Cool Mac Gear

Tex Edit Plus X 4.5 represents the most substantial overhaul of the Tex Edit Plus user interface in a long while, with the number of menus reduced, menu lists rearranged, and anew integrated floating Toolbar palette (as opposed to the Tex Aid palette introduced last fall, which is actually a separate application).

While the Tex Edit Plus X 4.5b1 beta was posted last Friday, I've actually been using Tex Edit Plus 4.5 in production for a couple weeks, as Tom Bender was kind enough to send me a prerelease copy. I'm happy to report that the prototype has been completely bug-free as far as I can tell, so the beta release should be likewise.

Tom notes:

"Apple released new OS X user interface guidelines and I have tried to rework TEP to comply with the suggested menu layout. This has resulted in a more logical (to me) menu layout and has freed up some space in the main menu bar. (TEP's menu headings have been bumping into the right-sided system menus on my iBook.)

"Notice that I have moved several main menus into submenus (Font, Size, Style) which makes them slightly less convenient. Also please notice the 'rotate' feature for smart quotes and smart hyphens. A user suggested it and I thought liked it. Activate the feature in the Prefs dialog and then notice what happens when you press the dash or quote keys repeatedly."

Aside from getting used to finding commands in new places, the only negative observation I had was that I missed having the Insert Date command in the main menu list -- it is now in the Copy & Paste Special submenu. I mentioned this to Tom, and he obliged by adding keystroke shortcuts for inserting Date and Time -- cmd-opt-comma and cmd-opt-period respectively in the TE+ 4.5 beta release. Thanks, Tom ! Works great, and slicker than before.

I have been curious as to how Tex Edit Plus X, which is a Carbon application, can access the OS X spell check function, which is part of Cocoa services. I asked Tom about this, and he explained:

"TE+ is a Carbon app, however it is not just _any_ carbon app. It has been extensively reprogrammed to make use of native OS X event handling. This makes it much easier to add floating palettes and to interface with OS X facilities such as the spell checker, the fonts toolbar, standard file dialogs, standard print dialogs, the Services menu, etc.

"TE+ also is a Mach-O binary (OS X native application structure) and uses nib files (OS X native resource files) to create all UI elements. The result is an application that is smoother and more stable than a simple Carbon port."

I can't say enough good about this cool program. If you've never used Tex Edit Plus, you really owe it to yourself to check it out.

New in this version:
• New floating toolbar houses various convenient shortcuts.
• Menus were rearranged to conserve main menubar space and to conform to Jaguar UI Guidelines.
• Miscellaneous other UI improvements were made.
• Smart hyphens feature converts two consecutive hyphens to an em dash (scriptable pref switch).
• Rotate consecutive hyphens (scriptable pref switch). Press the dash key repeatedly to switch between em dash, en dash, and double dashes.
• Rotate consecutive quotes (scriptable pref switch). "Rotate" suggestions thanks to Henader T.
• Fixed AppleScript "print file" bug.
• Fixed printing bug noted when dragging Tex-Edit documents to the Print Center.
• Fixed several other small printing bugs. • English version only--various localized versions to follow.  

System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.1 or higher
 
Tex-Edit Plus X is $15.00 shareware
   
For more information, visit:
http://www.tex-edit.com/

Where is my disk space key?

From Henry Drygas

Charles,

I had to comment. There were some reservations expressed by some readers about the key to this program. I will say this I have never received so kind, genteel and civilized key in my life. Manners, and politeness are the lubrication of civilized society. You may reassure your readers.

Henry Drygas

Thanks Henry.

Charles

Where is my disk space?

From Chris Long

re; Where is my disk space?

I just downloaded this nifty util. NICE!

Here's another one that performs a similar function in a different way -- I find that the 2 utils make a nice SET:

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/download/

Try it! you'll LIKE it!

C

I'll check it out.

Charles

Re: Where is my disk space

From John Dennis

You are right that it is free. I sent them an email and got the registration information sent right to me.

That's what I thought.

Thanks
Charles

Re: Watershed

From Bill DeVille

Charles:

I enjoy reading your AppleLinks columns.

Like you, I came to prefer working in Mac OS X to working in OS 9 -- although I came to that decision a good deal earlier than you, when OS X 10.1 was introduced. I like the aesthetics of OS X, the greater stability of the operating system (with routine maintenance) and my PowerBook G4's almost instantaneous wake from sleep.

My desktop always looks messy, because that's where I dump downloads, projects in progress, and stuff in general that I haven't yet decided where to file. Early on, I installed a utility that provides alternatives to the OS X Finder (it's now called Path Finder) that, in addition to some other useful features, hides the desktop clutter and displays my favorite desktop picture with no 'blemishes' covering it. I like that.

