All posts in the ‘Name Mangler’ category

Subscribe to the RSS feed for the 'Name Mangler' category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Another installment of Touch-up Tuesdays

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

After getting through the end-of-year holiday rush, which was combined with the Mac App Store launch (thanks for that timing, Apple!), we’ve finally had a chance to catch up on some minor updates for Name Mangler, Usher, and Witch.

You can get the updates via in-app updating (this can be enabled on the Updates tab of Name Mangler and Usher’s Preferences, and on the About tab in Witch’s System Preferences panel), or by downloading the full versions from our web site.

So what’s new? As always, the release notes page for each app (Name Mangler • Usher • Witch) provide all the details, but here are some highlights:

Name Mangler 2.3.3

  • The help files have been completely rewritten in the new Many Tricks’ style. For you users of Advanced mode, there’s even a handy function reference that lets you navigate directly to each available function.
  • In expired-trial mode (after 25 launches), Name Mangler now limits features (five files renamed at once, no droplet use) instead of presenting annoying dialogs with countdown timers.
  • Name Mangler no longer accepts files dragged and dropped directly from iPhoto or Aperture. Because these programs use an internal database, all renaming should be done either before the photos are added to the programs, or within the programs themselves.

Usher 1.1.1

  • Usher can now manage Elgato TV recordings (playback will be handled by the Elgato EyeTV player).
  • A new Save As contextual menu lets you save a selection of movies, in their native format, to a folder of your choosing. This is basically ‘export without conversion.’
  • Usher should now use less memory usage during some operations.

Witch 3.5.8

  • Using a hidden pref (detailed on the release notes page), windowless apps can be forced to the bottom of the switcher panel when used in application-specific sort modes.
  • Updated help files, and numerous other small fixes and improvements.

Note that both Name Mangler and Witch skipped a minor version number. We did this to keep the version numbers in sync between these releases and those on the Mac App Store (Name Mangler is there already, Witch is still in review).

Posted in Name Mangler, Products, Usher, Witch | Comments Off on Another installment of Touch-up Tuesdays

Many Tricks enters the Mac App Store

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

Unless you’ve been vacationing in Bora Bora for the last three months, you were probably aware that Apple’s new Mac App Store launched today. We were thrilled to have three of our products front and center on launch day: Name Mangler, Time Sink, and Usher were all available when the store opened this morning. (We actually have one more in process right now; a special non-preference-pane version of Witch has been sitting in the review queue for two weeks now.)

So far, it’s been an interesting day, just watching the sales charts trying to figure out what they mean (we don’t get real-time data, so we don’t really know what’s happening with total sales). We did a fair bit of of work to get our apps ready for the store, though, so it’s very gratifying to finally see them there on launch day.

For those who prefer “traditional” software distribution, don’t worry—we’re not going away from that, just taking advantage of a new sales channel. We have apps (Butler and Leech, at least) that can’t be sold on the app store, and we have others (Witch) that have slightly different functionality. So our direct sales model isn’t going away because of the Mac App Store.

Also, we’ll always keep our apps “in sync” to the extent that the App Store rules allow us to do so. That is, if we update Time Sink on our web site, the App Store version will get that same update, and vice-versa1. Due to Apple’s review process, it may occasionally take a bit more time for the changes to reach the App Store, but rest assured, they’ll get there (assuming Apple’s approval, of course).

Our objective with both our App Store apps and our “traditional” apps is simple: to deliver compelling Mac programs that are a delight to use, and to do what it takes to keep our customers satisfied. So whether you want to purchase through the Mac App Store, or via the web, or via our in-app purchasing module, we’ll be there for you.

(1) The two sales channels are distinct, and require different builds of our software. So you can’t update your Mac App Store version of Name Mangler with a download from our site, and vice-versa. If you purchase from our web site, your app has a built-in updater that reminds you when it needs an update. If you purchase from the Mac App Store, the Mac App Store itself will tell you when there are updates to install, and you’ll do the updating via the Mac App Store app.

Posted in Company News, Name Mangler, Products, Time Sink, Usher | 12 Comments »

Name Mangler video overview posted

Friday, December 17th, 2010

I just finished the second video overview of one of our products (Usher was first). This time out, it’s Name Mangler.

