DP-02: DTP Utilities and DTP Programs -------------------- #2122 DTP Converters Small Programs Disk -------------------- Art2WP 1.7 Hinkle, William J. $5 converts PFS:First Publisher clip art files to other formats, including WPG, TIF, BIT, RLE, IMG, and GIF. It also has the TIFF compression tag to satisfy Optiks 2.11 and reversed video on GIFs, also added PCX output. ArtCon 1.4 Onda, Robert $? is a clip-art converter for: Print Shop, PrintMaster, NewsMaster (*) and PFS: First Publisher. The program does fast, easy clip-art conversions between Print Shop and PrintMaster Libraries, and converts either Print Shop or Printmaster Libraries to the PFS: First Publisher format. Bit2Gray 2.1 (BIT2GRY) Uechi, Brian K. $15 converts black and white dithered images to gray scale. It reads black and white PCX files of any size and writes 16 color/gray scale or 256 color/gray scale PCX files. The 16 gray scale files are best loaded into PC Paintbrush configured for VGA 640x480x16 colors/gray scale. The 256 color/gray scale files are best loaded into PC Paintbrush configured for VGA 320x200x256. Scans may be up to 8192 pixels wide and any length. Grey 1.0 Philips, Curtis $? is a utility to convert Publishers Paintbrush (or Paintbrush Plus) 8x8 dithered halftone PCX or PCC files to 63-grey-level PCX or PCC file formats, using the 256-color (greyscale) ZSoft pallette. PCX2PCL 1.3 TaxWare ASP $30 converts PCX graphics to Hewlett Packard PCL format. A download utility is included for sending macros to the printer; instructions are given for accessing the macros from within most major software applications. TGA2TIF 1.10 Hamilton, Mark $0 converts targa (TGA) files to Tiff (TIF) files. The Tiff file can be read by popular DeskTop Publishing packages like PageMaker. TGIF Lark, James $10 converts color GIF files (from CompuServe) to black and white via a halftone process that approximates the intensities of each color. It also allows you to double or triple the size of images without losing any smoothness. C source code is included. Txt2PCX Decisions Software $25 is a 31k TSR that will capture text screens and save them in graphics format as PCX files. Once saved, PCX files can be imported into virtually all desktop publishing and graphics programs. VGA2GIF Fleisher, Laurie & Bill $0 will capture a VGA mode 13H graphics screen (320x200x256) and convert it to GIF format. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #2122 -------------------------------- ------------------------- #1995 Other DTP Utilities Small Programs Disk -------------------------- BigLabel (BIGLABL) McBride, Mike and Peg $0 is a PFS:First Publisher File demonstrating how to make labels with graphics and text using your dot matrix printer. This grid is set up for 4"x 1-7/16" labels. Sample labels are included. Calendar Publisher (CALPUB) Ahlo, Keoni $15 allows you to easily create individual month calendars with Corel Draw. Corel Draw Samples (COREL) contains two sample output files from Corel Draw. LJet is for the HP LaserJet; PJet is for the HP PaintJet. (Not on this disk. Ask for #8319.) ELF is a .MAC art file for PFS:First Publisher. Print it out, tape it next to your computer and heed its sage advice regarding backups. FFALU Garcia, Jose $15 is an address label front-end for Softcraft's Fancy Font program that allows easy text file entry and page formatting to print fancy labels. You can choose more than one font if you have inserted the proper \fnumber into the text. GIFLite Hu, Tsung $20 is a command line GIF file compression program. Because GIF files are already so dense, normal archiving programs like LHA and PKZIP cannot compress them any significant amount. GIFLite uses a unique approach to compress GIF files by an average of 15% to 35% depending on the complexity of the image. It conforms to both GIF87a and GIF89a standards. All non-image information is preserved in the resulting GIF files. Unlike regular archives, you do not have to uncompress GIFLite files to use them. Greeker Cambell, George $0 creates ASCII text files in Latinate nonsense text to any length you specify. The purpose is for creating dummy files for desktop publishing or word processor layouts. Files of any length may be created. OKSCR000 Graham, Keith P. $0 will capture screens to PCX files. Almost all screen types can be captured, but the output is in black and white