Existing users, 
User Name rubaiyat
Member Since 2000-09-20
Total number of Feedback Posts: 71
Total number of comments: 21
Last 10 Feedback Posts by rubaiyat [ Search for All ]
Apple Pages 4.0.3 (Mac OS X)
A diamond in the rough, best use a chip shot! 
Pages is an amazing amalgam of tantalising features and poor implementation. If all you want to do is open up one of the very attractive templates and substitute your own material you will be reasonably happy. Try to make it do anything serious or make major alterations or try to create your own material and you will be confounded at almost every turn. Despite being a clean sheet in design, it has been patched and patched again to try and make it fill some of the demands of its users. The patches add features in odd and inconsistent ways, some of which work - sort of. What doesn't get patched is what is wrong with this program. The first thing that got patched was what has become 2 modes, Word Processing and Layout. As it was a bit of a dog's breakfast trying to be a Word Processor and a DTP program at the same time, Apple split the 2. You diverge at the point of selecting a starting template, then can't go back. Some features work in one mode and some in the other. Apple makes hardly any effort to let the user know which does which. Crazily enough the only master pages are in the WP mode. The Layout mode just makes predesigned sheets which aren't retrospective they are like photo copies of the layout. Despite showing options for facing pages, the pages ignore them except for headers and footers. You actually have to create Layout versions for each side and manually put them in the right order. If you have headers and footers they will twist from one side to the other irregardless of whatever else is on the page. There is no layers, no direct selection tool (for Pete's sake, what millenium is this?) the master pages are primitive in the extreme and only exist for WP mode, there are no named colors that you can systematically use in styles and retrospectively change, no spot colors, no crop marks, no real support for commercially ready pdf files (there may appear to be but they fail), reflections, shadows and text over bitmaps are rendered at a ridiculous 72dpi. I could go on for ever, but there just isn't room. Apple frankly lies about the MsOffice compatibility. It saves and opens Word format files but has so many problems it is better avoided. This is classic Apple post Steve Jobs' 2nd coming, all style and very little substance. It is hard to believe that this is the child of the company that virtually started the DTP revolution and wrote the book on User Interfaces. [alert admin]
Sunday, July 12 2009 @ 11:16 PM PDT
Apple iWork 9.0.1update1 (Mac OS X)
Keynote & Numbers -good Pages - bleh.
I have tried so hard to like Pages. There is probably no program I have worked harder at trying get it do what it is supposed to do. Unfortunately it is Apple's muddled shot at a DTP program, sort of, oh and a Word Processor, sort of. As in the movie "The Fly" the two seem to have had the worst of each others DNA fused. Full of bone headed ideas about user interaction which go to show why no-one else is reinventing the wheel to put several corners on it. All poorly support by useless Help and a really poorly written User Guide. At face value it looks OK. Nice looking interface with <i>very</i> good templates. Scratch the surface and try to do real work and you find the mess beneath. It has a crazy split between "Word Processing mode" and "Layout mode" because the Apple programmers didn't have a clue how to just get it to do both. Odd unannounced functions fail in one or the other. Strangest of all the Word Processor has the somewhat primitive Master Pages and Layout has none. The Layout mode is the more shambolic of the 2 with so many things that don't work it would be hard to list them all. The Spelling checker in both has to be one of the worst implemented of any program I have ever seen. It is constantly confounding users and seems mostly to just not work. Period. WARNING TIM ROBINSON: Do not take anything produced from this to a commercial printer. This is strictly for your desktop printer. WARNING: Do not believe Apple's assurances of compatibility with Ms Office. To give this its technical definition, that is largely a lie. So much does not work either opening or saving to Word that it is just better avoided and only used as a last resort. WARNING: Be prepared to spend a lot of time finding out how to do things and what has gone wrong. Again! The documentation and Help plain suck. As this is a review of iWork I have to say that Keynote and Numbers are both great products. Pity Pages lets the suite down and leaves Apple users still without a decent Word Processor or Database since Apple terminated AppleWorks. [alert admin]
Read Comments (4) | More Info | 1 of 7 users found this helpful
