TidBITS#410/15-Dec-97
=====================

  Need help organizing ideas? Check out Matt Neuburg's review of
  Inspiration 5.0, a diagramming and outlining tool. Also in this
  final issue of 1997, Adam examines the numbers behind the Apple
  Store to see how it contributes to Apple's bottom line, plus we
  bring news of a potential 56K modem standard, an update to last
  week's digital camera article, and pointers to locating the
  MacPicasso video card noted in our holiday gifts issue. See you
  in 1998!

Topics:
    MailBITS/15-Dec-97
    Apple Store Reality Check
    Inspiration 5.0: Surprising Survivor

<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-410.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/issues/1997/TidBITS#410_15-Dec-97.etx>

Copyright 1997 TidBITS Electronic Publishing. All rights reserved.
   Information: <info@tidbits.com> Comments: <editors@tidbits.com>
   ---------------------------------------------------------------

This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 -- <sales@apstech.com>
   Makers of M*Power Mac OS compatibles & premium storage devices.
   APS product info and price lists: <http://www.apstech.com/>

* Northwest Nexus -- 1 888-NWNEXUS -- <http://www.nwnexus.com/>
   Internet business solutions throughout the Pacific Northwest.

* Small Dog Electronics -- Special Deals for TidBITS Readers! <---- NEW!
   PowerBook 5300cs 40/750, factory refurbished: $1179
   Kensington PowerBook Backpacks, new, blue color: $29
   For Details: <http://www.smalldoggy.com/#tid> -- 802/496-7171

* Cyberian Outpost -- the Cool Place to Shop for Computer Stuff! <- NEW!
   IBM Ultrastar 2.1 GB SCSI internal drive: $194.95 ($5 off)
   <http://www.tidbits.com/tbp/ibm-ultrastar-2.1.html>
   Myth: $39.95 ($4 off) <http://www.tidbits.com/tbp/myth.html>

* Soft Material -- great kids' multimedia from around the world:
   Thoru Yamamoto's _Pickle's Book_ CD-ROM, "4 stars" -Children's
   Software Revue! Info at <pickle@softmaterial.com>, or visit us
   at <http://www.softmaterial.com/tb/>. For orders 800/699-4144.
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MailBITS/15-Dec-97
------------------

**Last Issue for 1997** -- We're taking the next two weeks off for
  the holidays, so look for the next issue of TidBITS on 05-Jan-98.
  Since we will be spending time with family and friends, none of us
  will be checking email regularly. We would like to take this
  opportunity to thank you all for your kind words and support in
  1997, and wish you the best for 1998. This last year was a hard
  one for Macintosh users: here's hoping that next year brings
  renewed cause for optimism and enjoyment of what we do with our
  Macs. [ACE]


**Meet the TidBITS Editors** -- In my "Eudora Tips & Tricks"
  article in TidBITS-405_, I promised to be at the Peachpit Press
  booth at Macworld Expo in San Francisco next month. The schedule
  has been set up, and I'll be signing copies of my Eudora Visual
  QuickStart Guide on Thursday, 08-Jan-98 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM,
  so stop by and say hello! Tonya and Jeff Carlson will probably be
  around as well. [ACE]

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04270>


**Plug & Play Web Sites in NetBITS** -- If you missed the last two
  NetBITS issues, check them out for a two-part article by Peter
  Kent on how to add snazzy features like chat rooms, shopping
  carts, and CGIs to your Web site without a stitch of programming.
  Other topics in these issues include an overview of instant
  messaging utilities and phone numbers you can call to test a 56K
  modem, plus FAQtoids entries explain who pays for the Internet,
  the difference between the Internet and the Web, and the anatomy
  of Web search engines. To receive NetBITS automatically each week,
  send email to <netbits-on@netbits.net>. [ACE]

<http://www.netbits.net/nb-issues/NetBITS-011.html>
<http://www.netbits.net/nb-issues/NetBITS-010.html>


**Rare MacPicasso Unearthed** -- After reading last week's Holiday
  Gifts issue (TidBITS-409_), several readers inquired about contact
  information for purchasing a MacPicasso 516 video card. We hadn't
  realized how difficult it would be to locate a U.S. source for the
  card. Anne-Marie Concepcion <amarie@sdandc.com> did the legwork to
  identify Software Hut as the U.S. distributor. She wrote,
  "Software Hut says the MacPicasso 516 has been discontinued, and
  they have none in stock. Software Hut will offer an updated
  version of the low-end board, the MacPicasso 523, for the same
  $119.95 price." Software Hut also told Anne-Marie the 523 wouldn't
  be available until January, so she purchased an inexpensive card
  from MacConnection instead.

