Throughout this card I take advantage of the new in-text referencing feature. So if you see a card description with a gray underline, you can press the command () key and click on the card name to hop to that card (See VC 17 John 21).

Following is a summary of the changes introduced in volume 17:

STACKS WHICH ARE NOW OBSOLETE:

• We will soon have a new system for handling member address cards (See VC 17 John 5). You can toss the Member List stack.
• The rather large and old-fashioned Pelago Help Manual is now in the process of being supplanted by the new Archipelago Help stack. You can throw out the old Manual.
• The HPL, HECK/ASK, and Island Quiz stacks will no longer be included as part of the official Archipelago package. It would be heartless to actually destroy them, but feel free to file them away on some obscure floppy.

• The Arboretum stack, which was issued last time while still "under contstruction", is now ready for business.
• The familiar My Contributions transit stack will soon receive a major facelift. It will have it's own index and will hold other information as well.
• Perhaps the most fundamental change is the complete revision of the Archipelago stack itself. It has been drastically simplified and will now serve only as a hub for transferring between other stacks in the system. If you wish, you can start each session by directly launching the latest voice volume, and spend an entire session without ever visiting it. I will no longer be distributing a fresh copy of the stack with each issue; new copies will be released only upon the addition of a new member.

BRAND NEW STACKS:

• As mentioned above there is a new help stack called Archipelago Help. At the moment it simply consists of two voice card help screens, but as soon as the other changes are complete I plan to greatly expand it. When you summon the stack by typing ? or choosing "Help" from the Menu button, the new stack opens in a separate window! Those of us lucky enough to own large screens can even keep the help stack open while still working on Archipelago. The help cards are slightly smaller than voice cards.

• The Mr. Wizard Archive will be a collection of all the Mr. Wizard columns arrayed in the new Wizard Card format. It will be up to you to save future Wizard cards (if you so desire) by pressing the card's Export button. Pressing the "MR. WIZARD" button below the text field will take you directly to the Archive stack.
• I will also be releasing a Gift Card Archive. This contains all the gift cards created since the beginning of Archipelago, all in the new format. Again, it is up to you to maintain this archive (if you wish) by exporting the new cards as they are distributed within each voice volume.

• I have made several improvements to the way pictures are handled in voice cards. See VC 17 John 10.
• In the midst of replying to one of Larry's cards I added what has now become my favorite new feature: the Random Snippet. Just select "Random Snippet" from the pop-up Menu and you will be asked to identify the author of a snippet taken at random from the current volume. It's fun! It's educational! See VC 17 John 9.
• I made a slight change to the hidden buttons in hello cards. Before, when you moved the mouse anywhere inside the "hello balloon" area, all three hidden buttons would appear. Now you have to actually move the mouse over each hidden button individually to make it appear. The pop-up menu is in the upper right corner of the hello balloon; the new card trumpet button is in the upper left corner; and the export button is in the lower left corner. You will only rarely need to use any of these buttons.

• I am taking a new, simpler approach to the Sound of the Month Club. In the olden days it was possible to contribute sound effects by transfering snd resources into the My Contributions stack. This is no longer the procedure. Instead, (as some of you have already been doing for some time now), submit the sounds as separate files (in any format) and I will convert the sounds to HyperCard format and release selections in the form of a standard Sound Archive stack. The stacks will be entitled Sound Club 17, Sound Club 18, etc.