Australian Tropical Plants
Volume 3 - Version 1.00 (January 2007)

Vast amounts of data on 1250 species of Australian tropical (native) plants with over 6800 true-colour pictures (up to eight for each species). Select lists for: Flower colour, perfume, suitable for a specific area, bush tucker, survival rating, attracts birds, attracts butterflies, shade trees, ground covers and numerous other search criteria.  The best horticultural guide to Australian Tropical Plants that you will ever find. 

Make complex SQL searches on the database by mixing any of the above. 
View full details of species found in a search. 

New to this volume are a number of articles in PDF format on subjects such as:
Planning and Planting A Rainforest Plot and Making Jam With Native Fruits.
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader version 5 of higher to view these.

Print a complete data sheet for each species, including colour pictures. 
Compare up to four species in the one window - Click and drag the image in 100% view - View all the images for a species in the one window - Print all these images - Zoom each one for a better view - Select by Common Name or Scientific Name - Search by Scientific name or broad search of both Common and Scientific names - View a distribution map for each species that shows the natural distribution of the species - Set index to Scientific Name (default), Common Name, Form, Height, Flower Colour or Family.  This enables you to then view all the species in the same Genus, Family etc.

No program has ever been easier to use.  Most of the information (including a picture) is right in front of you on the main screen.  There is no complicated system of windows that you have to work your way through to find the information.  The other pictures for each species are just a click away.

This program is an ideal companion to the CSIRO computer key to Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants as it containes many images of species that are not illustrated in the key, and if they are, usually more of them.

It is also useful to taxonomists who may want to compare closely related species and also to landscape architects who may wish to select plants from a nursery list but are not familiar with many of the species.

Run a slide show of all the images with various options such as All Pictures, Random Selection, First Picture only and change the delay between images.

Many of the original images have been re-scanned to a larger size and all new images obtained in the last two years have been taken with either a Nikon D100 or a Pentax *istDL digital camera.
Download the following screen shots of the program to view:
After they load, be sure to click on the zoom button to bring them to full size, or they may not be clear.

This volume is produced on DVD as even 2 CDs do not have enough capacity.
DVD drives are now very cheap - don't waste money buying a DVD ROM drive get a DVD burner - We recommend Pioneer or LG brand.
Pioneer drives have the advantage of very easily upgradeable firmware, so when new DVD media becomes available a fix will be available from the Pioneer web site that you can download and zap into the firmware chip, and they are simply the best. Check out the following links for a good deal.

Pioneer DVD Software--Nero 7 Essentials OEM Suite 3, sold with Pioneer Burner

In this new version all the images are installed on your hard disk so the DVD will not need to be inserted each time the program is used.  The total hard disk space taken up is 1600 Mb (1.6 Gb).

We no longer accept credit card payments but you can still pay by credit card through PayPal.  Just email your order to us and then go to https://www.paypal.com.au/ and click on "Send Money".  The funds are then sent to our email address (zodpub@bordernet.com.au).   The above link takes you to their secure web site in Australia so you can pay in Australian $.  Or simply click on Buy Now and go to our checkout to pay via PayPal.
You can also make payment by EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) if you have Internet Banking.  Just email us your order and we will email you back with our account details.  Orders can also be sent through the mail with a cheque or postal note.  Local and other Government departments, just send an official order and we will include the invoice with the CD.

Please note: If you install 'A Garden on the Wing' after you have installed 'Australian Tropical Plants' you will get an error message.
If you purchase both of them intall 'A Garden on the Wing' first.  If you already have 'Australian Tropical Plants Vol 2' installed you will have to run the image displaying program IMAGESCALER641.MSI (double click on it) which is located in the ATP_Vol2 folder on the drive where the program was installed.  It will detect that it is already installed, just select 'Repair' and continue.  
Because each program uses a different version of this plugin the latest one needs to be reinstated.

To save memory and speed up the program, Australian Tropical Plants Vol. 3 is split up into modules.  The start program looks at your screen resolution and opens the appropriate module for that size screen.  If the program does not start when you try to run it, it is probably because you have your screen set to some strange resolution.  The resolutions directly supported are:  800 x 600; 1024 x 768; 1280 x 800; 1280 x 900; 1280 x 960; 1280 x 1024; 1440 x 900; 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 (just in case you have one of the latest 24 inch LCD moinitors!)  If you have a screen that does not match one of these sizes you can run a module that is a little smaller than your monitor size.  The modules are named with the resolution.  Just create a short-cut on the desktop and point it to a suitable module, such as 'atpvol3_1280_800.exe'.  Each module is about 2.5 Mb and if any small alterations are made from time they will be available for download from our downloads page.  Last update 29/03/07.  If you purchased your DVD before this date please download the latest version.  I have found a small error in the data (two plants with the same name) and a zip file containing all the data files is available for download from the downloads page. 08/02/07.

NOTE:  This program cannot be installed on a network drive or a server based system via the network.  It must be installed on a stand-alone PC.  It can be run on a mapped network drive from another computer but only one user can access it at any one time.  You can install it on a server directly and run it from other computers via a mapped network drive.  The program is started via the module 'ATP_Start.exe'.  This determines the resolution settings for the computer monitor and runs the appropriate module.  On each computer that is to run the program a shortcut should be created that points to ATP_Start.exe on the mapped netowrk drive on the server.

NOTE:  In response to a number of requests a multi-user version is now available that can be installed on a server and used by an unlimited number of users at any one time.  The cost is $120.00 plus postage.

The program is not designed to be run from the DVD but if you really do not have enough disk space to install all the images you can do the following:
Run the install program but do not continue with the final stage, just close this window when it appears and do not click on 'Finish'.  You will then have to install the image viewing program.  Go to the root folder of the DVD and double click on IMAGESCALER641.MSI and accept all the default settings.  All the files necessary to run the program will then be on your computer so all you have to do is create a shortcut to the ATP_Start.exe file in the root folder of the DVD.  To prevent the auto-start program from running the setup program when the DVD is inserted hold down the left shift key till the DVD light has stopped blinking.  This may take at least 30 seconds.  You can then click on your shortcut to run the program.  If you have very limited disk space it is most probable that you have an old computer and the program will run very slowly.  Running from the DVD drive will be much slower than the hard disk anyway.

The next volume will not be ready this year.  It will probably be at least twelve months before I can catch up and finish a new volume.