APA Template
Autoflow 1.0
BeyondMeasure Demo 1.1 (XTension)
BeyondMenus Demo 1.0 (XTension)
BibliographyManager II 2.0
Chef 1.1
Insert Date/Time 1.2 (BBEdit)
Jot 1.5.1
MacTranslit 1.3.1
MuEdit 1.3
QuickSearch 1.1
TeX Ref 1.0
Thing-a-ma-Bob (XTension)
UsenEdit 1.1.3
APA Template
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Dan J. Henderson
I remember a client I had once, when I was doing desktop publishing.
He was a Master's student in psychology, trying to struggle through
his thesis. Most of what I did was to take the work he had already
done, look up the appropriate style in the Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association, recreate that style
in Microsoft Word, and apply the styles. When all was said and
done, he'd paid me a good few hundred dollars. If only he'd had
Dan Henderson's APA Template!
This Word document takes care of many of the document formatting
problems encountered by psychologists struggling to publish. It
includes style sheets, headers and footers, footnotes, and other
stylistic information needed to make a paper conform to the aforementioned
APA Publication Manual, (3rd ed.) (1983). In addition to the document
set-up needed, usage examples are given, allowing you to go straight
to the content of your paper without having to worry about the
form.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: American Psychological Association publication manual template
Microsoft word thesis masters doctorate dissertation
Requires: Microsoft Word 5.1 or later
Price: Shareware $15
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Autoflow 1.0
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Matthew Williams
Autoflow is a book-creation tool which, in cooperation with HyperCard,
allows you to present text documents in a pleasing and coherent
way. Any plain TEXT document can be used, and the program includes
copious documentation on how to process text in Microsoft Word.
Options include automatic construction of Tables of Contents,
"bookmarks," pop-up footnotes and a "publisher's notes" section.
If you know enough about designing in HyperCard, it's easy to
design your own "look," or you can use either of the two templates
provided (additional ones are available).
Autoflow takes a bit of practice to master, but that's common
to applications this ambitious in scope. An excellent (and free!)
solution to the common problem of text presentation.
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Keywords: LIBRARY BOOK TOOL HYPERTEXT READ WRITE FREEWARE
Requires: HyperCard 2.1 or later
Price: Freeware
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BeyondMeasure Demo 1.1 (XTension)
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Acrobyte
With version 3.0, Quark's introduced the measurement palette into
its flagship program XPress, and so helped to turn it into the
most accurate layout program in the world. (PageMaker partisans
may argue, but dammit, I'm writing this review, and I like XPress!)
But one problem with it is that the palette is usually at the
bottom of the screen, far from the action. Wouldn't it be great
if the measurement palette's functionality was delivered to your
focus of attention -- the cursor location?
Some of the folks at Acrobyte apparently thought so, and delivered
an XTension which brings floating palettes and a wealth of other
precision measurement functions to XPress. There are three main
additions performed by BeyondMeasure: the floating rulers, a new
tool in the toolbar which shows cursor position, and the "Instant
Dimensions" enhancement, which shows object positions dynamically
as they're being moved.
Compared to other extensions (such as the famous, ubiquitous Kitchen
Sink XTension), this is a one-trick pony. But it's a workhorse,
and you may find yourself learning to need its services within
a few sessions.
NOTE: Demo version 1.1 will timeout 30 days after installation,
or on May 6, 1995 (whichever comes first). With this version,
the file will work with full Quark XPress -- not just the "Demo"
version -- although the authors note that it's not recommended
for use with Quark XPress for Power Macintosh or Quark XPress
for Windows.
Rating: Not Rated
Keywords: measurement float floating layout ruler rulers inch centimeter
centimetre pica pixel cicero quark XPress
Requires: Quark XPress 3.3 or later (but not Quark XPress for Power Macintosh)
Price: Demoware
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BeyondMenus Demo 1.0 (XTension)
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Acrobyte
When I was a freelance layout artist, I partook in the great argument
of such unfortunates: which is better, XPress or PageMaker? I
usually sided with XPress, citing the more sophisticated layout
options, better typographic control, and so forth. Still, there's
one area of XPress that irks me to this day: the lack of good
key combinations for often-used commands.
