HyperGASP 3.0    Caliban Mindwear

Introductory Information

HyperGASP is a multimedia and educational authoring tool which runs as a stand-alone application or as an extension for HyperCard® on the Macintosh®. It features an intuitive interface which helps teachers, students, developers, trainers, and other users move rapidly and efficiently through the construction of programs and presentations. HyperGASP allows users to place media elements -- text, graphics, scanned images, QuickTime movies, animations, color, textures, sounds, CD audio and videodisc sequences, as well as hypertext -- where these elements are wanted, quickly and simply.

No programming is required! Users can create sophisticated, interactive hypermedia applications by working exclusively with HyperGASP's informative prompts, dialogs, menus and palettes. HyperGASP, as an "auto-scripting" system, accelerates, facilitates, and extends the use of HyperCard.

HyperGASP 3.0 now provides for the automatic conversion of multimedia content to HTML documents (web authoring).

This presentation has been created with HyperGASP, and is available both as an interactive multimedia stack and as a web-based presentation (which was generated automatically from the stack.) If you are reading the stack version, click this hyperlink to view the web-based version. If you are reading the web version, click here to download the fully interactive stack version.

Click the "Begin Tour!" button in the lower right to explore some of the highlights of the HyperGASP interface.

Or click on this link to visit the Caliban Mindwear web site at http://www.CalibanMW.com, where additional information and online ordering is available.

Applications

HyperGASP is in wide use in schools across the country, helping educators and their students (K-20) quickly develop interactive courseware for the sciences and humanities. It is being used to produce guided writing exercises, exploratory simulations, electronic quizzes, a range of instructional materials, enhanced by multimedia and expanded through hypertextual links.

Placed directly in the hands of students, it is being used to create multimedia reports of individual and collaborative research projects, to construct interactive informational stacks, web sites, kiosks, "graphic essays," and "multimedia compositions." GASP's intuitive interface allows students to begin producing interactive presentations quickly, even if they are novice Macintosh users.

Commercial developers have used it to design multimedia CD ROM packages, to quickly prototype custom applications, to create training documents, electronic "how to" manuals, guided tours, and instructional courseware.

HyperGASP's combination of features, ease of use, and affordability make it the tool of choice for a wide range of applications.

HyperGASP allows you to...

* Effortlessly create automatic hypertext links, so that the user can click on text in any field to trigger special effects such as "pop-up" definitions, sound effects, voice-overs, videodisc sequences, pictures, movies, or links to additional information.

* Place QuickTime movies quickly and powerfully, using informative dialogs to specify sophisticated movie control options. Movies can be easily attached to cards, to "hot" text, to buttons, and to automated quiz exercises. Video clips can be seamlessly integrated with card graphics, resized or clipped to any custom shape (designed with the paint tools), and more.

* Add color quickly with intuitive color-drawing tools and a floating color palette. Edit color without switching out of the usual HyperCard menus. "Fill" cards, backgrounds, or objects with any of eighty 3D textures or color patterns. HyperGASP is fully compatible with both the "ColorizeHC" and "AddColor" XCMDs. HyperCard 2.2 or 2.3 is not required for color (although HyperCard 2.3 is recommended.)

* Easily add color pictures to cards, buttons, text, or quiz items. Apply individual color transition effects. Blend images with colors or additional images. Dynamically move, resize and reclip graphics at any time with the browse tool. Supports pasting of pictures from the clipboard.

* Install digitized sound effects selected from a built-in library of over eighty sounds or from any other stack. Record sounds on the fly using a built-in or plug-in microphone, then add them to cards and buttons with a click. Design custom sound effects on a graphic keyboard, using simple controls to alter pitch, duration, and tempo. Add CD audio clips. Create text-to-speech effects simply by selecting or typing the text to be spoken, and assigning a voice, pitch, and speed.

* Create fully automated, interactive, multiple-choice quiz exercises, complete with branching, prompting, sounds, color pictures and movies. Customize responses for correct and incorrect answers. Easily create analogous true/false or fill-in-the-blanks tests, as well as essay exercises which can be automatically transferred to a word processor for expansion. Generate sophisticated reports automatically.

