Our friends at A Lowly Apprentice Production have been coming up with good ideas for years. I call them "friends" because they create products that make the designer's life a lot easier at prices that don't break the bank. Quark users have appreciated XPert Tools Pro, ShadowCaster and other Xtensions for some time. InDesign users have become addicted to special effects made possible with ALAP's InEffects. I'm going to let you in on a secret. ALAP has a lot of additional tools in their arsenal. In Tools InTools is a set of powerful InDesign plug-ins meant to expedite the a few of the most common publishing tasks. InTools includes six plug-ins: InStarbust - Provides a quick method for creating and customizing starbursts, that are completely editable. Even without InStarburst, InDesign users can create terrific starbursts. With InStarburst, you'll be able to create even more complex starbursts in seconds. Users will enjoy the luxury of creating starbursts with sharp edges, rounded edges, smooth edges, twists and more. InPathfinder - Combines selected objects into single objects to create compound shapes. InItemMarks - Provides a quick and easy method for creating custom crop marks and registration marks for individual objects on pages. InPrint - I love this one. In Print allows the user to select an area of the page to export as an eps, tif or other file format. In addition, the same area of an InDesign page can be sent directly to print. InNudge - Allows the user to interactively adjust the position and rotation of objects and pictures by means of an intuitive palette. InModify - Provides a single dialog box for modifying the attributes of a selected object or group. Options to modify size, placement, stroke, angle, fill, text wrap and more are available through a single dialog window. These six tools combine to form InTools. Available on both Mac and Windows platforms, InTools retails for $99 (US) / $199 (CAN) and is available at www.alap.com. In Australia, visit www.xclusive.com.au. Imposer Pro Imposer Pro is a plug-in for InDesign (an Xtension for QuarkXPress) that imposes pages into printer flats. Six sheet types are available, including 2-up, 4-up- 8-up, 2-up consecutive, 4-up consecutive, and 8-up consecutive. Imposer Pro also includes four binding types (saddle stitch, perfect bound, stacked, and none) and five imposition types (standard, work & turn, work & tumble, split web, and sheet wise). Imposer Pro's roots can be traced to 1998, when ALAP released Imposer. Four years later, Imposer Pro became available for Quark users. The initial release of Imposer Pro for InDesign was in 2003, followed by Imposer Pro for Acrobat two years later. In November 2005, ALAP updated Imposer Pro for InDesign to version 1.1.3. At a single-user price of $399 (US) / $479 (CAN), Imposer Pro is less expensive than most other imposition applications, and it's very easy to use. You can download a fully-functional demo of Imposer Pro and InTools at www.alap.com.