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Butler 4.1.12 released

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Butler 4.1.12 has been released, fixing one crashing issue (which only affected those running 10.7.x) and one cosmetic issue. The crasher wasn’t actually a bug in Butler, but a change in how the system deals with ejecting disks. Basically, if you used Butler’s Volumes menu to eject a disk/disk image, Butler would then crash and burn, but only in OS X 10.7 or newer.

(The cosmetic issue was an abbreviations window that wouldn’t disappear if you used it to run a web search while the browser was the frontmost window.)

You can get the update via in-app updates (the Updates item in the Preferences tab of Butler’s window), or by downloading Butler from our site.

Important: Butler 4.1.12 requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later; if you’re using Mac OS X 10.5 and/or a PowerPC-equipped Mac, you’ll need to stay on Butler 4.1.11. If you find issues with Butler on your PowerPC and/or 10.5 Mac, please send me an email and we’ll see what we can do about the problem.

Posted in Butler, Products | 7 Comments »

Butler 4.1.11 fixes two minor bugs

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

Today we released Butler 4.1.11, with two small bug fixes (one for System Preference panels with mixed-case extensions; the other for a problem with window layering and Butler’s docklet).

You can get the update via in-app updating, or by downloading the full program from our site. And yes, we know you’re all anxious for Butler 5. So are we, but we need to do it right.

Posted in Butler, Products | 4 Comments »

Our apps and OS X Lion compatibility

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

With today’s release of Lion, here’s an update on the status of all our apps in Apple’s latest Mac OS X release. Note that this is based on our testing only, and many of our apps are feature-rich: so if you run into something, please let us know via comments here, a tweet, an email message, or a trouble ticket.

  • Butler: Compatible, though it’s likely we haven’t tested 100% of everything that Butler can do.
  • Desktop Curtain: Compatible, but with some issues if you use Spaces or Mission Control. We’re working to find a solution to those issues.
  • Displaperture: Compatible.
  • Key Codes: Compatible.
  • Keymo: Compatible.
  • Leech: Leech’s browser integration feature only works with Firefox in Lion. We’re investigating getting the other browsers working again, and will post any updates here on our blog.
  • Menu Bar Tint: Compatible.
  • Moom: Compatible, as of latest 2.2 update.
  • Name Mangler: Compatible.
  • Open-With Manager: Not recommended and not tested in Lion.
  • Safari Guardian: Not compatible with Lion. It won’t cause problems if installed, but its features won’t work. (Note: Safari 5.1 in Snow Leopard also breaks Safari Guardian.)
  • Service Scrubber: Not recommended and not tested in Lion.
  • Time Sink: Compatible.
  • Usher: Compatible.
  • Witch: Compatible, as of the 3.7 update.

As noted above, if you find certain features in our apps that don’t work in Lion, please let us know!

Posted in Butler, Desktop Curtain, Displaperture, Key Codes, Keymo, Leech, Menu Bar Tint, Moom, Name Mangler, Open-With Manager, Products, Safari Guardian, Service Scrubber, Time Sink, Usher, Witch | 30 Comments »

Touching things up on a Tuesday

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Yes, it’s another installment of Touch Up Tuesdays…this time out, Butler, Moom, and Name Mangler are getting the update treatment.

Butler 4.1.10: There are some nice fixes in this release, including making Butler work properly with Address Book’s Smart Folders feature, and pasting clipboard items as plain text into Mail. (Full release notes)

Moom 1.2.1: Mouse users can Option-click the full screen icon to center windows, Moom now works properly when running Dreamweaver and/or HyperDock, and we’ve reduced Moom’s CPU usage through a smarter activation algorithm. (Full release notes)

Name Mangler 2.4.3: You can now use Command-Z (multiple times) to undo changes in Advanced mode, and you can use the forward slash character in renaming actions. (Full release notes)

As always, you can get the new versions via in-app updates, or by downloading a fresh copy from our site. App Store users: the updates for Moom and Name Mangler should be available very soon, if not already, from the App Store application.

Posted in Butler, Mac App Store, Moom, Name Mangler, Products | Comments Off on Touching things up on a Tuesday

How-to: Use Butler for real-time Google searches

Monday, April 11th, 2011

For those who aren’t aware, Google has a real time search engine that can find up-to-the-second results across sites and social media services for topics of interest. Here’s how to set up Butler to search via this real time search engine.

  1. Open Butler’s main window (via Butler > Customize in the Butler menu, for instance), and go to the Engines tab.
  2. Click the plus sign at the lower left corner of the Butler window, and select Search Engine (or just press Command-N.)
  3. Name your search engine (in the box near the top right of the Butler window). (Press Tab when done.)
  4. On the URL tab, enter this for Prefix: http://www.google.com/webhp?btnG=Search#q=. Enter this for Suffix: &tbs=mbl:1&fp=1&cad=b.
  5. If you’d like to use real time search via Butler’s input box, click on the Triggers tab and enter an abbreviation. (Press Tab when done.)
  6. Click the Configuration tab, then click the plus sign at the lower left again. Scroll down and choose Smart Item > Web Search.
  7. Drag the newly-added Web Search entry to your desired section of Butler’s interface—I do all my web searching via keyboard shortcuts, so I have it in the Hidden section.
  8. Title your newly-added search, using the box near the top right of the Butler window. (Press Tab when done.)
  9. Click the pop-up in the Search Engine tab, and select the newly-created Google realtime search entry from the list.
  10. If you’d like to search via the keyboard, click over to the Triggers tab and set a Hot Key.
  11. Optionally set any other options.

