Back to Quicksilver on Snow Leopard

Quicksilver, the amazing tool that it is, continues to live on life support. A small open source community seem to be giving it attention. I spent an intentional month with LaunchBar and then with Google Quick Search Box each to try and migrate to either of those. It just didn't work out. LB was certainly stable, but still underpowered. Some things in QS that I just depend on can't be done in LB (global triggers one of them). So, then on to Google's attempt, which is developed by QS' creator. It is definitely the underdog in this category... searches didn't even find the files I wanted. You have to use xcode to write plugins for now. I really look forward to trying out gQSB2.0 when it arrives. I expect huge improvements.

So, for now, I'm back with Quicksilver, though I've begun to play with creating Services for some of my own plugins that can now receive global key combinations in Snow Leopard. I have all my Accordance actions running native on Snow Leopard now as Services that don't require Quicksilver, Launchbar or anything. I hope to find the time to make them available soon.

And speaking of Snow Leopard...

On The Apple Blog a month ago, there was a helpful article pointing out that some QS plugins are causing crashes in Snow Leopard.

From what I’ve been reading on support forums, some users of Quicksilver saw no affect from upgrading their machines to Snow Leopard. I however, was not one of those people. And although I am warming more and more to Google Quick Search Box, I still supplement my usage of QSB with Quicksilver where the former is lacking in features. So I tinkered around until I was able to resuscitate and use Quicksilver again under Snow Leopard.

Really, the thing to do is install the latest Open Source build

and then navigate to:
~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/PlugIns
and remove all teh plugins and restart QS. If things run well, then you can selectively try plugins to add back in. Definitely stay away from UI plugins and AirPort Module.qsplugin and Services Menu Module.qsplugin.

Using a Mac on a Windows Network

Here is yet another very good survey of setting up your Mac to work on your Windows network at work.

Quicker Save PDF's to Desired Location

I've used this for a long time, but this article reminds me it's one of those OSX gems that few know about. Many of us do a lot of saving things to PDF's. The little PDF button at the bottom of print dialogs lets you do so, but if you want to quick-save it to a folder without having to navigate dialog boxes, you can add that as an option to the list using "PDF Services".

1. Put an alias of your desired save folder into the PDF Services folder inside your Library folder that's inside your home folder. 2. In a print dialog, select PDF popup at the bottom and you'll see the option to quick save the PDF to that folder. If it comes from a web page or a word document or the like, the title will be taken from the document, so often will be quite appropriate.

Next Mac Microsoft Office due late 2010

Microsoft made an announcement this week about next year's (yeah, right) release.

Microsoft announced Thursday that the next edition of Microsoft Office for Mac will be released in late 2010. The new edition of the venerable office suite will include Outlook for Mac, a new application that will replace the Entourage.

They also announced a reduced pricing scheme, the Home/Student edition and the Business edition. I'm skeptical that they will make the 2010 release date? And if they do, I'm very skeptical they will improve right to left Unicode support.
Followup:
Etherington at TAB has a source that VBA is being reintroduced into Office 2010. I would certainly welcome that, but I think this discussion has made me realize I won't be buying Office '10, just like I haven't purchased Office '08.
You've gotta love Miller at MacWorld who writes:

My first reaction to Microsoft’s Thursday announcement that it will release a new version of its Office suite for the Mac in 2010 can be summed up in one word: Why?

Update: Someone reminded me that my prediction was 2012: Unicode Hebrew Coming to Word 2012!

Update: Microsoft still anticipates the next Office Mac release at the end of 2010. No definitive word yet on right-to-left Unicode languages, but it IS confirmed to include VBA.

Bible Software Review of Accordance

Accordance is such a mature and finely developed program that a full review is impossible. I certainly don't have the patience to make an attempt. Rubén Gómez of the Bible Software Review has done a great job with a review. I highly recommend it.

There are, of course, even more features to highlight. At the top of the list in my opinion are:

• Well-thought-out keyboard shortcuts
• Tremendous stability
• Text display customizability
• Advanced Grammatical Tagging of core texts
• Ridiculous "older system" compatibility
• Amazing user and support system