only. Picem 2.7 (02-94 CD) Bridges, John $0 is a quick and easy way to view picture files from many graphics programs as well as GIF files. It also allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast in your pictures and save them back to disk. Post 1.2 Betts, F. C. $5 allows users to print ASCII files directly to PostScript printers. It is intended to provide PostScript support for programs that do not have the necessary drivers. RealType (REALTYP) $0 is a patch for Corel Draw's INI file that causes the font names to be displayed in Corel as the names of the fonts they emulate. For example, what Corel calls Toronto is really Times. TiffRead (TIFREA) (08-93 CD) $0 is a small program that displays TIFF image files. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #1995 -------------------------------- MegaClip 2.2 (MCLIP22) Blueview Software $20 is a screen clipping utility that supports standard EGA/VGA and SVGA modes. It works with PCX, BMP, and RIP icon files. (Special order from the December 1993 CD-ROM: 50K) AlphaQuote 3.1 [AQ31] Alphabtyes, Incorporated ASP $29 #2572 (12-93 CD) is for budgeting or billing typesetting and desktop publishing projects. It provides an easy to use menu interface with on-line context sensitive help. It also features a graphic arts calculator, instant screen preview, report writer for printed estimates, hourly rates generator for DTP and complete documentation in a printer-ready format. Code To Code 4.1 [CTOC41] Alphabtyes, Incorporated ASP $29 #2335 (12-93 CD) is a collection of programs for working with files containing typesetting codes. Such codes are inserted by DTP programs like Ventura. Code To Code can strip out all of the codes and optionally re-insert them later, under certain conditions. It can also split large files into small files with user- controlled break points. Codes can be automatically translated from typesetting to DTP or DTP to typesetting in addition to code stripping and code-free editing. In our testing, it removed all the Ventura control codes from our PsL News file so quickly that we didn't realize it had done its work already. Being able to strip DTP control codes from a file so quickly makes it more convenient to create plain on-disk documentation files and to clean up a file for spelling, style and grammar checking programs. The conversion ability makes it easy to move between DTP and typesetting formats. Compression/Decompression Utility LEAD Technologies, Inc. $49 #4075 will compress or decompress TGA, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PCX, and BIN files up to ratios of 255:1. It provides options to save VGA palettes and load images into different resolutions. Images of 2000 pixels wide by 16,000 pixels deep can be compressed. You can also compress using JFIF and JTIF (supporting JPEG standards) or LEAD extended ratios with much better image quality than JPEG. EnVision Publisher 1.54 Software Vision Corporation ASP $74 #20045 [2 disks] (08-93 CD) is a full-featured, WYSIWYG desktop publishing program. First let's get the negatives out of the way so that we can get on with the praise the program richly deserves. The manual claims that the program is better than programs costing 10 times more (ie: $700) and challenges the user to compare. In response to that, we have to say that EnVision Publisher (EVP) is not remotely close to being in the same league with programs like Framemaker (see the review in Retail Products), Ventura Publisher, or PageMaker, all of which have street prices well under $700. The more expensive programs support a wide variety of graphics and word processing formats, have many features for fine-tuning text position (eg: space between letters, feathering), better support for long documents, and so on. A more reasonable comparison would be to PFS:First Publisher and Publish-It!, two retail-only DTP programs with street prices under $100. EVP has some features that are better than these programs, but the reverse is also true. In addition, EVP's shareware version comes dangerously close to be being crippled because only three fonts are included: Helvetic, script, and a stencil font. That certainly limits the amount of trying-out you can do. The author promises 40 other fonts when you register. Now for the good points - the program's interface is beautiful. The tool bar is handy, allowing you