If you are a Mac user using the beta release of the EGW CRE 2008 software (Ellen G. White Writings, Comprehensive Research Edition 2008), you may be interested in this little app I wrote. What it does is allow you to launch multiple instances of the EGW CRE 2008 app simultaneously. This was requested in the comment thread for “EGW CD-ROM via Darwine on OS X“.

Being able to have multiple windows at once is possibly handy for heavy users of the app, but not officially supported (the main concern is that if you save settings from more than one open window, the settings from one could overwrite the other, meaning some of your settings won’t be saved). [Update: One user reported that changing settings in one instance, locked the settings in other instances so they could not be saved. Another user reported that all settings were saved in each instance, but that the instances had to be quit and relaunched to get the settings to sync. YMMV. Since I have not personally used things like notes, highlighter, etc., this has not been a problem for me. If you use those things, you just need to use them in a single instance at a time, or else do some testing to be sure your changes will be saved.]

This is version 1.5 of my “New Instance” app. This one is a little smarter: it tries to find the EGW app if you moved it from the Applications folder, it should report errors to Console, and finally it has a new fancy-pants icon (the icon is based on the official icon created by the EGW Estate). It requires that you already have the beta version (or later) installed. It requires Leopard (10.5) or Snow Leopard (10.6). You can download from here:

Download EGW-CRE-2008-New-Instance-1.5.zip

Usage:

1. You must have the EGW CRE 2008 software already installed (beta version is OK)
2. Download and unzip EGW-CRE-2008-New-Instance-1.5.zip; place it in your Applications folder or wherever you like
3. Run EGW CRE 2008 New Instance; each time you run it, it will start a new instance (a new window) of the EGW software
4. To quit a single window, click File > Exit (if you want to save settings), or the keystroke Cmd-W (won’t save settings) … if you want to quit all windows without saving, Cmd-Q

Hope you like it!

* * *

For the technically-inclined: This program is pretty simple, but it is also my most complex app written as a shell script for Bash to date. I learned quite a bit from the process. The script uses Spotlight for some of its work, which I think is pretty cool.

From the website:

“One of the great features of Mac OS X has aways been the built-in spelling checker. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to see what words you’ve added. But with Dictionary Cleaner, a convenient System Preferences pane for Mac OS X, now you can.”

Making Updating Easier

For many years I used the software from VersionTracker.com to check my applications. This was a great time saver, since it would do all the checking for me. (MacUpdate.com has a similar app.) Although the software helped, it was far from perfect. It was very buggy and slow — rather off-putting, for something that actually costs money! Still, I stuck with it for lack of other options.

But then … along came AppFresh. Although it is not perfect either, it is far faster, funner, and better than the other similar update checkers I’ve used.

What does AppFresh do? It checks all your software and reports which programs can be updated. It will also tell you what has changed (if that information has been provided to the site). Besides apps, it also checks plugins, widgets, preference panes, and system updates.

And — for now, at least — the program is free!

IUseThis.com

AppFresh has built-in support for IUseThis.com. This website has several uses: It lets you brag to all the other site users about what great software you have. It also lets you find similar software, and see which apps in each category are the most popular. You can also read comments left by other users about each app. And, in conjunction with AppFresh, it lets you see how your software setup varies between machines (for example, reminding you that you don’t have an app on this computer, that you have on another computer).

If you’re curious, here is my IUseThis.com profile: http://osx.iusethis.com/user/distantthunder

(The list is a little out of date. And, yes, I admit: I’m a bit of a software junkie!)

End Notes

In the old days, I tried hard to keep all my software up to date, but my library of software has grown so large, I can no longer maintain it all. Now I limit myself to only updating the programs I actually use regularly, and rely mostly on the built-in update checking for the less-used apps. However, even this can be quite tedious. In the past I would check for updates as often as once a week; now I limit myself to checking once a month. (I’ll toss the Linux crowd a cookie, because Linux makes the process quite easy — even hard to avoid.)

Windows users: VersionTracker’s software is available for Windows, but I prefer the free update checker from FileHippo.com.

