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TextExpander 3 makes short work of keyboard shortcuts

// March 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // Apps, Featured, Mac OS

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TextExpander, one of my very most favorite (yes, I like it that much) utilities has been updated to version 3. This is a major update and renovation of the program, which has changed from a preference pane to an application.

I honestly don’t think that I could use a Mac without TextExpander anymore. I have a customized list of “frequently misspelled words” that I have it correct for me, as well as a snippet of text for creating a new shell script, a shortcut to insert the current date or time, HTML markup, and more.

TextExpander has been able to sync via MobileMe for some time, but version 3 also includes the ability to sync via Dropbox. It can also correct “double caps” at the beginning of a sentence which happen when you accidentally hold down the shift key for too long. There is a feature to capitalize new sentences as well, but that feature was a little hit-or-miss for me.

In its new application form, TextExpander has to be running for it to work. That may seem obvious, but since it used to be a preference pane, users may be used to it running “hidden” as a daemon in the background. There is an option to hide the application icon in the dock. If you hide it in the dock, you can still access TextExpander from its icon in the menu bar. They’ve even included several different styles of icon for the menu bar, which is good news for those of you who believe that menu bar items should only be black and white.

The menu bar offers a slew of cool new features, including a search function and a list of all of the folders and snippets for you to navigate, in case you have forgotten a shortcut. This is a good reason to start sorting snippets into “Groups” which were previously a bit of a pain because you had to tell each group to sync via MobileMe. Syncing is now an “all or nothing” option.

You can also create a new snippet, edit the last expanded snippet (handy if you realize that you need to “tweak” it), or use the clipboard to make a new snippet. New in this version is also the avility to create global “hotkeys” which will reduce the “friction” involved in making a new shortcut. I know I’ve previously thought “Oh, I ought to make a shortcut for this” but I usually wait too long before I finally get sick of re-typing it and actually do it.

I’ve only just started playing with this new version, but it looks like a great upgrade to what was already a full-featured application.

TextExpander costs $34.95, but they offer a full-featured demo and a 90-day guarantee which is far longer than I’m used to seeing for software. If you own an earlier version of TextExpander you can upgrade for $15. Those who bought TextExpander on or after November 1st, 2009 are eligible for a free upgrade.

There’s even a companion application for the iPhone and iPod touch called TextExpander touch which will sync to your local Mac, so you can use your snippets in a wide range of iPhone apps.

TUAWTextExpander 3 makes short work of keyboard shortcuts originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hack: The iPod serial library enables homebrew remote controls

// March 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // Featured, Mac OS

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Warning: If you are baffled by people who think dismantling technology is fun, and completely fail to understand the excitement of building robots to battle other robots, this post may not be for you. Just so you know.

On the Make: magazine blog, they recently posted a piece about the evolution of a project. It was an iPod remote from last year that has gone from a “start and stop” only device to a full featured remote. It is a lovely piece of tech, powered by Arduino hardware. Arduinos are open-source circuit boards and software you can use to develop interfaces with all sorts of electronics.

I remember reading the first post about this remote last fall and being interested in where he would take this project, mostly because I love seeing what people do with Altoids tins. I have to admit hooking one up to a giant “Easy” button for my car never really occurred to me, though.

I really like the idea of building my own remote; partly so I can say I did it, but also because it would be a nicer way to get my iPod or iPhone (depending) working nicely with my car stereo.

Honestly I only understand about half of what he’s talking about in this article, but I’m good at following instructions and I am reasonably handy with a soldering iron, so this doesn’t look completely unreasonable. If I do end up building one I’ll be sure to post all about it for you. In the meantime, have you built an unholy alliance between your Roomba and your iMac, or any other variety of Mac Tech Mashup? Tell me about it, I’d love to see what you all can do!

TUAWHack: The iPod serial library enables homebrew remote controls originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FileMaker 11 now available with charting, reporting improvements

// March 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Apps, Featured, Mac OS, Tutorials

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Apple subsidiary FileMaker has been busy; the flagship database app grows by another leap today with the release of version 11. We were lucky enough to get a pre-release demo at Macworld Expo in February and were duly impressed. As someone who’s been using FileMaker since version 6, I’m thrilled with some of the additions to this update; let’s get to it.

Launch

Right off the bat, the introduction screen is new (after the splash screen “wobbles” into view). It’s wider with more options, like a link to the online resource center. There you’ll find video tutorials, starter solutions (more on that later) and access to consultants. They’re all extremely useful and aimed at users and developers alike.

