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FEATURESthough it must exist in the palette) andintensity of your shadows, their offsetfrom the object and the quality of thefinal effect.In addition to the scripts I’ve mentionedthere are also many others which justmakes life with PageStream even easier,if you’re a PageStreamer you’d be madnot to check Michael’s page out!FW CalendarBy Ron Goertz -home.earthlink.net/~goertz/Ron/Another fantastic AREXX script, and thisone is so flexible, not only does it supportboth Final Writer (version 4+) andPageStream (3 and 4) but it also workswith two GUI systems Triton andClassAct... all in the one script, amazing!The purpose of FWCalendar is... you’veguessed it... to generate calendars andit does this with great aplomb. Firstlyyou have the choice of two styles, eithera number of months (up to a year) onone page or one month per page. Thescript is supplied with preferences filescontaining the public holidays for manycountries so special days will be appropriatelymarked when you generateyour calendars. Then there is a separateutility to add events to your country’scalendar, for example birthdays, anniversariesor holidays. Events canstretch for more than one day and youcan select for them to be marked on thecalendar with a colour, or even a smallimage which can be in any format supportedby the package being used.FWCalendar is an exceptionally fullfeaturedscript that performs a very usefulfunction, another one that’s wellworth a look!FWCalendar allows you to addcustom events to your calendar.ProPage GeniesBy Don Cox -Aminet, text/dtp/DonsGenies.lhaShareware $15 (about £12)I have to admit that I’ve never doneOne of the effects you can acheiveusing the Step and Repeat genie.more than dabble with ProPage myself(I’ve been a PageStream guy from theversion 2 days ), but I remember readingat the time about the excellent ProPageGenies written by Don Cox, who’s nameis now often seen adorning the reviewpages of Amiga Active. A Genie isGoldDisk’s name for an AREXX scriptand in this archive Don has includednearly seventy genies which range fromthe handy to the downright amazing.Some of the most impressive are:Border Repeats which can be used tomake perfect borders for boxes out ofany graphics you select, there areseveral options to get just the effect youwant.Border Simple Shapes draws simpler aborder around the selected box frompresets built in to the macro.Step and Repeat Deluxe which againuses selected graphics or objects, copyingand moving them in various ways,while this sounds mundane the optionsallow you to create anything from tablesto spiral effects with this tool.As I mentioned in the main DTP featureone of the genies, booklet, enablesProPage to carry out automatic paginationfor printing folded publications, forexample an A5 booklet on A4 paper (itrequires a Postscript printer or softwareinterpreter).The genies are supplied in both Englishand French, the French documentationincludes many example images explainingthe effect of different settings whichapply to both languages so, as Donrecommends, make sure you take a lookat both sets of documentation.Please note I have no idea whether Donis still accepting registrations for thispackage if you decide to register makesure you contact him first to get a currentaddress etc.Doc DatatypesSingh Munde -go.to/docdatatypesShareware, £20If you’re having trouble getting a textformat into your DTP application thenDocDatatypes is probably a good bet, itis a collection of text datatypes whichsupport documents from a huge rangeof wordprocessors both old and new.While they don’t support complexformatting, images and the like thesedatatypes are ideal for DTP applicationswhere you don’t tend to want thosedetails anyway. Altogether there areeleven datatypes supporting over 20different applications (and that’s notcounting the application versions supported),some of the keys ones are: MSWord (DOS, Windows, OS/2 and Mac),Lotus AmiPro, WordPerfect, Rich TextFile, Pocket Word, Psion Word, Palm DBTEXT Doc and Mac Text.Support for text datatypes has neverbeen as wide spread in applications as itis for graphics datatypes. For thisreason