One of my major projects over the last couple of years was building an Intranet database consisting of about 700 standard operating procedures and quality assurance project plans. The documents started out as MS Word files and were converted to PDF. The PDF files were listed in Excel spreadsheets that corresponded to the work groups using the documents. The spreadsheets were then converted to HTML tables by Excel (Excel on the Macintosh is much better than Excel under Windows for this) and the HTML tables were cleaned up using Claris Home Page. Finally, the PDF files and HTML tables were posted on the Intranet for staff use. From a Web browser, staff could access the procedures documents by clicking on a hyperlink. Once the system had been tested and was working well, it was incorporated into a database run by our information services staff -- which relieved me of a lot of manual labor keeping the database updated.

This project was started under OS 9. Even though I migrated over to OS X, I found that certain tasks were still best done in the Classic environment. Although OS X makes it easy to convert Word documents to PDF, the resulting files are often very large. The PDF conversions were done in Classic, using PrintToPDF. Note: I've now got two utilities that solve the PDF file size problem in OS X -- PDFshrink Lite and PStill, so that I would now do the Word to PDF conversions under OS X.

Claris Home Page, of course, works only under Classic. For my purposes, it was the quickest way to clean up the awful HTML code produced by Excel.

Some of the PDF files include scanned approval pages. At the time, there was no OS X driver for my scanner (there is, now), so back to the Classic environment for scanning. Then the scan images were converted to PDF by an OCR program. I've got two, OmniPage Pro for OS X, and FineReader Pro (OS 9). I find FineReader faster and more accurate, so this was used under Classic (I still use it as my preferred OCR program).

I also distributed the procedures database on CD-ROM, which had the advantage that I could index the hundreds of PDF files for rapid searching, using limited Boolean search logic. I found that Adobe has crippled Acrobat 5; it doesn't contain Acrobat Catalog, nor does it have the indexed search feature found in Acrobat 4. Fortunately, Acrobat Catalog works well in the Classic environment, as does Acrobat 4. Apparently, Adobe hopes that Acrobat 5 owners will use -- for a charge -- Adobe's Web Services to do PDF indexing. I think that's a disservice to Acrobat users, and an option that I wouldn't use for security reasons.

None of the Classic operations described above required rebooting into OS 9.

Nowadays, my computer life revolves around one program, DEVONthink, which will ultimately hold thousands of my references, notes and project files. Every word of every document is entered into DEVONthink's concordance. This not only allows rapid searches for terms or phrases, DEVONthink can recognize the contexts in which words occur and can suggest related documents, and even assist in the classification of files. DEVONthink accepts text, RTF, MS Word, PDF, HTML and a variety of image formats.

Adding a file that already exists on your hard drive, for example a Word or PDF file, to the database is as simple as dragging it onto a DEVONthink View page. The Word or PDF file is translated into RTF on the fly and every word is added to the concordance. An information panel attached to the new entry keeps track of the original file location so that, for example, a PDF file can be launched under Acrobat.

The interoperability of DEVONthink with Mac OS X applications written in Cocoa, through the magic of Services, is amazing. Suppose I find an interesting research article in Science Magazine Online, using Safari as my Web browser. I can capture it into DEVONthink by pressing 'Command A' to select the text, then pressing 'Shift Command )' to instantly enter it as a new RTF entry into DEVONthink. From Safari, copy the page's URL by pressing 'Command C'. Now (since DEVONthink may have already classified the new entry into a subfolder), choose a unique word in the article, such as an author's name, highlight it, and press 'Command /' to search for the new entry in DEVONthink. Paste the URL into the new entry's Note and a self-documenting entry of the article has been made in seconds. If images or graphics are important, I can either use Grab to copy and paste them into the new entry, or download the article as a PDF copy and drop the PDF into DEVONthink.

I routinely look at dozens of scientific and technical reference resources on the Web. DEVONthink is a great tool for capturing, searching and relating information. It's also good for holding tips and tricks about Mac OS X and software registrations!

I retired last week and will be setting up a couple of Web sites on environmental policy and international environmental science exchanges. DEVONthink holds my references and notes, and I'm using Stone Studio to lay out HTML and PDF files. This is fun!

Hi Bill;

Thanks for the interesting report on your software adventures in OS X. I expect one reason you switched earlier than I did was the fact that you have a G4 machine, although with Quartz Extreme, the G3 has a new lease on life in OS X, which is quite zippy on my new iBook.

Thanks for reading, and keep having fun!

Charles

Re: A Watershed Crossed

From Richard Wolfert

Congratulations Charles. This past year was like watching the longest pregnancy ever. Glad you finally made it.

I am still using OS 9.1 on my trusty (but very stressed) Power Macintosh 8600/250. I will get my first taste of "X" when I purchase a 17" iMac in a few weeks. Can't wait. I'll keep both machines going until everything important (like my resume business) is migrated to the iMac and I'm comfortable with the new OS.

