Like most other movie directors, Brad Schaffer has issues to deal with: sets to create, actors who don’t always do what he wants, locations that present shooting challenges, and the lack of inexpensive studio space.

But unlike many other movie directors, Schaffer is 14, his “actors” are made of clay, all his films take place indoors because outdoor sets present too many logistical problems, and his studio is in his father’s garage.

His tools, though, are state-of-the-art and all-digital: a digital video camera, a FireWire-equipped iMac, and iMovie. “iMovie is great,” he says. “It’s simple and easy to use and it runs great on my iMac.”

In fact, you may be able to see one of Schaffer’s creations on cable one day soon—he sold his last short film to HBO.

“They say a picture is worth a thousand words,” says dentist Dr. Mark Friedman. “Well, an iMovie is worth 100 megabytes of words.”

While some people preserve personal moments in their Desktop Movies, Dr. Friedman preserves smiles in his. Each treatment room in his office is equipped with a Power Mac G4 Cube and a flat-panel Apple Studio Display. He shoots digital footage of each patient smiling, downloads it via FireWire, and edits it with iMovie on the spot.

Then he and his patient review the images and decide on the best course of action for smile restoration work, whether it’s teeth whitening, repairing a chipped tooth, or some other treatment. With the Desktop Movie as a guide, Dr. Friedman’s lab technicians then know exactly what to do.

Fremont High School teacher Jerry Smith uses just one software application—AppleWorks—to prepare his students for graduation.

With their iBook computers at hand and AppleWorks running, students learn the “key skills—word processing, database management, presentations and graphic design—that get them ‘ready,’ Smith says, ‘to go out into the marketplace.’”

“What we want to do,” Smith emphasizes, “is prepare these kids to go out into the marketplace and use programs like Adobe Illustrator, PageMaker, and other high-end tools.” AppleWorks allows them to build a solid creative foundation.

When Lee McCaulla first discovered QuickTime, he thought it was really cool. Then he began to think about it some more, and “eventually it dawned on me that this was the future. I mean, look at the potential, the millions of people you could reach through the Internet with QuickTime.”

How much potential? Enough, McCaulla believes, that people will pay to see Hollywood-quality video on the Internet. To test that theory, he and his staff at Creative Forces used their Macintosh computers to create a short animated film that will soon be available to watch for a nominal fee on their website. A 10-minute film, “Paper Clips” relates the tale of an animated paper clip that leaves the security of the office supply shelf to explore the outside world.

Like to see how the brave little clip came to life? What programs—in addition to QuickTime—Creative Forces uses? Or samples of their previous work?

This is a great “now and then” story.

You probably already know that Microsoft Office 2001—from Entourage to Word to Excel to PowerPoint—delivers an amazingly powerful and versatile suite of productivity applications. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to purchase a copy for yourself, now’s the time.

That’s because you can take advantage of a promotional offer from Microsoft that lets you save $50 right now and even more later this year.

Here’s how it works. Purchase Microsoft Office 2001 for Mac now, and you’ll receive $50 back via a mail-in rebate program from Microsoft. Then, later this year, when Microsoft Office for Mac OS X ships, you’ll be eligible to purchase the upgrade version for just $149—half price. So, in all, you save $50 now and $149 later.

Planning a party? A wedding? A baby shower? A company picnic?

No matter what type of event you’re putting together, you probably need labels for invitations, placecards, name tags, and other items, and you’d probably prefer not to write them all out by hand.

Well, if you own AppleWorks 6, you can create professional-looking labels in a snap. Just build a database of attendees and print everything you need on your ink-jet or laser printer.

You can also use the same database to create the mailing labels needed to send the invitations and to create placecards, so everyone knows where to sit when they arrive.

Want to know how to do all of the above—easily?

An AppleWorks How-To

A distant land is in turmoil. Its people whisper of a great evil, and hideous monsters roam the countryside. The land cries out for a champion to save it from doom. Are you that champion?

The allure of assuming the role of one’s own devising—mighty warrior, crafty wizard, cunning elf—enticed many of us who felt the call of Dungeons & Dragons. It certainly called Jeff Morgan, president of GraphSim and publisher of the Mac game Baldur’s Gate. “I wasted a portion of what should have been my academic life playing Dungeons & Dragons,” admits a grinning Jeff Morgan.

And now he revels in enticing a new generation of role-players to enter the realm of Baldur’s Gate, a computer version of Dungeons & Dragons considered by some to be the best interpretation of the classic game ever.

Enter Baldur’s Gate

Writing about Mac OS X in the New York Times, David Pogue says, “The result is almost everything Mac fans could wish for: a gorgeous, easy-to-navigate and virtually crashproof operating system that makes previous consumer systems, like Mac OS 9 and Windows Me, look like hand-cranked antiques.” (Free registration required.)

Internet World writer James C. Luh says that Mac OS X “is perhaps the first consumer OS designed from the ground up for target customers who are likely to connect to the Internet. The software’s designers had an unprecedented opportunity to embed features for using the Internet into the heart of the OS.”

Midnight Madness gripped Elite Computers on the eve of the launch of Mac OS X, leaving throngs of happy Mac fans sleepless in Cupertino. What did they have to say about their new favorite OS? We’ve got film (and you don’t have to wait until eleven).

If you’re as enthusiastic about Mac OS X as some of the midnight revelers, you may want to share that spirit with friends. “How do I do that?” you ask. Send them an “X-sightings” iCard. One of the free Internet services that comprise iTools, iCards offer you a convenient—and fun—way to keep in touch. You’ll find our new “X-sightings” iCards in the Apple category.