you will probably not be able toload text directly into your DTP applicationusing the DocDatatypes. Insteaduse Multiview (or another datatypesaware text viewer) to load the document,then save it as plain text, compatiblewith all applications.DTP LinksSoftwareSoftLogik (PageStream)http://www.grasshopperllc.comKicksoft (DrawStudio and more)http://www.kicksoft.co.ukTruetype Font Libraryhttp://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/ragriffi/ttflib.htmAminethttp://www.aminet.net/~aminetSecond hand software:http://www.amibench.orgor the comp.sys.amiga.marketplacenewsgroup.Info.Some interesting history of type settingand font related information:http://www.graphion.com/KicksoftGraphicsDrawstudioThis excellent Graphics package avaliable one again!! Comes on CD andincludes Texture Studio & Image Studio.£35.00Photogenics 5This excellent Graphics package by Paul Nolan. On CD.£70.00Image EngineerGreat Image manipulation program. Add effects to images such as Jigsaw,Wave and Frame! Comes on CD.£25.00Candy Factory ProCreate 3D Text from any standard font and use them on web pages etc.Comes on CD.£35.00Art Effect 4Billed as “Photoshop® on the Amiga”. Excellent graphic package. Comes onCD.£75.00FxPaintNEWWith over 70 effects this is a superb addition to any software collection.£60.00DTPPageStream 4The Premier DTP program on the Amiga©, enough said!!£160.00PageStream UpgradeThe Premier DTP program on the Amiga©. Upgrade from version 3, you willneed to provide your serial number.£65.00MiscGoldEdThe best Editor, Program Editor, HTML Generator on the Amiga. Comes on CD.£30.00TaskiSMSSend Text Messages to mobile phones from your Amiga! Comes on CD.£12.00Spitfire 2If you have a 3com Palm© or compatible then you need this program! Comeson CD.£25.00Directory Opus 5The best Workbench replacement program avaliable. Fully multitasking, Filetyperecognition and much more...£55.00FxScan NEWThe only Scanner software that offers OCR on the Amiga today!!£30.00OS 3.9 NEWLatest operating system for the Amiga. Comes on CD.£30.00If you don’t see what you want, just ask!Our range is always growing!PlayersMoovid PPCPPC version with both WARPUP and POWERUP versions. Comes on CD£18.00MoovidPlay AVI, Mov and QT files on your Amiga© Comes on CD and includes demofiles.£12.00Frogger PPCPPC MPEG player. Comes on CDwith example MPEGs.£18.00Frogger68k MPEG player. Comes on CD with example MPEGs.£12.00RivaThe fastest 68k MPEG player on the Amiga! Comes on CD with exampleMPEGs.£18.00SoftCinemaPPC AVI, QT and Mov player. On CD with example Movies.£18.00AMP 2 NEWPPC Mpeg, CD-i and DVD player. The only way to play DVDs on the AMIGA.£18.00InternetInet DialHome server on your Amiga©. Comes on CD, includes Apache and GeekGadgets.£40.00AWebExcellent web browser Full Version. Comes on Floppy.£35.00AWeb UpgradeExcellent web Browser. Upgrade from OS 3.5 or OS 3.9. Comes on Floppy.£29.99UtilitiesProfessional File System 3The fastest and safest file system avaliable, upto 300 times faster than FFS. Nolonger get Validation errors!£35.00MetaviewThe best Clipart viewer on the Amiga©. Comes on CD with 30,000 clip art images.£18.00DiavoloThe best backup program on the Amiga©. Comes on Floppy disk.£50.00PhotoFolio V2 NEWThe professional way to view, catolouge and manipulate your images.£30.00Add £1.00 UK postage per item. Make cheques payable to Kicksoft Ltd.Buy Online atwww.kicksoft.co.ukKicksoft Ltd.,30 Whitegate Way,Tadworth,Surrey, KT20 5NSTel/Fax (01737) 2928018CLUBBED - Issue 9
20REVIEWSMetaviewRobert Williams finds a companion for DrawStudio.Ever since its inception the Amigahas been blessed with a largenumber of bitmap graphics applicationsincluding great paint packagesand image processors. Structured drawingprograms like DrawStudio, reviewedin our last issue, have always beenmuch less common on the Amiga, I’msure you could count the numberreleased in the last 10 years on thefingers one hand! This also means thatsupport for structured formats in Amigaprograms has been lacking, each structureddrawing program tends to have itsown file format and programs that importdrawings such as wordprocessors anddesktop publishers tend only to