Product Reviews

Mac FTP (File Transfer Protocol) users have, until now, had a choice of two applications: Fetch or Anarchie. Each had its own advantages, but even the most ardent devotee of either would be hard-pressed to describe it as the complete answer to their needs. That may all change with the arrival of Transmit, a Mac-specific application that doesn't suffer from some of the annoying limitations of the older applications.

Transmit uses a two-pane window that divides between 'Your Stuff' - the contents of your hard disk or network - and 'Their Stuff' - the remote FTP server. The advantage of this will be felt mainly by Webmasters, as it allows almost instant comparisons between local and 'live' directories. For people who mainly use FTP to download software, there's the option to show just the remote server, a la Fetch or Anarchie.

To upload or download a file when connected, you simply drag and drop it between the windows in time-honoured Mac fashion. But the Finder-like functionality goes far deeper than that - for instance, to rename files you simply click on the filename and wait for it to highlight, whether the file is local or on the remote server (assuming you have the required access privileges). If you want to delete a file, simply drag it to the Trash icon, while files can be listed alphabetically, by size or by date by clicking the Mac-like Finder bars in the window.

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fact, it's hard to find a Finder feature that isn't supported nigh-on identically in Transmit : Get Info, contextual menus, nested folders and AppleScript are all present. You can even drag files between the Finder and the Transmit window to transfer them. And if you drag an FTP address onto the application's window, it automatically connects to that server (likewise, if you drag a file from Transmit onto a drag-and-drop-aware application, such as Eudora, it will paste in that file's FTP address).

Transmit's Mac credentials are all impeccable, but it's also a state-of-the-art FTP application in its own right. It supports resumable downloads, allowing you to carry on where you left off if a transfer was interrupted; there's a very useful Mirror Folder function that enables Webmasters to ensure that local and remote sites match each other perfectly; and, uniquely, Transmit allows you to preview local image files without opening another application simply by dragging the file onto a small window. Very useful.

The program is largely glitch-free and transferred files at least as quickly as Fetch or Anarchie. The only problems encountered were occasional stalls when changing directories on a server which had a notoriously troublesome firewall - and even here Transmit would allow you to close the window rather than crash out as several Mac and PC applications did in the same situation. Another niggle is that there's no way to edit saved bookmarks of FTP addresses, but this is promised in version 2.0.

Transmit has raised the bar significantly when it comes to FTP on the Mac. It combines all the interface and design polish that signifies the best Mac applications with the speed and stability needed to get things done quickly online. And for any sentimentalists reluctant to part with Fetch's 'running dog' cursor, there's even a Fetch Cursor Compatibility ModeTM, which gives Transmit a motoring mutt of its own. Now that's true attention to detail.