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I am pondering ways to enhance the content of Shareware Beat, and one possibility in including reader reviews of shareware and freeware software. The viability of that would of course depend on reader interest and participation, so if you would like to review aNovember application or utility in this category, whether it has appeared here in Shareware Beat or not, contact me at:
cwmoore@applelinks.com
Charles W. Moore
MacShareware.net Now Built Into YazSoft's SpeedDownload
YazSoft Announces Panther Optimized Speed Download 2.1 [OS 10.2.6 up]
Pariahware Releases Days Away v1.2 [OS X]
cocoAspell Updated To Work With Panther (Mac OS 10.3)
ScreenShot Plus Enhancement for Apple's built-in Screen Capture Tool [OS X]
PageSpinner 4.6b3 Web authoring; HTML, XHTML, PHP, SSI, JavaScript [OS 9.1 - OS X 10.2 up]
Back up user prefs 4.0.4 Backs Up/Restores Prefs, Browser, Addresses... [OS 10.2 up]
EazyDraw 1.4.0 Vector-Based Drawing Application [OS 10.2 up]
PDF Browser Plugin 1.2.3 Displays PDF Documents In Web Browsers [OS X 10.1 up]
iText 3.1.1 Text Editor/Word Processor [System 7.1 up/ OS X 10.3 up]
CopyWrite 1.1.7 Project Management Tool For Writers [OS X]
Download Wizard 1.5b10 Cocoa Download Manager [OS X]
Another Launcher 3.0 Open Apps, Files, Links Via Keyboard Or Menu Bar [OS 10.2 up] [/url]
MacShareware.net Now Built Into YazSoft's SpeedDownload
MacShareware.net announces it is providing third party software update listings for YazSoft's SpeedDownload 2.1, released today.
Using SpeedDownload 2.1, you can download files from the Internet faster. Having MacShareware.net integrated into SpeedDownload 2.1 means that you can keep track of the latest third party software updates and get the latest versions of your favorite software, in the fastest possible way.
The new version of SpeedDownload shows you a list of the latest software updates from MacShareware.net. With one click you can read the latest comments and ratings posted by other users at the web site, or you can download the software to get the latest version available.
"SpeedDownload is the perfect tool for software downloads. Using SpeedDownload, people can keep their software up to date. It is awesome." said Ricardo Batista, founder of MacSharewware.net and creator of the widely known utility, Extensions Manager.
MacShareware.net recently added new staff, user forums that include a developer's area, and a feature for developers to link back to MacShareware.net and have their software rated from within the developer's web page.
MacShareware.net is holding an Apple iPod giveaway through November 15th. Registration is free and there is no charge for joining the site. The web site address is
http://macshareware.net
YazSoft Announces Panther Optimized Speed Download 2.1 [OS 10.2.6 up]
Stay up to date on all the latest Macintosh software out there and download what you need directly within Speed Download 2.1. A completely Panther optimized engine provides improved features, functionality, and performance as well as one-click access to all your downloaded files no matter where they are on your hard drive. In hot news as well: Speed Download 2.1 also introduces built-in integration to the internet's fastest growing Mac update software site, MacShareware.net. It’s fast, convenient, and time saving.
New in SD 2.1:
• Completely optimized and tweaked for Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" with many Panther-only features.
• Speed Download 2.1 is MUCH faster when running in Panther.
• Updated Speed Download 2 Plug-in for more optimal performance and enhanced compatibility.
• New and improved contextual menus.
• MacShareware.net integration. You can now keep all your files up to date directly within Speed Download 2. SD2's integration with macshareware.net will bring extremely powerful and practical functionality to your Mac. Never have to worry about outdated software on your Mac ever again. You can also search the macshareware.net database for any file directly within Speed Download 2.
• You can now do direct file transfers between Speed Download 2 machines remotely across the internet and via Rendezvous on a local network.
• Download priorities added. You can now regulate the amount of bandwidth a file gets when downloading.
• Vastly improved 'Sensitive Servers' performance. You can now limit the number of connections to 1 for certain servers that cannot handle heavy bandwidth. This makes SD2 extremely user friendly and compatible with many more servers.
• You can now customize which file extensions you want SD2 to post-process after downloading.