to make text bold and italicized at the click of a button, along with many other functions. The method of entering text and graphics is easy. (The whole program is very easy to use.) Text can be rotated. Lines, boxes, circles can be easily drawn, resized, reshaped, colored, and filled. Portrait and landscape orientation and custom page sizes are supported. Sophisticated features include style sheets, master pages, four page-magnification levels, and support for a wide variety of printers, including dot matrix printers, HPLJ's, PostScript, and color Paintjets. It will also print multiple copies, collate, scale the printout, and print to disk. Aside from the limited graphics importing support, we would easily rate EVP ahead of the low-cost retail-only DTP programs. Certainly, there is nothing in shareware to compare to it. Requires 450K RAM and 2.5MB of disk space. GIF2JPG Handmade Software, Inc. $20 #3396 converts GIF files to JPG files and back to GIF images. JPG files are typically one-half to one-third the size of GIF files. Requires a hard drive, DOS 3.1+ and 380K. Graphic Workshop 6.1w Alchemy Mindworks Inc. $40 #20274/2263 [2 disks] (10-93 CD) is an excellent program for working with computer graphic files. It converts, prints, views, dithers and halftones MacPaint, GEM/Ventura IMG, PCX, PFS-ART, GIF, Mac-GIF, TIFF, gray-scale TIFF, EPS, BMP, and WPG files. It drives CGA, Hercules, EGA, VGA, Paradise, Orchid, Ahead, VESA, Diamond Speedstar, and ATI VGA Wonder cards. It allows you to convert color image files into superb black and white clip art for desktop publishing. Other features include image rotation and flipping, IFF file compression, scaling, halftoning, LPT2 and LPT3 printer support, support for anamorphic scaling, 24-bit resolution support, and more. 700K of disk space is required. Image Alchemy Handmade Software, Inc. $80 #27636/3042 [2 disks] converts between various graphics file formats, including GIF, TIF, TGA, IFF, JPG, PICT, PIC (Apple), PCX, RAW, RAS, Windows BMP, PBM/PGM/PPM, and SGI. It is the first shareware program to perform JPEG compression and decompression. Features include support for reading RLE and interleaved GIF files, 8-bit RAW files, optional smoothing on JPEG reading, and support for any color component subsampling on JPEG reading. Other file formats supported include Vivid, MTV, DCX, QDV, Erdas, QRT, GEM, Utah RLE, ADEX, RTL, WPG, Pictor, Autologic, q0, BIF, Stork, XWD, Scodl, and XBM. Support is provided for Encapsulated PostScript output; HP PCL (LaserJet output); Video 7, Trident, Tseng 4000, IBM 8514/A display boards; VESA compatible SVGA boards, Sierra HiColor DAC;and 320x200x256 display mode. Other features include image scaling; conversion to monochrome images; false color palette conversion; optimized EGA image generation support; support for extra-large images; palette sorting, paletted swapping, and palette selection parameters and Stucki and Jarvis, Judice, and Ninke Dithering. Requires a hard drive, VGA, and DOS 3.2+. There is an image size restriction of 640x480. Image Gallery 1.1e Alchemy Mindworks, Inc. $40 #4237 is a bitmap image cataloging system. It creates multi-image galleries that display thumbnail representations of the original image. You can locate files by visually scrolling through the pages or you can search on key words in the comment field. Other specific information such as dimensions and location are also stored in the image database. You can print all or part of a gallery using a PostScript or LaserJet compatible printer. Dot matrix printers are also supported. It supports virtually all popular bitmapped image formats. Requires VGA, a mouse, and 500K of free disk space. IMGFun 1.01 [IMGFUN] Speedy Software ASP $35 #4778 (09-93 CD) is an image compression and enhancement utility. It allows you to view graphic images, convert images between GIF, PCX, BMP and JPEG formats, compress color mapped images and gray level images by JPEG compression, and display images as a manual slide show. Other features include image rotation, rescaling, and smoothing. You can also adjust brightness, colors and the contrast of an image, set the cut area for display and process, and set the viewing directions. Requires VGA/SVGA and a hard disk. MergeIt DiBart, Dennis $25 #3361 merges two scanned sections of a document which are in the PCX format with an