These are our favorite third-party products for the Mac

In addition to the critical software listed under Macintosh Essentials, we have opinions -- good and bad -- about other products that are available.

• Favorite Software
• Favorite Hardware
• Avoid These

Favorite Software

Programs that are a delight to use, easy to learn and very reliable:

• FileMaker Pro

  We make our living with this one, and we know it almost as well as we know our family.

  FileMaker Pro ($200) is a database program. What's a database? It's an organized collection of information that can be filtered and sorted. The phone book is a database. In the white pages, the information is sorted by name. In the yellow pages, it's sorted by business category. A name correlates to an address and a phone number.

  FileMaker Pro is easy to learn, very powerful and has enough capacity for all but the largest businesses. Files can be shared by users, even across multiple platforms -- Macintosh, Windows95, Windows 3.1 and Windows NT -- simultaneously. It even has word processing tools that allow it to do regular letters, print merge letters and spell checking.

  For carefully selected clients, we develop customized FileMaker Pro solutions on a contract basis.

• GraphicConverter

  File formats for graphics have multiplied faster than bunnies in the spring. Nearly a dozen "standards" plus several dozen proprietary formats create a Tower of Babel when trying to transfer graphics among different programs and platforms. GraphicConverter can read any of them, it seems. Plus, it's inexpensive shareware. It's a valuable tool for anyone who handles graphic images.

• Retrospect

  Dantz Development does such a good job with this backup software that we've given them a Business Award. Dantz launched Retrospect years ago into a market segment that seemed crowded with a plethora of software to organize and schedule software backups on the Mac. Yet with quality and skillful marketing, it blew the others off the hard disk. Retrospect is intuitive and easy to use. What's more, its quality is impeccable. Version 3 was released a year ago and still hasn't required an update or bug-fix release. On the rare occasions when we've had to call technical support, they've been friendly and knowledgeable.

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Favorite Hardware

• Iomega Zip Drives

  This product debuted in January 1995 and by the end of the year had taken the microcomputer world by storm. Available for Windows or Macintosh, these 100mb removable cartridges are slightly larger than a floppy disk and hold about 100 times as much data. Great for backups, transferring large files and archives. The disks are inexpensive (typically about $15) and virtually indestructible. We insisted that all of our clients install one, and all of them are very satisfied.

  • Iomega also makes the Jaz drive, which holds one gigabyte (that's 1,000 megabytes) of data. We don't have experience with the Jaz drive, though we hear it's been slightly more problematic than the Zip drives but is otherwise a very good solution.
• Global Village Platinum Modems

  We have a technology avoidance on modem-related issues, so we become very loyal to reliable products. Global Village's modems have consistently provided good quality with virtually no hassles. One computer in our office has a Teleport Platinum, as do several of our clients. We're extremely satisfied. The hardware is reliable, the fax/modem software is a breeze and the modem even includes software to convert fax pages into editable text.

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Avoid These

A few software products become popular despite widespread recognition that they are often the source of computer problems.

These are produced by good companies trying hard to ship good products. The problem, usually, is that they depend on altering the low-level operation of the computer, and that's a tough task fraught with risks.

Consequently, we shudder when we see these installed on a Mac:

• Anything named "Doubler"

  AutoDoubler, CopyDoubler, DiskDoubler, RAMDoubler and SpeedDoubler have each attempted to extend the range of a Mac with clever schemes to make a computer think it has more RAM, more disk space, more speed or more something. At various times we've purchased most of them. In every case, the developer has issued repeated updates and corrections trying to get it perfect.

  • Because these programs deal with the fundamentals of the computer's operation, perfection is highly desirable but seems technically impossible. Our advice: Avoid all of them. Save your money to buy more memory or a faster computer. A V-8 engine won't change a Vega into a Corvette.
• After Dark

  Beginning with its aquarium and flying toasters, After Dark was an enormously popular screen saver. Once upon a time, screen savers were important to prolong the life of a monitor, but today's technology makes this issue virtually moot. After Dark is still pervasive, though, because it's sooooo cute. Well, it also has bugs, often serious ones. They issued more than 20 updates to version 2 and still didn't get it right. Version 3 had problems, too. We think they're up to version 4. Our advice: bag it.