In my last column I wrote about an Internet organizing tool called WebArranger. Since that time similar tools have come to my attention. One commercial product and a Hypercard stack.
The Mac organizing to tool is called GrabNet by The ForeFront Group. It works with a web browsing application, currently Netscape, to collect and organize Uniform Resource Locators (URL). There is a 30 day trial version available at http://www.ffg.com/. A permanent edition costs a reasonable $19.95 plus shipping and handling. It can even be purchased directly on-line via a credit card and password protected download thus eliminating the shipping and handling expense.
The file organizing structure is similar to the Mac Finder, so getting used to GrabNet is easy. While browsing, GradNet adds an icon to the menu bar that allows access to the program. Each Web site visited can then be pasted into GradNet via the clipboard. Once GrabNet is up and running URL's can be "grabbed" and placed in a folder. At the same time, snapshots of web sites can be captured as well and filed with the text information. After an on-line session, personal notes can be added to each URL object collected with GrabNet. This is helpful because not all URL addresses indicate the full content of the Web site or what was personally interesting. Bookmarks from Netscape can be imported to GrabNet for
organizing off line and the accessed again during the next session. The Mac's "Balloon Help" was not incorporated, but there is an extensive Help Guide available on the menu.
The Hypercard shareware stack is called, W.W.W URL Sites by Steve Nearman of Virginia. It is available on America On Line in the hypercard software section. Being shareware Steve expects a nominal donation of $1 or e-mail on its use. With Hypercard
running in the background while browsing, URL's can be added to the stack by copy and paste. Each card has buttons to add a new card, copy, print or open the selected URL via a web browsing application. There is also a field to add notes about the web site. Once in the stack, the URL information is searchable or can be sorted using the database capabilities of Hypercard. A Mac with limited memory can run Hypercard in the background at the same
time as a browser application.
Web browsing continues to inspire software developers resulting in another commercial product, GrabNet, plus a filing tool for Hypercard. |
