Navigate: | My Mac Online | The Archives | May 1997 | Shareware Reviews |

| GIFmation 2.0a3 | Smart Scroll 2.0.3 | Snapz Pro 1.0.1 |

Ok, I don't like to lie, so I'll start off by telling you the truth: I have never made an animated GIF before in my life. Believe me, I'm no expert at it, so I was a little leery about doing this review. I had attempted making an animated GIF with GifBuilder before, but I got frustrated and quit. My attempt at making an animated GIF with GIFmation was totally different. I was able to make a simple, yet successful animated GIF in under 10 minutes, and it was very easy to do.

When I first launched GIFmation, I was a little overwhelmed by all the tools and controls, but I soon found out that they were all very easy to understand and use. All the tools are accessible through a series of pull-down menus and floating palettes, which makes them very easy to access. Speed controls for various target connection speeds (unlimited, T1, all the way down to 9,600 bps and "other") are housed in the main animation window. Start and Stop buttons are also found there.

You can see the contents of each frame in the "Frames" palette, and move to any frame at any time, without having to play through the animation and then pause at the frame you want. It took me a little while to figure out how to use the frames palette, but once I did, it was very easy to make the animation.

GIFmation even checks the browser compatibility of your animation. Browser selection is currently limited to Mac versions of Navigator 2.0.2, 3.0 and MIE 2.1, but this option is the one thing currently controlled by plug-ins. I expect to see additional browsers added as plug-ins for them are made.

The Summary
Wow. I never thought that making an animated GIF could be fun, but GIFmation has made it fun! The use of floating palettes gives you easy access to all tools, and the standard Mac interface makes learning this program very quick and easy. This program can serve all levels, from beginner to advanced. Go get it today. With GIFmation, the Web will truly never be the same.

Download GIFmation 2.0a6 68k

Download GIFmation 2.0a6 PPC

I have been waiting for this feature to come to the Mac for so long: Live scrolling. That's right! When Smart Scroll is installed, dragging the scroll bar tab will make the window update, so there's no more guessing where you will end up. If that's not enough, Smart Scroll also gives you the option of proportional scroll bars - If a window is displaying half of a document, the tab will be half the scroll bar size, like in Windows 95.

Smart Scroll's interface is very straight-forward, yet smartly designed. The docs are in the main window of the control panel, and can be easily viewed in many languages. Below there are checkboxes for Active (Live) Scrolling and Proportional Tabs, so if you're like me and don't like proportional tabs, then you can turn it off. Below that is a Preferences button, where you can choose from 3 types of proportional scroll bars, shown below.

While I don't particularly care for the proportional scroll bars, I have found them to be compatible with every program I work with, including Photoshop, BBEdit, Web Weaver, Navigator, and many more. The same goes for the live scrolling feature. I haven't found one program that it's incompatible with, and Smart Scroll has not caused one conflict on my machine.

The Summary
Now you may be saying, "but Adam, Mac OS 8 will have live scrolling!" That's true, but that's only in Finder windows. Other applications, control panels, and dialog boxes have to be programmed for it. And, Mac OS 8 will not include proportional scroll bars. I'm glad Smart Scroll is compatible with Mac OS 8, because I'll be using this program for a long time to come.

Download Smart Scroll 2.0.3

When it came time to start taking screenshots of Mac OS 8 for the Web site, I knew that I was going to need a good screen capture tool, one that goes beyond the capabilities of Mac OS 7.6. I found that capability in Snapz Pro, from Ambrosia Software.

When you take a snapshot in Mac OS 7.6, you press command-shift-3, and it takes a picture of the whole screen. If you press command-shift-4, it will give you a crosshairs tool so you can make a selection. And pressing command-shift-caps lock-4 will give you a bulls-eye tool so you can take a picture of a certain window. But you can't take pictures of open menus, and you certainly can't have your Mac automatically scale a screen shot! Saying that Snapz Pro gives you more options than Mac OS 7.6 is an understatement! Snapz Pro is far superior to your Mac's ordinary screen capture tools.

With Snapz Pro, you can easily set a key combination that lets you take a screenshot. When you press that key combination, a dialog box comes up, giving you your options. You can capture the whole screen, a window, a menu, or select the crosshairs tool for a certain selection. Once you click on what tool you want to use, you then click where you want the shot to be taken, such as a window, or an open menu. Selecting the whole screen tool will automatically take a picture of the whole screen.

You can have the screen shot sent to various locations after it's taken. The default setting is a folder called "Screen Snapz" which resides in your System Folder. But you can also have it sent to the clipboard, the printer, or even a new folder of your choice. Another neat feature is that Snapz Pro can scale the snapshot, from 10-400%, automatically. You can also have Snapz Pro change the color quality of the screenshot, so you don't have to change from "Thousands" to "Black and White" just to get a screenshot in black and white. You can even name the file before you take the screenshot, so you don't have to rename it later!

The Summary
It has been a long time since I have used such a worthwhile piece of shareware. Snapz Pro has become an essential control panel, one of the few third party control panels that I use. Snapz Pro causes no conflicts with any of my programs, and there is no speed penalty from using it. I would recommend Snapz Pro for even occasional screenshots. The $20.00 shareware fee is well worth it - Snapz Pro is worth every penny.

Download Snapz Pro 1.0.1

Adam Karneboge (webmaster@mymac.com)

Websites mentioned:
http://www.boxtopsoft.com
http://www.kagi.com/authors/marc
http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com
http://www.mymac.com/software

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