FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Programming / C++ / Application Frameworks

Tools & Toys helps developers help:

Visual Balloons(tm) add Balloon Help to PowerPlant projects – without
programming

August 11, 1997 – Vienna, Austria – Tools & Toys today unleashed Developer
Release 1 of Visual Balloons(tm) for PowerPlant, a set of libraries and
editors that allow easy creation of standard Mac OS Balloon Help for
PowerPlant projects. Using PowerPlant Constructor’s simple drag & drop
interface and only two lines of C++ code, MacOS Codewarriors can now add
Help Balloons that are not limited to plain text only, but instead support
pictures and styled text as well.

Until today, developers who wanted to integrate BalloonHelp into their
software had to use Apple’s ResEdit or Mathemaesthetic’s Resourcerer and
were limited to the user interface elements built into the Mac OS. “Editing
Balloon Help with ResEdit has always been a pain and anything but
comfortable”, said Andreas Pizsa, developer of Visual Balloons.

In fact, Visual Balloons are the easiest way to attach Balloon Help to any
PowerPlant object: while other solutions require programmers to make
substantial changes in an application’s source code, Visual Balloons can be
added even to existing PowerPlant projects without major code changes or
recompilation. Only two lines of codes need to be added, said Tools & Toys,
the rest is all “visual”.

Visual Balloons includes the following new PowerPlant classes:

+ Visual Balloon String – the String balloon embeds up to 255 characters
for direct editing in PowerPlant Constructor
+ Visual Balloon ‘STR ‘ – displays a ‘STR ‘ resource in a balloon help
+ Visual Balloon ‘STR#’ – this balloon takes a string from a string list
resource
+ Visual Balloon ‘TEXT’ – a help balloon that displays styled text from a
‘TEXT’ resource
+ Visual Balloon ‘PICT’ – a class for viewing PICT resources in a help balloon
+ Visuall Balloon Toggler – attached to a Control, this class turns
BallooHelp on or off without any additional programming

Key Features

+ Seamless integration with PowerPlant Constructor
+ Easy to use through Drag & Drop
+ No subclassing required
+ Installs in less than 5 minutes
+ only two additional lines of code to write
+ supports “embedded” strings, styled text, ‘STR ‘ and ‘STR#’ resources,
and PICTs

Licensing

Tools & Toys offers three different licensing schemes:

+ For Freeware products, Visual Balloons is free
+ For Shareware products, the license fee is equal to the price of one
license of that product.
+ For all other applications (esp. commercial or in-house applications),
the fee is US$75 per product. (Contact Tools & Toys to discuss other
licensing schemes).

Availability

Visual Balloons(tm) is available immediately and can be downloaded from the
Tools & Toys Web site (http://www.ToolsAndToys.com/). Tools & Toys can be
reached by phone at +43 1 216 5585, fax +43 1 216 5585 19 or e-mail
(info@ToolsAndToys.com).

Contact:
Andreas Pizsa, Tools & Toys
e-Mail: Andreas@ToolsAndToys.com
Web: www.ToolsAndToys.com
Phone: +43 1 216 5585
Fax: +43 1 216 5585 19