Max 5 features a completely new patcher, with multiple undo, zooming, grids, and a convenient toolbar. Instead of a tiny bar along the top of the window that gets in your way, the Object Palette is now a transparent resizable window that pops up when you need it. You can open as many views of the same patcher as you like, each one zoomed and scrolled to a different place. And patcher keyboard commands (such as 'n' for new object) and autocompletion make creating objects faster.

The File Browser is a new window that uses a database to manage your Max assets: patchers, media files, examples. You can easily create database queries to show you only the files you're interested in seeing. A preview pane at the bottom of the file browser window provides a quick way to check out any file and navigate to related resources. Most importantly, any file can be dragged out of a file browser window and intelligently added to your patch.

Presentation Mode is a new way to create user interfaces for patches. The idea is that you select only the objects that make up your user interface and arrange them the way that makes the most sense, leaving your patching logic untouched. Presentation Mode is optimized for fast and precise positioning and sizing of objects.

The Max 5 object Inspector is consistent for all objects and is based on an attribute model. Any object property that is an attribute can be monitored or changed in the inspector. A new color editor offers the ability to store and save sets of presets and to view colors in different numerical formats. Inspector entries have been organized by category and descriptions of each attribute are readily available. The same inspector model has been used for many other editors in Max 5, such as DSP Status, File Preferences, and MIDI Setup.

Max 5 is designed to assist your programming efforts by offering relevant information about objects and editing functions when you need it. A new Clue Window provides context-sensitive information about menu items, objects, attributes, user interface features, and more. The reference page for any object is only a click away and displays in an integrated web browser. In fact all the Max documentation, such as the page you're reading right now, is available within Max starting from the Help menu.

A patch can quickly become complex and unwieldy before you know it. To figure out what it's doing, we've added several new tools. The Watchpoints window allows you to monitor the messages flowing through any patch cord and capture a history for examination in a text window. You can also cause Max to stop on any patch cord and look at the current state of all objects with the new Debug Window. For more dynamic monitoring of complex data, the audio signal probe provides a meter and a numerical snapshot of audio data - just move the mouse over any patch cord to see what it's doing. And the Jitter matrix probe window provides a detailed view of matrix data flowing through the patch cord under the mouse.

Have you ever wanted a metro object to output a bang every quarter note? It's now possible with Max 5. Most Max and MSP objects that deal with time have been rewritten so you can use them with new metrical (tempo-relative) time values. A new transport object provides the master clock that controls these objects. If you don't want to use this new system, metro and all other familiar Max objects still work with milliseconds exactly as they always have.