Apparently, I'm not alone in my frustration. Acrobyte has joined
the fray with a commercial program, BeyondMenus, which makes assigns
a key combination to virtually *every* command. After dropping
it in to the "XTensions" folder, my menus lit up like a Christmas
Tree: suddenly, Show Guides became command-F7 (or command-+ when
using a standard keyboard), Lock Item became command-F6 (or command-period)
and so on through Show Clipboard (command-shift-option-control-C).
BeyondMenu's other major function is to facilitate multi-step
operations and AppleScript (in Macs running System 7.1 or later
with the appropriate extensions). It adds a "Scripts" item to
the menu bar, and each script on that list can be assigned --
you guessed it -- a command-key equivalent!
As is often the case with such programs, however, some of the
keyboard equivalents are invalid when sent through alternate keyboards.
I use a Dvorak layout, and was surprised to find that the "Next
Page" command worked (control-command-N), but not the "Previous
Page" command (control-command-P). Go figure. Fortunately, most
of the new key combinations rely on the "stable" keypad and function
keys, and they can all be remapped as desired.
I remain an XPress partisan, and this XTension negates one of
the program's weaknesses: it's a very cool addition to a very
cool program. In my testing, I couldn't find any significant problems
with the XTension. It's certainly more flexible than similar XTensions
(such as Clik'X): then again, the price for an unrestricted version
is much higher.
But I'm pleased to say that Acrobyte has the right attitude about
"Demoware". Instead of crippling the demo to this valuable XTension,
they've chosen to put a reasonable time limit on its use. It's
fully functional for thirty days or until May 6, 1995, whichever
comes first. (Please note that the documentation incorrectly lists
the expiration date as being in the previous year.)
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Keywords: beyond menus menu keyboard command equivalent shortcut quark
xpress demo xtension extension
Requires: Quark 3.3 or later, AppleScript for use of the "Script" menu
Price: Demoware
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BibliographyManager II 2.0
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: David Tremmel
It's a problem every academic will have to go through eventually:
maintaining a bibliography. It's a problem the should be easy
to solve through computers, but most bibliography templates miss
the mark. Bibliography Manager is an exception: concise, easy-to-use,
and helpful, it's simple enough to have you entering data within
minutes yet powerful enough to see you through an intricate term
paper.
The stack has quite a few built-in advantages over most other
such programs: for one thing, there is a variety of ways to resolve
"orphan" references. A function can assign a each journal name
a shorthand reference, which is added to a pop-up list. It can
then search the stack for all journals which aren't on the list,
and prompt you to add them, giving your bibliography a feeling
of unity, and you a sense of automated control. In addition, the
Search and Mark procedures are streamlined and user-friendly--which
is often not the case in HyperCard stacks. It's not a flashy design,
and it's not the most flexible template available, but this is
clearest, most immediately useful bibliography template I've ever
seen for HyperCard.
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Keywords: BIBLIOGRAPHY LIBRARY RESEARCH PAPERS HYPERCARD
Requires: HyperCard 2.1 or later
Price: Shareware $20
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Chef 1.1
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Mark Pilgrim
It's Sweden's revenge! Open (or drag and drop) a text file with
Chef, and out comes another which has "translated" it into the
Swedish-sounding nonsense popularized by The Swedish Chef on The
Muppets. Extremely quick, even for large files, and a progress
indicator lets you know how much longer you have to wait. For
anyone familiar with Jim Henson's creation, it's a guaranteed
belly laugh. Version 1.1 makes Chef aware of RTF codes (which
stylize text files) so that they're not turned into gobbledygook,
too.
Just to give you an idea of what it does, here's a portion of
that last paragraph, "translated" by Chef:
It's Sveden's refenge-a! Oopee (oor dreg und drup) a text feele-a
veet Cheff, und oooot cumes unuzeer vheech hes "trunsleted" it
intu zee Svedeesh-suoondeeng nunsense-a pupoolereezed by Zee Svedeesh
Cheff oon Zee Mooppets..
NOTE: A bug in Chef causes large text files output to the Desktop
to lose their identities until you restart your Mac. WARNING:
Deselecting the "Add '.bork' suffix" and "Prompt for save filename"
options will cause you to overwrite your original text files with
faux Swedish. Also note that this is the last version of Chef
that will be released: future versions will appear as a part of
"Dialectic," a program which includes other text changers.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: HUMOR JOKE FUN SWEDISH CHEF SWEDEN MUPPETS TEXT FREEWARE
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Freeware
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Insert Date/Time 1.2 (BBEdit)
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Erik C. Thauvin, Raven Systems
BBEdit Lite, the "Bare Bones" text editor originally designed
for programmers, has reached well beyond its target audience to
become one of the useful and popular text editors in the shareware
world. (There's also a commercial version, BBEdit, which includes
additional features.) The key to the programs' success has been
largely due to "Extensions" such as Insert Date/Time, from Raven
Systems.
