How To Dazzle Your Friends With A Mouse.

Encore Review: I’m a sucker for things that glitter. It brings out the blonde in me. Well, the blonde I used to be.

I still get all tingly inside when someone dangles a little Mac eye candy before my eyes. Can you say, Dazzle?

OmniGroup, the same folks who make all sorts of delicious Mac applications such as OmniWeb and OmniGraffle make OmniDazzle.

This is one of those nifty Mac applications that make you feel young again-- as when you first got your hands on a Mac.

Ooohs and Aaaahs are the order of the day for OmniDazzle, a potent utility that works with your Mac’s mouse.

OmniDazzle lets you highlight certain areas of your screen. Big whoop, right? The Mac already does that, you know?

Not the way OmniDazzle does it. Put up a presentation in Keynote, Word, PowerPoint, anything.

Highlight an area on your Mac’s screen and watch what happens.

OmniDazzle plug-ins can create a Flashlight aura around the mouse pointer.

Or, select text with colorful neon lighting effects. It’s Oooohs and Aaaahs to make you feel proud.

One of my favorite effects is the Bullseye, which creates a set of red concentric circles around your Mac’s mouse pointer.

The Scribble plug-in lets you draw on an Apple Cinema Display with digital Crayons.

Think of it as Nude College Highlight Pens Gone Wild-- now on DVD.

Another favorite is the Comic plug-in which does the old Batman Zot! Bam! Pow! right on screen.

The Zoom plug-in does what you expect. It zooms in on a graphic or text on the screen; whatever you want magnified.

Seriously, I don’t think you can get more fun for $15-- on your Mac, anyway.

OmniDazzle was made for presentations-- the boring kind.

Imagine what dazzle you can bring to a spreadsheet on a projector screen.

As your mouse moves across the screen of boring numbers and text, Pixie Dust follows along.

So will the eyes of everyone in the room.

Showing details of a graphic org chart, planning diagram, or anything else?

Let the Flashlight dim everything but what you want the viewers to see.

Is OmniDazzle eye candy or highly productive utility?

It’s both. It grabs attention and focuses eyes. It’s also attractive and professional (done with a little taste, of course).

Click Here for a look at OmniDazzle, screenshots of the plug-ins, and movies of actual use.

Check out the daily list of our 9 Word mini-Reviews at NoodleMac, and Kate's daily in-depth Mac software reviews at PixoBebo.

Off Topic #23 - Mac OS X Leopard is now at version 10.5.2 which we’re proclaiming the best yet, though we expect version 10.5.3 soon. If you haven’t upgraded yet, don’t forget that Leopard is on sale at the Mac360 Store, and so are the latest Leopard books. If you plan to order Leopard or a Leopard tips book from Amazon, please consider using the Mac360 Store to place your order (it’s really Amazon). Click Here to look at the latest Leopard books.

Off Topic #58 - Do politicians use personal computers? Of course. We’ve heard Barack Obama prefers a Mac, while Hillary Clinton uses a Dell, though, apparently neither of the candidates can bowl. Does Obama’s potential vice president use a Mac? Even Clinton acknowledges Apple’s brand power but says she can’t afford a Mac. Maybe she’d win if she used a Mac.