This 15-minute video walks through the Name Mangler interface, demonstrates each of the renaming functions, shows you how to create and use droplets, and explains the program’s preferences. See the ‘Video Introduction’ section of the Name Mangler web page for viewing options—you can choose between a smaller-but-usable 512×384 version, or the supersized 1024×768 original, which is over 80MB in size.

On to the next one now…

Posted in Name Mangler, Products, Usher | Comments Off on Name Mangler video overview posted

Name Mangler 2.3.1 and Witch 3.5.6

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

While we’ve had Minor update Mondays and Touch-up Tuesdays in the past, it turns out that Wednesday isn’t very amenable to cute blog title naming schemes (“Wicked Wednesday” just didn’t seem right). So I’ve forgone the fanciful title this time out, which was possible mainly because we have just two minor updates today.

Witch 3.5.6 includes a few bug fixes and a couple new hidden prefs (to disable the fade-out effect for the panel, and to disable the overlay icon for minimized windows). Full details on the release notes page, as usual.

Name Mangler 2.3.1 will be of interest to those who rename lots—as in thousands and tens of thousands—of files at a time. Previous versions of Name Mangler would crash if you had selected thousands of files in Finder or Path Finder, and then clicked Name Mangler’s “Populate with…” icons. Even if you got your long list into Name Mangler, it would then crash during the renaming process. Both of these issues are fixed in this release; you can read the release notes if you want, but really, those are the only two changes.

As always, updates are available via in-app updating (enable this via the Updates tab in each program’s Preferences), or by downloading the programs from their respective web pages.

Posted in Name Mangler, Products, Witch | Comments Off on Name Mangler 2.3.1 and Witch 3.5.6

Name Mangler and Time Sink do the bundle thing

Monday, November 29th, 2010

If you’re hunting for a Cyber Monday deal, here are two that involve our products…one of which is good just for today, the other of which starts today:

  • Time Sink is one of the five apps you can get for $20 in the MacUpdate CyberMonday mini bundle. Act fast, though, as this deal expires at midnight (Eastern time) tonight.
  • Name Mangler is one of the 10 apps in the $50 MacPromo bundle. You don’t have to run to the checkout lane quite as quickly for this deal, as it runs through December 31st.

We think both Time Sink and Name Mangler make excellent stocking stuffers for friends and family, so buy early and buy often!

Posted in Name Mangler, Products, Time Sink | Comments Off on Name Mangler and Time Sink do the bundle thing

Another set of Tuesday Touch-ups

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

While many companies may save fixes and new functionality in their apps for weeks or months at a time, that’s not how we roll here at Many Tricks. Instead, we’d rather get new and/or improved stuff out to you as quickly as possible, but still on a regularly-scheduled basis. It used to be Minor Update Mondays, but because Mondays are seemingly always awful, we’ve lately migrated to Touch-up Tuesdays (subject to change, of course!). This being a Tuesday, we have a few such updates for all of you today…

  • Name Mangler 2.3: We’ve added support for user input in Advanced mode; this allows some user interaction with droplets, for example. To accept user input, use the new [prompt "Text user will see"] action. You can read more about this in Name Mangler’s in-app help. [Release notes]
  • Time Sink 1.0.1: Fixed a problem where certain dialogs would appear behind other windows when Time Sink was used in menu bar mode, thereby blocking Time Sink from capturing data. [Release notes]
  • Usher 1.0.4: A few bug fixes, including one that would cause Usher’s movie processor to stop while the Info window was onscreen. [Release notes]

As usual, you can download the full apps from each program’s page, or just check for updates using the built-in updaters within each program.

Posted in Name Mangler, Products, Time Sink, Usher | Comments Off on Another set of Tuesday Touch-ups

Time for another Touch-up Tuesday

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

That’s right, another Touch-up Tuesday, featuring some minor updates to a few of the apps on our menu. This week’s updated delicacies include the following entrees…

  • Leech 2.0.7: We’ve updated the version of SIMBL we bundle, so setting up browser integration works again on Mac OS X 10.5.x machines. There was one other small fix (a localization issue). [Release notes]
  • Name Mangler 2.2.4: After investigating a couple reports of Name Mangler not working, we figured out that users were unchecking all filters. This would essentially disable Name Mangler. So as of 2.2.4, you can’t do that any more. Also fixed a bug that caused the Change Case mode to fail when renaming files containing accented or any other decomposable characters. [Release notes]
  • Usher 1.0.3: Usher received the most attention this week; make sure you check out the release notes page for the full scoop. The highlights include a new Add to Library menu item (to make it simpler to add things to your library), the addition of Date Created to List view mode, and a new entry in the contextual menu that lets you quickly mark a movie—or group of movies—as watched (or unwatched) without having to first open them.