I’ve been using this for a few weeks now, and it works quite nicely (at least using the USA version of Google; I’m not sure about international real time searching).

Posted in Butler, How To | 7 Comments »

The cat lion is out of the bag!

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

In case you missed the news yesterday, Apple held a special event, focused on the Mac.

Aside from introducing a Mac I’ve been waiting for for seemingly forever—the 11.6″ MacBook Air—Apple also gave a very brief sneak peek at Mac OS X Lion, coming to a Mac near you in the summer of 2011.

For Peter and I, this was an interesting day. Neither of us were expecting the next major Mac OS X release to come so soon. And certainly neither of us were expecting it to include an app store…

(more…)

Posted in Butler, Company News, Products | 34 Comments »

A Butler named Alfred

Friday, September 24th, 2010

Preface: The following is not strictly company or product news. So if you’re the kind of visitor who feels his time is wasted whenever we show up in your RSS reader without providing cold, hard info, please feel free to skip this rather lengthy blog entry.

There’s a new kid in town, as the Eagles once put it so aptly. A new Mac {hot key/web search/iTunes control/what have you} utility that attempts to make a Mac user’s life easier and more productive. The name is Alfred, and from what I see on its product page, it seems to be a well-designed application.

And in a lot of ways, it’s, shall we say, a tribute to Butler—even more so than You Control, for instance, ever was. Now, I’m not complaining about that. On the contrary, I feel honored, and I can see why a Butler-related theme is a somewhat obvious choice for that kind of application. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the lack of significant Butler updates over the last few years were part of the motivation that brought the aforementioned new kid to fruition, much like a temporary lack of updates for Riccardo Ettore’s otherwise excellent TypeIt4Me was one of the key reasons for me to create Textpander (which, of course, is known as Smile Software’s TextExpander these days).

So despite what people might think, I have no issue whatsoever with their decision to create an application that shares a lot of its functionality with Butler, and outfit that with a name and an icon that remind me of Butler as well. If anything, I consider this new competitor a wake-up call. Yes, it’s high time for Butler to evolve. And trust me, we love the honorable sportsmanship that’s customary in the Mac software world.

But there’s one thing that got to me, and that’s the one thing they couldn’t possibly have been aware of.

The name.

(more…)

Posted in Behind the Scenes, Butler, Products | 17 Comments »

It’s minor update Monday!

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Today we’re releasing minor updates to three of our programs; these are primarily bug fix releases, with little in the way of new features. You can download the latest version from each program’s respective product page, or just check for updates within each program. The updated programs are:

  • Butler: Version 4.1.9 fixes a drag-to-Stack issue, and adds our in-app purchasing module. [release notes]
  • Leech: Version 2.0.4 fixes a problem with ‘shadow’ downloads (which were invisible, but definitely happening), as well as with duplicate downloads, from certain sites. [release notes]
  • Name Mangler: Version 2.2.1 adds the in-app purchasing module, and solves a couple of issues that could arise when renaming both files and folders at the same time. [release notes]

With these releases, and last week’s release of Witch 3.5.1, things should quiet down a bit here (in terms of updates) as we return to work on Usher, Butler, and a project to be named later.

Posted in Butler, Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Witch | 8 Comments »

Butler 4.1.8 update released

Friday, June 4th, 2010

We’ve just released Butler 4.1.8, which we strongly recommend for all users. There are only three changes in this version, but they all make Butler work better:

  • Fixed a Sparkle-related bug in Butler. We’ve worked around the issue for users of Butler 4.1.7, so you can update as usual. We have to get this fix out, though, to simplify future updates. Note that this update may sit on the “installing update” screen for 30 seconds or so. If this happens to you, just wait; Butler will relaunch on its own.
  • Made further changes to the code that locates the iTunes library. Some users experienced issues with the changes we made in 4.1.7; we’ve solved those problems in 4.1.8.
  • Fixed a bug introduced in 4.1.7 that prevented drag-and-drop operations with Butler’s pasteboard.

You should be able to update from within the app, or by downloading the new version from Butler’s product page.

Posted in Butler, Products | 9 Comments »

Name Mangler 2.2 pops up

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

We’ve just released Name Mangler 2.2, available via in-app updates or through the product page. The big news in this release is pop-up file previews—not just for images, but for any file that has a Quick Look preview.

We actually offer two different previews—a small pop-up panel (hence the title of this post), and the standard Mac OS X Quick Look window (only available in Mac OS X 10.6). You can set (in Name Mangler’s Preferences) whether you’d like the small pop-up panel to appear when hovering over a file’s icon, or only when you click the icon. (To get the Quick Look window to appear, click again when the pop-up panel is visible.)

We added a couple new variables to the Advanced section of Name Mangler (created and modified), and changed the way you can nest commands in Advanced mode. There are also the usual bug fixes and general improvements; head on over to Name Mangler’s release notes page to see all the changes.

Posted in Butler, Products | Comments Off on Name Mangler 2.2 pops up

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