San Mateo, CA Ð Lighthouse Design is expected this month to ship Diagram2, a major upgrade to its popular business drawing package.
The new version sports a greatly expanded and more accessible user interface, which features a new tool ribbon and expanded inspector.
"It's about ten times easier to use than the original," said Dain Erring, a NeXT systems engineer in Los Angeles who supports a large installed base of Diagram users. "Large customers are all raving about it. This is something many of them use on a daily basis. For those who do a lot of presentation of ideas, almost every document they produce has at least one Diagram illustration within it."
Ligththouse has received over 2000 suggestions for improving Diagram since it shipped in January of 1991 through the product's built-in suggestion panel. "We correlated that list and delivered on all of the most popular," said Lighthouse President Jonathan Schwartz.
Diagram2 has a completely new file format that is interpret-able by custom applications.
Other new functions include arbitrary rotation of objects, line-label repositioning, and a user-extensible menu for palettes. Enhanced text handling adds speedy tabular text entry, spell checking, and a variety of manipulations like vertical centering and drop shadows. The application will also be the first to ship with Object Links, according to Lighthouse.
Diagram is one of the most widely used NeXT applications, boasting 4000 to 5000 users worldwide, according to the company.
Diagram2 sells for $499; upgrades are $99. Educational discounts are available.
Lighthouse can be reached at 415/570-7736 or 800/366-2279.