS X in order to maintain file compatibility when I’m back in OS 9.2.2, nut version 2.3.1 for OS 8/9 will eliminate the necessity for doing that.

Installation of version 2.3.1 was as simple as double-clicking the NPD application icon after the file decompressed. It even assimilated my registration number from the NPD 2.2 installation, making the transition virtually seamless. THe program does ask if you want to convert existing NPD databases to the new version 2.3.x file format.

As you can see from these comparison screenshots, the interface appearance has changed slightly, with the addition of a gaggle of icons above the right, database browsing pane, and the elimination of the former tabs for Notes and Help. I find this an improvement. The important thing is that NotePad Deluxe is still fast and slick -- just a bit more refined and with some cool new features.

The new RTF support is especially uesful, and NPD is now also an extremely convenient RTF file reader in either OS X or the Classic OS. Just drag an RTF file into an empty NPD note window and it’s instantly readable and editable with full formatting support.

For full details on NotePad Deluxe and how it works, see my Sept. 5 full review of NPD 2.3:
http://www.applelinks.com/mooresviews/npdsnc.shtml

System requirements:
• OS 7.5 and up
• Mac OS X 10.0 or higher

NotePad Deluxe is $25.00 Shareware

For more information, visit:
http://www.ibrium.se/npdmain.html

Charles W. Moore

Cool Mac Gear