Keep on enjoying OS-X and, of course, keep writing. Don't know what I'd do without your excellent commentary.

Rich Wolfert

Thanks Richard. It's actually been 15 months now on the Odyssey trail, not counting my fooling around with the OS X Public Beta on the Cube I had through the summer of 2001.

Charles

OS X speed compared to OS 9

From Joe Reed

Hi Charles,

I, too, graduated to OS X. I really like OS X. However, it has always seemed fairly fast, even withe OS 9 being faster. I think my situation differed from others in that I have 512MB RAM in my BW/G3 400Mhz machine. I've seen the difference between an iBook at 256 MB RAM that has a higher Mhz than my G3...the iBook is slower, takes more time to do things. I believe if it had 512 MB RAM or higher it too would be fairly zippy.

I am getting a 1GHz iMac soon. I expect it to do quite well.

God bless,
Joe

Hi Joe;

I expect X will fly on that 1 GHz iBook!

However, I've had 640 MB of RAM in my 500 MHz Pismo PowerBook for about a year, and OS X is still by seat of the pants estimate roughly 20 - 30 percent slower in Finder response than OS 9 is on this same machine. The difference is much less dramatic (although OS 9 is still faster) on my 700 MHz iBook with Quartz Extreme support.

Charles

Re: A Watershed Crossed - Eye TV

From Romeo Mariano

Dear Charles,

I'm glad to hear you are enjoying Mac OS X. Yes, the stability and ease of multitasking are addictive. It also greatly increases productivity, allowing you to use more of your available computing power. I use "Cee Pee You" from unsanity.com to gauge how much of my Mac's CPU power I am using. This allows me to also avoid overburdening the CPU when it is already used at close to its maximum level.

Tip: To bring all windows of an application to the front, click on it's icon in the doc.

Tip: Be sure to set the mouse tracking speed high, and the keyboard repeat rate to its fastest rate to get a more responsive keyboard.

Tip: Be sure to install Quicktime 6.1 since it may help reduce some of OS X 10.2.3's flakiness.

On another front, I bought EyeTV at MacWorld, San Francisco 2003. I attached it to my Pismo while I work on my desktop. It has transformed my Pismo into a digital VCR. It's been a blast. I'm collecting episodes of various TV shows such as Star Trek Voyager, the Osbournes, movies, etc. I store them on a large external firewire drive for use on any of my Macs - after cutting out the commercials, of course. You can even attach a DVD player to it and convert your entire DVD collection into Quicktime movies. Your Mac can then be a video jukebox - just as iTunes turned it into a music jukebox. Eventually, a possibility is to rebox an iMac into a 1U rackmount case from Marathoncomputer.com and make it part of the home theater system, the iMac becoming part of a video/music jukebox, hooked to a home network - possibly Airport.

Romeo Mariano

Hi Romeo;

Thanks for the tips and report on Eye TV.

Actually, I have a little hack called MouseZoom installed, which can make the mouse tracking even faster than I like it.See Odyssey 198.

Charles

OSX Utilities

From Marc Lassagne

Mr. Moore,

I am glad to see that you finally like OS X better than OS 9.I hope that you will follow the same path as far as politics are concerned and, one day, at long last, become a liberal. Never say never...

Here is a list of utilities, some of which I believe you have not reviewed or mentioned (if that is the case, please discard this email) that I found indispensable to customize OS X on my iBook (600 Combo, 640 MB RAM, 30 GB HD, 8 MB VRAM). Some are free, others are not :

- Haxies (ClearDock, FruitMenu, WindowShadeX, LabelsX, Silk)

- ASM (http://www.vercruesse.de) : restores the application menu , OS9-style, on the top right end of the screen)

- Ittec (http://www.balancesoftware.com) : THE replacement for PopupFolders, FinderPop and the likes. Lets you exactly do what these software did, namely holding a click on a folder (or a file) and, after a customizable time, having a menu appear that shows the contents of the folder, or lets you do some actions on it (like put in the trash...). No more control-click!

- LiteSwitchX (http://www.proteron.com)

- Macaroni (http://www.atomicbird.com): performs MacOS X routine maintenance tasks and repairs permissions at a specified time, instead of 3 AM: very useful for people who do not leave their computer on all night. The obvious free alternative is MacJanitor, but it does not repair permissions and you have to remember to run it.

- X-Tunes (http://www.pol-online.net): easiest and least intrusive way to control iTunes

- PTHClock (http://www.pth.com) : great replacement for the system clock in the menubar.

Regards,

Marc Lassagne

Hi Marc;

My anticipation and intention with this Odyssey from the get-go has been to make the switch. My original estimate was February, 2002, later revised to April 2002, and then left open-ended when I finally realized that the 600 MHz Pismo was just not adequate hardware for running OS X at a level of performance I find satisfactory. It still isn't, although I've been using OS X more and more lately despite the sluggish performance. The iBook was the charm.