  The plot thickened when I called Software Hut to confirm Anne-
  Marie's information. The representative stated the 523 should be
  available on Thursday of this week, but could not confirm the
  pricing before this issue went to press. Also, Kai Niggemann
  <canine@muenster.de>, who lives in Germany and originated the
  MacPicasso suggestion, said the Picasso 516 is "still being
  advertised in Germany." If you don't live in the U.S. or Germany,
  you might have luck with either company, or you could just
  purchase a different video card. [TJE]

    Software Hut (in the U.S.) -- 610/586 5701 -- 610/586 5706 (fax)
      <softhut@erols.com>
    Villagetronic (in Germany) -- 05066-7013-10 -- 95966-7013-49
      <orders@village.de>


**56K Standards Wars Waning?** Last week, the companies embroiled
  in the war for 56 Kbps modem standards reached a tentative
  agreement on a 56K technology that may become the official
  standard. This agreement comes faster than we'd expected - in a
  recent NetBITS article, "Speed Jockeys on the Internet: Flying at
  56K," we reported a standard wasn't likely to show up until at
  least September 1998. However, it now appears the lack of an
  accepted technology has been hurting major combatants such as
  3Com/USRobotics and Lucent Technologies/Rockwell Communications.
  Early reports suggest the final 56K technology will combine
  elements of current K56flex and X2 designs. It looks as though the
  ITU will use this agreement to draft a "determined" (preliminary)
  standard during its January meeting, which is when modems using
  the technology are likely to begin appearing. Chances are also
  good the ITU will ratify the final standard at its September 1998
  meeting. [JLC]

<http://db.netbits.net/getbits.acgi?nbart=04451>
<http://www.itu.int/>
<http://www.3com.com/news/releases/dec0897c.html>
<http://www.lucent.com/press/1297/971205.mea.html>


**Frontier 5.0 Alphas for Mac and Windows** -- UserLand Software
  has released the first public alphas of Frontier 5.0 for the Mac
  and, for the first time ever, Windows. Frontier is a free
  integrated outlining tool/scripting language/object-oriented
  database that has gathered a loyal following on the Mac for its
  capability to tie applications together via powerful scripting.
  Recent releases have focused on helping webmasters maintain
  complex and frequently updated Web sites (see "Spinning the Web
  Part 5: New Frontiers" in TidBITS-389_). If you use Frontier to
  maintain a Web site, note that significant changes were made to
  Frontier's Web site framework. Bear in mind that alpha releases
  aren't guaranteed to be stable and may not be feature complete.
  [ACE]

<http://www.scripting.com/frontier5/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=02699>
<http://www.scripting.com/frontier5/migration/>


**COPSTalk 2.5 Connects Win95 and AppleShare IP** -- Apple's
  AppleShare IP 5 and ShareWay IP from Open Door Networks enable Mac
  users to access AppleShare volumes over the Internet. Until now,
  Windows 95 users couldn't access those AppleShare volumes over the
  Internet; with the release of the $159 COPSTalk 2.5 from COPS
  Inc., they can. COPSTalk is currently bundled with the AppleShare
  IP 5 Software Bundle CD, and upgrade discounts are available. You
  can also download a 10-day evaluation version. [ACE]

<http://appleshareip.apple.com/>
<http://www.opendoor.com/shareway/>
<http://www.copstalk.com/news/ctw_2_5_pr.shtml>
<http://www.copstalk.com/docs/ctw2_5doc/ctw2_5_upgrade.htm>


**AutoShare 2.0 Released** -- Mikael Hansen has released AutoShare
  2.0, the latest version of his free mailing list manager and email
  auto-responder. AutoShare is small, speedy, fully scriptable, and
  compatible with Eudora Internet Mail Server and Stalker Internet
  Mail Server. New to version 2.0 are completely revamped
  documentation, support for multiple preference sets for handling
  multiple domains, a filter process extender, and user interface
  refinements. [ACE]

