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So, you've given in to the urge and decided to join the masses and put up your own Home Page. Yes, your little homestead on the electronic range. Where the
bits and bytes roam in search of a router and where finding appropriate artwork can be a hassle. No, it's not the calvary to the rescue, but Pixel Monkey™. Huh? Yes, Pixel Monkey™. A special set of artwork
just for Web Pages. The set on CD-ROM includes Arrows, Icons, Backgrounds, Bars, and Bullets. And this is no slouch set of just a dozen items. Pixel Monkey™ contains over 2000 original images. And while that is
certainly admirable, it is in the limited way to get them to your page that is my concern.
Firstly, the CD-ROM interface is a home page itself which lets you use your favorite WWW Browser to search through the
different items. With the backgrounds you can even click a button to see how they will look with different colored text on them. You simply page through the different items with a very pleasant intuitive interface. When
you find something you like, just follow the instructions for your particular browser to save them to the directory where you are building your home page. The second thing about Pixel Monkey™ is in the variety.
While you can certainly use the clip art that came with your favorite Desktop Publishing program (if the license of the product permits you too), I doubt you will find a mailbox just right for e-mail or those nice page
separating bars. The arrows and bullets are nice to for highlighting your lists.
The system requirements for using Pixel Monkey™ is a PC or Macintosh computer with a CD-ROM and a Web Browser that can handle the
at least HTML 2.0 standards. While that in itself is not much of a concern, my main problem with Pixel Monkey™ is that it is very inconvenient to get an image from the CD-ROM other then with your WWW Browser. Since
the thumbnails are only on the HTML pages, you have to take another program and go through each title to see what the picture is. So if you are trying to make your page without something like Netscape Navigator
Gold™ which has a browser and home page creator built in, it can be a hassle. Aside from that inconvenience, the CD has lots to offer and it's creators are not stopping with just one volume. A sample from "Son
Of", "Return Of", and "Enter The" Pixel Monkey™ which will progress through animated GIFs, as well as Home Page Templates and more. All in all I would call Pixel Monkey™ a good value
to get your first spot on the World Wide Web established.
Pixel Monkey™ is from Bitwise Internet Technologies, Inc. and you can find them here. |
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