Self-executing document maker Creator: Mark Wall
Shareware: $25 (noncommercial)
http://www.hsv.tis.net/~greenmtn
It's likely you've used documents created by this Mac-only software.
DOCMaker has long been used for publishing shareware documentation (Iomega Zip is an example) and for distributing e-zines. Its key feature is that a DOCMaker file will open on any Mac without special software since it has an embedded "viewer engine."
How do you create a DOCMaker document? With text, you enter it directly or you can drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste your text from other applications. With some applications it's possible to import styled text into DOCMaker. Within DOCMaker, text is handled much like text in any word-processor with multiple fonts, styles, and colors.
Graphics work a little differently. Your graphic must first be copied to the clipboard and then pasted into your DOCMaker document. In other words, your graphic can be GIF, JPEG, PICT or something else, but it must be paste-compatible.
You can position graphics left, centered, or right-justified, but text won't automatically wrap around the graphic. It is a minor nuisance that you need to do some manual adjustments to prevent graphics from hiding parts of your text.
Besides text and static graphics, you can also include sound files and QuickTime movies.
A key feature is that you can easily organize your document into chapters. A DOCMaker file can have up to 60 chapters of 32k each, an obvious advantage for structuring your work. Setting up a table of contents, page footers, and background colors is a snap. And, together with the chapter-type organization, your finished file comes complete with easy search-and-find for the reader.
Of course, with all this capacity your documents can become mega-sized with consequent lengthy transfer times. One could wish that the software also contained some means to compress the files into more manageable size.
The question is: Who needs DOCMaker? The reason I installed it was so that I could prepare and email (or snailmail via floppy) business and personal documents that could include color graphics and photos. The only downside is that some people in the world don't use Macs. Instead of preparing documents with DOCMaker, I usually find myself putting up a page on the web. Admittedly, a DOCMaker file is of much higher quality than a web page, especially as to graphics.
I can see benefits for using DOCMaker in business and school intranets where the platform is uniformly Mac and where well-organized documents are essential. Likewise for distributing newsletters via email. After all, getting at the information is only as complicated as double-clicking on the file icon.
The creator is to be commended for offering frequent and free updates to registered users and for giving users good documentation (in the form of a DOCMaker file, naturally). Educational discounts are available. And, if English isn't enough, a site license includes eight additional language modules.