<http://www.dnai.com/~meh/autoshare/>


**Pixel Perfect** -- Following Arthur H. Bleich's <arthur@zim.com>
  articles about choosing a digital camera (see TidBITS-407_ and
  TidBITS-408_), several sharp-eyed readers called attention to the
  fact camera resolution specifications were stated in terms of
  pixels per inch (ppi), when in fact they should be stated just in
  pixels. A digital camera captures its image on a surface
  consisting of light-sensitive pixels, but that surface isn't
  restricted to a certain measurement. When the resulting image
  shows onscreen, its resolution is then correctly described in
  pixels per inch, such as 640 by 480 ppi.

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1022>

  Also, Andrew Nielsen <andrews@starfish.net.au> wrote from
  Australia to say that outside the U.S., the Olympus series 200,
  300, 500, and 600 cameras are designated 400, 800, 1,000, and
  1,400 respectively. Also, we've learned that Arthur will be
  writing a twice-monthly column for ZoneZero beginning in January.
  [JLC]

<http://www.zonezero.com/>


Apple Store Reality Check
-------------------------
  by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>

  Apple's much-ballyhooed online Apple Store posted impressive-
  sounding results in its first month of operation. However,
  although there's no question that the Apple Store has been an
  online success, how much of a difference can it make in Apple's
  overall financial situation?

  The day after the Apple Store opened, Apple claimed it did
  $500,000 of business in 12 hours, and last week Apple issued a
  press release trumpeting that the Apple Store did $12 million of
  business in its first month of operation. Those numbers sound
  impressive, but a big number doesn't necessarily equal an
  impressive financial return. First though, let me say I'm not
  trying to denigrate what Apple has achieved with the Apple Store,
  just pointing out that the reported numbers paint a rosier picture
  than is perhaps warranted. That said, let's look at those numbers.

<http://product.info.apple.com/pr/press.releases/1998/q1/
971210.pr.rel.store.html>
<http://product.info.apple.com/pr/press.releases/1998/q1/
971111.pr.rel.onlinestore.html>


**Dollars Per Year?** If the Apple Store had continued at its
  initial $500,000 per 12 hours rate, that would be $1 million per
  day, or $30 million in the first month. Even if you halve that
  amount, assuming that most people would order during a 12-hour
  window roughly corresponding to the business day in the U.S.
  (since the Apple Store doesn't yet take international orders),
  you're still talking $15 million, or $3 million more than Apple
  reported for that first month. (There was also some thought that
  the free camera promotion Apple ran in the Apple Store coincided
  neatly with the final week of the Apple Store's first month,
  potentially bumping up the numbers.)

  From these figures, it might seem as though the Apple Store hit
  the "splash" effect on the Internet: new resources get the most
  attention immediately after they appear, and attracting that much
  attention again is harder to do. For instance, a major new Web
  site will sometimes be overwhelmed immediately upon being
  announced, and after that, hits drop to a baseline level.

  Let's hope that hasn't happened to the Apple Store. At $12 million
  per month, the Apple Store would pull in about $144 million per
  year; although that's certainly not small change, it also wouldn't
  even dent some of Apple's more negative quarters. Of course, that
  $144 million is gross sales, not profit, and although Apple's
  margin on direct sales is unknown, it's unlikely to be more than
  35 percent (gross margin has been hovering around 20 percent, and
  distributors and dealers may add another 15 percent before users
  see a price). If those figures are reasonably accurate, the Apple
  Store would contribute about $50 million a year to Apple's bottom
  line. Or would it?

  The Apple Store receives orders that - in many cases - would
  otherwise be handled by other Macintosh resellers. If we assume
  Apple makes 15 percent more on a Mac sold through the Apple Store
  than one sold through another channel, 85 percent of that $50
  million would have come in anyway, leaving the true yearly
  advantage of the Apple Store at about $7.5 million (assuming the
  Apple Store sustains $12 million per month in business).

  Is it worth it? Overall, I'd say yes, but Apple's playing a
  balancing act, because unlike direct sales poster child Dell
  Computer, Apple has always relied on resellers and will continue
  to do so, because local resellers enable customers to try a Mac
  before buying. Dell doesn't suffer from this problem, because you
  can try any PC at a store and assume that it will work much the
  same as a Dell you buy direct.