Customize your Finder toolbar.

This is what my Finder toolbar looks like:

The second button (which is one of the optional default ones available) gives you easy access to the folder hierarchy. I also added a shortcut to my home folder, and a shortcut to the awesome Open Terminal Here app (which opens a Terminal with the path set to the current folder — mainly useful for those who like to do UNIX stuff). You can add any folders or files that you like. And there are various pre-designed buttons that you may find useful.

To customize, right-click on the toolbar, and choose “Customize Toolbar….” Or from the Finder menu, choose View > Customize Toolbar…. And then drag buttons on or off as you like. To add your own folders or files, drag them from another Finder window onto the toolbar.

Add one or more “recent/favorite things” stacks to your Dock.

You probably already know you can add folders to your Dock, in the space right next to the Trash. You probably also know that those folders appear as “stacks” — an OS X term for pop-up folders — and that there are various ways you can customize the display of stacks.

What you probably didn’t know is there are some special stacks — Recent Applications, Recent Documents, Recent Servers, Favorite Volumes, Favorite Items — which you can create only by following these super-secret steps:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071101055329470

In summary, fire up Terminal and paste in the following code (and then press enter):

To see the new stacks, restart the Dock with this commend in Terminal:

Like magic, your Dock will restart, and a new stack will appear. By default, it will be a Recent Applications stack. If you want to try another type, right-click on the stack and choose which kind you want from the options displayed.

The Recent Applications/Documents/Servers selections give you a list of the most recently accessed/used items in each category; in other words, it gives you stack versions of the same things you find in the Apple > Recent Items menu. Favorite Volumes gives you the items in the Finder sidebar in the “Devices” section. Favorite Items gives you the items in the Finder sidebar “Places” section.

All of these stacks are dynamic; they automatically update to reflect your latest recent/favorite items.

If you want more than one, simply run the Terminal commands again; each time you run them, you’ll get another “recent/favorite things” stack.

Add Dock dividers.

If you have lots of icons in your Dock, it can help to separate them into logical categories. A Dock divider can help. There are basically two ways to do this:

Option 1. Insert a divider icon into your dock. You can download some pre-made ones, such as Dock Dividers or Dock Separators. Or if you have some creative flair, you can make your own (caveat: the divider must be an app or at least have an .app extension, or OS X won’t let you add it to the Dock; modifying one of the dummy apps in the pre-made dividers above is an easy way around this). When done, it looks like this (the animation shows various styles you can choose from; they’re not actually animated):

Option 2: Use Leopard’s oh-so-secret hidden command to add space between groups of icons. To do that, run this command in Terminal:

To see the spacer, restart the Dock with this commend in Terminal:

Once the spacer appears, you can drag it around. To remove it, simply drag it off the Dock.

Add Activity Monitor to your dock.

This application is found in the Utilities folder, in your applications folder. It is very handy for seeing which applications or processes are hogging your memory or your processor, and also allows you to quit (or force quit) them easily. It will even show you hidden processes (applications and such) that do not appear in the Dock.

It also has all kinds of cool little graphs (memory, drive space, network activity), and you can make its Dock icon show some of those charts in real time.

Add the Keychain Access icon to your menu bar.

This menu bar icon gives you quick access to several things, but the most useful is the first item in the list when you click on it: Lock Screen. This will immediately activate your screen saver; and assuming you have set up a password for your user account, that password will be required to exit the screen saver. This is very handy when you have a computer in a shared environment, and you want to leave the room without leaving your computer open for others to poke around in; or if you are running an important computer task that you don’t want to be interrupted by your children, significant other, or pet.

To add it, launch Keychain Access (in the Utilities folder), go to Preferences, General tab, and tick the checkbox for “Show Status in Menu Bar.”

Install Default FolderX .

Default Folder X ($34.95) makes getting around the files and folders on your computer so easy. I don’t know how I could get along without it.

Most significantly, from within any application’s save or open dialog, it allows you to navigate to any open folder just by hovering your mouse over that folder for a second or two, and then clicking. This saves a tremendous amount of tedious clicking to find a folder that you already have open.