* Transform any word processing document into a HyperCard stack. Save time and labor by imbedding simple card, field and button-building commands into text files before importing them into HyperCard. HyperGASP reads the codes and automatically creates new cards, places text and buttons, adds sounds, all in accord with your instructions.

* Preserve text formatting when importing text from a word processor into HyperCard and when exporting from your stack. HyperGASP uses the text interchange (or "rich text") format to retain fonts, sizes and styles.

* Collect important text created by you and/or by the user of your stack and export it directly to a word processor, retaining its text formatting. You choose the fields (text containers) you want saved, and the text is automatically collected and combined in the order you specify. You can also import text back into the same fields from which you exported it. This allows you to revise and expand text in a word processor and then return it automatically to the original fields in your stack.

* Select items from libraries of ready-made cards, buttons, and fields and drop them into your stacks "as is" or as templates to be expanded and modified. For example, you can use the "Button Maker" to create pre-scripted buttons which link your stack to other applications, or which instruct your LaserDisc player to display selected video sequences. Or use the "Field Maker" to create pre-scripted fields, such as an "Index" field which automatically lists all of the cards in your stack, or a field which displays or records the amount of time the user spends on a particular screen. You can also save as templates your own cards and objects into the libraries, for easy storage and retrieval.

* Attach special effects to buttons and fields with a click. Button effects include icon animations, sounds, pop-up pictures, movies, and other pre-scripted functions. Field effects include such options as "zooming" text, flashing text, automatic text resetting, special formatting and styling functions (double spacing, tabbing, smart quotes), as well as word counts, word limits, and minimum word requirements.

* Use extensive organizing tools to gain control of the HyperCard object environment. Reorder and sort cards automatically, copy cards off of and onto HyperCard "backgrounds," bounce in and out of "locked" text, show and hide fields effortlessly, attach self-deleting notes ...


"HyperGASP is so easy to use! My students have found success in developing HyperCard stacks that was unattainable in the regular classroom ... HyperGASP is the key to HyperCard creativity." -- Terry O'Connor, Biology Teacher, HyperCard Instructor, Holbrook High School, Arizona.

"You are able to create the coolest things ... It's easy and fun but you learn while you're using it." -- Brooke Cherry, student, Holbrook High School, Holbrook, Arizona.

"With HyperGASP at our disposal, my students and I no longer worry about a limited software budget. We quickly and easily create our own software - complete with color images, animation, and sound for virtually any topic ... There is no easier or faster way to create exciting software." -- Jim Riser, The Imaging Lab at Booth Fickett Math Science Magnet School, Tucson, Arizona.

"I literally did GASP when I saw what the program would do ... ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!" -- Gary Dauphin, Senior Multimedia Engineer, New Orleans, Louisiana.


Ordering information

Click the "Order Form" button, at right, to print out an order form for HyperGASP.

Alternately, check out our web page for special deals or to use the convenient online ordering system.

The HyperGASP 3.0 package includes collections of sounds, icons, graphics, buttons, exercise templates and external functions, a complete hypertext (electronic) manual, a printed handbook, a walk-through tutorial, and a quick reference card.

The special price is $89 for a single-user license, plus $5 for shipping and handling in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico ($6.00 elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere; $7.50 in Europe; $10.00 to all other destinations.) To order by check, educational purchase order, Visa, MasterCard and American Express, contact:

Caliban Mindwear
6590 Camino Carreta
Carpinteria, CA 93013
(800) 269-0660 (inquiries / orders)
805-684-7765 (fax / voice, technical support)
Internet: Info@CalibanMW.com
America Online: CalibanMW

Please let us know if you are interested in group or site licenses for HyperGASP, as affordable site licensing is available.

Requirements: System 6.0.7 or later, at least 4 megabytes of RAM.

No fees or licenses are required to distribute products which contain our scripts or runtime resources (XCMD's).

("HyperGASP" is a trademark of Caliban Mindwear. "Macintosh," "HyperCard," and "QuickTime" are trademarks of Apple Computer.)

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