Smile Blog

If you prefer to hide the TextExpander icon in the Dock, then you ran into trouble when you updated TextExpander to version 3.3 on the Mac App Store. We’re sorry for the trouble. We made a mistake by checking the wrong box when updating TextExpander’s version number for the Mac App Store. Fortunately, this mistake is easy to correct. Here’s how:

• Quit TextExpander if it is running.
• Download the “Fix TextExpander 3.3.zip” file.
• Double-click to expand the file to “Fix TextExpander 3.3.scpt”
• Double-click “Fix TextExpander 3.3.scpt” to load it into AppleScript Editor
• Press Run
• After the script completes, launch TextExpander (and quit AppleScript Editor)

Our apologies for the inconvenience. This will be fixed in our next update.

Note: After running this script, it may appear that TextExpander is not installed in the Purchased section of the App Store application. If you Install at the next update, that will no longer be an issue.

Update, 5/20/2011: An update with the fix is now available on the Mac App Store. Thanks for your patience.

A couple of unfortunate issues have cropped up in the recently-released TextExpander 3.3. We wanted to make you aware of them and offer workarounds.

AppleScript Snippets
If you create a new snippet and set it to AppleScript, TextExpander 3.3 still treats the new snippet as a text snippet. When you expand it, the result will be the content of the AppleScript, not the script results. Any AppleScript snippets you created in earlier versions are still treated as AppleScript snippets.

As a workaround, you can duplicate an existing AppleScript snippet and then edit its contents.

Apple Script and Shell Script Snippets and “%”
This issue with shell script and AppleScript snippets involves the % (percent) symbol. TextExpander has always used % to delimit macros. In a script snippet,  TextExpander 3.3 is treating the % as a macro delimiter, which allows you to embed snippets within script snippet source code, but this has the unfortunate side effect of misinterpreting occurrences of ‘%’ as a character.

One workaround is to use 2 percentage signs (%%) to “escape” the % character (TextExpander power user @drdrang posted more about this on his blog), but this is inconvenient and does not work if the script snippet itself is embedded within another snippet.

If you use script snippets a good deal, you may want to consider reverting back to TextExpander 3.2.4. We do apologize for the aggravation and we hope to release a fix shortly in TextExpander 3.3.1.

TextExpander version 3.3 [download] introduces AppleScript support, primarily oriented toward automating snippet and group management. TextExpander includes AppleScript support for:

• creating and deleting groups
• editing group properties
• creating and deleting snippets
• editing snippet properties
• adding (importing) groups from files or from URLs
• enabling/disabling expansion

These capabilities should be broad enough to allow for some interesting scripts to be created. As you develop scripts, you may encounter some limitations. Your feedback will help determine future expansion of TextExpander’s AppleScript vocabulary.

Here are a couple of sample scripts to get you started. The first one creates a new group and then creates two snippets within it:

tell application “TextExpander”

–– create a new group

make new group with properties {name:”My New Script Group”}

set newGroup to the result

tell newGroup

–– create a snippet, then set the major properties one by one

make new snippet

set newSnippet to the result

set the abbreviation of newSnippet to “tastytreat”

set the plain text expansion of newSnippet to “Toasted marshmallows are a tasty treat”

set the label of newSnippet to “Snippet from AppleScript”

–– create a snippet, setting properties immediately

make new snippet with properties {label:”Second Scripted Snippet”, abbreviation:”scrptwo”, plain text expansion:”Eat Two Marshmallows”}

set secondSnippet to the result

end tell

end tell

The second script checks for the existence of a URL-based group. If no such group is found, that URL is imported:

–– This script checks to make sure that a group based on a particular URL is present.

–– If not, it imports that group

set success to false

set groupURL to (“www.smilesoftware.com/te/example.textexpander” as text)

–– note coercion above: TE group source is type text, not URL

tell application “TextExpander”

set sourceList to the source of every group

if sourceList contains groupURL then

–– the desired group is already present

set success to true

else

set newGroup to import URL group using URL groupURL

–– the returned group is a placeholder for URL contents, which are downloaded asynchronously

repeat with i from 1 to 10

delay 1 –– allow some time for download, then poll the group placeholder

tell newGroup

–– find the number of snippets in the group

–– unless the group is supposed to be empty, zero snippets indicates download failure

count snippets

set snipCount to the result

if snipCount is not equal to 0 then

set success to true

exit repeat

end if

end tell

end repeat

end if

end tell

if not success then

beep –– real error handling goes here

end if

Again, we welcome your feedback on TextExpander’s new AppleScript capabilities.

We’ve been listening to your requests, PDFpenPro users! PDFpenPro 5.2.3 can now automate the creation of PDFs from web pages via AppleScript. Here’s an example:

tell application “PDFpenPro”

activate

set theDoc to make new document with data “smilesoftware.com” with properties {levels:2, top margin:36, bottom margin:36, right margin:36, left margin:36, follow:server, maximum pages:100}

end tell

The return value is the created document.

You’ll find additional information on converting HTML to PDF with PDFpenPro in the PDFpenPro help.