Default Folder X adds a translucent side menu to every file dialog box, which looks like this:

These icons give you ways to access recent folders and favorite folders from any open or save dialog; set default folders for individual applications; open select folders in Finder; create, reveal, rename, move, delete, and get info on both files and folders; switch to any open Finder window; and set favorite folders. All this from within any file dialog box!

It also gives you this row of buttons beneath each file dialog box, which allow you to preview file contents, get information on the file, set Finder comments, apply meta tags, and view or change file permissions.

If you work with files a lot, you know how tedious it can be to do some of these things when you are forced to switch back and forth between an application and Finder. With Default Folder X, you can do it all on the fly when you are opening or saving a file.

This program also gives you the options of a menu bar icon and a special icon you can put in your Finder toolbar, to perform the same functions.

Install LaunchBar or QuickSilver.

LaunchBar ($24.00) — not free, but more powerful; what I use

QuickSilver (freeware) — works well, is free, and you can change the “look and feel” of it

These apps make launching applications and working with files on your computer super easy. For example, say you have a rarely used program called Super Widget on your computer. One day you need it. Instead of hunting for it, you could simply call up LaunchBar or QuickSilver by hitting the activation command (Cmd-Space by default, but this can be changed), and then type “sw” (s for super, w for widget). Both programs will give you a list of apps that match “sw”, and both will learn from your past use. Select the app, if it’s not the main one listed, and press enter. All this can be done in about two seconds, which is much faster than doing it the hard way.

Both apps let you do much more complex tasks, and explaining all that is beyond the scope of what I can do here. Try them out!

Install Isolator.

Isolator (freeware) does one thing very well: It grays out background applications and windows, so you can focus on the one thing you are trying to do.

Install Dockables.

Dockables (freeware) adds cool little icons to your dock to easily do common tasks (start Time Machine, close apps, eject, empty trash, hide apps, lock screen, log out, mute sound, restart, screen capture, shut down, put the display or computer to sleep, or start the screen saver).

Add Dock stack overlays.

The current stacks implementation is a little messy; switching to “Display as folder” helps, but there is another option. Using these overlays, you get a functional, dynamic stack icon that has a clear meaning. You can find the instructions, a visual example, and download link here:

http://t.ecksdee.org/post/19001860/stacks-overlays

It’s a little bit of a hack, in that need to add an icon file within each stack, and leave it there. But it certainly looks cool! I wish Apple had designed it that way to begin with.

Put RSS feeds in your Bookmarks Bar

Many websites and blogs have RSS feeds, which are usually all the news or posts from the site condensed into an easy-to-read format. If you are on a site with RSS (like this one), you will usually see this icon after the websites’s address in the address field:

Clicking that icon will take you to the RSS feed. Sometimes there is more than one RSS feed, so you may get a pop-up window asking which feed you want. Some websites will not show the RSS icon in the address field; but you may see an RSS or XML icon or link on the page.

RSS is great for both news sites and blogs. With Facebook, you can get a single RSS feed that contains updates from all your friends. What’s more, Safari has great support for RSS.

If you put RSS feeds in your Bookmarks Bar, Safari will show numbers showing how many new updates or posts are available. This saves you from needlessly visiting sites just to see if there is anything new. For example, I created three collections of RSS feeds in Safari, representing family and friends, news and society and culture, and work-related feeds. They show up like this in the Bookmarks Bar:

This quickly tells me that there are 2 updates from my friends’ pages, 334 updates about news/society/culture, and 271 updates related to my work. Clicking any of these will give me all the updates, newest at the top, with new ones highlighted in color. Each contains a link to the originating website, making it easy to respond or comment.

To create these collections, you would simply add folders to your Bookmarks Bar (see steps in Organize Your Safari Bookmarks) for each category you want. While you are creating the folders, tick the checkbox for “Auto-Click” if you want all the updates to load when you click the collection name. That is what I have done.

