ISSUE 576: Zisman- Nov 7 2000
The high-tech office
ALAN ZISMAN
Clever software can
open files across different platforms
Utilities. In the game of Monopoly, they're
Electric Company and Waterworks. For personal computer owners, the word
implies a wide range of software products which, unlike applications,
aren't used to create documents.
Some keep your computer running smoothly. Others turn
your computer into a fax machine or a CD-pressing plant. Still others
expand the range of documents your applications can open and save.
Many computer users get along just fine without ever
purchasing any of these products. Basic capabilities that used to
require third-party utilities are now built into both the Mac and
Windows operating systems. Despite this, new products continue to be
brought to market and classic utilities are revitalized with new
versions.
Dataviz (www.dataviz.com) has recently
updated a pair of its products: MacLink Plus, for Mac users (as
you might have guessed), and a companion Conversions Plus for
computer users on the Windows side of the great divide.
One of the main functions of this duo is to help
bridge that split by making it easier for users of either sort of
computer to understand files from the other side.
As the minority flavour, Macs have been forced for
years to make some concessions to the PC-using majority. Mac operating
system software includes a File Exchange control panel, enabling Macs
to read PC-formatted disks and at least try to figure out what to do
with documents created on a PC. And, for a long time, Apple included
a stripped-down version of MacLink, including a set of filters to
automatically translate many sorts of common PC documents into
something more Mac-friendly.
That's no longer the case, and even owners of older
Mac operating systems or previous versions of Claris Works or
Apple Works are, at best, limited to reading and saving in less than
current PC file formats. But install a copy of MacLink Plus Deluxe
($150 -- now up to version 12) and, like magic, your Mac can open a
huge variety of file formats. In fact, it cleverly adds itself to many
standard applications, giving them new capabilities to save files in
new ways. For instance, owners of the newest Apple Works 6.0 need
MacLink Plus Deluxe in order to share files with Microsoft Office
owners.
PC owners don't even get the basic capabilities to
read foreign disks. Conversions Plus ($105 -- somewhat behind the Mac
equivalent, it's only up to version 6) makes up for that shortcoming,
letting PCs read Mac floppies, Zip drives, CDs and more. It doesn't let
you run Mac applications on your PC, but it does let you read most of
the documents on the disks. Like MacLink Plus, it converts a wide range
of word processor, spreadsheet and graphics documents between Mac and
PC formats. (PC users who don't need the file translators can still
read Mac diskettes with Dataviz's $75 MacOpener).
In addition to translating files between PCs and Macs,
each version lets users read documents that may have originated on the
same platform, but were saved with applications that aren't on your
machine.
Your Microsoft Word user can now read and write
documents made with MacWrite, WriteNow or other Mac word processors or
with AmiPro or WordStar among other PC word processors. If you have a
collection of files over the years, you probably have some created on
software you no longer have installed. One of these programs may be
your salvation if you ever need the information in these orphaned
documents.
Still, this now-classic utility duo may be less needed
than previously. A decade or so ago, there were more than 40 different
word processors in more or less common use. Now there's Microsoft
Office. And even if PCs can't read Mac disks directly, networks and
e-mail attachments make it possible to send documents to all and
sundry. At least if they're MS Word files. *
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