Christmas is near, and Hanukkah too, and we have some news and some offers for you. Don't fret -- the Christmas offers we have are much better than my rhyming.
Table of Contents:
Mellel News:
What's going on:
Mellel Tips:
Mellel News
Last call for $25! -- Yes, I'm afraid it's true. Mellel price will be raised to $29 with version 1.7, which will probably be released by the end of month. The reason for the raise is simple: Mellel 1.7 will be worth it.
Apart from features like auto-numbering, table of contents, mentions, and other really neat innovations in this version we've decided to add to the casserole at the last moment four more:
- CJK full justification support: Mellel will now do it right, spacing the characters instead of only spacing with spaces.
- Arabic/Persian Kashida support: Those of you who knows what I'm talking about -- delight. Those of you who don't, Kashidas are a special means of achieving full justification with Arabic text without changing word spacing.
- Set header/footer height: You will now be able to set the header and footer height manually.
- Change measurement units on the fly: Now you'll be able to type "cm" or "in" after a number and arbitrarily change the measurement unit used.
A note to those of you who already bought Mellel: the price change does not affect you, of course.
ChristMesa offer! -- RedleX have joined with P&L Software, the maker of the spreadsheet application Mesa, to offer 25% discount when purchasing either Mellel or Mesa. The offer is valid to December 24th.
What you need to do in order to get the discount is simple: Buy Mellel for the regular price ($25), get the coupon from RedleX and then go to Mesa's order page (see below) and using your coupon order Mesa for $29 instead of $39.
If you already own Mellel or Mesa, do not fear: you can write to RedleX (that's us) or to P&L (that's Liz) and ask for the coupon. We'll be happy to oblige.
A very Kool review -- Johan Kool from the Dutch MacFreak have released a review of Mellel giving it 4.5 out of 5. My command of the Nederlands is far from satisfactory and the automatic translation engines, I'm afraid, are far from being up to snuff here, insisting right from the start that "Niet meer en niet minder" (no more, no less) is actually "No longer and not less" and things get much worse from that point onwards.
What's Going On
Giving it a rest... -- To be sure, Microsoft had many devious plots this month, we should have been exposing, but in view of the month the season and the spirit of the season I've decided to give it a rest. Next month they'll contrive just as devilishly as they did in November, I'm almost sure.
Mellel Tips
Great WordNet news -- Good things are happening on the thesaurus front! Two of the leading thesauri based on WordNet (developed by Princeton University's Cognitive Science Laboratory) received important updates recently. For those of you who use a thesaurus, they are both well worth the download.
- WordNet 5: This excellent thesaurus by Mulle Kybernetic from Germany suffered some sever problems with Panther (Mac OS X 10.3). Happily, a fix came very swiftly offering, in additions, some nice interface improvements. This version is using a local copy of WordNet 1.6 which you should also use. The main advantage of this: it's ultra fast and works even if you don't have an internet connection. The main disadvantage: it works with WordNet 1.6 when version 2.0 is already available. The new version will only run under Panther.
- WordNetX: This thesaurus developed by William Taysom have improved in many respects with its last version, sporting an improved interface (more convenient to use than the older one, at least in my view), support for use as a service and, most important, support for WordNet 2.0. This version is well worth the download.
Two more thesauri that were not updated recently but still worth a mention:
- OmniDictionary from OmniGroup sports a rudimentary graphic user interface, but still offers the most extensive thesaurus and dictionary support (it offers information from both WordNet 2.0, Webster, Free Online Dictionary of computing and 8 more sources). In my view it is still the best free thesaurus/dictionary/general source of information available.
- Nisus Thesaurus: Neat interface, supports services, easy to use and free. Well done, Nisus. The main problem: it supports only WordNet 1.7 for some reason (Ah, honesty prevailing over business interests... Miracles do happen!).
And, last but certainly not least, one of the best shareware products on Mac OS X, Watson. Not a thesaurus in the traditional sense, but offers the most extensive set of reference tools, including several dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopaedias, language usage, quotes and other useful reference tools -- it's a reference buff's dream come true. Sherlock doesn't even come close.
