Microsoft to Ship Souped-Up Word 

Responding to the cries of hundreds of unhappy customers, 
Microsoft announced that it would soon ship a “fixed” ver-
sion of Microsoft Word. Criticized for its sluggish perfor-
mance, Word 6.0 was universally met with disdain upon shipping. Word 6.0a (a free “maintenance” release, to ship by March 31), will address speed issues such as slow application start-up and Word Count, and will tackle a number of reported extension conflicts and bugs.

   Graphics Wars

The newly constituted Macromedia and Adobe are 
already duking it out in the graphics software ring. 

Macromedia, proprietor of the newly introduced FreeHand 5.0, 
is offering a sidegrade to Adobe Illustrator owners for $199 
through mail order or a local dealer. Purchasing the Freehand 
upgrade makes you eligible to get Macromodel with Renderman or Fontographer for only $199 each. Call an inside sales representative at Macromedia for list of dealers or mail order phone numbers at 800-288-4797. 

Adobe is offering a sidegrade to FreeHand owners so they can trade up to Illustrator 5.5 for a special price of $149. To upgrade, registered users of Freehand may call 1-800-521-1976 and present their serial number as proof of purchase to receive the special upgrade. Illustrator 5.5 comes with the Deluxe CD-ROM which includes 220 Type 1 fonts, 100 pieces of third-party clip art and Adobe Collector’s Editions I and II. The CD contains Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Acrobat manuals as well as technical notes for Adobe Illustrator in the Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF).

Not to be outdone, Deneba is offering a Power Graphics Bundle of Canvas 3.5, DeltaGraph Pro and Pixar Typestry. The street price of the Power Graphics Bundle is expected to be $299, nearly 66 percent less than the $893 total suggested retail price of these top rated programs. The Canvas Power Graphics bundle combines the latest versions of all three programs, including complete documentation and installation software for both Power Macintosh and 680X0 computers. The bundle is available through April 1, 1995 from national mail-order resellers. Customers in the U.S. and Canada also can order direct from Deneba for $299.95 plus shipping. For more info call Deneba at (305) 596-5644, ext. 2.

  Adobe Debuts ScreenReady, PowerPC Streamline 

Adobe has introduced a new product called ScreenReady which prints 
screen optimized images for use in Multimedia and other QuickDraw 
related environments. The software automatically rasterizes docu-
ments and EPS files intended for use in presentations, film, video, 
animation and CD-ROM authoring, accomplishing the task in as few 
as three steps.  Adobe ScreenReady for the Macintosh is expected to be available by the end of the first quarter. Through April 30, 1995, Adobe ScreenReady will be offered at a special introductory price of $99. After that date, the suggested retail price will be $199.

Adobe has also released the PowerPC version of Streamline. Version 3.1  converts files from pixels to vectors at three times the speed of a 68040 processor. Registered users of version 3.0 may upgrade to version 3.1 for $29. Registered users of Adobe Streamline 1.0 and 2.0 for the Macintosh may upgrade to the full retail package of Streamline 3.1 for $69. The upgrade will include two floppy disks and Type On Call 4.0, a locked CD-ROM containing both the Macintosh and Windows versions of the Adobe ™ Type Library. To upgrade, call Adobe direct at 1-800-521-1976. 

  Syquest Drops Prices

Syquest used MacWorld San Francisco to announce that it will lower the prices of its 5.25-inch 44, 88 and 200MB cartridges by almost 30 percent.  This price reduction is due in part to increased sales volume and lower manufacturing costs at the company’s Penang, Malaysia and Singapore plants. The price of 5.25" cartridges has now been brought into line with the smaller 3.5" units. Syquest’s new SQ5200C reads and writes to almost eight million SyQuest 44 and 88MB 5.25-inch cartridges in use today, as well as to its own 200MB cartridges.

  PageMaker Enhancement Pack 

Adobe has announced the PageMaker™ 5.0 Enhancement Pack Volume 
Two. Volume Two include import filters for Microsoft Word 6.0 and 
WordPerfect 6.1 for DOS/Windows; an online version of the Page-
Maker script language and 1995 calendar templates. In addition, the 
PageMaker Enhancement Pack Volume Two comes with all components 
in Volume One, including a QuarkXPress Converter that translates 
QuarkXPress documents to PageMaker’s native file format, import filters for Claris- Works 1.0 or 2.0 files, Track Tables, and a TWAIN import filter (version 1.2), for saving TIFF images directly into PageMaker. Also included is an UpdatePPD utility that provides more control over the custom printer file options and yields improved printer com- munication with the Apple LaserWriter version 8.1 or higher. The Mac enhancement pack will be available in the first quarter of 1995 on disk directly from Adobe for $9.95 (U.S.), which covers the cost of shipping and handling and from on-line services. Customers should call Adobe Customer Services at (800) 628-2320.

  Quark Ships PS Utilities 

Quark has brought out a new XTension for Quark- 
XPress called PS Utilities. The new XTension (available via online services) includes: Quark PostScript ErrorHandler for tracking down printing problems; PDF/PPD Statistics for gathering information about your PDFs and PPDs; PostScript Font Usage which compiles information about the fonts used in a document; PostScript Screening to choose which screening parameters QuarkXPress controls and which your printer controls during printing; EPS Bleed For adding a bleed to your QuarkXPress “Save Page as EPS” files; Overprint EPS Black to overprint 100% black objects from EPS files; and, Full Resolution TIFF Output which can print TIFFs at full printer resolution. Quark’s phone number is (303) 894-8888.

                                                                                                      Quickbits compiled by