• Tons of FTP tweaks. Speed Download 2 offers much faster and efficient performance with many more FTP servers.
• Completely revised disconnect modem script for dial-up users. The script should work for almost anything and more reliably.
• Added reconnect to 'My Servers' option in the preferences. This is a major time-saver for those who connect to many other SD2 machines remotely or via rendezvous.
• Added the option to turn off the automatic 'Plug-in goes back' functionality of the Sd2 plug-in. This will help when downloading from certain sites that cause the download to loop over and over.
• SD2 will now download a file do a volume other than the one containing the default folder.
• Easily switch between the Aqua and Metallic look!
• Crash reporter built-in to SD2. If SD2 should ever crash, you now have the option of sending the crash log to the SD2 developers for immediate analysis. Only the crash log is sent and this will allow for much faster fix response time.
• Cool and enhanced dock icon feedback.
• Added Dock feedback to display the number of active downloads, queued downloads and bandwidth display in the Dock.
• Improved floater performance.
• You can now customize the color of the dock graph background/foreground to suit your desktop background.
• Fixed validator annoyance: if a URL has a password, then when the validator runs, it asks you if you want to save the password. If you say no and if the first connection attempt failed, then on the second attempt you will be asked again, and on the 3rd attempt, and on the 4th attempt, and so forth.
• Fixed an FTP bug: if the first attempt by a download thread (not the validator) failed (server busy, temperamental network etc.), then subsequent attempts would always use anonymous login.
• Speed Download 2 is now available in Japanese.
• Tons of other tweaks and great improvements.
System Requirements
- Mac OS X 10.2.6 or later.
- An internet connection.
- Any popular Mac OS X internet browser.
Speed Download 2.1 is available in: Italian, Dutch, German, French, Swedish, Chinese, and Japanese and is FREE to all previously registered Speed Download 2 users. Speed Download 1.x users may upgrade to SD 2.1 for the reduced price of $15.
You can download Speed Download 2.1 here:
http://www.yazsoft.com>http://www.yazsoft.com
Pariahware Releases Days Away v1.2 [OS X]
Is that project done? Did you remember your anniversary?
Pariahware has announced the release Days Away v1.2, a MacOS X application that periodically reminds the user of upcoming events by discreetly fading in to focus, pausing for you to read the events, and discreetly fading back out. Days Away is made with REALbasic from REAL Software, Inc.
Just add the date that needs to be remembered by clicking on a calendar, and adding the name of the event. Periodically, Days Away will fade into view so the user can see how many "Days Away" the important date is. Use Days Away to remind the user of due dates, birthdays, anniversaries, or any other special occasion.
This release fixes some bugs and adds four new features. The user can now import events from iCal calendars, show more than one event at a time, choose longer delays between reminders, and more.
Days Away is shareware and costs $10.00 to register. A 30-day trial period is included.
For more information, visit:
http://www.pariahware.com/
Program Home Page:
http://www.pariahware.com/daysaway.shtml
Direct download:
http://www.pariahware.com/files/DaysAway.sit
cocoAspell Updated To Work With Panther (Mac OS 10.3)
cocoAspell is Mac OS X implementation of Aspell -- A more intelligent Ispell -- that is being developed by Kevin Atkinson. Here is a brief snippet of how Kevin describes Aspell on his web site:
Aspell is an Open Source spell checker designed to eventually replace Ispell. Its main feature is that it does a much better job of coming up with possible suggestions than Ispell does. In fact recent tests shows that it even does better than Microsoft Word 97's spell checker or just about any other spell checker I have seen. It also has support for checking (La)TeX and HTML files, and run time support for other non English languages.
Anton Leuski's cocoAspell is a compilation of Kevin's code for the Mac OS X platform. There are two major improvements over the original UNIX project:
1. cocoAspell is created as a service provider for the system-wide spelling services on Mac OS X. It means that any Mac OS X application that uses system's spell checking APIs can take advantage of Aspell's features. For example, Mail, OmniWeb, Project Builder, and TextEdit can use Aspell's ability to check spelling in different languages.
2. A preference panel named Spelling is provided with cocoAspell as an interface for dictionary selection and setup. Multiple Aspell options are available through this panel and allow the user to tune up the dictionary properties to his or her needs.