supporta small number of formats. Just gettinga drawing from one program on yourAmiga to another can cause a problem.On other platforms a wide range ofdrawing formats are used, some ofthese such as EPS and CGM are supportedby many programs where asother programs such as CDX are proprietaryto a particular program, CorelDraw in this case. A quick search on theInternet reveals literally thousands ofwebsites specialising in clip-art in structuredformats, which would be great touse in Amiga programs.As it isn’t likely that Amiga programs aregoing to suddenly start supporting morestructured formats what we need is autility to convert between formats, luckilythis is the main function of Metaview.Metaview is based around a new drawingformat called the Amiga Meta File orAMF for short, unfortunately AMF hasnot taken off as a format and as far as Iknow Metaview is the only program tosupport it. However Metaview includesfacilities to import many different drawingformats, converting them to AMF asit does so and it can then save them outProduct InformationDeveloper: Henk JonasDistributor: KicksoftTel: +44 (0) 1737 215432WWW:http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~jonash/http://www.kicksoft.co.ukPrice: £15in other format providing an effectiveconversion utility.InstallationMetaview is supplied by Kicksoft on CD-ROM with a huge collection of clip-art inthe WMF format which can be convertedto suit the program you want to use. Theclip-art is helpfully organised intodrawers each containing clips on a particularsubject, from Actors to Winter.The program itself is installed to yourhard drive using a standard installer andis accompanied by detailed AmigaGuidedocumentation and a selection of exampleAREXX scripts. If you want toload EPS and Adobe Illustrator you willalso need the GhostScript and PS2Editutilities installed, these are readily availablefrom Aminet but it is a pity they arenot included on the CD.After installation you start Metaview byclicking on its icon, the main windowopens and a drawing with “Welcome toMetaview” is displayed. Along the top ofthe window is a tool bar with buttons forcommon operations such as load, saveand print.When you load a drawing it is displayedin the main window replacing thewelcome graphic. Metaview does notinclude any editing options but you canzoom in to view the drawing in moredetail, using an elastic box to select thearea you wish to view. Strangely I couldnot find a way to scroll to other parts ofthe drawing once zoomed in, you haveto zoom out and then select a new area.FormatsAs you can see in the box out Metaviewsupports a large number of drawingformats, to test out its support I downloadeda selection of clip-art in as manydifferent formats as I could find from theInternet. Of my selection I foundMetaview loaded about 80%, which Ithink is very good considering thevariety of file types and sources. Thefiles which loaded included severalCorel Draw (CDX) files where theMetaview documentation says theloader is still in development. The qualityof the loaded files was generally goodbut I did notice a couple of problems.Firstly some formats, particularly WMF(a very common format supported bymost Windows programs) seemed toend up with a line around each shapeeven if they were not intended to be outlined,this could be corrected easily in adrawing program like DrawStudio by settingthe line weight to “None” but it isannoying to have to do it every time. Amore serious problem is that some conversions(again WMF was particularlyprone to this) seem to produce extralines linking shapes of the same colour,sometimes these are unnoticeable oreasy to edit out but often they requiresignificant editing of the drawing toremove.Importing my own drawings created inDrawStudio worked much better thanthe WMFs, everything came throughwith no additional outlines, althoughMetaview does not support some ofProDrawWe have had a question from areader regarding converting ProDraw(a drawing program from Gold Disk)clips with Metaview. As far as I cansee Metaview does not support theProDraw format, however Softlogikused to have a ProDraw to IFF DR2Dconverted freely available on