LAUG 2.0 News

by Mariner Software

Every OS X user has certain programs that they have run at startup: those programs that are so indespnsible they want to have it immediately available.

MacJournal is one of those programs , at least for me. I absolutely cannot live without it! On average I’d say I use it at least every hour I’m in front of the computer. MacJournal is obviously designed for someone who keeps a journal or diary, but it’s really so much more than that! Don’t be limited by its name Think of it like a thousand sticky notes properly organized. You can set journals for anything. I have a nearly endless list of journals: a to-do journal, a journal of business ideas, a journal of books to read, a journal of recipes. Each journal can have mutiple entries in it that can show either the date, text or title of the entry (or all of them combined). For example, in my Review journal I can say “ MacJournal”. Then I click that entry and can type the reviews.

Obviously you can type plain text items within MacJournal, but you can also create numbered listings,checkboxes for to do lists, or plain bulleted lists. That’s why I keep my general to do list in MacJournal, I can print it out and check things as I go. Heck, you can even leave voice memos–yet another reason why I have it constantly running

Sometimes journals can keep private information, so you can password protect your MacJournal entries. You can also email them or export them to text documents. You can even take a MacJournal entry and directly publish it to blogging sites. Talk about versatile!!! How very cool!

Being a Simpson’s fan, one of my favorite features is the “Taco”. What’s the taco? Click on it and you get a random Simpsons quote. So when you are writing the next chapter of the Great American Novel in MacJournal and want a brief distraction, click on the Taco and be presented with such famous quotes as: “You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is ‘never try’.” or “There’s a 4:30 in the morning now?”

MacJournal won an Apple Design Award in 2002 and it shows in the excellent interface and functionality of the program. The overall program design is similar to the Mail interface. A drawer contains your journals and you can open and close journals via the disclosure triangle. The title bar is completely customizable with drag and drop buttons and most menu functions can be included on that title bar. Alternatively, most of the text functions can be accessed from the “Action” menu (the menu with the gear icon) located in the Journal drawer.

Two other very similar programs to MacJournal I’ve seen are StickyBrain and Yojimbo, both reviwed previously. StickyBrain also lets you store information and create lists, but I find to be somewhat disorganized because it allows free-from entries. Before I received a review copy of MacJournal, StickyBrain was my program of choice for tracking daily thoughts. Yojimbo is great for storing passwords, but for general information entries, MacJournal is simply better if you want to store a greater variety of information.

My only complaint is I’d like some way to bring it up with a keyboard command. Both StickyBrain and Yojimbo allow you to press a key combination to bring their program to the forefront. It’s really a feature request rather than a complaint really, but it nonetheless would still be useful

Download MacJournal for the basic blogging, but keep it for the advanced interface and functions!

Pros: Perfect memory upgrade for your brain
Cons: Needs a systemwide keyboard command

5 out of 5 dogcows
5 out of 5 dog cows

Let me start by saying, “I’m a designer not a programmer”. This in-depth book is over 900 pages and slightly intimidating in it’s scope as well as it’s heft, But Dreamweaver 8 - The Missing Manual is not a book to read cover-to-cover. This book imparts a good deal of knowledge in the basics of web development and web technology, making it a useful reference for experienced Dreamweaver developers and complete beginners such as I.

Dreamweaver 8 is the latest version of the popular web design and development application used to create some of the world’s best websites. To give you a little background, I just finished the layouts for a project of creating my first website. I’ve owned Dreamweaver since version 2 (1998) and although they changed naming conventions (MX, 2004, etc.) I still never got the hang of creating even a simple website. Now, with the help of this book, I hope to finally get up to speed in the web game.

As far as web development software goes, it is the gold standard and has recently been bought by Adobe from Macromedia. Most graphic applications today do not come with a printed manual and usually get one in PDF format on the CD, but who would print out a 900 page book? This book fills that gap.

The author, David Sawyer McFarland, begins with the basics of how to navigate the software as well as the basics of web design and progresses to advanced features like database integration, CSS, XML, and XSLT. For the novice user like myself, it gradually steps them up to the ability to make full-featured high quality websites. For experienced users, the book is compartmentally designed to provide quick access to the information you are looking for. Because the book covers not only Dreamweaver functions, but web design basics and other background skills, it can easily be used as one-stop-shopping for anyone wanting to be proficient in web design.

The tips and notes provide useful information that isn’t readily available elsewhere and tutorials help readers develop and learn the skills as they read along. The author is particularly helpful in pointing out not only the lesser-known shortcuts and tips, but valuable extensions available to make the developer’s life easier. The writing is short and to-the-point and the book is well-written and easy to access, making it an indispensable desk reference for novice and experienced Dreamweaver developers alike. Now, if it would only finish my project for me.

4 out of 5 dogcows

Dreamweaver 8 - The Missing Manual Click to learn more at Amazon’s Web Site and earn the LAUG some money.

Continuing along with my recent theme of great iPod accessories, my handiest unexpectedly brilliant iPod accessory is the earPod.

I love my Etymotic Research, Inc. - ER•6i Isolator Earphones. However, like most iPod users, I hate the way my cord constantly gets tangles and develops damaging knots. I’ve tried all sorts of methods of properly storing them. The earPod is the only one I’ve seen that fixes this.

The earPod is approximately one inch think and three inches across. It reminds me of a mini “moon pie”. . earPods are made out of a hard plastic and in my experience are virtually indestructible. I’ve thrown mine at the bottom of luggage and stepped on it countless times with zero damage. After a year of using my earPod, I’ve had no cracks or damage to the plastic. With some earbud style headphones costing as much as $500, protection like this is a must. Those little “pouches” expensive headphones come in are a joke.

To use the earPod to store your earbuds, you slip the top of the case off its hinge. The process is extremely easy once you get the hang of it and can easily be done with one hand. Inside the earPod is a think foam that cushions your earpod and collects some of the wax that invariably develops on the earbuds.

Once the earbuds are inside you slip the top of the case back and lock it in place. You then simply wrap the cord around the earPod and then just slip the headphone jack within the wrapped cord. It’s quick and easy to load and unload. It even includes a beltclip.

Pros: Perfectly protects your earbud style headphones.
Cons: Absolutely none!

5 out of 5 dogcows

Click on the word earPod for more information at Amazon’s website.

Due to technical difficulties only the last 30 minutes of the meeting were recorded. Sorry for the inconvenience. A podcast from the August meeting of the Lawrence Apple Users Group. This month’s topic included backup strategies for the Mac by Dave Greenbaum. Check us out on the web and subscribe to the podcast at http://www.laugks.org/news/.

 

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