Now, if only BBEdit would support the spelling services...
Nevertheless, cocoAspell is an honest port of the Aspell application. Started without arguments it becomes a Cocoa spell server. If you supply command line arguments as described in the Aspell manual it will execute in command line mode and it will not register itself as a spell server.
This software is supplied free of charge and AS-IS.
For more information, visit:
http://www-ciir.cs.umass.edu/~leouski/cocoaspell/
ScreenShot Plus Enhancement for Apple's built-in Screen Capture Tool [OS X]
ScreenShot Plus uses Apple's tool to do the capturing, but allows you to scale the capture and select a format, jpeg, tiff, psd, and more!
ScreenShot Plus is activated by pressing Shift-Apple-2, You will then have the option of selecting a region on screen, toggle to window select mode by pressing the space-bar. A window will appear showing the captured area. From here you can scale the image and select a format to save in. ScreenShot Plus now uses Quartz scaling for a smoother result.
Unregistered copies will save images with a watermark.
For more information, visit:
http://www.pidog.com/screenshotplus/
PageSpinner 4.6b3 Web authoring; HTML, XHTML, PHP, SSI, JavaScript [OS 9.1 - OS X 10.2 up]
PageSpinner is the easy-to-use, professional HTML editor for Mac OS supporting HTML 3.2, HTML 4, XHTML, PHP plus additional Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer extensions and a built-in JavaScript generator.
The editor gives you quick access to often used formatting and also supports online help to help you compose your own Web pages.
PageSpinner features built-in FTP support, customizable syntax color-coding of JavaScript, PHP, Cascading Style Sheets, support for Server Side Includes, integration with Apache and the Terminal in OS X, and more!
PageSpinner is scriptable with AppleScript, making it possible to take a script-driven approach to creating and updating a site.
In addition, PageSpinner's open architecture for extension plug-ins lets you download new or updated functions, helper applications and examples from the net.
With its ease-of-use and convenience combined with the many efficient HTML tools and functions, PageSpinner has become the HTML Editor of choice for thousands of Mac users around the globe.
New in this version:
• Live previews of HTML pages in both Mac OS X and Mac OS 9
• better CSS support and CSS previews
• interface fixes for Mac OS X 10.3 Panther
• improved AppleScript support
• and several other enhancements
System requirements:
Mac OS 9.1 - OS X 10.2 or higher
PageSpinner is $29.95 shareware
For more information, visit:
http://www.optima-system.com/pagespinner/
Back up user prefs 4.0.4 Backs Up/Restores Prefs, Browser, Addresses... [OS 10.2 up]
Back up user prefs 4.0.4 is a Mac OS X AppleScript shareware application that backs up and restores a user's preferences and related folders for safety in the event of corruption of either individual preferences or the entire folder.
Back up user prefs allows the user to elect to save a set of previously backed-up preferences in the event that something goes wrong during the backup process.
In addition to backing up preferences and related files, Back up user prefs can also restore your system using either of the two sets of previously-saved preferences, provided that two sets exist within the user's Backup_preferences folder. This feature is a very important one, since it can save the user the hours of agony required by a full system reinstallation by replacing the corrupted files that are usually the cause of serious system failures. Also, this replacement is selective: you do not have to restore everything, but can instead select, for example, only the ~/Library/Preferences folder, the browser files, the ~/Library/Mail files, etc. (see the list below). Beginning with v 2.4.8, Back up user prefs added a feature called "Auto-pilot" which enables the experienced user of the application to eliminate nearly all dialog boxes except those that are absolutely necessary for the proper operation of the application.
This software is compatible with Mac OS 10.3 ("Panther")--but you should not use it with FileVault enabled.
New in this version:
Included with Back up user prefs 4.0.4 is a very special new addition to this application: BUUP_for_cron, a new version of the backup portion of Back up user prefs 4.0.4 that enables the scheduling of unattended backups using the Unix script "cron" or the very useful freeware GUI version called CronniX. If you decide to use BUUP4_for_cron, then you will need to register; BUUP4_for_cron will run only ten times without a serial number.