theirwebsite. This could be used to getProDraw clips into Metaview or anyother program supporting DR2D files.As I write this I cannot find the converter,called ClipConv, on the newSoftlogik website(http://www.grasshopperllc.com/) soanyone interested in it would need toEMail them and see if it is still available.CLUBBED - Issue 9DrawStudio’s more advanced featuressuch as translucent fills and bitmap images(bitmaps are supported in some ofthe other formats). I also found thatMetaview does not support thePostScript fonts used by DrawStudio soit is better to convert text to curvesbefore saving from DrawStudio. Onenice feature is that when Metaviewcomes across a font it doesn’t understandit offers you the option of choosinga replacement from the system fonts.While testing Metaview on my ‘060based A3000 I had a number ofcrashes, although I couldn’t pin themdown to any particular operation theyseemed to occur after Metaview hadtrouble loading an image.Winter 2001ExportOnce the drawing is loaded you canchoose to export it in any of the supportedformats, there are also severalprint options. Standard printing viaWorkbench drivers, Postscript printingand Plotting which sends the file inHPGL format. Each printing option has asettings requester where you can selectthe paper size and the area covered bythe drawing. Your settings are shown ona preview of the print area.Picture IndexIn addition to viewing and convertingdrawings to other formats Metaview hasa useful Index feature, this displaysthumbnails of drawings in any supportedformat in a separate window. As manyclip art collections give their files arbitrarynames this is exceptionally useful.Once the thumbnails have beengenerated double clicking on one loadsthe drawing in the main Metaviewwindow. Right clicking on the thumbnailproduces a menu of options includingSave, Print and Send which sends theFile FormatsAMFCGMDR2DGEMHPGLImport and ExportAmiga Meta File.Computer Graphics Metafile.IFF structured drawing format.Structured format of the GEMwindowing system.HP Graphics Language, commonlyused by plotters.Windows Meta FileUnix drawing tool.WMFXFIGEPS/AI Encapsulated PostScript/Adobe Illustratordrawing to another program using auser-definable AREXX script, examplescripts for sending to DrawStudio andPageStream are supplied. Indexes canbe saved to disk so they don’t have tobe created every time, this also allowsyou to browse through an index withoutloading the disk containing the drawings.Batch ConversionWhile MetaView does not include aBatch Conversion option to covertseveral files from one format to anotherin its interface, instructions are providedin the manual showing how to build asimple shell script to carry out this task.Metaview also has an AREXX port soyou could create a more sophisticatedbatch conversion script, a number ofCMXDSDRDXFWPGILBMJMFBMPTIFFImport OnlyCorel DrawDrawStudioCAD drawing format, used byAutoCAD and others.WordPerfect Graphics.Export OnlyAmiga bitmap.Java Meta Format.Windows bitmap.Bitmap.REVIEWSThe Metaview interface showing aconverted WMF.You can see the stray lines which seemto join some areas of the same colour.example AREXX scripts are suppliedmostly concentrating on loading intoother programs via Metaview.ConclusionMetaview is a very useful program whichsadly has some fairly seriousshortcomings as I have described.However it is the only utility of its kindthat I am aware of on the Amiga and theprice is reasonable. If you are preparedto put in some work manually tidying upthe converted drawings from someformats then you can get good results.ResultsProsWide file format support.Useful index feature.AREXX support.ConsMany converted files need manualtidying.Unstable for me.21
Page 1 and 2: Issue 9, Winter 2001£3.50Read our
Page 3 and 4: 4NEWSWorld of Amiga South EastPrepa
Page 12 and 13: REVIEWSREVIEWSPlugIn CollectionIn o
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Page 16 and 17: REVIEWSREVIEWSable. These vary in t
Page 18 and 19: SUPPORTSUPPORTthe second section of
Page 20 and 21: 38SUPPORTBack to Basics: ArchivingA
Page 22 and 23: SUPPORTSUPPORTAbove: An AMIRC chann

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