Launch multiple websites at once

Ticking the Auto-Click checkbox will make all the links in a folder open at once (each in a separate tab if they are regular web links; or in a single combined listing if they are RSS feeds). See picture above. This is handy if you have a number of websites that you like to check routinely. This only works from the Bookmarks Bar collection. See Organize Your Safari Bookmarks for instructions on how to edit.

Customize the toolbar

From Safari’s menu, choose View > Customize Toolbar…. Simply drag items on and off the toolbar to customize to your heart’s content. Here are some of the options:

• Home: go to your home page (as defined in Safari’s Preferences; you can make it whatever you want)
• Bookmarks Bar: turns the Bookmarks Bar on and off
• AutoFill: fill forms automatically, saving you tedious typing (see Safari’s Preferences, AutoFill tab, for settings)
• Open in Dashboard: make your own custom Dashboard widgets, by selecting portions of web pages
• Mail: send a link to the current page to someone by email
• Downloads: go to the downloads folder

Turn off “Open ‘safe’ files after downloading”

In Safari’s Preferences, General tab, there is an option to Open “safe” files after downloading. If you really want to be “safe” you should un-tick this. Although there are not many Mac nasties in circulation, it is still true that files that automatically open after downloading are a security risk.

Change your download location

Personally I find the Downloads folder pointless. It can quickly fill up with clutter. Unless you have a very slow connection and really hate to re-download files, there is little reason to keep old downloads. Besides that, the Downloads folder is a bit of nuisance to open each time you download something.

Personally I find downloading to the desktop much better. After I install or use a download, I usually trash it immediately or else file it somewhere. This keeps the desktop clean and keeps the clutter away.

To change your download location, go to Safari’s Preferences, General tab, and pick another folder (such as your desktop) for the Save downloaded files to setting.

Install ClickToFlash

If you have a slow connection, or simply hate seeing Flash ads or waiting for them to load on the sites you visit, try installing ClickToFlash (freeware). It has a great interface, and does its job beautifully. Erstwhile annoying Flash graphics will then appear like this:

If you want to see the Flash graphic, just click once on it. If you want to allow all the Flash on a particular site, you can right-click on the placeholder, or click the little gear icon in the upper-left corner, and set your preference.

Please note that Flash is just one type of animated/interactive graphic. Other ad images, Java, JavaScript, and other technologies are not blocked.

If you want more ad-killing kick, you can try SafariBlock (freeware). It does for Safari what Adblock Plus does for Firefox. In fact, it shares ad-blocking technology with Adblock. It will block all types of ads. However, it simply replaces those ads with white space. I did not consider it a very elegant solution. I would not advise installing both ClickToFlash and SafariBlock; because their functions overlap, doing so could have unpredictable bad consequences.

Install SafariStand

SafariStand (freeware) adds all kinds of cool and useful features to Safari.

My favorite feature is automatic restoration of closed windows. Say you have a crash or power failure, or simply need to restart after a system update, and so you lose the Safari windows you had open. With SafariStand installed, when you restart Safari you’ll be asked if you want to restore those windows. This feature alone has helped me time and again.

Other features include: some extra buttons you can add to your toolbar (see “Customize the toolbar,” above), an optional sidebar that gives you a thumbnail view of each open window; shelves (collections of websites and windows that can be restored); ability to delete website icons (favicons); setting to open all links in new tab; alternate web searches; colorized HTML source; setting to disable certain JavaScript functions (window resizing, etc.); and much, much more.

Add some useful bookmarklets

I’ve added a folder to my Bookmarks Bar called “Bookmarklets.” A bookmarklet is a small JavaScript program that can be saved anywhere regular bookmarks can be saved. Below are some that I’ve found useful; to use, just drag the links to your Bookmarks Bar (or to a folder you’ve previously created in your Bookmarks Bar):

• Post to del.icio.us: posts the current page to your del.icio.us account
• Restore context menu: enables the context menu on websites that have disabled it
• Safari Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts: list of all available shortcuts (not really a bookmarklet, but I save it in the same place)
• Search on Wikipedia: searches for a selected word on Wikipedia
• Share on Facebook: shares current page on Facebook
• Sort table: rearranges a selected table in alphabetical order, and adds links to change the sort order to ascending or descending, or sort by any column (this is so cool!)
• YouTube FLV DL or YouTube MP4 DL: two options for downloading high-quality videos from YouTube (may not work on all videos)
• Zap colors: removes all color elements from a page (other than pictures and artwork)

Some other places to find more are the websites Bookmarklets and Pimp My Safari.

