Xtravaganza!: The Essential Sourcebook for Macromedia Xtras'
By Karl-Peter Gottscalk
 
Author: David L. Hart & Philip E. Bourne
Publisher: PeachPit Press, Berkeley
WWW: http://www.peachpit.com/
Distributor: Addison Wesley Longman
Pages: 1258
Illustrations: Monochrome, CD-ROM: Mac & Windows
ISBN: 020168893X
RRP: US $49.99, CA $69.99
If you are anything like me then you find your head hurts at the thought of all the Xtras available for Macromedia's various programs. Just consider how many different major items of software Macromedia makes - FreeHand, Director, xRes, Extreme 3D, Flash, Authorware, Pathware, Backstage, Fontographer, SoundEdit 16. Have I left any out?
Then consider just how many plug-un components are available for all these, whether provided with the program or third party products. These are the add-ons vended by often small independent developers who you may see occupying booths at Macromedia user conferences but whom you may never have hitherto heard of. But what if you discover a sudden need for a specific Xtra that would be right for that job in right now, and you have absolutely no idea where to turn? Or if someone has actually developed such an Xtra in the first place?
Xtravaganza! is a godsend for those in this situation. It is big and in so far as I can tell pretty complete. It comes with a vast collection of Xtras on disk, as demo versions many of which can be unlocked on purchase of the licence. It covers all the many and various Xtra types: FreeHand's pixel and vector filters, its command, palette and tool Xtras, the multifarious Xtras for all aspects of Director, the ActiveX Controls for the Windows victims amongst us, all the File Exchange Xtras, the Sprite Xtras. Phew! What a collection!
Xtravaganza!: The Essential Sourcebook for Macromedia Xtras is a more than worthwhile purchase for any graphic design, web design or multimedia design studio. Its purchase price will save many times more than what not having such a reference book will cost you. And it is not only for use in regard to Macromedia products alone: the vector and pixel graphics Xtras it covers are for use with any program designed to use Adobe's Illustrator and Photoshop format plug-ins.
Karl-Peter Gottschalk
Columnist + Reviews Editor:
<mailto:karlpeter@ozemail.com.au>
Oceania Macintosh Archive (OMA), <http://www.ozmac.com/>