Charts

The big news starts with built-in support for charts. For years, developers and users have employed plug-ins and other 3rd-party solutions to get charting done, or they simply exported data to Excel. Now those extra efforts may be a thing of the past.

As you would imagine, adding a chart is super easy. While in layout mode, use the new chart tool to drag out a charting area. From there, the setup screen appears.

This is a real pleasure to use. You can select between a bar graph (horizontal or vertical), line chart, area or pie. Give your chart a name, or base its name on a field or calculation. Likewise, the X and Y axis can be labeled with your own titles or a field or calculation. If you’ve got more than one Y axis variable (for example, number of occurrences and procedure duration) adding each is as simple as a click. Finally, you can pull data from a found set, the current record only, or from related records — which is awesome.

Now it gets fun. Click “Format Chart” to style all aspects of your chart. Select your color palette (options are presented as cute color samples), fonts, backgrounds and axis labels plus scale minimums and maximums. It’s full-featured and nearly everything I wanted when I was stuck routinely exporting data to Excel just to make charts with version 6. In my testing this was simple and effective.

The only thing missing for me is a scatter plot option, but a line chart could do the job in a pinch.

Gallery: FileMaker 11

Select chart typeLabelColor optionsYour complete chart!Change a field type in browse mode.






Snapshot Link

Another feature I’m excited about is the snapshot link. Let’s say you’ve got to share a subset of your data with a colleague, like sales figures generated from the state of California, for example. First, perform a find for invoices with “CA” in the state field, then set the sort order and layout that you want. Then, select “Snapshot Link” from the File menu to produce a snapshot of that found set as a new file, including the sort order and layout that you chose.

From there, you can email the resulting file to your colleague and s/he will see the very same found set of records, sort order and layout on their machine running FileMaker 11 (assuming they have access to the same original database). But wait, there’s more! If either of you edit those records, the change will be reflected on the other’s machine. Awesome, right? Yes it is.

Recurring Import

Here’s another welcome new feature. Recurring Import lets you designate a .csv file or Excel spreadsheet as a target data source that will be imported each time a given database is opened. To set it up, use the import function as you typically do. But, just before you click OK, select the “Setup as recurring import” option. From then on, any changes made to that file will be sent to that database (read only) whenever that database is opened. FileMaker even creates a layout and script for you (of course, you can tweak either).

You say you don’t want to re-launch the database just to update that layout? No problem. Just click the “Update” button to grab the latest data on the fly.

Back in the day, I managed a huge Excel spreadsheet of thousands of incident reports that had to remain in Excel for legacy support. We had an elaborate and time-consuming method of pushing that data into FileMaker. This would have been a lifesaver.

Quick Reports

Here’s one that developers will appreciate. Quick Reports is a new way to make on-the-fly reporting incredibly easy. In fact, you don’t even have to leave browse mode.

Quick Reports treats your data as if it were a spreadsheet. That’s clever, as many users are coming from spreadsheets (or still tied to them), and it’s a concept they’re comfortable with. You can add fields and records by clicking a column or row, and even change a field’s type (number, text, time, container … even calculation or summary) right then and there.

The best part is that you can create a report with grouped data from browse mode. No more setting up the subsummaries, fiddling with layouts, etc. Just add a break field to automatically generate the summaries, add a subtotal type and you’ve built a grouped report in table view. That’s awesome.

There’s even more to this incredible release. Quick Find is like Spotlight for your database. Again, back in the day we wrote elaborate search scripts that aren’t necessary anymore. Quick Find is always available and searches all of the fields in the current layout for your search term. It also automatically saves recent searches for quick access in the future as a drop-down list.

The Inspector acts much like its counterpart in some of the iLife apps. Familiar functions like alignments, positioning (front, back, etc.) and text properties have moved to the Inspector. Remember when they were in that left-hand sidebar? Me, too.

Additionally, along with the 30+ bundled starter solution databases for common home and business needs, there’s a new invoice starter solution. For basic client and billing management, it may do the job for some small businesses that otherwise would have pushed towards a narrower invoicing solution.

I know this is an epic post, but it’s only the beginning of what’s new in this release. As a long-time customer, I’m excited about it — even more so than when we made the leap from version 6 to version 7. If you use Filemaker in your day-to-day work, you’ll absolutely want to check out this update.

A single license of Filemaker Pro 11 costs US$299. Upgrades from Filemaker Pro 10 and 9 are available at $179. Additionally, those using version 8.5 and 8 are eligible for upgrade pricing until September 23, 2010.

TUAWFileMaker 11 now available with charting, reporting improvements originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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