Install Bookdog

Bookdog ($19.95) is an application I’ve been using forever. It can automatically alphabetize bookmarks, as well as sync bookmarks between browsers (one way or both ways). It works very well, and has been very actively developed. It supports many browsers, not just Safari and Firefox.

In case you missed it, the MacHeist 3 bundle has been released. It’s really great this year; I’ve already purchased mine.

There are 12 apps in the bundle (three of them have not been unlocked, since the number of bundles sold has not reached the required number; but based on past years, it is all but certain that all apps will be unlocked). Even without the unlocked apps, it’s a great deal.

For a mere $39, you get:

• iSale ($40 retail), for creating eBay ad pages
• Picturesque ($35 retail) for quick photo effects
• SousChef ($30 retail) for managing recipes
• PhoneView ($20 retail) for manipulating/accessing your iPhone/iPod Touch data
• LittleSnapper ($40 retail) for managing screen captures
• Acorn ($50 retail) for simple photo editing
• Kinemac ($299 retail!) for 3D design and animation
• WireTap Studio ($69 detail) for advanced audio recording/capture
• World of Goo ($20 retail) for fun

If/when all the apps are unlocked, you will also get (at no extra charge):

• BoinxTV ($199 retail) for easy “TV studio” production
• The Hit List ($50 retail) for to-do list management
• Espresso ($80 retail) for web design

There are videos and descriptions for all these apps on the MacHeist website.

The most interesting apps in the list, in my view, are Picturesque, PhoneView, Kinemac, WireTap Studio, and BoinxTV. These five apps alone have a combined retail value of about $622. All for $39!

You also get a free app called EventBox just for visiting the page. It’s an interesting little app that pulls updates from various social networking sites.

I already have apps equivalent to iSale (GarageSale), Acorn (Photoshop/Pixelmator), The Hit List (OmniFocus), and Espresso (Coda). I’m not sure what I will do with those licenses. But even considering that I may not use all the apps, the bundle is a steal.

With the free Fring app, you can make voice calls using Skype or SIP services. I believe Fring also supports voice chat on MSN, but I haven’t tried it yet. I made a test call to my cell phone, and can assure you that it does work. Depending on the service and who you call, the calls may be free, or may incur a small fee (as little as 1.5¢ per minute or so, but YMMV). Obviously if you don’t sign up with anything that requires a credit card, you should be safe.

Another app called Truphone, also free, provides similar services. You can buy credits online for calls to regular phones, while calls between users are free.

With various apps such as iRecorder, iTalk, or QuickVoice, you can also record voice notes. Some of these apps will transfer your notes to your computer.

I’ve heard that the sound input also works with digital instruments like iRecorder or Ocarina, meaning you can make music, but I haven’t yet tried those. [Edit: iRecorder works, although you have to hold the mic between your lips, which may bother some users; the current version of Ocarina doesn't support the iPod Touch.]

While a mic add-on doesn’t make the iPod Touch into a virtual iPhone, it does close the gap some. One obvious limitation is that with an iPod Touch, you must be near a wifi access point. You can’t make cell phone calls from anywhere, as with an iPhone.

Now if only I could find a camera add-on….

From the website:

CodeWeavers’ mission is to make Linux and Mac OS X fully Windows compatible operating systems. We do this through the power of Wine, which powers all of our CrossOver products. The CrossOver products make it possible to run Windows programs on Mac OS X and Linux without needing a copy or license for Windows itself.

Wine is an open-source reimplementation of the Win32 API for Unix-based operating systems. Wine allows Windows applications to be run without a Windows operating system license. CodeWeavers is the largest corporate sponsor of the Wine Project, and contributes all of its work to free Wine.

You can read about the reasons for the giveaway (quite humorous!) here.

