* a willingness to experiment
* confidence in your perceptions
* recognizing that effective design is a process, not an event
* devotion to detail
These four elements are deceptively simple. I am not a visual artist; but I, like most people, do know what I like-that just about sums up my sense of design. After that, I'm a little at sea, and don't exactly trust my perceptions enough to experiment. But ClarisImpact makes all that goes into creating effective design different and fun.
The content of your message vs. the way it looks
Previously, good design was in the realm of professional designers, neither hardware nor software dependent. But, now, with a tool like
ClarisImpact to get you started, you can build your confidence in your own sense of good design, and produce visually compelling documents right away. ClarisImpact is based on the concept of object models of visual communication and the elements associated with these models. For example, the models that are available to you from the ClarisImpact report, drawing and presentation documents are outlines, tables, data charts, organization charts, flow charts, calendars and time lines. To help you with your creations, ClarisImpact comes with predefined model styles that reflect a devotion to detail, confidence and consistency in design that was all taken care of in advance by professional designers. You don't have to think about these design elements, unless you would like to create your own styles later on, which ClarisImpact also allows you to do for each model. But at the onset, you can't go wrong for trying your hand at creating a calendar, organization chart or time line. Your first ventures into the ClarisImpact design environment get results right away, so you can easily concentrate on getting your message across.
ClarisImpact in action
ClarisImpact has three types of documents, a powerful drawing type, a word processor, which is very similar to the word processor in the popular program ClarisWorks integrated software environment, and a presentation type. Each type of document has powerful new features; and, as with all Claris products, they have the clear interface that makes for an easy learning curve.
The new ClarisImpact intelligent tools, called models, make the creation of certain kinds of graphics very easy. For example, as shown in Figure 1, bar charts can be edited, created and presented in a variety of styles-without leaving the charting environment. The chart in Figure 1 shows data that has been entered into a ClarisImpact table. The table and chart are intelligently linked: you can create and store your own styles or use any of the twelve preset styles of data charts that ship with ClarisImpact, so that you can format and present the data according to your presentation needs. In addition, if you would like to separate the data table and generate additional charts from the same tabular data, you choose Separate Table from the Chart menu. If you need to edit the table values, there is no need to leave the chart format to go to the table; you can click on the element that needs to be changed and start entering the new data right away, right in chart mode. The table is linked to the chart in such a way that you can choose to hide or show the table.
Similarly, if you wanted to draw an organizational chart, before ClarisImpact, you either had to draw it in a drawing program, which could take hours, or you could buy and learn a program that did nothing but organization charts.
With the ClarisImpact OrgChart tool, you can select from many styles, such as the Basic, Informal or International styles, or you can make your own. Once you have selected the style, the chart is made for you and all you have to do is type in the names and positions. Adding or deleting positions can be done with a single click, and the ClarisImpact drag and drop technology allows you to reposition individuals or reorganize entire branches very quickly: simply select the branch of the organization chart, drag it to its new location and release the mouse. It couldn't be much easier.
Along with this ease of use comes tremendous flexibility. You can create your own styles for the organization chart or for each position within the chart. You can use the drawing tools to draw them, or you can use any of the thousands of pieces of Claris Clip Art that is included with the program-you can even make each position in that organization chart a QuickTime movie of the person represented!
Lest you think that ClarisImpact is a program strictly for drawing Organization Charts and presenting tabular data, you should know that there are four other models: Outlines, Flow Charts, Tables, Timelines and Calendars. When you create one of these models, you can rely on the appropriate menu to appear always in the same position in your menu bar no matter what kind of model you are editing, so you don't have to think about the organization of your menus and commands.
Each of these models comes with similar Model Styles, so when you find the one that you like, you can use that same style in each type of model that you create, giving your documents a uniform, professionally designed look. Of course, if you are creatively inclined, you can make your own matching style for each model. Smartness is built into ClarisImpact, in its editability and drawing features. There are smart Connectors (lines that stay "attached" to objects no matter where you move them), a PointGuide tool, which finds points on an object automatically, SmartAlign tool, which keeps objects aligned when you move any one of them, the ability to edit objects in a group without ungrouping, and special Shape tools, which draw tools like stars, arrows, boxes and speech balloons.
