Our Big Sur app compatibility report

November 11th, 2020 by Rob Griffiths

With Big Sur’s release, here’s an update on our apps’ compatibility…

All of our apps run in Big Sur, and almost all of them run 100% perfectly.

We’ve tested them all many times, and they all seem to be working as we’d expect them to, with one minor exception (and a “check your version” warning about one of our baubleries). We also have a general heads-up on a permissions request you may or may not see from some of our apps.

Although we’ve tested extensively, some of our apps have lots of features and can be used in many different ways, and we probably didn’t test all of those cases—many of you seem to find ways to use our apps that we never anticipated! So if you do find something that’s not working right in Big Sur, please let us know by opening a support ticket.

Permissions request

In our testing with Big Sur’s release candidate, we were surprised to find that some of our apps ask for permission to write to the Documents and/or Desktop folders. We’ll be completely honest here and say that we have no idea why this is happening. We have some guesses, but they’re just guesses at this point.

This issue did not appear in any of the prior betas (nor did it happen with every app), so we just discovered it yesterday when we installed the final version. As a general rule, our apps—unless you’re doing something that explicitly uses one of those folders, like saving Leech downloads to your Desktop—do not write to those locations.

We’re trying to get an answer as to why this dialog is appearing, but until we do, you can safely say “Yes” when macOS asks if it’s OK to use those folders—becausedo we’re not using them.

App-specific items

Displaperture: Please update to the current version (1.5.2) of Displaperture before you try using it in Big Sur. There’s no in-app updater, so you’ll have to download the new version from our site.

If you launch an older version, you may find yourself staring at a blank whiteish screen with rounded corners, and nothing else on it at all. Unfortunately, this screen sits above everything, including the Force Quit dialog. If you have remote login enabled and access to another Mac, you can connect and kill the Displaperture process, but if you don’t…well, the only way out is a forced reboot.

So please, make sure your copy of Displaperture is up to date before you launch it.

Witch: As a general statement, Witch is working fine. However, you will notice at least a few additional windows, mainly related to things in the menu bar. We’re working to get rid of these spurious entries, but for now, here’s the best workaround…

On the Advanced tab in Witch’s preferences, in the Do not list apps text box, enter this:

Control Center, SystemUIServer

If you have existing entries there, put a comma at the end and add the two new entries. Next, in the Do not list windows, enter this:

Item-0

Again, if you have existing entries, add a comma then that text.

These two changes should make Witch look mostly as it did in pre-Big Sur systems.

We’re working on the Witch issues, and we’ll keep you updated on our progress.

Again, if you notice anything askew in Big Sur, please do open a support ticket and let us know.

Posted in Butler, Desktop Curtain, Displaperture, Key Codes, Keymou, Leech, Moom, Name Mangler, Products, Resolutionator, Time Sink, Usher, Witch | Comments Off on Our Big Sur app compatibility report

Keymou 1.2.7 released

November 11th, 2020 by Rob Griffiths

Keymou 1.2.7 is out, with one fix: Move by Division should now work properly on all Macs running 10.14.6 and newer. Previously, it would fail on some Macs in some conditions.

Direct customers will see the app update in the app, or they can download a new version from our site. App Store customers may have to wait a bit—we’ve submitted the app for review, and will release it as soon as Apple approves it.

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Moom 3.2.18 released

November 11th, 2020 by Rob Griffiths

Moom 3.2.18 is out. This is a minor bug fix release that addresses a very rare one-point alignment issue, plus a few other behind-the-scenes fixes (that’s about all it says on the release notes page, too).

As usual, direct purchasers can update from the app itself or by downloading a fresh copy of the app from our site. App Store users should see the update in the App Store app—if not now, then very shortly.

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How to: Use Moom and Automator to restore Finder windows

May 7th, 2020 by Rob Griffiths

Moom is great for saving window layouts—arrangements of windows across one or more applications, making it easy to restore your windows to where you want them to be. In general, Moom will attempt to match existing window titles with the titles of the windows in your saved layout—so if you have a Word document named “2020 Taxes” open, and that document was open when you saved the layout, then that window will go to where it was when you saved the layout.

If Moom can’t match an existing window title, however, then it just works with the number of windows—if you saved a layout with four windows open across three apps, and you have that same number of windows open in those same apps, then Moom will restore your layout, but the windows won’t be opened to whatever they were displaying when you saved the layouts (because Moom can’t open files, folders, documents, URLs, etc.).

As much as our users may wish it possible, it’s not feasible for Moom to restore whatever it is you were working on in whatever apps are in your saved layout—we’d end up writing lots of custom code on a per-app basis, and there are still some apps where we probably wouldn’t be able to get them to open documents, so we’d end up with a solution that only sort of worked.