automatic process which then allows trimming and adjustment. It can merge scanned images together either horizontally or vertically. It will display the merged image regions on Hercules, EGA, and VGA video systems. Other features include an automatic trimming function, a menu system of commands, and support for image producing software that does not write a complete PCX image file header. This is an ideal utility for owners of hand scanners. PRO-CR Gray, David ASP $42 #1897 is the only shareware optical character recognition program. Input to the program can be provided directly from an HP ScanJet or from a TIFF file produced by any other scanner. It recognizes both mono-spaced and proportionally spaced fonts and adjusts automatically to character size from 8 to 30 point. Additional features include preview and on-line correction functions, support for 200 dpi, compressed TIFFs and PCX files. The program can be trained to learn unrecognized shapes or new fonts if you have EGA or VGA; otherwise, a graphics card is not required. It reads at a speed of up to 200 words per minute. PixCat 2.7 [PIXCAT] MIDPA Softworks $10-$20 #2478 (09-93 CD) will print a catalog of all pictures in a NewsMaster, PrintMaster, Print Shop, or New Print Shop graphics library in as few pages as possible, listing 49-56 pictures per page, depending on the printer being used. This gives you a convenient "catalog" that you can use to select clip art. Printers supported include Epson, SPG, Star Micronics, Toshiba P351, Okidata, IBM Graphics, Panasonic, Panasonic 1124 printers (both Epson and IBM Emulation) and IBM compatible 24 pin printers. -------------------------------------- #1511 PrintMaster/Print Shop Utilities Small Programs Disk -------------------------------------- CarLogo contains fourteen exotic car logos. The graphics are in a Print Shop and Print Master Library format. GCat 1.50 Stone, Dick $5 will produce a catalog or a file of all the graphic files you have accumulated that are used with PrintShop or PrintMaster. GetPM 2.4 Faulkner, Larry $15 will read a PrintMaster art folder and display the graphic images on the screen. Twenty five images can be seen on the screen at once on an EGA or VGA monitor, or fifteen images a screen on a CGA monitor. PMPStool 1.3 (PMPSTOO) Thiesfeld, L. A. $? lets you exchange graphics libraries between PrintShop and PrintMaster/ NewsMaster. PMPSBS Michalski, John Paul $0 will convert a PRINTMASTER graphic file into a PRINT SHOP graphic file, or PRINT SHOP to PRINTMASTER. It will also break up either one and convert them to BASICA graphic arrays. PMTools Doyle, T. E. $0 is a utility for use with PrintMaster. (See PSL Computer Products.) PMTools will print a listing of the icons in a library, display icons on screen, and convert icons from a library to a Windows Paint format. PSTools is a utility for use with PrintShop. It has the same functions as PMTools. PrintGal 2.4 (PRNTGAL) Steiner, David $30 reads in a gallery, such as PrintMaster Art Gallery, and prints the graphics in a seven-by-nine matrix. This allows you to see at a glance about half of the graphics contained in a file. Other features include support for the new PrintShop graphics, the ability to rename pictures while viewing them on the graphics screen, and support for Epson compatible and laser printers. Pascal source code is included. PSVU Duro, Albert $0 displays New PrintShop's POG and PNM graphic files, nine at a time. EGA/VGA required. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #1511 -------------------------------- Context and Snipix Asysta Consultants $25 #1278 are two utilities for the graphic presentation of information. CONTEXT will read ASCII text files and convert them into sequentially numbered BLOAD-format files which may then be processed with SNIPIX to superimpose graphic images onto the text for desktop publishing or using the printscreen options to prepare posters or cue cards. These files may also be used with PRESENT, a slide show presentation utility, to present text screens and or text screens enhanced with graphic illustrations. Snipix lets you cut and paste all or part of a screen of graphics into a CONTEXT prepared graphic file or any other graphic file. It allows starting with a blank screen as well, and may be used to make multiple cuts from one graphic file or choose another graphic file