  For the reseller view of the Apple Store, I spoke with Michael
  Koidahl, president of Westwind Computing, my favorite dealer in
  the Seattle area. He felt that the Apple Store is currently
  harming dealers because dealers aren't allowed to sell built-to-
  order Macs. Michael said Apple has promised dealers build-to-order
  capabilities in the first quarter of 1998. Setting up such a
  system undoubtedly takes time (since dealers must stock the
  necessary parts) but Michael suggested Apple could leverage the
  existing repair infrastructure to enable dealers to order and
  stock parts, then use them either for building custom Macs or for
  repair jobs (with the added benefit of speeding up repair service
  that would otherwise have to wait for parts to arrive from Apple).


**Number of Customers & Macs?** It's worth noting another
  confusion that could result from looking purely at the sales
  figures for the Apple Store. For instance, Apple reported that the
  Apple Store had $500,000 in orders in its first 12 hours. If you
  assume an average order of $2,500, that only equates to about 200
  customers. That's not too bad for 12 hours, but it's a bit less
  impressive when you consider the Apple Store took 4.4 million hits
  (at perhaps 20 to 50 hits per person?) in those 12 hours. In
  essence, many people browsed the site, but relatively few bought
  products.

  If you do the math for the month in which the Apple Store brought
  in $12 million, using the same $2,500 average order, you end up
  with about 4,800 customers, or 160 per day, down somewhat from
  that initial rush in the first 12 hours. Again, 160 customers per
  day is nothing to sneeze at, but if you assume each is buying a
  single Mac (necessary, given our $2,500 average order assumption),
  you end up with 58,400 Macs sold online per year. When you
  consider the fact that, in its heyday, Apple sold more than a
  _million_ Macs per quarter (and even now Apple sells about 650,000
  Macs per quarter), 58,400 machine sales in a year doesn't seem all
  that high.


**Third Largest?** Apple's press release also claimed that the
  Apple Store is the third largest electronic commerce site on the
  Internet. No details were given to back up this claim and Apple's
  PR department didn't respond to my queries, but ironically, some
  numbers came out of Dell the same day as the Apple press release.
  In a keynote at Internet World, Dell CEO Michael Dell said that
  Dell sells more than $3 million per day via its Web site with
  several days during this holiday season reaching $6 million.
  That's about $1 billion in yearly sales. Dell expects half of its
  business to come from online sales by the year 2000.

  In short, then, clearly the Apple Store is an unqualified online
  success, but at the same time, it won't do much for Apple's bottom
  line at the current sales rates. It's also clear people are
  patronizing the Apple Store in large part because they can order
  custom Mac configurations; Apple's inability to offer custom
  configurations has long been a source of frustration. The Apple
  Store faces challenges in the upcoming year as dealers are given
  the right to sell built-to-order Macs, but on the positive side,
  opening the Apple Store up to international sales may cause a
  significant upturn in sales from parts of the world where Apple
  dealers are few and far between. Ideally, the Apple Store will end
  up making real contributions to Apple's financial results without
  cannibalizing sales from those dealers that Apple relies on for
  sales, support, and repairs.


Inspiration 5.0: Surprising Survivor
------------------------------------
  by Matt Neuburg <matt@tidbits.com>

  Being hopelessly addicted to the use of powerful, interesting
  structures to store and manipulate text, I've had a gloomy time of
  it lately, watching support dwindle for some of my favorite
  applications. To be sure, a computer program does not, for the
  most part, grind to a rusty halt or cease to exist because its
  manufacturer ceases to sell or upgrade it, but I find it sad that
  users can no longer obtain such fascinating, powerful programs as
  In Control (TidBITS-191_), Info Depot, and MORE (TidBITS-198_).

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=02443>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=02381>

  That's why I found it heartening to hear, in September, that
  Inspiration Software, Inc., had upgraded to version 5.0 its
  flagship product, the diagrammer and outliner from which the
  company takes its name: Inspiration. My last look at the program
  was in 1993 (TidBITS-180_), and it's great to see Inspiration
  return with a vengeance after all these years. The company has
  positioned Inspiration for success by producing it for Windows as
  well as Macintosh, and by targeting both K-12 and higher education
  markets with special editions.

