Butler 4.2 increases its bit count by 100%

Butler 4.2.2 (see update below) is out now, and the big news is that headlined 100% increase in bit count. That’s right, Butler is now a 64-bit application, so you can say goodbye to that annoying macOS 32-bit nag dialog! This was a huge project for Peter, though from the end user perspective, you won’t see any different except in Activity Monitor…

In other news, Butler gained some additional tricks…

  • There are no longer four separate menu bar sections on macOS 10.12 Sierra and newer. Instead, each top-level item in “Menu Bar” automatically gets its own menu bar representation that you can command-drag around.
  • The “Recent Clipboards” window can now filter entries based on the text they contain. Matching is fuzzy by default, but you can uncheck that via the little magnifying glass’s pop-up menu.
  • Deleting all clipboards via the “Recent Clipboards” window’s action menu now triggers an alert at first, unless you hold option while choosing the menu item.
  • Added some new built-in icons. The new black & white default menu bar icon (hat & bow tie, a.k.a. Butler’s Regalia) in particular goes well with an all black & white menu bar.
  • Modernized the user interface ever so slightly, renamed some things for consistency reasons, and fixed various other bugs and issues.

More changes are detailed on Butler’s release notes page, and you can get the update by checking for updates in the app, or by downloading a new copy of the app from the Butler web page.


Update: Butler is actually at version 4.2.2 now. Version 4.2.1 fixed two regressions (broken right clicks; pasting of Plain Text Smart Items), and version 4.2.2 fixed yet another regression (broken hot keys on older macOS versions). We apologize for the inconvenience!

6 Responses to “Butler 4.2 increases its bit count by 100%”

  1. Tom says:

    Awesome, thanks.

    Really good to see that Butler is still being worked on :-)

    And nice addition to the recent clipboards which I use permanently.

    Would text editing in the clipboards be something possible some day?
    And locking some favourites?
    And something like … “hey, you’ve used this clipboard item quite often now, may I pass it on to TextPand-, uhm, TextExpander for you?”
    ?
    :-)

    Cordially, Tom

    • Peter Maurer says:

      Hi Tom! Between “Plain Text” smart items and custom clipboards that you can populate from your history, I think we have some of your editing and locking suggestions covered. But for those who use the recent clipboards window frequently (I’m more of a menu person), it might indeed be nice to be able to do more of that within that window. And yes, doing some of it automagically based on use counters is an interesting concept, although personally, I wouldn’t like it, because of my general dislike for automatisms and being monitored.

      And that’s also where the export gets tricky. Not only would we have to agree on an export/import standard and then support that standard forever, we’d also share usage data implicitly. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

      Anyway, Rob and I will discuss. Thanks!

  2. Tom says:

    Ah, OK, thanks for your reply, Peter!

    I admit that I didn’t think of such implications, and I can understand your reservation in this regard.

    But that clipboards window, I use it a hundred times a day :-D

    Together with the abbreviations and Web search windows, this is my most-used Butler feature.

  3. Igor says:

    Hi,

    I just upgraded to Mojave and noticed that Safari bookmarks have stopped working. Is this a known issue or am I doing something wrong?

    Thanks!

    • Rob Griffiths says:

      You’re not doing anything wrong, nor is it a known issue. Instead, it’s yet another Mojave security change: You need to add Butler to the Full Disk Access item in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy. Once you do that, it should work.

      regards;
      -rob.