and paste onto the same target screen. GetArt Kramer, Valerie Jean $20 #2032 will read a PrintMaster (or PM+) or PrintShop art folder and display the graphic images on the screen. The disk contains quite a few PM art folders too, as well as graphics screen dump utilities for several printers. Grafcat 3.1a Alchemy Mindworks, Inc. $40 #12137 prints a visual catalog of your image files, with sixteen pictures to a page. It drives all LaserJet and PostScript laser printers, and works with any mixture of GIF, PCX, MAC and IMG files. Other features include support for GIF89a and interlaced monochrome files; a trap for vector WPG files; Windows PCX support; PIC support; image scaling and BMP support. This program should work with most PC based image files. Newsletter Kit WordSmith $32 #2264 is a series of templates and style sheets for users of Ventura Publisher 2.0. Each template is an entire newsletter into which a processor and graphics files may be loaded. The eight designs cover popular newsletter uses. Even if you do not use the templates provided, you can learn quite a bit by studying the tricks used in them. We highly recommend this set for Ventura users. Publisher's Desktop Utilities #1 Hecht, Joe C. $39 #1632 is a set of six utilities for desktop publishers. The utilities include TAB which converts spaces to tabs (good for converting 124.PRN and other tables for Ventura Publisher); NEWLINE converts ASCII files to retain their true line and paragraph endings; STRIPSPACE strips excessive spaces from an ASCII file; VP-DEL allows you to delete Ventura chapters fast; PS-PRN allows you to print an ASCII file to your PostScript printer without having to change the rocker switches, it uses an option to print to disk and use with a print spooler later. This utility is good for programmers and those working in a network environment. BACKIT will split any large file onto multiple disks for transport and restore onto any DOS hard disk by using the DOS copy command. Rubicon Publisher Rubicon Computer Labs $89 #27410/2206 [2 disks] is a non-WYSIWYG desktop publisher that supports LaserJet and PostScript printers. It comes with two sets of HPLJ softfonts. We consider this to be more a text formatting or typesetting program than what most people now think of as "Desktop Publishing". It is probably aimed more at people who are now using TeX. Control codes must be embedded in your text files with your editor. Graphics integration is not supported, but a high degree of text placement control (such as vertical justification) is provided. Typesetter PC Dorfman, Len & Young, Dennis $30 #27279/2621 [2 disks] is the first true WYSIWYG shareware desktop publishing program. It is specifically designed to get the most ("Near Laser Output") from dot matrix printers. It offers multiple fonts and graphics capabilities. It can be used to create things like labels and business cards in addition to standard DTP output. It automatically processes images to smooth out curves, increase resolution, and rescale the image. Requires 512 KB RAM, graphics card, and Epson graphics compatible printer. Bob Forshaw, W. Hartford, CT: "I couldn't get some of the functions to work using the cursor keys and the program locked up on the screen shift function. I tried to call Xlent Software but no one answered their phone." PsL: Some of the functions do seem to require the use of a mouse. We did not have any problem with the screen shift function in either mode. USAMap #2265 is a map of the United States for use with AutoCad. ---------------------------------- #27027/1548 Ventura Pub. Utilities Small Programs Disk ---------------------------------- ArtMart is a collection of 13 pieces of art for use in desktop publishing. The PCC files can be read directly by Aldus' PageMaker and by Ventura Publisher. DropCap ProGraf $20 offers a number of resident graphics ornaments for Ventura Publisher. FixVP Ross, James F. $0 will rewrite files which contain Ventura tags and codes to a new file in the following manner: (1) All tag statements (@tag= ) at the beginnings of lines are deleted. (2) Ventura codes, i. e., material between angle brackets such as <169>, are rewritten to equivalents. Frezit Scudder Publications $40 is a utility program designed to backup and restore Ventura Publishers file on floppy disk. The program is designed to process all files relating