<http://www.inspiration.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=02542>


**Draw Me a Picture** -- You can work with an Inspiration document
  either as an outline or as a diagram. Although diagrams are not
  usually my cup of tea, Inspiration's diagramming facilities are
  quick, easy, and fun, while at the same time powerful and flexible
  enough to satisfy most imaginable needs; so it isn't hard to see
  why the company's Web site stresses this aspect of the program.

  An Inspiration diagram consists of "ideas" connected by "links" -
  an idea is a piece of text, usually within or next to a graphic; a
  link is a line, perhaps with an arrow, perhaps with a text label.
  Imagine, for instance, a flowchart, or an organization chart, or a
  process flow diagram - these are the sorts of things you might
  diagram with Inspiration.

  Inspiration provides lots of power to customize the diagram. You
  can alter the default features of new ideas or those of selected
  ideas. You can position and resize an idea, change its fill color,
  line color, or text color, its line and fill pattern, its line
  thickness, and the character styling of any part of its text. You
  can do the same for links (of course they have no fill), plus
  alter the arrow at either end, reposition the text label, set the
  precise point at which the link leaves or arrives at an idea
  graphic, and give it various shapes, including custom zigzags and
  curves.

  Inspiration comes with a large library of graphics, or you can
  supply your own; in fact, you can just paste a picture onto an
  idea to make it that idea's graphic, though it won't have the same
  "intelligent" features as certain supplied graphics, such as a
  demarcated interior text region. Also, you can add graphic
  elements to the diagram background by drawing them with tools
  provided - though, curiously, you can't import a background
  graphic.

  Thoughtful features make it easy to modify a diagram. You can zoom
  your view of the diagram in or out. When you insert or delete
  ideas within an existing link, the link rearranges itself
  intelligently. You can change which idea is the main idea. You can
  align ideas, and neaten them en masse into various schematic
  structures.


**Subordination and Insubordination** -- The diagram is also a
  hierarchy. There is a main idea (to which all others are
  subordinate), and links have directionality, so that if a link
  leads from idea A to idea B, idea B is a sub-idea of idea A. This
  hierarchy is what ties together the diagram view of an
  Inspiration documentand its outline view, which is why a diagram
  can also be viewed as an outline.

  Certain clever features of diagram manipulation take advantage of
  this hierarchy. A particular idea's sub-ideas (or all its sub-
  ideas deeper than a given level) can be hidden; or, everything
  except a particular idea and its sub-ideas can be hidden.

  However, there's a problem: you can do things with a diagram that
  you couldn't possibly do with a simple outline-type hierarchical
  structure. For instance, in a diagram, you can link A to C and
  also link B to C and also link B to A and also link C to B -
  whatever helps to express the notions and relationships you're
  trying to convey. But such multiple and reverse relationships
  can't appear in an outline.

  I find Inspiration's solution to this paradox a bit confusing.
  There is always a basic, underlying outline hierarchy, which you
  see when you switch to outline view. Unfortunately, it might not
  be what you expect (I think it depends somehow on the order in
  which ideas were originally created, but I honestly can't
  determine the algorithm). Also, ideas need not be linked to the
  main diagram at all; such "loose" ideas appear in the outline as
  subtopics of a special "Miscellaneous Thoughts" topic. Finally, if
  a diagram becomes so complex that the outline view becomes
  irrelevant, you can always just give up on the latter altogether:
  Inspiration supplies a special "text view" which lets you read and
  edit idea texts without a hierarchy.


**Inside Outline** -- The outliner, which enables you to view and
  manipulate documents in outline view, is full-featured, and thus
  is greatly improved from the version 4.0 outliner, which was on
  the whole so crude and lacking in basic navigational shortcuts as
  to be downright impractical for serious use. In 4.0, there was no
  reason why one would _ever_ make Inspiration one's outliner of
  choice; in 5.0, there are very few reasons _not_ to do so.
  Inspiration now has all the keyboard shortcuts and facilities you
  expect for navigation and reorganization of an outline, such as
  navigating to the parent topic, moving a line, demoting and
  promoting of subtopics, hiding all but a particular topic and its
  subtopics, and so forth. (Oddly, there is a command for splitting
  a topic into two, but none for joining two topics into one.)