Version 4.0.4 eliminates an error message to the effect that the variable "SaveOrNot" was undefined. The conditions that caused this message to appear could under certain circumstances prevent the completion of the backup.
System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.2 or higher (v1.2 is still available for those who have not upgraded to Jaguar)
Back up user prefs 4.x appears to be incompatible with FileVault in Mac OS 10,3. If you have FileVault enabled, DO NOT USE THIS APPLICATION until further notice.
Back up user prefs is $5.00 shareware
For more information, visit:
http://www.m-t-software.com/
EazyDraw 1.4.0 Vector-Based Drawing Application [OS 10.2 up]
EazyDraw is an affordable drawing application designed exclusively for Mac OS X. It is useful for many creative projects including technical drawings, illustrations, icons, logos, and stylized text.
EazyDraw is a vector based drawing application for desk top publishing (DTP) with Apple's Macintosh OS X (Mac OS-X) operating system. Itis an Illustration or drawing software application that offers vector-based graphics editing and creation capabilities for creating simple, non-photographic drawings, technical diagrams and illustrations such as logos, icons, buttons and stylized art.
Features and Applications
• Vector Based Drawing
• You are on OS X - move up to vectors
• Communicate with quality drawings
• Technical drawings
• Auto-line (a MacDraw favorite)
• Dimensions - automatically linked to graphic objects
• Architectural projects, house plans, landscaping
• Flow Charts
• Mathematical Curve
• Business Communications
• Graphics Software drawings
• Drawing and Illustration
• Native Mac OS X Application
There are several specialized drawing applications available for the graphic arts professional. We all know how much they cost and how hard they are to master. EazyDraw is drawing for the rest of us who want to have fun exploring the creative potential of this great new Macintosh Operating System.
• EPS import is now available with current Panther version.
• MacDraw import, full support for MacDrawII files including layers and patterns.
• Technical drawing - dimensions draw to scale, great rulers and grids. Check out our House Plan screen shot or the ipod drawing.
• Mathematical curves-a full palette of precise mathematical curves tools like sine waves, the bell shaped probability curve and many more. Check out our Math screen shot.
• Great for flow charts. Easy to use connectors, orthogonal paths, and an extensive selection of predefined shapes.
System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
Easy to Use - Easy to Own
9 month license ($20) or single user license ($95) available. Free Demo (Option click Demo link to download, 13 Meg with examples and tutorials) allows full editing and creation and save of up to 20 graphic elements. The demo disk contains example drawing and tutorials to give you a quick feel for what you can do with EazyDraw.
Don't like Demo Version gimmicks...
For $20 you can skip all the gimmicks and got-chas of a typical "Free Trial". With our 9 month license you have a full capability version of EazyDraw. And you have 9 hassle free months to use our program when you need it for whatever comes along - no race to try everything before the limit-gimmicks slam on the brakes.
• Full use license for only $20 - for 9 months. Great way to try out EazyDraw.
• Have a specific project to get done -- use our 9 month license instead of a share-ware or costly high end OS X upgrade to your old drawing application.
• Budget a little tight -- your $20 investment can be applied toward the full purchase within the first 2 months of the license period.
For more information, visit:
http://www.eazydraw.com/
PDF Browser Plugin 1.2.3 Displays PDF Documents In Web Browsers [OS X 10.1 up]
PDF Browser Plugin displays Quartz compatible PDF documents within web browsers.
With the help of PDF Browser Plugin you can view PDF documents directly in your web browser, print them, and save them to disk if you'd like to keep them.
PDF Browser Plugin can even display Postscript documents - a popular format for scientific publications (requires Mac OS X 10.3 or Ghostscript)
Features
• View Quartz compatible PDF documents within web browsers
• View Postscript documents (requires Mac OS X 10.3 or Ghostscript)
• View embedded PDF
• Open in external viewer
• Save the PDF document from the plugin
• Saves document URL as Finder comment
• Printing
• Zoom into the document
• Mouse wheel support for scrolling and zooming in Carbon web browsers
New in 1.2.3:
• Fixes a problem with PDF documents in frames on Mac OS X 10.2.
• Czech localization
System Requirements
• Mac OS X 10.1 or later
(Not all features available under all browsers.)