In addition, there are features such as Text Styles; editable Drop Shadows, colors and gradients; Bezigons (for drawing shapes with precise connected curves); zooming up to 3200% in hundredth of a percent increments; Claris XTND translator technology; 256 text colors; and regular and irregular text wrap around objects. Each of these features, along with the seven kinds of models, is available in the drawing, word processing and presentation documents.
Because each of the ClarisImpact models is so adaptable, there is no limit to what you can do with each type of document. For example, educators who take great pains to produce calendars, can produce sophisticated results in a matter of minutes, such as that in Figure 2, which takes advantage of the various element styles available for calendar models. Educators will also want to use its integration of tables and charts into the word processor to write grant proposals, lesson plans and reports whose designs can easily transfer for use in educational materials or tests. ClarisImpact is great for writing tutorials. Use the presentation type document to make presentations that outline and step through a procedure, with QuickTime movies or charts that illustrate each step or procedure. You can set up a presentation to advance slides automatically, or set it up to advance slides manually. ClarisImpact presentations can build each item of an outline progressively, adding clarity and effect for each item.
Building on the idea of an automated presentation, a creative use for ClarisImpact presentations is the informational kiosk. The idea is to have a ready-made presentation, which sits on the hard drive of your machine. You put the machine somewhere where numbers of people can view your presentation, which you set to loop continuously. After starting up your presentation, you remove the input devices, the mouse and keyboard, so that your machine is merely a monitor displaying information. When you want to remove the kiosk or change the display, just plug the mouse and keyboard back in and make your changes.
Like other Claris products, the ClarisImpact tools will help you solve day-to-day puzzles that present themselves as opportunities to test, not just your tools, but your creativity as well. ClarisImpact will also help you make the best use of your investment in your Macintosh computer, whose future began with desktop publishing. The standards for visual communication have never been the same since. In the same vein, color printers are coming down in price. This too will affect the way you think about visual communication. People will now expect to see color or pictures in your documents and presentations. Rise to the occasion with impact.
TIPS
Creating and saving model styles
A model style holds format options for an entire modelÑthe associated chart type, element colors, text settings, layout-so that related information gets presented in one style, remaining consistent and logically organized. Model styles are stored in a separate file, so that you can create your own model styles or modify and rename or delete the model styles that come with ClarisImpact. The rule of thumb to remember is dialog boxes: changes made to a model within a dialog box are saved with the model style. For example, if you select a Connector in your organization chart model, then click the pen color icon, that change will not be saved. But if you go to the Connectors... menu from Connector Settings, a dialog box will appear and when you make your changes there, the changes will be saved with the model style.
To add a Model Style after having created a model you would like to use again:
1. Select the model.
2. Go to the Model Menu and select model styles. Click the Add button. This will create a Model Style.
ClarisImpact keyboard and mouse combinations
Other keyboard and mouse combinations are covered in the Quick Reference card included with your software. Try these shortcuts:
* Hold down the Shift key while clicking on an object and the object(s) previously selected will remain selected.
* Hold down the Command key while dragging an object and the outline of the object will be more accurately represented.
* Hold down the Option key while dragging an object and the object will be duplicated.
* Holding down the Shift key while resizing an object allows proportional resizing.
* Holding down the Option key while resizing an object will resize all sides at once. When drawing, an object will draw from its center (the exception is stop sign tool).
* Hold down the Shift and Option keys while resizing an object and all sides of the object will be resized proportionately. You can also use this keyboard combination when drawing an object.
Figure 1: Charting options for a table that you can show or hide. Once you create the table, you have a variety of charting options and powerful editing capabilities. Clicking on the "crossed-out" icon at the bottom of the table will hide the table.
Figure 2: Element styles are used to set the individual parts of models. Above, a calendar model has an element style applied to two of its days to accent the vacation banner, a marker that spans several days.