*** From the Archives ***
This article is from April 16, 2009, and is no longer current.
PR: XChange UK assumes operation of ThePowerXChange.com
While many people buy plug-ins directly from developers’ web sites these days, there is still a very important place for plug-in distributors who aggregate many different products. Two of the best-known distributors have been XChange UK and ThePowerXChange (the similarities in name are based on a long and sometimes difficult history). Anyone who has been around plug-ins and XTensions in this industry for a decade or two will find the following press release interesting (and not just a little surprising):
XChange UK assumes operation of ThePowerXChange.com
London, UK – XChange UK, the source for extended technology worldwide are pleased to announce they have now assumed the operation of ThePowerXChange.com website. ThePowerXChange has been based near Denver, Colorado, since 1995 and distributes thousands of extensions-based products used with applications such as QuarkXPress, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, After Effects, Premiere, and QuarkXPress Server, as well as many stand-alone applications for the designer, publisher, printer, and web-content creator. The assumption of ThePowerXChange.com is an easy and transparent transition as XChange UK functions under essentially the same business model.
“We are very excited about assuming the operations of ThePowerXChange.com. Since both XChange UK and ThePowerXChange distribute products for the same basic vendor-base, it will be seamless for customers and developers alike,” states Tami Stodghill, press relations manager for XChange UK and now ThePowerXChange.com. “We will offer the same level of customer service and pre-sale and post-sale technical support, with over 75 years of combined knowledge in the desktop-publishing industry. As one entity, we will be able to offer extensive marketing efforts to our vendors in the U.S. and the UK. We continue to offer electronic delivery of products worldwide, and are moving toward a completely green business model for both companies.”
Effective 1st April, 2009, XChange UK has taken over all operations involving ThePowerXChange.com and has staff available during U.S. hours for all aspects of the business including technical support, order delivery, and pre-sale and post-sale information. This provides the U.S. customers with same level of service that ThePowerXChange customers have come to expect and that users in Europe have enjoyed since 1995 with XChange UK.
“Over the past four years I have spent more time on the business of extensions development, marketing, and messaging and less time on the actual distribution,” says Cyndie Shaffstall, owner and founder of ThePowerXChange. “To that end, I have launched X-Ray Magazine electronically, am performing data analyses of search-engine optimization and social-media optimization for the purpose of extensible technology promotion, created a video series (TimeSaver:MoneyMaker Series found on YouTube® channel ThePowerXChange, among other sources), and have authored a number of books and articles on the topic. All this in addition to my director position at Quark® where I manage the QuarkAlliance program which includes XTensions developers.”
“The awareness and implementation of extensions is growing at a rate that requires me to define a focus. I have much to contribute to the industry of extensible technology, but it has become apparent that my contribution is more valuable upstream. To be effective at continuing to grow my 13-year investment in ThePowerXChange and to ensure that it continues to provide a distribution network for extensions, it would have to be assumed by a likeminded company – a company with whom I could partner on ideas, events, campaigns, and messaging – and XChange UK, with their many years- experience and dedication to customer support made for the most obvious choice,” added Shaffstall.
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I never mean to rain on anyone’s parade, and I think plug-ins are very valuable to many people — at the moment I’m even thinking of buying one myself.
BUT: Plug-ins have a” QuarkXPress” flavor to me — and I get the feeling that there is a change in the air, from Quark and plug-ins to InDesign and scripting. It seems to me that there are wonderful things in shared coding that everyone can read, learn from, build on themselves, and share further.
There is no doubt that there are lots of cool scripts available — both free and commercial. I even recorded a title for lynda.com that will be released in the next week or two on “10 free scripts that every indesign user should have.”
However, there are things that are simply just not possible –or practical — to do with scripts. The majority of plug-ins from teacupsoftware, dtptools, woodwing, and so on… these offer a level of control and automation that you can’t get with scripts.
On the other hand, there is also a hybrid solution. For example, the excellent plug-ins from In-Tools.com and rorohiko.com are mostly scripts that have been wrapped in a plug-in form.
You’re absolutely right, David. Scripts behave on a topical level, if you will, whereas XTensions and Plug-ins are built using the application’s XDK or SDK, respectively. The software development kit gives programmers access to features that are under the hood and provide for the great transparency of these mini applications. For years, our greatest challenge as extensions distributors is to get people to understand that they’ve been using extensions all along and that they should not be timid about adding more. There is often little to no difference between third-party extensions and those created by Quark and Adobe. If you’re worried about running extensions, take a look inside your XTensions or Plug-ins folder and be prepared to be surprised about how many of your application’s features are actually built as extensions.
I don’t doubt that there are many excellent plug-ins, but third-party plug-ins just cannot have the provenance and pedigree of the plug-ins that Adobe put in as standard parts of the package. Third-party plug-ins are necessarily tested less, for the simple reason that fewer people use them, and in a narrower range of situations. There is no such thing as a machine that does not have “teething troubles”. Plug-ins are liable to make the entire application less stable, as well as making it harder to trace the source of the instability. On a purely visual level, they tend not to mesh with the integrated, polished look of the standard package.
Even if a plug-in does exactly “what it says on the tin”, you’re still getting something in a tin rather than something completely transparent. Unless a script has been encrypted, it is relatively easy for someone who was not involved in its development to see how it works, to alter it to suit his own purposes, to pass his own findings on to others, and in a modest way to “add to the commonwealth of human knowledge”!
But I accept, some plug-ins achieve levels of automation that scripts simply cannot reach, and are practically indispensable for many people.