The WebWare CD-ROM by BeachWare

I previewed the CD-ROM on my usual IIGS setup: ROM 01, 4.25 MB, RamFAST SCSI, and an Apple CD-150 drive. The images are stored on a "hybrid" CD-ROM, one which has both Mac (HFS) and PC (ISO-9660) partitions. With the CD-ROM in my drive during start-up I got to view the PC side. If I inserted the CD-ROM in my drive after I had booted into the Finder, I got the HFS side. The description of the catalog below is from the HFS partition, but the same numbers of files are available on the ISO-9660 side.

The animations consist of animated GIFs and Shockwave files (made with Macromedia's Director program which runs on Macs and PCs). The GIF files can be read with standard IIGS GIF reading programs such as SuperConvert, Prism, Convert 3200, GIF3200 and Show Me!.

Other image folders on the CD-ROM are Bullets, Buttons, Dividers, Icons, and Textures. In each folder the images are stored in three formats: GIF, BMP and PICT. While there are no programs for reading PICT files on the IIGS (except for some Second Sight utilities), there are several that read GIF files (as noted above) and Convert3200 can also read BMP files. In addition, SuperConvert 4.0, which is in beta at this time, will be able to convert BMP files. The largest number of files are Buttons, which come in 9 different varieties.

The SoundFX folder contains four folders, each of which has 432 sound files. Each folder holds a different sound format: SoundEdit (an older Mac format), System 7 (the latest Mac format), AIFF, and Sun AU format. RSounder 3.0 can open and convert the SoundEdit, AIFF and .au format sounds, and SoundShop, which comes with HyperStudio, can open AIFF sounds. Most of the sounds are short "beep" style sounds, that are especially appropriate as accompaniments for button actions.

The HTML files are not as useful on an Apple II as they might be on a Mac or PC since you won't have any way to view them in a browser (unless you purchase the Spectrum Internet Suite mentioned in the News and Announcements column). You still may be able to pick up some ideas by looking over the files that are on the disk. If you do have a PC or Mac available, you might open the files in a browser, and print them out, then compare the code in the file to the printed page to get an idea of how the HTML tags affect the code.

One question you might have is "what use are all of these great 'Web-ready' graphics for me on an Apple II?" That's a reasonable question. There weren't any graphical web browsers available for the Apple II until recently, and even in the case of Spectrum, graphics aren't shown in the browser and there may never be browsers for the IIGS that display inline images. However, this collection could still be of great use to an Apple II user.

First, you can still use the graphics on a Web siteÉeven if you can't view them on the Apple II, there are plenty of people who do their Web browsing on PCs and Macs with graphical browsers, and you'll be providing the eye candy that can make a Web site attractive.

More important, however, is using these graphics on your Apple II. Just because they are marketed as "webware" doesn't mean they can't be used in other projects, particularly multimedia projects done in HyperCard and HyperStudio. In fact, while I may use some of these graphics on Web pages in the future, I think that I'll get the greatest use out of them in HyperCard projects. Many of the buttons and dividers will work perfectly in hypermedia screens, and the sound effects make great sounds to accompany button clicks.

To learn more about obtaining this CD or other products from BeachWare, please see the ad on page 6 of this issue. If you do order, make a photocopy of the order form and identify yourself as an Apple Blossom subscriber for the special $10.00 price.