Darren Eger’s note about Info-Select raises a good point. There is nothing that I know of quite like IS for Mac, though Tinderbox is probably even more powerful since it combines the “go find it” capability of IS with the ability to create (and ignore) a structure if you want. DEVONThink is another product that has some of this flexibility, though I found its interface a little obscure.

Tinderbox, if you try to use it to the limits of its capacity, has a pretty formidable learning curve and is not a poor man’s game—it’s sale-priced at the moment at “only” $95, but it is a remarkably powerful application and quite flexible. Ted wrote about it at some length in the series (speaking of which, it’s too bad that we missed another installment—that’s three passes since the series started [two equipment problem misses and the not-very-substantive April Fool’s Day parody] makes me realize how attached to it I’ve become).

Darren, I’d suggest reading the back issues of Ted’s articles posted on the ATPM Web site and focusing in on Tinderbox and DEVONThink. You can download trial versions of each. I downloaded my trial version of TB about a year ago and it was lamed a little, but still functional enough to give me an idea of what it could do and I bought it. The DEVONThink trial seemed unlimited and does not, I think, have an expiration date. I didn’t wind up using it but I think my evaluation copy is still working.

—Stephen Chakwin

Darren Eger asks whether anyone knows of an OS X application that has the search abilities of InfoSelect.

My knowledge of InfoSelect is second-hand, but as I understand its real time search capability, the OS X program Hog Bay Notebook has it and seems designed around a method of working like Darren Eger describes.

—Stephen R. Diamond

After wading a little deeper, it seems that the option to render an animation works when using the -a instead of the -f command. Also, it does help if in Blender you don’t specify a folder to render to. The rendered file will then either be placed in the root of your hard disk or in a folder at the same place where your .blend file is located.

—Hoxolotl

I did a lot of trials with Mellel, Nisus Writer Express, and Mariner Write, and came to the same conclusion Paul did earlier this year. I think NWE 1.x is a fantastic base for a word processor, but there were some make-or-break features it was missing. Write reminds me a great deal of older Mac word processors like MacWrite II and WriteNow, and I mean that in a complimentary way. When NWE 2 comes out later this year, though, I’m going to have to revisit the comparison—adding styles, tables, and footnotes brings its basic feature set to a usable level and some of the unique features already in 1.x are, well, unique.

(It’s possible that AbiWord 2.2 will be out by then and run correctly on OS X. It may be worth taking a look at, also—you certainly can’t beat its price.)

—Watts Martin

The company I work for just bought a G5 to update the graphics department, which works fantastic. Unfortunately, the IT department will not connect the Mac to the server because they fear A) that the Mac will not be hid behind the firewall and will leave a gaping hole for outside sources to sneak in by, and B) that they will not be able to control what the Mac user has access to.I have tried to explain the security and accounts features on Panther to the IT department, but they are weary nonetheless.I am hoping that you can either offer any advice or even any outside literature/Web sites/anything on the subject of adding a Mac to a PC network with extreme security considerations.

—neela