PDF Browser Plugin is freeware
For more information, visit:
http://www.schubert-it.com/pluginpdf/
iText 3.1.1 Text Editor/Word Processor [System 7.1 up/ OS X 10.3 up]
iText is a text editor with simple word processing, fitting the iMac's colorful-design. It has stability and lots of nice features selected from LightWayText. iText will definitely let you recall 'the Macintosh mind of the early days'
Editing operations are intuitive. There are many ways to change the appearance of your document; besides styles, there are decoration lines, the ability to change all paragraph indents or margins, and to paste in PICT images. Also, you can work with big text documents of even more than 32 kbytes at very high speed.
iText 3.1.1 also supports importing and exporting Rich Text Format files (RTF) , and iText-X fully complies with Mac OS 10.3 (Panther).
You will find that iText is widely used, from programming to the writing of various documents, in any language not only English and Japanese.
iText is Freeware. But, if you like iText and wish to make it more powerful, you can change your copy of iText to iTextPro with Key-registration ($15 per user).
iTextPro is almost the same as LightWayText except for the advanced features including Macro, Word Services, and Stream Editor, but is only for Macs. (There is not any plan of iTextPro for Windows.)
New in this version:
• Support for importing and exporting Rich Text Format (RTF) files.
• Added a new function Color Preference, so that you can set the default window color freely except for built-in iMac's colors.
• Enhanced Line Spacing tools in Format Tools so that you can change the spaces easier and sequentially.
System requirements
• System 7.1 or higher
iText is freeware
For more information, visit:
http://members.aol.com/iText/
CopyWrite 1.1.7 Project Management Tool For Writers [OS X]
CopyWrite's flexible interface is one of the things that sets it apart from the rest. Many writers believe word processors have far too many functions that get in the way of their creativity. Juggling between a folder and multiple documents in a separate application is a waste of time. The project browser and notes are in drawers (where they should be) allowing you to open or close them as needed. This, in turn, allows you to concentrate on the primary focus - your writing.
Try to search through all the documents in a project (especially if they're in a proprietary file format) and the inefficiency of the process becomes obvious. Writers typically have to open each document, search (or search and replace) in each one, save, then move on to the next. Even if the writer just wants to see which documents contain the search term, CopyWrite eliminates the inefficiency.
CopyWrite keeps your notes just where you need them - right beside your document. No more endless scrolling or window-switching. Just efficiency.
CopyWrite is quite customizable as well. Whether you want to change text sizes and colors for easier readability or customize the categories and status lists to better organize your documents, CopyWrite can adapt to you. Maybe you'd like to store your projects elsewhere or change the highlight color. Maybe the text in the project browser is is too small. CopyWrite will adapt.
Features
• Simple, adjustable, well-organized interface
• Customizable category and status list for organization your way
• On-demand or automatic backup to protect your investment of time
• Super fast search filtering
New in this version:
• Preferences bug fixed.
CopyWrite is $20.00 shareware
For more information, visit: [url=]
[/url]
http://www.bartastechnologies.com/copywrite/
Download Wizard 1.5b10 Cocoa Download Manager [OS X]
Download Wizard is a small, simple and elegant replacement for your browser's built-in download manager. It is written entirely in Cocoa, so it integrates seamlessly with Mac OS X and includes features you'd expect from a Cocoa-based application: dock menus, service availability, dock icon status, localization, etc. It strives to be small, fast and reliable while making use of all the abilities of Apple's newest OS.
The freeware version of Download Wizard will never expire. However, some of the more advanced features will only be accessible to registered users.
New in this version:
• application uses metal window look.
• implemented scheduling of online mode.
• implemented Hotline support.
• implemented download list reordering.
• implemented custom categories.
• implemented download speed throttling.
• implementd "Quit application when transfers complete" preference.
• added a View menu with drawer toggle items.
• enhanced toolbar search field with both macupdate, versiontracker and macgamefiles.
• selected category now show in window title bar.
• toolbar items enable/disable appropriately based on table selection.
• pending transfers can be paused (held) and re-queued at a later time.
• added color coding to list items to reflect their status.
• copying a list item will now result in its URL being copied to the clipboard.
• selected category now retained between runs.
• category drawer remembers its size between runs.
