DoDot 4.0. (graphics conversion software) (Software Review) (Evaluation)
by William Harrell

If you do a lot work with graphics, you can surely benefit from a utility like Halcyon Software's DoDot 4.0. DoDot is a veritable Swiss Army knife of graphics utilities, consisting of five separate programs: DoDot, DoConvert, DoThumbnail, DoSnap, and DoView. They perform a host of graphics functions.

The main application, DoDot, allows you to fine-tune and transform images. One example might be converting color images to gray scale or black-and-white. It also lets you fax and scan images. DoConvert is a conversion utility that supports conversion among 50 different graphics formats, including other platforms, such as Macintosh and Sun. DoThumbnail lets you catalog thumbnails of images and search terms into an easily navigated database. DoSnap is a screen-capture utility that lets you save captures in several different formats. You can also choose between sending the capture to the Clipboard or to a graphics file. DoView is a graphics-viewing utility that allows you to view graphics by selecting them from the Windows File Manager or another file-management utility.

Most impressive is the speed with which each DoDot application performs its allotted task. I converted several 24-bit images to gray scale in half the time it takes other similar utilities. Conversion between file formats is also quick, and DoConvert is a batch converter, which means you can set it up to convert several files and walk away to do other tasks while the computer works. I was disappointed, however, that you can perform only one type of conversion--say, CGM to PCX--per batch. Also, in my tests converting EPS logos to CGM, DoConvert dropped several letters, making the conversions useless. But most of the file conversions worked fine.

DoThumbnail is one of the most versatile cataloging utilities I've ever seen. It catalogs graphics not only on your hard disk, but also on other sources, such as CD-ROMs and removables. When you access an image not residing on your hard disk, DoThumbnail tells you where to find it. Few of us have big enough hard disks to allow seldom-used graphics to occupy valuable real estate. DoThumbnail is also faster than CorelMOSAIC and some other cataloging utilities.

Halcyon markets DoDot as the Complete Graphics Toolbox. While this program is both powerful and useful, it lacks a few basic features, such as simple bitmap and vector editors, to be complete. Also, DoDot itself misbehaved on my system, crashing often and causing me to reboot. Halcyon representatives say they haven't experienced this problem. Granted, my system is more complex than many, but other Windows programs run fine on it.

Those few minor drawbacks aside, this is a great utility. In particular, DoDot is stronger at managing graphics than some other utilities. Halcyon Software 9408) 378-9898 $189 Circle Reader Service Number 447