ClickBook 2000
ClickBook 2000
| by Dale Farris, President, Golden Triangle PC Club April 2000 Ever wish you could output a computer file in one of those handy tri-fold booklet or landscape dual-fold size documents that are so easy to manage and seem to only come from offline printers? Well, with Blue Squirrel's ClickBook 2000 you can. ClickBook 2000 is the latest upgrade to this well known print utility that has been so essential for so long for its many features that allow a user to do all sorts of special things with the layout of a file. This latest version upgrades the prior version 2.2, and the many users of this prior edition are encouraged to consider this upgrade. I've been a long time user of ClickBook, and think this utility is one of the more essential utilities on the market. Once you get used to being able to reformat a standard Word or WordPerfect document, for example, in one of the many included layout designs in ClickBook, you will just not ever again run a computer system without it. Since so many copiers today DO NOT allow you to take standard 8 1/2 x 11 size documents and do anything with them other than make copies onto the same size 8 1/2 x 11 size paper, ClickBook can be used to output the document to a printer into all sorts of modifications that allow you to control the display, the number of columns, the layout, and numerous other means of reorganizing the data onto the paper. After a few uses of ClickBook 2000, you too will likely wonder how you ever got along without it. What is ClickBook? This handy utility provides added print layout features a user can activate that will make a file as mobile as you like. The program is an easy-to-use printing utility that also lets you gather information from different sources to create customized, printed portable publications. With ClickBook you can turn any Windows, CD ROM or Internet file into books of many sizes and styles, day planner pages, greeting cards, CD ROM jewel cases, brochures or leaflets, business cards, tiled printouts (several pages on each sheet of paper), and double-sided or single-sided. You can print a booklet composed of one document or several collected from different applications. In addition, the program lists the many layouts in categories, such as books, favorites, brochures, or cards. What's New in Version 2000? Easier-to-use interface Wizards Improved PDF printing (now compatible with Acrobat 4.0) Combine landscape and portrait documents Add a table of contents Add page numbers to print jobs Add borders Temporarily change settings to customize a print job Easy access to the last four ClickBook files you've opened or saved More layouts Exchange layouts with other ClickBook users at www.clickbook.com Drag and drop files onto a ClickBook printer Set up automatic printing and customized settings for each printer Changes from Version 2.2 Redesigned print preview Layouts organized into categories Print setup easier to manage Added a "New" menu item on the File menu Two default layouts Version 2.2 Features Continued in Version 2000 Word 97/2000 Macro Multiple documents in one booklet Booklet files Greeting card, business card, CD jewel box, FAX, Avery organizer layouts Windows 95/98/NT support Round font size down Sheet selection Repeat feature Sub-booklets Booklet style, booklet type modification Paper margin settings Default paper size setting Street Prices $49.95 $24.95 Upgrade price System Configuration Pentium 100 or faster 16 MB RAM 6 MB hard drive space Windows 95/98/NT Laser or inkjet printer Comments About Use New owners of this handy utility should be forewarned how this program is designed to operate. In effect, you are loading new print drivers onto your machine, that will add themselves to your existing print drivers. ClickBook will attempt to install its additional drivers, based on existing drivers on your machine. For example, if you have an HP Laserjet 4000 print driver and you let ClickBook "associate" its drivers with this one, then you will end up with another driver named CB HP Laserjet 4000. You can associate CB drivers with any print driver you have on your machine, but be sure you are aware of the issue of versions of these drivers, explained in the Installation and Setup section below. When you want to print a file using one of the many ClickBook layouts, you activate the File, Print command, and then in the Print dialog box, select the CB driver in the printer name drop-down box. After selecting the CB driver, you will then be presented with the ClickBook print dialog box which is where you can have so much fun with all the many neat features in this nifty program. Installation and Setup Users of the prior version 2.2 are reminded they will need to uninstall this version, before loading the new version 2000, because the new version will install into a default ClickBook 2000 folder in a Blue Squirrel folder in the Program Files folder on a selected drive. For new owners, this default folder should be fine. With the literally hundreds of different print drivers now on the market, if you are having no problems with your existing print driver, ClickBook will likely work fine. However, since the number of drivers and driver versions is near impossible to keep up with, folks are encouraged to get information from the always updated www.bluesquirrel.com Web site about these printer and print driver issues. Users of newer printers just hitting the market, or very low priced printers that have relatively unknown vendor names may find more difficulty with this program, than those using more common, standard printers and drivers from such well known vendors as Hewlett Packard, Canon, Epson, etc. During the installation process, you will be asked if you want ClickBook to set up its drivers to work with existing print drivers on the machine. If you wish, you can bypass this step during the install, and invoke it after you open the ClickBook program. This process has been made more simpler in version 2000, and the technical support staff and program coders are diligently working hard to always update this program, driven by the never ending addition of new printers and drivers and especially updates to print drivers constantly showing up on the market. A "Print Using ClickBook" command is added to the menus of Word 2.x, 6.x, 7.x, and 97, Excel 2.x, 6.x, and 7.x, Access 2.x and 7.x, as well as AmiPro. This special command cannot yet be installed in Excel 97 or Access 97. In the install process, you will be asked if you want the program to add this command during the install, but if you select no, you can follow the instructions in the included README file that will load into the ClickBook 2000 folder. Also, if you install Office applications after ClickBook is installed, you will need to re-run the ClickBook setup program to install these macros. During setup, you can also use the built-in InstantX Registration process to electronically register your copy of ClickBook with Blue Squirrel. After the install process has completed, the Tools, InstantX option opens the "Update Now!!!" option to allow you to check for any upgrades. Users of machines that run the configuration suggested below with early versions of print drivers may run into difficulty, and are encouraged to first update their existing print drivers with the Web site of the vendor supplying their driver. Windows 3.x drivers that may be working in a Windows 95 machine are also not likely to work with this latest version of ClickBook 2000. The included README file, like most all these files, is filled with updated technical information users are encouraged to print out and save for easy access, should they run into some of these technical problems with their particular driver. For online help with these possible concerns, check out their FAQ site at www.clickbook.com/support/cb2000_faq.asp The Blue Squirrel Family Blue Squirrel develops and markets innovative Internet software to enable users to be more productive with information. In addition to ClickBook 2000, Blue Squirrel also sells TechSeeker, an online technical assistance utility, WebWhacker 2000, an offline browser that saves Web page text, graphics and HTML links directly to a hard drive, The Offline Educator, a utility that will Internet-enable entire classrooms, Grab-a-Site, an industrial-strength file-based offline browsing utility that helps download entire Web sites while retaining the original filenames and directory structure, LinkSync, an accessory for both the Netscape and IE browsers that permits you to merge bookmarks and favorites from the two browsers without producing duplicates, GrabNet, a browser companion tool that lets you collect and organize information from the Web, and Internet Automation System, a tool designed to reduce time connected to the Internet. By the way, the first product from this company was called SQURL ("Search and Query URL's"), so they used a squirrel as their mascot. They wanted the squirrel to stand out, so they made him blue, and now their mascot is the one and only Blue Squirrel. Contact Sheri Paddock sherip@bluesquirrel.com Blue Squirrel 170 W. Election Drive, Suite 125 Draper, Utah 84020 1-800-403-0925 1-801-523-1063 sales@bluesquirrel.com www.bluesquirrel.com/storefront Technical Support: 1-801-523-1065 support@bluesquirrel.com www.bluesquirrel.com/support |