• audible.com support added to browser plug-in.
• added file icons to file column.
• fixed a bug where Safari wouldn't jump back a page when plug-in was activated.
• fixed bug where drawers open on top of each other.
• fixed bug where info window could get out of sync with table selection.
• fixed a bug where application being force quit (or unexpectedly quitting) will lost transfers in the list.
• fixed a bug where Safari 1.0 browser cookies were not found.
• fixed a bug where FTP could result in a file not found in some cases.
• fixed a bug in toolbar customizations were "icon only" didn't work properly.
• fixed a bug where info drawer didn't reflect the selected transfer if category was something other than "All".
• fixed a bug where a connection failure could cause a pending download to start.
Download Wizard is freeware/$17.00 shareware
For more information, visit:
http://www.whizzoconsulting.com/downloadwizard/index.html
Another Launcher 3.0 Open Apps, Files, Links Via Keyboard Or Menu Bar [OS 10.2 up]
Another Launcher lets you open applications, files, local folders, system preferences, and bookmarks by...
• browsing fully customizable system-wide spring-loaded menus
• entering abbreviations (cf. LaunchBar)
• pressing hot keys, including the F keys
• clicking hot corners (cf. CornerClick)
Moreover, you can...
• browse through all your volumes with infinite recursion
• move and copy files
• access your browser's bookmarks
• access your address book's data
• launch your AppleScripts from a top level menu similar to Apple's script menu or have them reside in a submenu
• access folder contents via pop-up menus
• search the web from your menu bar or a separate window
• control iTunes (start / stop, previous track, next track, and current track information)
Adding files or URLs from your browser to Another Launcher's database is stunningly easy: Just drag them to the active screen corner (default: top left), see Another Launcher's main window open, and drop your items at an appropriate place.
New in this version:
• You can now have an auto-updating list of all mounted volumes in your menu bar, giving you a menu for each volume. Just position a "Volumes" Smart Item on the top level of your configuration. Similarly, you may also drag the "Running applications" Smart Item to the top level.
• It is now possible to edit the search engines list for your "Web search" Smart Items. You may also import search engines from iSeek, a nice little shareware utility from Ambrosia that imitates Another Launcher's "search the web from your menu bar" concept.
• Removed the restrictions on hot keys. You may now use [command]-[space], for instance.
• You can now have your top-level items displayed in Another Launcher's Docklet instead of the menu bar. Have a look at your preferences.
• Added three more System Controls: "Hide frontmost application", "Hide other applications", and "Show all applications".
• Improved browsing local folders via menus. Have a look at the menu cache in the "Advanced" category of Another Launcher's preferences.
• Entering abbreviations is faster and more customizable now. Have a look at the "Advanced" category of Another Launcher's preferences.
• You can now use Path Finder instead of the Finder. Have a look at the "Advanced" category of Another Launcher's preferences.
• You can now copy items in Another Launcher's main window by holding the [option] key while dragging and dropping them.
• When rearranging Another Launcher's menu bar items, they (as a group) now keep their position relative to other items in the menu bar.
• The "Network" item will no longer appear in "Volumes" Smart Items and menus representing local folders.
• Another Launcher can now handle multiple applications with identical names.
• Simplified the user interface: Importing external bookmarks has moved to the new "Import / Export" pop-up button in the menu bar. Aliasing external bookmarks has blended into the Smart Items. To quit Another Launcher, see the "About..." sheet or read the "Read me" file, use the small pop-up menu in the bottom left corner of the main window.
• You can now import/export your configuration via the "Import / Export" pop-up button in the menu bar.
• Moved the level settings for aliased external bookmarks from the preferences sheet to the alias-specific info sheet.
• Another Launcher now uses localized application names.
• Fixed a bug where the preference sheet's application paths list was sometimes not properly displayed.
• Fixed a bug where Another Launcher failed to display custom favicons for secure web sites.
• Next try to fix the bug where pop-up menus would sometimes not disappear from the screen. This is actually a bug in Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther".
• Other bug fixes and interface improvements.
• This version only includes English and German localizations.
For more information, visit:
• Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
Another Launcher is freeware
For more information, visit:
http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?thema=launcher&sprache=english
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