to a given chapter or publication, including Ventura Publisher generated files. Once the files are archived, FREZIT will optionally erase the files from hard disk, making available valuable hard disk space. PS Prep Narup, Tripp $0 is a set of files containing tips about and examples of modifying the Ventura printer prep file. Among the powers this gives you is the ability to define how characters should print. As Narup says: "You want Polish? You got Polish accents." ST-samp Scandalous Technology $5 is a set of digitized ornate capital letters, each in a different style. Each letter was selected from a complete alphabet of 26 letters in the same style. All 26 alphabets are available. Letters from this set could be used as dropcaps. With the entire alphabet, they could be used for headlines, etc. The quality of the letters is excellent, as you can see from the example shown. The letters are in the .PCX that can be read by most drawing and DTP programs, including WordPerfect 5.0. Tagger 1.1 Atmospheres $0 lets you easily and quickly tag a database file for Ventura Publisher. While it is possible to export data from a database in a format that is readily acceptable to Ventura Publisher, it requires creating and testing a label or report format file first before finally creating the tagged file. A time consuming process. With TAGGER, you simply export the database to a delimited ASCII file. You then start up Tagger and let it parse out the records and fields of data and tag them. The resulting file is ready to load into Ventura Publisher as a pre-tagged ASCII file. Tagging each field by hand in Ventura Publisher is not required. Ven-FK Ostroff, Mark $0 is a set of several Ventura Publisher 2.0 files for creating function key templates. VP-Char Ramsey, H. Rudy $0 file contains a table partially detailing Ventura Publisher's mapping of Extended-ASCII characters. Ventura Screen Font Editor (VPSCREE) Teach Services $20-$45 lets you modify your existing screen fonts for customized characters and diacritical markings. It includes convenient full directory pathway control. The program supports font sizes from 3 to 36 points. The program also uses the high-resolution EGA graphics-text display mode. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #1548 -------------------------------- ------------------------------------- #27027/2034 Ventura Pub. Utilities #2 Small Programs Disk ------------------------------------- Borders $0 is a collection of 24 borders in GEM format for use in Ventura. ClipArt Wright, Joel $0 is over 150k (un-ARCed) of IMG files that are compatible with Ventura Publisher. Dingbat $0 are the screen fonts for Adobe Dingbat printer fonts. Heidelb 1.0 Published Perfection! $20 is a fully functional PostScript font for Ventura Publisher and Windows and PageMaker users with the MGX PostScript Driver. The font can also be used in Corel Draw. It is a calligraphic font well suited for certificates, awards, and diplomas. This is by the same creator as the Diego1 font. HPSlash Alchemy Mindworks, Inc. $5 reduces the size of Ventura font files by removing the upper-ASCII characters. ST-symb Scandalous Technology $5 contains the Herman Zapf Dingbat style typeface in 14pt and 18pt portrait for dowload to the HP LaserJet printer. These are mostly different types of fancy asterisks, arrows, boxes, etc. VPRuler Burns, Andrew $0 is an .EPS file that prints a page full of measuring sticks for all the units of measure relevant to Ventura. It must be printed on a Postscript printer (or with PS emulation software) and works best when printed on a clear sheet of acetate. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #1548 -------------------------------- ------------------------------------- #27027/3207 Ventura Pub. Utilities #3 Small Programs Disk ------------------------------------- ArcVpChp (ARCVPCH) White, Bob $0 creates an archive containing all the files referenced in a CHP chapter file. It can optionally include the width file referenced in the STY style sheet, and also make the archive into a self-extracting archive. ATM-VPWN Hackett, Dan $0 is a text file outlining how to successfully use the Adobe Type Manager with Ventura Publisher for Windows and other Window applications. Even with this file, it takes considerable effort to get ATM to work with Ventura. VP File Groomer (FGROOMR) Donnelly, Peter $50 helps clean up text files for Ventura. Among the tasks it can perform: Strip redundant spaces and tabs. Set typographical fractions. Set single and double quotation marks. Convert hyphens to dashes. Assign style tags, and more. FixPFB Hackett, Dan $0 helps fix a bug in Corel Draw! 2.0 related to converting fonts to PostScript downloadable form. Futuri-Black (FUTURI) Alexandre, Inc. $0 is a high quality Type 1 Postscript font compatible with Windows 3.0 applications, including CorelDraw!, and Ventura Publisher/GEM, as well as any application that uses Type1 Postscript fonts. (The author can no longer be reached at the address provided in the documentation.) Internal System Error Message (INTSYS) $0 is a text file describing various VP system errors, what they mean and a few suggestions on how to correct them. VCopy 2.0 (VCOPYPN) Navarro, Pedro $0 will copy all the files in a chapter to a specified directory or disk, updating the chapter references; like Ventura's own Copy Chapter command. VPWin $0 are bug fixes for Ventura for Windows. VPWQA $0 contains a series of the most commonly asked questions and answers about Ventura Publisher for Windows. -------------------------------- END OF SMALL PROGRAMS DISK #3207 -------------------------------- VP Utilities Donnelly, Peter $25/each or $50/all three #27027/3625 contains the following three utilities for use with Ventura Publisher: VP WIDTH MANAGER allows you to change character widths; add, delete, and edit kerning pairs; rename and re-order fonts, and more. (This is for the GEM edition of VP.) VP FILE GROOMER aids in preparing text files for typesetting. It can strip redundant spaces and tabs, change font attributes, convert single and double hyphens to em and en dashes or bullet tags, and much more all in a single pass. VP ROUNDUP is an easy-to-use stylesheet and chapter-management utility with many powerful features. Decoder! 1.2 & Swap! Trinity Communications ASP $39 #27698/4129 strips tags and bracket codes from Ventura Publisher text files. It is extremely fast, processing a 35k file in a few seconds. However, it choked on a 95k file with a huge number of tags in it. Rarely, if ever, are you likely to have a file with the number of tags that our large test file had, so we do not consider this a significant bug. Swap! 1.5 ($49) is a TSR that creates a DOS shell for the Gem version of Ventura Publisher. It allows you to use a hot key to jump to DOS from Ventura, run any program, and return. The program swaps Ventura to expanded or extended memory or disk. Filer! Trinity Communications ASP $79 #27698/4076 is a powerful menu-driven file management utility for Ventura Publisher. When you start it up, it automatically scans your hard disk for VP files. One window of the display lists the PUBs and CHPs. As you scroll down the list, the related files are shown in a second window and the contents of a selected file are displayed in the third windows. From this screen, pull-down menus let you copy, move, archive, backup, compress and decompress any combination of Ventura chapters and/or publications. Other features include expanded memory support, context sensitive help, file finding and sorting operations, a file information display, automatic updating of all internal chapter and publication references, and much more. A Ventura Load option lets you select a chapter and load Ventura with that chapter active. PKZIP in included in this package for compression work, but must be registered separately. Index! 2.0 Trinity Communications ASP $79 #27698/4077 is a powerful automatic indexing utility for Ventura Publisher. This menu driven program lets you enter terms to index in a database, then searches up to 100 chapters at a time. It then builds and inserts the index codes Ventura needs. Other features include index preview options, automatic file selection, an index code stripper, DOS shell, editable help screens, and more. If you have ever had to build an index for a major product in Ventura, you will recognize that this program will pay for itself the first time you use it. Tag! Trinity Communications ASP $59 #27698/4078 makes it easy to add Ventura tags to documents. Formats supported are ASCII, MS Word and WordPerfect. This menu-driven program has many shortcuts for quickly and easily tagging files, including hot keys and mouse point-and-click. ]]]]]