Few Mac users have missed the confusion and holy wars caused by the many choices of word processors. Offerings span a field from old Claris stalwarts MacWrite Pro and ClarisWorks all the way to the behemoth, Microsoft Word, and the quirky, yet powerful Nisus Writer

Open Transport 1.1.2 -- Apple has released Open Transport 1.1.2, which should provide better reliability over modem connections and some performance improvements that will be especially welcome to Mac webmasters

Over the last several years, Intuit has provided a major update to Quicken, their personal finance package, on a yearly basis. This year's upgrade includes many refinements, along with some major new features

Netter's Dinner -- Those of you who plan to attend the upcoming Macworld Expo in San Francisco may wish to register online for the 11th Annual Netter's Dinner, a traditional geek-fest involving a stroll through the streets of San Francisco and a buffet-style Hunan Chinese feast

Vote for TidBITS! American Journalism Review's NewsLink is conducting a "Best of the Web" poll for online news sites. TidBITS doesn't rely primarily on the Web, considering that our 42,000-person mailing list is our main distribution method, but, sniff, we're not even listed

Upping the ever-rising ante in the HTML editor game, Claris has shipped Home Page 2.0, and Akimbo recently released Globetrotter 1.1. Home Page 2.0 fills several glaring holes in a PageMill 2.0 to Home Page 1.0 comparison - Home Page now offers variable width table columns, the ability to display background graphics, client-side image maps, a spelling checker, and plug-in support

Good News in the Face of Apple's "Death?" Reading this year's reports of Apple's imminent demise seems to have devolved from serious reporting to tabloid headlining ("Gil Amelio Taps Martians for System 8 Secrets!")

Welcome to our 1996 gift issue! This is a special issue of TidBITS, so it falls outside of our normal distribution schedule and has no sponsors. We've long made a habit of publishing an article in mid-December with holiday gift suggestions from TidBITS readers

RAM, Wonderful RAM -- Perhaps the most commonly suggested item this year was more RAM, which is still quite affordable. Kate Norem said it best when she wrote, "You know, one can never have too much RAM." Scott agrees, or at least he thinks he does: As I get older I find that my memory isn't what it used to be

3M Precision Mousing Surface I helped a neighbor with his Mac a couple of weeks ago and in an effort to thank me he gave me a "3M Precise Mousing Surface" (that's really what they call it)

Sundial Sundial looks like a perfect gift for one Mac friend I know. It replaces the desktop pattern with a scenic picture. So? That picture changes with the time of day! Their Web site has small QuickTime movies to show the effect

Sinkha Sinkha is a multimedia graphic novel along the lines of Heavy Metal, an adult comic book, wherein a young girl is presented with the opportunity to escape the hellhole of a planet she was born on by joining some aliens, the Sinkha, who are intent on uncovering her planet's secrets. Marco Patrito, Sinkha's author, has done a great deal of impressive work for this CD

SpeechPrompter As a gift for the public speaker or lecturer - including any businessman, academic, or scientist who goes to meetings - think of SpeechPrompter

TelePort Speakerphone Edition My suggestion is the new Global Village TelePort Speakerphone Edition modem. Along with all the standard modem features (and an upgrade path to 56 Kbps speeds some time in 1997), the device acts as a speakerphone even when your computer is turned off and enables full-duplex conversation and simultaneous voice and data transmissions

We hope you've found this special issue of TidBITS useful in compiling a shopping list for your favorite Mac enthusiast (whether that be yourself or someone else!) and that, no matter what you may give or receive, these last weeks of 1996 are happy ones