As always, updates are available via in-app updating, or you can download the full programs from their respective web pages.

If you think these minor changes are exciting, make sure you come back Thursday, when we’ll be adding a brand new item to the Many Tricks’ menu! We’ve been sampling it ourselves for a few months now, and we think it’s a delicious addition to our existing menu…er…product line—we can’t wait to see what you all think of it, too!

Posted in Company News, Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Usher | Comments Off on Time for another Touch-up Tuesday

It’s Touch-up Tuesday

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

Normally we have Minor Update Mondays around these parts, but hey, delays are unavoidable at times—so welcome to our first Touch-up Tuesday instead!

The highlights of today’s updates include (but check out the release notes page for each app for the full story)…

  • Leech 2.0.6’s browser plug-in now works with the WebKit Nightly Builds.

  • Name Mangler 2.2.3 adds the ability to prepend (as well as the existing append) a file name when numbering sequentially or using a terms list.

    A creative solutionIt also includes a new “Replace All” setting in a confirmation dialog; this new feature owes its existence to user Mike B., who requested it and demonstrated its need by including the image seen at right.

    Yes, that’s a small heavy bottle resting on the Return key, so that it can be automatically pressed to dismiss the dialog every time it appears! Time to retire the bottle, Mike.

  • Witch 3.5.5, which includes some performance improvements and a fix to make it work much better with the new App Tamer from St. Clair Software.
  • Taking a cue from Leech, Safari Guardian also now works with the WebKit Nightly Builds.

In addition to the above, we’re still hard at work on both Usher and our new time-tracking app; stay tuned for news on both fronts in the near future…and yes, work continues on Butler 5 as well!

Posted in Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Safari Guardian, Witch | 3 Comments »

MUM’s the word…

Monday, August 16th, 2010

…well, it’s actually an acronym, not a word—it’s Minor Update Monday, and here’s what’s on the plate for today’s minor updates. (As usual, you can get the updated version directly from the app, or by downloading the new version from the product page.)

  • Witch 3.5.3 fixes an issue with displaying triggers that had been assigned in the Additional Actions section of the Triggers tab. In prior versions of Witch, the keys were set, but Witch wouldn’t properly show those values on the Triggers tab. Now it does. Also, for those who use Witch with the ‘Releasing all modifier keys activates the selected window’ option unchecked, Witch now properly respects the delay setting, and won’t show its window if you release the activation keys before the delay time is reached.
  • Leech 2.0.5 adds one new feature, a timestamp indicating at what time a file finished downloading.
  • Name Mangler 2.2.2 now allows renaming of aliases, fixes a bug relating to non-ASCII characters in regular expressions and Advanced Mode, allows you to copy-and-paste files, URLs, and paths to the file list area, and allows dragging-and-dropping of URLs and paths to the file list area (file drag-and-drop was already supported).
  • We’ve got some news about Key Codes, our free tool for Mac developers that displays the key code, Unicode value, and modifier key state for any combination of keys that you press. The news? Key Codes is now open source, so you can download the source to see how it works. We haven’t published this under any official open source license, but feel free to use it in any project you wish as you see fit. It’d be nice if we received an acknowledgment, but it’s neither required nor expected. (Key Codes also received a very minor update to version 1.0.4.)
  • Finally, not related to any of our programs, but if you’re reading this entry on our blog (instead of via RSS), you may notice we have a new handwritten blog header, complete with a bird-like interpretation of our company logo. Peter did the work, and I think the end result is terrific—it adds some color and personalizes the blog section of our site just a bit. But why a running bird? As Peter noted in a comment to another post here, “The Running Bird is really just one of the less obvious motifs I saw in our new logo once we were finished with it. That’s one of the things I like about that logo, by the way: With a little bit of imagination, it can be a lot of things—it’s a Many Tricks logo, as it were.”

In bigger-project news, Usher is approaching a public beta release, and Peter and I are starting to work on an entirely new application, one that I think will be useful to anyone who uses more than one Mac at home or work…but more on that project once we have something worth talking about!

Posted in Company News, Developer, Key Codes, Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Witch | 5 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 »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »