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For our second issue, we didn’t want to cover one of the obviously important but overly reviewed applications such as; Quark Xpress, Adobe Illustrator, Aldus PageMaker or Freehand. Instead, we wish to discuss a software package just as crucial but one that doesn’t get as much press. This package is a set of utilities in which I have found no equal. I am speaking about the recently updated Now Utilities 4.01 from Now Software.
Before I get involved in the review, let me preface this article by noting that this package of 7 utilities is System 7 “Dependant!” You must be using System 7 for these utilities to work!
I reviewed Now Utilities 3.0 back in March for AdTech Journal and stated, “This group of utilities is a MUST HAVE for the hectic environment of any graphic studio.” And that statement holds even more true today with version 4.01.
Now Utilities 4.01 consists of 7 utilities, some of which I consider indispensable. The 7 utilities are NowMenus, NowSave, Start-up Manager, Super Boomerang, Now Scrapbook, WYSIWYG Menus and an application called Profiler. To save memory, these utilities share a common set of resources called Now Toolbox.
As in version 3.0, Super Boomerang is by far the most invaluable utility in the group. Super Boomerang is a file manager that remembers the files and folders you have recently used. And makes those files and folders convenient to reload by displaying them in several locations; a hierarchial sub-menu located off of the Open command in the File menu, a hierarchial sub-menu within the Apple Menu and as a pull down menu within the Open and Save dialog boxes. It also offers a Find command available on the same sub-menu of the Open command, as well as within the Open and Save dialog boxes. Other features include a display at the bottom of Open and Save dialog boxes, which displays file information and the computer remembers the last folder you were in so you will automatically return to that folder the next time you select Open or Save.
Another highly useful utility is Start-up Manager - which allows you to configure which Extensions, Control Panels and Start-up documents will be loaded upon booting your computer. A linking feature will help protect you from Extensions that might cause your computer to bomb by assuring cooperative Extensions are all loaded at start-up. Or that conflicting Extensions are loaded in proper order or not at all. You are also able to save several different groups of Extensions for loading, depending on what you are working on. For example, I have been recently capturing QuickTime movies and require as much free RAM as possible. In such cases I only load the Extensions needed to run my video digitizer. The reassignment of Extensions is controled by Hot Keys at start-up or within the Start-up Manager control panel. Those of you familiar with this product from previous versions will appreciate the new interface which makes it easier to understand.
WYSIWYG Menus turns your unruly long list of fonts in your Font menu, into a more manageable and organized listing. Fonts are grouped by families, just like Type ReUnion, and appear in their true typeface. You can select fonts to be displayed at different sizes, thus Helvetica is ledgable at 10 point, where as Eva Antiqua needs to be 18 point at least to discern its rustic nature. Typefaces currently selected also have the correct appearance in the Size and Style menus. Finally, you can assign Hot Keys to your favorite fonts, for easy access.
Next in my list of favorites in this group is NowMenus. New to this version, NowMenus has all of the functions from both the old NowMenus and Multi-Master. This utility makes your Apple Menu hierarchial, appear in any font and can be arranged in any order. Any folder, including the Control Panel folder, will appear in the menu with a sub-menu displaying its contents. This also works with the Chooser, which displays a hierarchial list of AppleShare, LaserWriter and Fax drivers. And, it adds menus to both ends of the menubar and a pop-up menu, which are totally configurable to the user’s tastes. These menus can display a predefined list of applications/files/folders for easy launching or opening; recently open applications/files/folders; a memory sizer for adjusting the memory partition of an application; and a memory viewer to display current memory usage.
A new addition to Now Utilities is Now Scrapbook (previously PictureBook), an excellent scrapbook replacement. Able to maintain a scrapbook of graphic files, text and QuickTime movies and display them as thumbnails. You can also attach keywords to a file for easy access.
Profiler is back, pretty much unchanged from its 3.0 sibling. Capable of producing a report filled with information about your computer that you’d probably never need to know.
And the only utility I am not thrilled about, NowSave. After an assigned amount of time, keystrokes or mouse clicks, the computer will save your work in progress. And, if you’ve ever spent hours working on a project, only to watch it bomb and realize afterwards that you had failed to save the file, then you’ll probably think this utility is a dream come true. But, I have found it to be a nightmare for those of us working in the hustle and bustle world of advertising and publishing. Working in the creative environment of tweaking and trying new looks, this little bugger becomes a real mess. Imagine working on a project and deciding it could use some more work. You start messing with it, find nothing better and decide that what you had originally was just fine. Only to discover that in the process of working on your file, it had automatically saved the messing around work, thus not allowing you to Revert to the better looking one you had to begin with. Not something I want to worry about. I suggest you simply make a mental attempt to save your work and not rely on this utility to do it for you.
In summary, I can’t imagine working without Super Boomerang, Start-up Manager or WYSIWYG Menus. They are solid, bug-free products that provide “MUST HAVE” features. Combined, they are worth the price of the package by themselves. NowMenus and Now Scrapbook are great products I find myself using daily and am overjoyed they came with Super Boomerang. Profiler is an excellent application to run prior to calling technical support - it gives me the answers to almost any question a technical support person would ask. And NowSave is a great utility for those of you that can’t remember to save while working or those people not involved in work which they need to be concerned about reverting to their last saved version.
I cannot express just how invaluable this suite of utilities truly is. Your work will fly from file to file without concerns of where you saved it and frequent configuration changes couldn’t be simpler.
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