And you don't even know what you've got 'till it's walking away
Yeah you don't even know what you had 'till it laughs in your face

So sang Tom Petty in "This One's for Me," one of the better songs from his Echo album. Funny thing is, I always took that lyric to be about a girl. Ends up, no. I've recently discovered that Tom is actually lamenting the loss of DataViz's MacLinkPlus from his Macintosh utilities folder.

I used to be right there with Tom on this one, but I never even knew it. As those of us on second or third Macs know, a lite version MacLinkPlus used to be included on every CPU we purchased. Not anymore. Instead we get the increasingly useless File Exchange. But now, two CPUs removed from the last version of MacLinkPlus I used (I have no idea which version that was), I was given the opportunity to review DataViz's latest version, now called MacLinkPlus Deluxe v12.

I'm not sure how I lasted so long without it.

Basically stated, MacLinkPlus Deluxe translates and opens files that were created with programs you may not have on your Mac, including those created by some PC only programs. In other words, if you're used to seeing gibberish when opening files your friends or clients send you, you'll now see formatted text, pie charts, baby photos, etc. Seeing that MacLinkPlus Deluxe could translate Word Star documents, I started digging through my old college files to see if I could open some of my term papers. I gave up pretty quickly, though, realizing that my G4 probably would have trouble reading a 5 1/4" floppy.

MacLinkPlus Deluxe can work with around 30 types of word processing files, 20 spreadsheet files, 10 database programs and 10 graphic formats. Those who have version 11 and just want to know what's new, well...

• Lotus Millennium v9.5
• WordPerfect for Windows v9.0
• Quatro Pro Windows v9.0 (are all Windows apps currently at v9.x?) - read only
• AppleWorks word processor and spreadsheet files - read only

You don't need to panic too much about that AppleWorks "read only" warning. An "AppleWorks 6 via AppleWorks 5" translator will translate other files to AppleWorks 5 documents that can then be opened in AppleWorks 6. Translating AppleWorks files into other applications is supported through the normal methods.

The user interface has also been updated, but it's been so long since I've used MacLinkPlus that I can't recall what the old interface looked like. The same goes for the updated viewing technology. What I can comment on is the decoding of e-mail attachments, which MacLinkPlus Deluxe handles without fail. Granted, most e-mail programs can these days can handle the BinHex, MIME and uuEncode encoding method that MacLinkPlus Deluxe supports, but it's better to be safe than sorry. The same goes for the compression methods supported by DataViz's program, all of which are supported by the free StuffIt Expander.

I've found that no matter what the original format of the document, MacLinkPlus Deluxe always did a better job of translating the file than doing it from within the chosen application. For instance, Word 98 says it can read many WordPerfect files, but it doesn't do it well. Tabs and margins inevitably get screwed up, and sometimes odd colors were even introduced. Not so in MacLinkPlus Deluxe where formatting rarely got jumbled and I didn't have to clean up myriad extraneous tabs.

MacLinkPlus Deluxe installs with many translaters ready to go, but more can be added. Clicking on an unknown document then initiates a prompt where you can choose into which app you want MacLinkPlus Deluxe to translate the file. Sadly, neither of my current word processors of choice, Mariner Write v2.1 or Nisus Writer v6.0.1, are supported (Nisus Writer is handled through v4 only). Neither is BBEdit, nor HTML documents at all, for that matter.

Despite these shortcomings, I'm thrilled to be working with MacLinkPlus Deluxe once again. Whereas those with version 11 probably won't need the upgrade (unless they require access to the formats listed above), those without any version will certainly benefit. No longer will I have to waste time cleaning up documents, explaining to clients how to save files in RTF format, or waiting in line for a computer at Kinko's. If MacLinkPlus can't open it, it's probably not worth opening.

Hey, that's pretty good. DataViz may want to use that line on their boxes...or perhaps Tom Petty could use it on his next album. Don't laugh, we're talking about the guy who once sang about Joe Piscopo.

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