Wednesday, May 20 2009 @ 10:52 PM PDT
Nisus Writer Pro 1.1 (Mac OS X)
If you are casting around for alternatives…
… try iText Express 3.1 (free) or iText Pro '08 (US$15). Both are fast, lean and deceptively simple. I use them for just about everything from simple DTPing to managing DLs and weblinks. They take you back to the capable simplicity that used to be the hallmark of everything Mac. Nisus always had trouble with making a clear usable program for the rest of us and whilst it had its diehard fans they always were too geeky and forgiving of its flaws. I guess they were starry eyed thinking of what it could be instead of what it was. [alert admin]
Read Comments (2) | More Info | 0 of 5 users found this helpful
Monday, September 01 2008 @ 05:32 PM PDT
Nisus Writer Express 3.1 (Mac OS X)
…it has always been that bit odd and hard to use. The few outstanding features it had like non-contiguous text selection are available in virtually every Cocoa app now. I have gone for clean, mean and fast simplicity in iText Express which is free, or the big brother upgrade iText Pro '08 [US$15]. Both are absolutely brilliant fast and easy to use, the way mac programs used to be. No wonder you'll find the users who have discovered them raving about them. I use them to store all sorts of media, hold website clippings, do DTP to pdf, manage my links and DLs etc and am still finding new uses for them. That is all cream on top of the best word processors money can buy (in the case of iText Express, none necessary). Do yourself a favor, shake off the old clutter and get true Mac word processing back on your desktop. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 0 of 1 users found this helpful
Monday, September 01 2008 @ 05:21 PM PDT
OpenOffice.org 3.0b2 (Mac OS X)
It's like switching methadone for the heroin. The point of dumping MsOffice is to say goodbye to bloat, dunderous user interface and slow performance. A copy of a poor model is just a poor copy. I switched to mean, fast and simple with iText Express (free) and iText Pro '08 (US$15) both brilliant examples of what programs should be on the Mac. I keep finding new uses for them from managing my DLs and links to simple DTP. They are permanently open on my Mac and absolutely indispensable. [alert admin]
Read Comments (6) | More Info | 1 of 9 users found this helpful
Monday, September 01 2008 @ 05:11 PM PDT
NeoOffice 2.2.4 patch 5 (Mac OS X)
A MsOffice clone is still a MsOffice clone
The problem is it is still not quite what it is attempting to copy and you have to ask the question is what it is trying to copy actually a good thing? There is also the overall sluggishness and bloat to contend with. Personally I have gone lean and mean with iText Express (free) and iText Pro '08 (US$15) both by the same author and amazingly tight, fast, versatile and friendly. [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 1 of 11 users found this helpful
Monday, September 01 2008 @ 05:00 PM PDT
Bean 1.3.3 (Mac OS X)
Well written and containing just enough functionality. Back to the less is more. If you are looking for a bit more, like multi-column support and more formatting abilities try iText Xpress (free) or iText Pro '08 (US$15) both by the same author and my absolute favorite text editors. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 4 of 4 users found this helpful
Monday, September 01 2008 @ 04:54 PM PDT
iText Express 2.1 (Mac OS X)
I have this permanently open, it is so useful. I drag in clippings and links from webpages and use it to manage my DLs, I do simple DTPing to pdfs. I use it to hold and view certain audio, movies, photos, pdfs, animated gifs. In fact I keep discovering new uses for it. And that is ignoring that it is the best, simple word processor period. It is now up to version 3.1, which is excellent, but it is worth your while to upgrade to the Leopard native iText Pro '08 by the same author which has even more features and is extremely fast. I was glad to pay for the minor upgrade cost, I have got so much out of iText Express I owe him big time. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Monday, September 01 2008 @ 04:48 PM PDT
DeepVacuum 1.66 (Mac OS X)
Good app, which I was hoping to update but the developer's site has vanished as have all the links. [alert admin]
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Saturday, July 19 2008 @ 03:34 PM PDT
DVD2oneX 2.2.1 (Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows 2000)
What has DVD2oneX got that Handbrake doesn't? Or DVDRemaster or VisualHub? It still requires MacTheRipper doesn't it? Is it faster, better quality, more reliable? [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 0 of 2 users found this helpful
Saturday, April 26 2008 @ 04:49 PM PDT
Last 10 Comments by rubaiyat [ Search for All ]
No labels. Slow. Useless templates...