Through it, the user has access to a feature usually only found
on higher-lever word processors. Simply elect "Insert Date" or
"Insert Time" from the "Extensions" menu, and the current statistics
appear in your document. By holding down modifier keys (option
or command), the statistics are shown in alternate forms.
To install these extensions, place them into the "BBEdit Extensions"
folder and restart (or launch) BBEdit. They will appear in the
BBEdits "Extensions" menu.
Version 1.2 adds "Undo" support when using BBEdit 3.0 or later.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: bare bones edit text processor extension time date year month
hour second day
Requires: BBEdit
Price: Freeware
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Jot 1.5.1
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Scott J. Kleper
Looking for a simple text editor? There's TeachText, SimpleText,
PlainText, BBEdit Lite, and dozens more.. and now there's Jot.
Jot is a simple text editor which, like BBEdit Lite, is geared
toward programmers and users of online services. What it lacks
in text-formatting features (text style, alignment, pagination)
it compensates for through two abilities unusual to text editors:
"auto-quote" and automatic wrapping to 80 columns. The former
makes electronic correspondence clearer by putting a ">" character
before selected lines (such as is customary in the online sphere),
while the latter makes your prose compatible with terminals around
the world.
Ambitious programmers can expand on Jot's capabilities by writing
"Jot Additions," making it fully customizable. Formerly known
as MOW.
Version 1.5.1 repairs many bugs, and presents an overhauled find
and replace function.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: jot text editor bare bones online 80 columns quote autoquote
BBS terminal MOW
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Freeware
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MacTranslit 1.3.1
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Mikhail Fridberg
Now that the Commonwealth of Independent States is on the Internet,
more and more files are finding their way across what was once
the iron curtain. And, as with any international communications,
there are problems. One particularly annoying difficulty is the
result of the many ways of typing Cyrillic-based alphabets: while
there are a few standards, there is no unifying ASCII-style code
to tie them all together. MacTranslit will convert two different
standards into each other (or ASCII) and, with payment of the
shareware fee, will convert many more. In fact, the author will
create a conversion table for you for a nominal fee, should you
come across a system for which he's not already created a conversion
table.
MacTranslit is especially well suited to Internet communications,
as its forte is in handling basic text: translation is efficient,
but formatting will get lost. Note also that texts might not survive
multiple translations: in our tests, putting a file through more
than two or three different conversions tended to mangle its contents.
But the most common use of this application, of course, is to
make a single-use translation on any given file, so this isn't
a significant problem. Na zdorovie!
Version 1.3.1 fixes bugs.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: mactranslit translit TEXT TRANSLATION CONVERSION RUSSIAN CYRILLIC
ASCII UNICODE KOI8 GLASNOST7
Requires: System 7 or later
Price: Shareware $25
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MuEdit 1.3
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Kamal Abdali
MuEdit is a compact, frisky little text editor with enough features
to handle most basic jobs--and some not found on most commercial
word processors. Besides doing the usual text manipulations--different
fonts, type sizes, and styles--it can do some more advances functions,
such as changing the case of letters and converting tabs into
a series of spaces (essential if you're looking for an editor
to prepare texts for BBSes).
This program has a few unusual strengths: a complete online help
utility, a facility in working with WorldScript (for non-latinate
alphabets such as Arabic and Hebrew), and the functions mentioned
above. And finally, a "Find & Replace" window which lets you enter
more than one line of characters! There are also some limitations:
as with TeachText, MuEdit can only open documents 32K or smaller;
Only one alignment (left, right, or centered) can be set for the
whole document; and it doesn't handle two-byte characters such
as those in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese writing. Still, a quick-and-dirty
text editor is always useful: MuEdit is small enough to run in
the background and yet complete enough to handle most simple jobs.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: TEXT EDITOR WORD PROCESSOR telecom CASE LANGUAGES freeware
Requires: System 7 or later
Price: Freeware
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QuickSearch 1.1
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Alain Birtz
What FindPro III does for files, QuickSearch does for text strings:
locates them with unbelievable speed. QuickSearch offers options
to search through selected files, folders, or entire volumes,
whether mounted locally or remotely. Searches, as I mentioned,
are fast: in one test, some 264 files on 50+ megabytes was processed
in under 15 seconds, with a description of each of the 77 occurrences
being written to a text file. Wildcard searches are permitted,
an especially useful feature if you're not sure how the word is
spelled.