For me personally, the only time I really want Moom to open the actual things I had in my saved layout are when I’m working in Finder. I have a number of saved layouts—one has my preferred window layout when working on Many Tricks projects, another that I use when I file documents I’ve scanned, and a third for managing my downloads. Unfortunately, because Moom can’t save the folders with the windows, I have to manually navigate to the proper folders after restoring these layouts…or do I?

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Usher 2 beta updated…and a pre-sale!

April 30th, 2020 by Rob Griffiths

If you’re using the Usher 2 beta, make sure you get today’s update—it’s a biggie, but it also marks a “no turning back” point: If you install and use this update, and make changes to your library, you will not be able to return to Usher 1.

Why not? Usher’s release notes explain it well:

Tags and Properties now use the CSV format for their values, which necessitates a library file format change, which in turn has backwards compatibility ramifications. See the note that will appear after updating for more info on this.

Given that Usher 1 only works on pre-Catalina versions of macOS, this is really only a decision to worry about if you’re on an older version of macOS.

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Posted in Products, Usher | 9 Comments »

Butler 4.3.3 released

April 7th, 2020 by Rob Griffiths

Butler 4.3.3 is out now; this is a bug fix release that improves the reliability of the Screen Saver Smart Item, fixes Butler’s applications database in Catalina (so that it finds everything that shows in Applications and Utilities), and fixes a couple other minor things—you can read the full release notes page for the nitty-gritty.

We have more to do for full Catalina compatibility (i.e. iTunes no longer exists there), and we’re working on it, but we felt these fixes were important to get out now.

As always, you can update via either the in-app updater, or by downloading a fresh copy from Butler’s web page.

Posted in Butler, Products | 1 Comment »

See window titles in Time Sink 2.1 in macOS Catalina

March 3rd, 2020 by Rob Griffiths

Time Sink 2.1 is out for both App Store (hopefully out now or very soon) and direct customers (definitely out now). This release has one very important fix for macOS Catalina users, as well as one directly-related new feature.

The “fix” (though it wasn’t anything in our code that was broken) is that Time Sink can once again see and track individual windows in macOS Catalina.

When macOS Catalina was released, it contained new security restrictions, and one of those restrictions is that an application is not allowed to see window titles unless the app is registered as a screen recording application. So that’s basically what Time Sink does: It registers as a screen recording application, but it does not record your screen. (Note: Due to App Store restrictions, the App Store version of Time Sink does this slightly differently, though the end result is the same: Trackable window titles but no screen recording.)

Please read the remainder of this post for specific instructions on how this feature works for direct and App Store versions of Time Sink, as the initial setup process is slightly different for each version.

So what about the new feature?

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Posted in Products, Time Sink | 2 Comments »

Witch 4.3.5 returns to the dark side in Catalina

December 23rd, 2019 by Rob Griffiths

They say a picture is worth 1000 words, so for you Witch users on macOS Catalina…

Yes, Dark Mode support is back for Witch in macOS Catalina. We’ll apologize for earlier blaming our non-functional Dark Mode on a bug in macOS Catalina; instead, it was an undocumented change in Catalina (inverted behavior) in how third party System Preferences panels indicate they support Dark Mode.

Note: You may have to reboot to see the changes take effect—it seems macOS caches something related to Dark Mode, and a reboot will clear that cache.

That’s really it for this update, so not much need to read release notes this time around.

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Moom 3.2.17 released

December 9th, 2019 by Rob Griffiths

Moom 3.2.17 is out—it’s a “behind the scenes” update that addresses a possible issue where Moom’s settings for the green button’s hover behavior aren’t reset when Moom is quit.

In addition, we fixed some minor redrawing issues related to multi-step actions, and added Plexamp to Moom’s blacklist—Moom’s pop-up menu otherwise appears when hovering over Plexamp’s window, even though it lacks a green button.

That’s about all you’ll find on the release notes page. Direct users can update in-app, or download a new copy of the app from the Moom page (you won’t lose your settings). App Store buyers should see the update in the App Store app, either now or very shortly.

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Name Mangler 3.6 released

November 14th, 2019 by Rob Griffiths

Name Mangler 3.6 is out now, with a couple of new features and some bug fixes.

The biggest new feature is that you can now create independent sequences based on some common metadata, such as parent folder name. Now each set of files within a folder can have a sequence number that starts with “1,” instead of continuing on across folders. (See the help file’s Renaming Actions → Sequence section for an explanation of how this works.)

We’ve also added an option for Title Case conversions to keep existing formatting for words shorter than a certain length, rather than convert them to lowercase.

There are other changes, too, so check out the release notes page for all the details.

Direct users can update in the app, or by downloading a fresh copy from the Name Mangler page; App Store buyers should see the update in the App Store app (if not already, then very shortly).

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