For many folks who work extensively with data sets, spreadsheet applications are the obvious answer. But sometimes you want more than boring spreadsheets and two-tone, 2D charts. Sometimes you need animation, 3D bar charts, exploded pie charts, jazzy backgrounds... you know, pizzazz.
Enter Adrenaline Charts Pro 1.0.2, the pumped-up, multimedia-intensive version of Adrenaline Software’s old Charts SE 1.0. Priced at a whopping $399.99, Adrenaline Charts Pro is not geared toward casual chart plotters. For anything less than professional-level charts, save your money and use the chart tools in your spreadsheet application.
Creating a chart in Adrenaline Charts Pro is easy. Just enter your data into a Microsoft Excel, QarisWorks, or text file, then import it into Adrenaline Charts Pro. The program offers three fast, flawless ways to import data: Choose Import from the File menu, drag and drop a file right onto a new Adrenaline Charts Pro document, or copy and paste your data directly into an Adrenaline Charts Pro document. Adrenaline Charts Pro quickly pops up a chart using its default settings.
You can turn this default chart into a high-quality creation in minutes. Use the Chart Types palette to choose from the application’s 23 different chart types, including 2D and 3D bar, pyramid, ribbon, line, layer, step, bagel, pie, and esoterica (surface) charts. Then use the guts of the application — the Appearance palette, Tools palette, and Chart menu — to work out the details and add multimedia zip. The list of things you can do with these palettes and menus would take a short book (or the excellent user guide that comes with the package) to describe, but rest assured that you can create almost any chart imaginable with them. You can add and manipulate light sources; import background images in a variety of formats, ncluding QuickTime; cast realistic shadows; animate your chart so that it spins on an axis; vary the transparency of any element; and size and position your chart precisely.
Adrenaline Charts Pro also supports exporting in a variety of formats, including PICT, PICT with ColorSync, JPEG, Photoshop, EPS, QuickTime, and 3DMF, so you can add your charts to almost any type of document. For example, we created one chart and saved it as a 72-dpi image for the Web, imported another into a Photoshop image, used a third in a QuarkXPress document, and exported a fourth as a QuickTime movie.
The best thing about Adrenaline Charts Pro is that it’s made only for the Mac, which means you get an easy-to-use interface and none of the annoying Windows-esque features so common to poorly ported PC products. Adrenaline Charts Pro takes its Mac-centric attitude one step further by offering ColorSync and AppleScript support.
Adrenaline Charts Pro isn’t perfect, though. It’s expensive. Its 3D rendering uses lots of memory, which can cause serious slowdowns, error messages, and crashes. If you have less than 64MB of RAM, plan on closing all other applications before using it. To make full use of the application, you also need QuickDraw 3D and the latest version of your 3D accelerator card’s driver.
We can’t stress enough that you need this program only if you spend your days making detailed, high-quality charts. But if that description fits you, Adrenaline Charts Pro will make your job easier and your work product more professional.
Titterton, Jeff. (December 1998). Adrenaline Charts Pro 1.0.2. MacAddict. (pg. 60).
Adrenaline Software
Applications
out of 10 (0 vote)
5 / 
2023-01-07 / 
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charts-pro-151.hqx
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
SheepShaver