A single window controls all of the options, which include searching
by case sensitivity, outputting the text surrounding the occurrence
and the name of the file in which it was found, and many others.
There are some linguistic errors in the texts, but considering
the strength of his programming, francophile M. Birtz can be forgiven
them. Even if this were a commercially distributed program, it
would stand out as an excellent application of search technology.
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Keywords: QUICKSEARCH FILES FIND SEARCH FAST KEYWORDS DOCUMENTS TEXT STRINGS
freeware
Requires: MacWrite II-compatible reader
Price: Freeware
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TeX Ref 1.0
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Michael Mayer
Long before the days of desktop publishing, Unix users have been
compiling documents using a program called TeX. One omission in
TeX's programming, however, made it a bit unwieldy for the graduate
student population it served: there's no good system for renumbering
citations. TeX Ref fills this gap admirably by creating two documents
(one containing the main text, and containing a list of references)
and making updated links between the two on demand. Watching it
make the updates is a trip: it goes backwards through the document,
changing them as it goes, and making notations in a separate window
(which can be printed or saved to a text file). As a result of
this fascinating display, TeX Ref is slow--but not nearly as slow
as doing it by hand.
The included sample documents (in both TeX and plain text formats)
act as a tutorial, as they won't link properly unless you make
some changes. They're amusing as well, with a reference to "Profit
through Accidental Libel." One annoying lack is that the text
doesn't wrap to the window, as it commonly does in text editors,
and there's no way of shortening the lines on the screen. As a
result, you'll find yourself spending a lot of time playing with
the elevator boxes to read your text. But then again, the author
points out that this is not a text editing program: it serves
one function only, that of managing citations for TeX users, and
it does so quite well.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: TEXT BIBLIOGRAPHY REFERENCES FOOTNOTES CITATIONS MANUSCRIPT
JOURNAL
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Shareware $15
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Thing-a-ma-Bob (XTension)
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Quark Software, Inc.
If you're the sort of person whose "XTension" folder has seen
its share of activity, you've no doubt seen earlier versions of
Thing-a-ma-Bob, a sort of "compilation" XTension from Quark itself.
It includes four improvements over the standard interface, formerly
in separate packages. They include:
- Make Fraction/Make Price
- Value Converter palette
- Remove Manual Kerning
- Word Space Tracking
This package works with XPress version 3.3: check for updates
as XPress is updated.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: FEATURES PLUS FREEBIE TOMBOB QUARK XPRESS XTENSION
Requires: Quark XPress 3.3
Price: Freeware
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UsenEdit 1.1.3
Category: Text & Publishing Tools
Author: Erik Schwiebert
UsenEdit is a free text editor which is optimized for online use.
The author describes its features in this way: "UsenEdit is a
simple editor that lets you manipulate text files in any single
font face and in the most common point sizes. It was designed
to cooperate with Peter Speck's excellent Usenet reader "Nuntius,"
as well as to give me a mono-spaced editor that takes less memory
to run than even TeachText!"
Additionally, UsenEdit has several other advantages over TeachText:
tab width can be set, up to three documents can be open at once,
and you have the choice of wrapping text to the window or to a
preset width. Note, however, that there are several restrictions:
printing only supports 10-point Courier, the number of characters
in a text wrap may not be accurate if you use a non-monospaced
font and, as with TeachText, documents must be 32K or smaller.
But UsenEdit is not trying to be the ultimate word processor,
and as a simple utility for online text preparation use, it's
well worth a quick download.
Version 1.1.3 improves the code and some operational features.
Rating: 3 (out of 5)
Keywords: WORD PROCESSOR TEXT EDITOR TEACHTEXT ASCII telecom freeware
Requires: Mac Plus or better
Price: Freeware
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This page was last updated on Monday, February 09, 2004 at 3:06pm CST.
All contents copyright 2005 by Tom Geller.
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