[DM-MUG] What we talked about at DM-MUG

[John Kisner]

Addendum to meeting.

While Jon was scrolling through a download site, I noticed RagTime.   
This is a serious program that combines page layout and an office  
suite.  The "solo" version is now free, it's only limit being it  
cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Fifteen years ago, I was using RagTime for a newsletter that I  
published.  It was sort of a random software choice -- I bought it in  
a discount bin at a computer store -- but its combination of features  
was perfect for me.

The level of integration of its tools was astounding at the time, and  
is still hard to duplicate.  What you do is draw "frames" on a page  
that can be words, spreadsheet, graphs, or pictures.  Layout and  
borders and whatnot is very powerful.  Spreadsheet frames are similar  
to what you get in something like AppleWorks.  What's great is  
ability to mix these elements on the same page, within a page layout  
environment that is similar to Quark or PageMaker.

It has several limitations which might not make it a contender to  
replace OpenOffice.  It's too hard to use unless you really want to  
use its layout features.  It's not the kind of program that works  
well with file sharing (beyond the pdf level).

I haven't used RagTime much in over ten years (I switched to Quark  
because my printer at the time insisted), but do have fond memories  
of it.  I got the OSX "solo" version (I think it was $25 for the CD),  
and it was like running into an old friend.  But like I said, it's  
"hard" software that takes awhile to get the hang of, and I no longer  
have the need for a mixed layout/spreadsheet environment, so I never  
did really get back up to speed.

http://www.comgrafix.com/index.html

***

The other piece of 3rd World software I really like (but don't really  
use) is Mellel.  I'm not sure if there is much functional difference  
between it and some free like AbiWord to justify paying $39, but it  
have some powerful features for academic use: footnotes, outlines,  
multi-lingual support.  The "look" of the program is pretty clunky  
compared to Apple Pages or Nisus Writer Express, but as a writing  
tool there is nothing to complain about.  Not sure exactly why I  
prefer Pages -- it's probably just a case of Mellel being more  
powerful, and thus a little harder to become familiar with.  (It's  
still very clean compared to Word, of course!)

http://www.redlers.com/generaloptionswithmellel.html

***

The last thing I wanted to mention was the tremendous value of Mellel  
(and other cheap software) compared to that from more commercial  
publishers.  I bought the family pack in the summer of 2004.  It was  
version 1.7 or something back then.  The software is constantly being  
updated, and is now 2.06 (build 2).  It has been a very pleasant  
surprise, as someone accustomed to sending Apple another $79 for the  
annual updates of Pages and iLife, to get all those new versions for  
free -- even when the version number changes from 1 to 2.