  There are facilities for setting the default text styling of
  various levels, which I would describe as good but not great
  (particularly in comparison to MORE). You can alter and customize
  the outline prefix that precedes each topic. A topic can have an
  attached note, which can even contain a graphic, and may be
  displayed or hidden (notes can be displayed in diagram view also),
  and a topic can include carriage returns (remarkable for an
  outliner). You can consolidate multiple non-contiguous topics
  under a single topic. A "summation" feature inserts a number into
  a topic which is the total of all numbers in its subtopics having
  a certain format; I have found a similar feature in MORE useful
  for maintaining categorized inventories.

  Inspiration 5.0 retains an intriguing organizational feature with
  which I was much impressed in 4.0: each outline topic (or, in
  diagram view, each idea) can have a second, almost hypertextual
  dimension of hierarchy by means of an attached "child" window,
  which can be made to open at any time. These windows look like
  separate Inspiration documents, though in fact they are part of
  the same document. Of course, any topic in a "child" outline
  can have a "child" of its own. An Inspiration document thus can
  contain a swarm of sub-documents, each of which is summoned
  through a particular topic (or idea) of the main document or of
  a sub- document. That's what I call a powerful, interesting
  structure to store and manipulate text!


**Balance of Trade** -- Inspiration's export and import features
  are remarkably good. A diagram can be exported as a PICT or a GIF.
  As for outlines, Inspiration opens MORE outlines directly
  (flawlessly, as far as I can tell). It also opens text files,
  interpreting tabs as topic levels and untabbed lines as notes. And
  it opens Microsoft Word files saved in RTF (Rich Text Format),
  using Word's built-in Heading styles as indications of topic level
  and maintaining character styling pretty well. An outline can be
  exported in these formats and a number of others. (Alas,
  Inspiration still lacks the ability to export just the notes.)

  It is de rigueur these days to tout one's product as Internet-
  savvy, and Inspiration is no exception: outlines can be exported
  as HTML. I like this feature, since an outliner can be a
  convenient milieu for constructing and maintaining certain kinds
  of Web pages. Inspiration provides four choices: a single Web page
  that uses lists to imitate the look of the original outline; a
  single Web page where the outline without notes appears before the
  outline with notes (the former functioning as a live-link index to
  the latter); two Web pages (one is an index to the other); and
  multiple Web pages, one for each Level One topic, tied together by
  an index page linking to the others.

  Unfortunately, the implementation lacks options for formatting the
  resulting HTML pages - all topics end up in boldface, and all
  notes end up as plain text (though you can include your own manual
  HTML if you like). Also, international characters are incorrectly
  handled.


**Ingenuities, Oddities, Uglifications, and Conclusions** -- The
  overall interface of Inspiration 5.0 is admirable, a well-
  conceived and notable improvement from the clunky, confusing 4.0
  interface. Various commands and modes make it easy to "brainstorm"
  or construct a diagram or outline rapidly, without using the
  mouse. Frequently used commands are available through modifier-
  clicks and double-clicks, and through well-implemented palettes
  (they are part of the window, and can be hidden); yet you can
  still do everything with just menu items and a few navigational
  keyboard shortcuts.

  On the other hand, a few rough edges remain. Here are some
  Inspiration weaknesses that I have not mentioned already:

* In my review of 4.0 I complained that the interface for
  manipulating text was faulty, and although most of my criticisms
  no longer apply, some surprises remain. For instance, given the
  phrase "hello there", if you double-click just after the "o",
  Inspiration selects the word "there".

* If you switch from diagram view to outline view and then back to
  diagram view, the diagram has scrolled to a different position
  from where you left it, which is confusing.

* If text in a diagram is truncated or too small to read,
  positioning the cursor over it shows the text legibly in a "status
  bar" at the bottom of the window, which is good; but, if the text
  is too long for the status bar it is truncated again, which is
  silly. (The status bar should expand to show the whole text).

* The Undo command doesn't undo a number of actions.

* Inspiration is not scriptable. Imagine the power, if only it
  were!

  On the whole, however, my impression of Inspiration 5.0 is highly
  positive. Inspiration 5.0 is a quantum leap up from the weak 4.0 I
  reviewed four years ago; it is now, at last, a serious and
  valuable program for diagramming or outlining, and deserves
  consideration on both counts.

  Inspiration 5.0 is priced at about $100, and a free demo is
  available online.

<http://www.teleport.com/~inspirat/demoform.html>


$$

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