As for me becoming a liberal, when you-know-where freezes over! ;-)

Thanks for the util. mini-reviews.

Charles

OS X watershed

From Darren Varner

I truly am happy for you and all of the people that will no doubt be swayed by your revelation.

Being a Mac user that wasn't so ingrained with OS9 or any of the earlier versions for that matter, OS X for me has been my only OS for about 2 years. It has been difficult listening to you relentlessly bang away at OS X and I am hopeful that this new iBook and OS X will help you achieve even more pleasure with your Mac experience.

I will also echo your thoughts regarding a newer computer.My 12" PB really improves OS X for me over my previous iBook 500. And I already loved it.

Congrats.

Darren Varner

Hi Darren;

Thanks for the well-wishes.

Indeed, hardware makes the difference. Having said that, I have to observe that OS 9 is still faster and more polished in its user interface execution, even on the iBook, but cool OS X applications like Tex Edit 4.5 reviewed above have improved the overall experience in X enough to tip the scale slightly in OS X's favor.

As I noted to Marc above, when I set out on this Odyssey road, I never dreamed that it would take 15 months and a new computer before I made the switch (although I expect I will still be booting into OS 9 frequently for a while yet) to OS X as my main production OS.

Charles

Watershed

From Andreas Weik

Charles,

So you finally made it. I actually recommended AppleLinks to my father (he's very cautious of everything new, like OS X), because of you and John Farr, but now that you jumped on the OS X bandwagon, I probably have to take that back. ;-)

I wonder why you have so much problems with 10.2.3. Mine runs like a charm...(Nov '02 iBook 800MHz, 640MB RAM). Maybe a third party product conflict...

Still enjoying your column (and Farr's Grack).

Greetings, Andreas Weik.

Hi Andreas;

Thanks for reading. Hope your dad stays with us too. ;-)

My OS 10,2,3 installation was about as clean as could be; the combo 10.2.3 updater applied over Apple's factory install of 10.2.1 on the brand new iBook with no third party hacks involved and very few applications installed. (New iBook 700 MHx, 640 MB RAM).

I'll have another go when 10.2.4 comes out.

Charles

Get ASM to regain some OS 9 features

From John Konopka

Charles,
I
am a real fan of OS X but I did miss the application menu in the top right of the screen.

There is a shareware program called ASM available on Version Tracker. It restores the OS 9 style application switching menu very nicely. It includes options for sizing the icons, using names only, names plus icons etc. I recommend you try it.

Most important for you, perhaps, is that ASM has options for restoring other OS 9 features such as clicking on one window of an app brings all of that app's windows to the front. You can find them in the control panel in the system preferences after install.

I normally don't customize my OS with third party add ons but this is one I really, really like.

Take Care,
John Konopka

Hi John;

I had ASM installed on the Pismo way back in late 2001, but it had a conflict with that ViaVoice X installer, so I removed it. That glitch may have been fixed by now.

However, I have more or less made my peace with the Dock. I keep it on the right hand side of the desktop, where I keep the Application Switcher tear-off palette in OS 9, and find that switching back and forth is reasonably intuitive.

Charles

Re: Importing email to OS X

From Anthony LoFaro

Hi Charles,

I thought that I'd help out a fellow reader with my own experiences importing email. I was running Entourage2001 on a PM6500 on OS9.1 and was looking to transfer my email to OS X on my PBG4 in December. At first, EntourageX did not locate my user identity files on the PM through the network. My work-around was to copy the "Documents/Microsoft User Data" folder path in OS 9 to the "Documents" folder in OS X. I then imported data into EntourageX. I subsequently imported the user data into Mail, which has now become my primary client. Everything worked rather simply once I copied the files onto my PBG4.

Hope that helps.

I'll let you know what happens wrt contacting Apple regarding the case of the "Restore Applications not found on Restore DVD".

Cheers,
Anthony

Inkpad in Jaguar

From Nat Belz

Anomalies seem to abound w Inkwell/Pad/Server--at least on this G3 Bronze Powerbook. It popped up fine the first time after I turned it on in preferences, using a Wacom USB Tablet w/o any special drivers, although its recognition accuracy reminded me of the Newton. Then it started weird crashes in Word and Inkpad, and finally the Inkpad disappeared entirely. It has shown glimpses of itself a couple of times, but mostly is absent. When it started to affect the system, I shut it down. Any solutions out there?

Thanks,
Nat Belz

Hi Nat;

I haven't found any. It plain wouldn't work on the Pismo, so I gave up. I must hook the Wacom pad up to the iBook one of these days and see if I have better luck with it.

Charles

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore

Cool Mac Gear