One-trick Ponies
Page 6

Spiromaker for Photoshop-Plug-ins compatible applications,
$24.95, Mac/Win

SpiroMaker — as the name implies — creates those cool Spirographs® that you used to make as a kid. (The mathematical name is trochoids.) Now that you're all grown up, you can move this particular talent to Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Spiromaker is a selection Plug-in meaning that creation can be a new path, a new layer, or a new selection. You can even add a stroke to the path for really interesting effects (remember the different colored pens in your set?).

Now I know what you're thinking. "When was the last time I needed a Spirograph image in my design?" I would respond, "Maybe you never did because you couldn't." Now you can. (Besides, as a varnish on a dark background, they are simply stunning.)

Stylin', for QuarkXPress 7, $49, Mac Only

X-Ray Magazine doesn't have much in the way of local formatting inside the paragraphs, but where necessary, we've actually set up character styles (like keyboarding direction). Of course, we know that's not how most people work. Most people (yes, you), add local formatting to a paragraph by selecting the text and applying a new font, a bolder face, an underline, or something of the sort. Think forward to when the customer proofs the design and decides that they want a new look. You develop new style sheets and apply them throughout. OK, here's the part that starts to sound familiar: you add local formatting to a paragraph by selecting the text and applying a new font, a bolder face, an underline, or something of the sort.

What if you had a method for protecting that local formatting? Depending on the size of your document and the extent of your local formatting, I'll bet you're starting to think that just might be worth 50 bucks.

Start by choosing the local formatting that you want to protect from within the Stylin' dialogue box. Simple checkboxes make it easy to figure out what you're doing.

Once you've done that, use the Stylin' palette (not the style sheets palette), to apply a new style sheet to your selection. The attributes that are not reformatted are remembered between each use and that will improve your reformatting workflow.

Using the Stylin' palette, you can shift + click on the style sheet to prompt a simplified dialogue box. Here you can select the setting to apply. Option + click on the style sheet in the Stylin’ palette to choose the attributes to prompt the dialogue box show above and check the appropriate boxes to protect a specific style feature when the style sheet is applied to the text. They've thrown in one other bonus: save settings for quick recall in either of the Stylin’ dialogue boxes.

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