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Cool Mac Gear• iPod Video • iPod nano • iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Garageband |
Moore’s Guide To The Best Free And Cheap Mac Productivity Software 2002 OS X Only
OS X Only Word Processors Okito Composer Okito Composer is definitely the prettiest word processor I’ve ever used. The interface is gorgeous -- a truly professional effort that reminds me of the OmniWeb browser. Composer is not by any means a heavily-featured Word substitute, and doesn’t appear to have aspirations toward the high-end, near-DTP word processor category. It’s more like WriteNow, a small, nimble word processor that attracted a tenaciously loyal fan base back in the early ‘90s, before it got caught up in a takeover deal and was killed off by its new owner. Version 0.4d2, Public Release 4 is the second development release, so there are still features missing, but what’s there is very nice and works well. When completed, Composer will be a full featured word processor including styles, headers and footers, sections, tables (and probably no longer free). The philosophy behind Okito Composer is to provide a tool with which you can spend your time being creative instead of wrestling with the tools that are supposed to help you. Composer is the first full-featured word processor in development to take full advantage of Mac OS X Aqua interface to give you an easy-to-use word processor with all the power of much more difficult packages. Spell checking, for instance, is handled with the OS X Cocoa Spellchecker service. One feature I would like to see added is the ability to save documents as plain text in addition to RTF and RTFD. Word file support is promised for a subsequent build. The program uses RTF format, and the Mac OS X standard RTFD for documents containing graphics. In the future, the RTF format will also support graphics. The Okito Tooldrawer contains a number of palettes that you can use to edit your document. Each of these palettes has a gray titlebar with a disclosure triangle to the left that you can use to show or hide the contents of the palette. System requirements: For more information, visit: Fax Software Cocoa eFax 0.9.6 Fax Software efax is a small ANSI C/POSIX program that sends and receives faxes using any fax modem (internal or external). This Cocoa frontend, lets you send and receive faxes. To view faxes you can use any program that displays PDF files. This is still a beta, and as such it is still changing. Product Requirements: For more information, visit: FTP Client OS X Odyssey 126 - Captain FTP 1.3 Sets Sail Even if Captain FTP were not a superb little FTP client, which it is, paying a visit to the Captain FTP Web site would be well worth the effort just to see how good Website design done well can be. You’ll need a browser with JavaScript support, though, in order to experience the full effect. Captain FTP is exclusively built for Mac OS X. To my sense of aesthetics, Captain FTP is the prettiest FTP client I’ve used in either Classic or OS X. It employs by default (now user customizable) the familiar two-window interface motif pioneered by the old Font/DA Mover utility way back in System 6 days, which is still intuitively functional. The interface design is clear, bright, and uses the Aqua theme very effectively. It can upload/download files by dragging them from one interface window to the other, or directly to or from the Desktop. New is this version is the ability to import address books from Fetch or Transmit. A small progress bar with process information appears in the lower left corner of the interface window during connection and file transfers. This Global Progress Indicator displays the estimated time remaining till the end of transfers. Multiple files can be selected and group transferred. A Stop button enables the user to stop an operation at any time, without the necessity of breaking the Captain FTP is freeware for educational and individual users., but the default installation is a 14-day demo. In order to enable unrestricted use, you must register the product on the Captain FTP Website. This involves completing a four-panel form, upon which a registration key will be emailed to you immediately. The message was there as soon as I checked myinbox. I entered the key by copying and pasting it into the appropriate dialog box, and all was well. CAPTAIN FTP MAJOR FEATURES System requirements: For more information, visit: RBrowserLite 3.0.6 FTP Client RBrowserLite is the slightly fewer-featured freeware sibling of the shareware RBrowser client. I’ve found RBrowserLite to be fast, reliable, and pleasant to use, with an attractive interface and more features than I need for my modest FTP task requirements. RBrowserLite uses a single-window interface motif, as opposed to the double-window format of some of its competitors. I have no strong preference, but I’m quite used to the single-window, as the Vicom FTP Client I use in OS 9 has that type of interface as well, and it works for me. The window shows files in the FTP server directory you are connected to. There is also an optional process window you can open to monitor the progress of uploads and downloads. Features: System requirements: Download: RBrowserLite is freeware Ê For more information, visit: SpellChecker cocoAspell 1.2 Spell Check Service One of the cool features built into OS X is its Spelling service, which provides spell checking to OS X-native Cocoa applications and even has a correct-as-you type feature. This is very convenient for those who work in applications like the Text Edit text editor, the Okito Composer beta, or even Stickies, providing a spell check function without having to launch a separate spell check application. The downside of Apple’s OS X spelling service is that dictionary support is more than a bit sparse, and I’m personally not enchanted by the interface window, which is serviceable but minimalist in terms of options and controls. cocoAspell is a freeware enhancement to the OS X spelling service, actually the port by Anton Leuski of Kevin Atkinson’s Open Source Aspell UNIX command line spell check application. An extensive selection of Aspell dictionaries is available, but the four bundled with the basic cocoAspell Service/Preferences Pane download -- American English, Canadian English, British English, and just plain English, pretty much cover the bases for me. System requirements: cocoAspell is freeware Ê For more information, visit: Legacy Mac OS/ OS X Classic Mode Only
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