Mac Users Identify Yourselves!

[Dimwhit]

So which is better: Nisus Writer or OpenOffice?

On another note, is there a spreadsheet app (like OpenOffice) that has a Palm reader that can handle all the calcs?

 

[fenrat]

Mac User New to Boards

Howdy Folks:

I use my G4 iMac for all aspects of my game.

Before game I use Microsoft Office to create game materials, notes, NPCs, etc.

I use Photoshop to import maps, delete text, and create interesting treasure maps and player handouts. I also create special DM versions of maps which not only have the text provided, but also have lots of exta notes and shaded areas for traps, monsters in rooms, guard routes, areas were combat may be heard by others, etc.

I also use Phototshop to create new additions to the great e-adventure tiles created by Ed Bourelle - sometimes I need a tile that is not in one of his sets, so I use existing tiles to create new ones.

I use a CD of handwriting fonts to create realistic looking letters and hand written notes - I've always been very find of great handouts.

Using Photoshop and Illustrator together, I'll often make player handouts that have been shredded so they can only read a little bit of it, or I will put a map in the oven and burn pats of it, or put lemon juice on the paper and "age" it, or put bloodstain on a map obscuring part of what they need to see ..... I also love to creat maps and then soak them in water and handed them something that is barely legible, but has just enough info to get them excited or worried.

I use Illustrator to create interesting looking runes and wixard marks.

Best of all, however, is this: I live in Maryland, but have a friend in California who still wishes to play in our games ...... so, between a speaker phone and an Internet camera using ichat, he gets to play in our games even though he is 3,000 miles away.

I love Macs and will always use them and nothing else at home and the are great for making props - Adobe products are

Don Mac

 

[DrSpunj]

Bye, bye Microsoft! Hello Nisus and the good people at OpenOffice. Oh, and if you like poking around with graphics programs, check out Create from Stone Software.

I'm glad I keep dropping by this thread from time to time. Good stuff!

I've been using Mac Canvas 8 to create customized Character Sheets & Initiative Cards for my games. That's my only foray into the world of DTP-type software since my limited experience with PageMaker back in college about a decade ago. Due to circumstances beyond my control I'm losing access to this program and don't really want to spend ~$400 to buy my own copy to use at home.

I recently spent some time looking around the web and found Create, High Design & Intaglio. I have no experience with any of them but plan on downloading the demos as soon as my G5 arrives to see what will work for me.

[rant]I ordered my 2.5 Dual G5 on 8/15/2004; ClubMac just notified me yesterday that they've shipped it by UPS Ground. If this was for business purposes I'd have been forced to go with a PC from Dell which I would've received within 2 weeks. I can't believe Apple isn't losing out on sales and/or reputation over delays this long.[/rant]

Can anyone point me towards the right program if all I'm really looking for is a solid program to very freely but precisely place boxes with varied borders, shaded boxes, text of various sizes that all align the way I want them to, etc. Basically everything you'd think you would need to create a very professional looking character sheet.

Yes this is only for personal purposes, but I'm a very detail-oriented person and it drives me batty that I can't get things to line up the way I want them to in Word. I'm just in the process of converting my sheet over into an Excel format after seeing some really nice sheets by others, but even there I can't get the text to align in the cells similarly when they're of different font sizes.

Any help would be appreciated. I'll check out Nisus Writer next.

Thanks.

DrSpunj

 

[Rackhir]

[rant]I ordered my 2.5 Dual G5 on 8/15/2004; ClubMac just notified me yesterday that they've shipped it by UPS Ground. If this was for business purposes I'd have been forced to go with a PC from Dell which I would've received within 2 weeks. I can't believe Apple isn't losing out on sales and/or reputation over delays this long.[/rant]

Believe me I do sympathize with your situation. But to be fair, it was very clear that the dual 2.5 would be delayed substantially, especially if you were trying to order it with the Nvidia 6800 ultra.

Apple is really held hostage over their chip supply by IBM and previously Motorolla, particularly with the high end machines.

It's very much a dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. If you don't announce the new machines people are expecting, they'll keep waiting for them and you don't make any money. If you do announce them, people will get frustrated at having to wait.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Hmm... possible useful DMing aid?

http://www.mindola.com

Hmmm, I think I'll have to download the free trial of this once I get home and back onto my Mac. The reference part looks like it could be REALLY useful. I have a new campaign that I just started and I put together a notebook to keep campaign notes in - the trick is to be able to reference other items in the notebook - this might let me do it on the computer - that would be sweet!

[edit] DOH! I just noticed it requires Panther! I'm still running Jaguar.

OK, this leads me to another topic that I have heard some things about but have not expolred. Is it true that Panther does not let you boot into OS 9 anymore? My kids have a bunch of software that will only work if I boot up into OS 9 and I don't want to lose their ability to play those games - they enjoy them too much.

 

[Dimwhit]

Thornir, I hadn't heard that. I believe (though I could be mistaken) that it is the new machines (as of end of 2003 I think) that won't boot up in OS9, but they all still let you boot OS9 into OSX. I don't believe Panther is any different. Wouldn't bet my life on it, though.

You sure those games aren't available for OSX?

 

[barsoomcore]

Can anyone point me towards the right program if all I'm really looking for is a solid program to very freely but precisely place boxes with varied borders, shaded boxes, text of various sizes that all align the way I want them to, etc. Basically everything you'd think you would need to create a very professional looking character sheet.

Create is AWESOME for that. You can line up all your boxes, change colour and format for ALL of them with just a couple of clicks (I did my Raveloft sheet in black and red, my V for Victory sheet in olive green -- pretty much the same sheet, just Select All > Paste Effects). You can also create all your boxes, then put them on a locked layer and put the VALUES for the character on a separate, editable layer -- so that you can easily change your character's skill points and stuff in the file without having to worry about messing up your pretty design. Print off a new sheet every time you level up -- no ugly pencil marks all over the place.

And of course OS X lets you create PDFs out of anything you like so if you need to email it to somebody -- hey presto! PDF. If you want to post it on a web site you can export it as a GIF or JPG or whatever.

An example sheet I made with Create:

 

[buzz]

Another possibly nifty app.

http://www.zengobi.com/products/curio/

Create is AWESOME for that.

If I have Photoshop, Illustrator, and Word... Do I need Create? Or, should I say, is Create still way-nifty-cool for these sorts of needs if I have the above?

Those sheets you posted look badass.

 

[barsoomcore]

Did you PAY for Photoshop, Illustrator or Word?

Create costs $150. You can buy it -- which means a lot to me. I can't afford Photoshop, Illustrator or Word, and I don't want to be a thief. So I don't use them -- I bought Create.

And I use the Gimp.

Create is DEFINITELY no replacement for Photoshop/the Gimp -- it has no bitmap editing tools at all. It's more like Illustrator, but combined with a page layout product. A combination of Illustrator and InDesign/PageMaker/Quark.

For word processing Nisus costs $59 and is in many ways superior to Word.

Buy software. Buy good software. Don't steal crappy software.

Not saying Photoshop or Illustrator are crappy. Photoshop is probably the best consumer application ever released. If that's a comparative that means anything.

 

[buzz]

I have older copies of each due to formerly having access to an educational discount. I'm just wondering if Create somehow blends all the bits of those one could use to make sheets and whatnot, or if those other apps, alone or in combination, can do all the same things Create can do. I.e., is it worth investing in new versions, or can Create serve most needs?

At the very least, I don't think I'll ever be without a copy of Photoshop (too useful for Web design).