No I don't think they have comps slips in the USA or they use "Shipping Labels" as a substitute. However it shouldn't be hard to make your own, mostly they are just an A4 letterhead 1/3rd the height (99mm) with the address information slid up or down and the words "With Compliments" somewhere offset to allow room for a hand written note. Whilst I agree with some of your criticisms, maybe even most, you can get…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Sunday, July 12 2009 @ 10:48 PM PDT
What on Earth are you talking about, it doesn't work so well in Leopard? I use it incessantly and have been on Leopard for almost a year. The only thing I noticed on upgrading to iText Pro '08 is that it ran faster and had more features.
Original feedback item : Read More
Monday, September 01 2008 @ 05:37 PM PDT
Horrible looking program icons
I guess that is exactly the market Stone Design appeals to. The aesthetically challenged. The icons are a minor issue, compared with the User Interface which I find inconsistent, jarring, oddball and totally unreliable. Yes, you can get to learn anything, but that beggars the question as to why you need to negotiate your way through a design shambles JUST to do your work. Simple, clear and obvious is always best as is using established conventions so you…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Sunday, August 10 2008 @ 09:23 PM PDT
You could just capture the audio from the DVD using Audio HiJack Pro or similar.
Original feedback item : Read More
Wednesday, December 19 2007 @ 04:44 AM PST
Oh just two things, and I guess this is a comment to all developers, don't give your downloads silly and obtuse names. How hard could it have been to call it what it is which is File Matey 1.0.3 instead of fm.zip? Plus the standard distribution for modern Mac apps is drag and drop .dmg files. If you don't want a heavy support burden, make less problems for your users and keep them well informed. Remember, they…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Monday, December 10 2007 @ 05:39 PM PST
There may be hundreds of free fonts out there but nearly all are autotraced rubbish. This may be a bit Steep at 29GBP but it <b>is</b> good quality. Sometimes you just have to pay, unless crap doesn't bother you.
Original feedback item : Read More
Tuesday, June 19 2007 @ 10:33 AM PDT
Can anybody tell a humble non-computer savvy man...
Simply double click on the .dmg file. OSX will "Mount" the file as if it were a disk. It should appear in your sidebar AND open itself as a window to show the contents. If it doesn't open automatically just double click on the icon in the sidebar. You can then use the contents as you would any other files, except the .dmg file is usually locked and does not let you make changes to its…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Thursday, March 29 2007 @ 06:23 PM PDT
ToyViewer does less than you can do with Preview. Including the INABILITY to save the slideshow as anything portable or useful such as a QT .mov or .pdf. The only thing I'll give it credit for was speed. A quick drag and drop gets your slideshow going. But then what do you do with it?
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Sunday, February 18 2007 @ 06:24 AM PST
A truely fatuous reply. Not everyone has the hardware nor software to do a full backup. This has always been the Achilles heel of OSX and Macs. Backups in my experience can exacerbate the problem of disorganisation as they create yet another set of files to be resolved. A client of mine has a chain of harddrives full of junk he dare not touch as he really doesn't know what state of progress they represent. After all…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Thursday, February 15 2007 @ 04:51 PM PST
A truely fatuous reply. Not everyone has the hardware nor software to do a full backup. This has always been the Achilles heel of OSX and Macs. Backups in my experience can exacerbate the problem of disorganisation as they create yet another set of files to be resolved. A client of mine has a chain of harddrives full of junk he dare not touch as he really doesn't know what state of progresss they represent.
Original feedback item : Read More
Thursday, February 15 2007 @ 04:50 PM PST