I already own VMware Fusion, which I consider a better product. However, CrossOver is free today, and the software has been given a 4-star rating over at VersionTracker.com.

The second annual MacHeist promo is underway. This bundle includes more than $350 worth of applications, for only $49. Two of the three “locked” apps have already been unlocked in the first 3 days of the promo. And the third locked app is well past 3/4 of the way to being unlocked. And that’s with 10 days left … so it’s pretty much guaranteed that all 11 (there’s a chance a 12th will be added) apps will be unlocked and included in the bundle.

If you visit the MacHeist website, you will find a description of all the apps. Just click on their icons to learn more. The most useful ones in my estimation are 1password, Awaken, Speed Download, AppZapper, CSSEdit (if you edit websites), Snapz X Pro, and Pixelmator (which is not unlocked yet).

1password is helps you manage your passwords and much more. It does everything the autofill features of Safari and Firefox do, plus some other nifty things. You can create multiple identities — for example, one for work, one for home – and auto-fill forms from whichever identity you want. It can store secure notes on any topic you want. It has a “Wallet” feature where you can securely enter your credit card information and other personal details, to save typing them. It’s quite flexible, and you can use as many or as few of the feature as you desire. (Personal details were obliterated in Photoshop from the image above.)

AppZapper provides the uninstall functionality that Apple should have built into OS X. Before deleting an application forever, it allows you to see, and selectively keep if desired, any files related to the application.

Awaken is a glorified alarm clock. You can enter as many alarm events as you like. These can play iTunes playlists or other media that you select. You can also launch applications or files at specified times. It also has an egg timer (countdown timer) and a sleep timer (go to sleep listening to music, and it eventually shuts itself off after the time you specify). The clock can be show full-screen (handy if looking at it from bed), and it can be controlled via an Apple remote.

CSSEdit is for the webmasters out there. It allows you to edit CSS files with all kinds of super cool features every computer geek will love.

Snapz Pro X is a screen capture utility. Besides simple screen captures, it can also capture specific program elements, selected screen areas, and — most impressively — movies and other things that change over time.

Pixelmator (not yet unlocked as of January 13) is a cool-looking Photoshop-type application for editing photos and other types of images. If you look at the screen shots, you’ll notice it contains many of the same tools and features as Photoshop (Photoshop Elements is about $80 retail, Photoshop CS3 is $620–$1,040 retail, depending on the version). Although it doesn’t do everything Photoshop CS3 does, it appears to cover all of the most common tools and commands. And unlike Photoshop, it is designed exclusively, and optimized specifically, for OS X.

Speed Download was recently added to the bundle. I’ve been using this application for years. It’s very handy if you ever have to deal with downloads over slow internet connections, or downloads that are difficult to start or finish.

Other applications in the bundle include CoverSutra (works with iTunes, requires OS X 10.5), Cha-Ching (financial app), iStopMotion (create your own stop motion videos — fun!), and TaskPaper (note-taking app … a little underwhelming, but what can I say? … a better app is OmniOutliner). There is also a hint that one or more additional apps will be added before this bundle offer is done.

Interested? Head on over to MacHeist and buy the bundle!

If you’re wondering what this “MacHeist” thing is all about, it starts as a series of online puzzle games in the form of missions (“heists”). Those who complete the puzzle missions get other free apps, as well as discounts on the MacHeist bundle offered at the end. I completed all the puzzles this year (with help from other users … the puzzles can be very tough), and came home with all kinds of cool stuff. You can read a fuller description of this year’s puzzle goodies here.

If you use Skype, or have thought about using it, you might want to check out Gizmo. It’s an open source alternative to Skype (as Firefox is to Internet Explorer), and seems to have some interesting features. One is that the group behind Gizmo is offering free Gizmo-to-phone service. That is, you can call people’s landline or cell phone for free (from your computer, via Gizmo, assuming your computer has speakers and a microphone—either of which can be picked up for $15-30 if you need one), provided you are both Gizmo members. Membership is free. Skype has a similar feature, but last I heard you have to pay by the minute for it, just as with regular long-distance calling.