You can upgrade from PDFpen to PDFpenPro for US $40. In addition to being able to convert websites to multi-page PDFs, you’ll also be able to create cross-platform fillable forms and to construct document table of contents with PDFpenPro.

Virtual keyboards are on-screen representations of a keyboard which allow you to enter characters by clicking the mouse or other pointing device. That is, you move the mouse to the part of the screen where the ‘v’ key is, click the mouse, and a ‘v’ appears in your text document. (Note: there are other types of virtual keyboards in addition to the on-screen, mouse-driven variety, but this post does not cover them.) One reason to use a virtual keyboard is if you have trouble typing on a physical keyboard.

Mac OS X built-in Keyboard Viewer

TextExpander has some issues with virtual keyboards. When you click the mouse, TextExpander assumes that you are moving the text insertion point within a document, selecting a range of text, changing to a different window or text area, or performing some kind of formatting or other command. Thus, when you click the mouse, TextExpander clears the buffer of typed characters it maintains to track when you type a snippet abbreviation.

For example, with the ‘ddate’ snippet, when you click the ‘d’ key on the virtual keyboard the first time, TextExpander clears the buffer because the mouse was clicked, then notices that a ‘d’ has been typed. When you click the ‘d’ key the second time, TextExpander again clears the buffer, then stores the ‘d’. The snippet never expands because TextExpander keeps clearing its buffer, never tracking more than one character at a time.

TextExpander version 3.1 fixed this problem by adding support for typing with the system’s built-in Keyboard Viewer and for Corallo Software’s VirtualKeyboard application. TextExpander 3.2.4 adds support for AssistiveWare’s KeyStrokes application.

If there is another virtual keyboard program that you are using, there is a “hidden” setting in TextExpander that will allow you to use it before support is “built-in” to TextExpander. Just contact support@smilesoftware.com for details.

Here’s a great tip we got from Steven H.:

“If you use PDFpen/PDFpenPro on multiple Macs, you can sync the Library using Dropbox. The trick is in how you get PDFpen to find the Library when it’s in your Dropbox and not where it normally expects it. You do that with a symlink. Both PDFpen and PDFpenPro use the same Library location (good thinking on that Smile), ~/Library/Application Support/PDFpen.

“The only real trick here is symlink creation. For that I like to use an OSX service called SymbolicLinker. When installed, SymbolicLinker adds a “Make Symbolic Link” item to the Services context menu in Finder. Download SymbolicLinker here and move the SymbolicLinker.service file to /Library/Services (that’s /Library at the root, not in your User folder, although it should work fine there too if you don’t have multiple users on the Mac). If you do not have a Services folder in Library, just create one and put the file there. Logout and back in or reboot to activate the service. Now you’re ready to do this…

1. Shut down PDFpen is you have it open.

2. Move your ~/Library/Application Support/PDFpen folder into your Dropbox.

3. Right-click over the folder that you just moved and select Make Symbolic Link from the Services context menu. You will now have a file called “PDFpen symlink” right next to the PDFpen folder in your Dropbox.

4. Move the newly created symlink back to ~/Library/Application Support (where you just moved the original folder from) and rename it to delete the symlink portion of the file name so it is just plain “PDFpen”.

“That’s it. This also moves scripts and anything else that may be stored in that same location. (PDFpenPro scripts are in ~/Library/Application Support/PDFpenPro, so if you want those synced, you’ll need to do another symlink, but now you see how easy that is.

“Symbolic links are great combined with Dropbox when an app does not let you select where to store data. I also use them for Delicious Library and GarageSale, both of which have monster amounts of data associated with them compared to the PDFpen Library.”

—

Our thanks to Steven for the great tip! Feel free to send yours to jean@smilesoftware.com.

A bug in Firefox and Chrome can deprive TextExpander of its ability to observe keyboard input by enabling “secure input”  and neglecting to disable it. We first posted about the issue last  June.

The Mozilla team have found a fix, and it’s available now in the Firefox nightly build. The fix is also slated to be available in Firefox 4.0b12.

You can read more about Secure Input and the bug.

You can also read the history of the Mozilla bug process for this particular bug.

Thank you to Josh Aas and the Mozilla team!

Smile will be back at Macworld Expo this year. You can find us in the Indie Developer Pavillion (246 – 1).

We are also happy to announce that some of your favorite podcasters will make appearances at the Smile kiosk during Macworld, to meet listeners and answer questions. Maybe they’ll even sign autographs. ;-)

Thursday, January 27, 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Dave Hamilton & John F. Braun
Mac Geek Gab

Friday, January 28, 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Adam Christianson
The MacCast

Saturday, January 29, 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Katie Floyd & David Sparks
Mac Power Users

Smile is proud to be a sponsor of these great podcasts. Come on by just to say “hi” or chat about Mac stuff.

The Mac App Store is a big deal for third-party Mac developers like Smile. For the first time, Apple is making it easy to buy and install software without ever going to a website, downloading a demo, or clicking an installer. Because it’s built into the OS, every Mac user will have a convenient option for purchasing software.

PDFpen, PDFpenPro and DiscLabel were available on Day One. (We hope TextExpander will be available soon!) The Mac App Store is not our exclusive channel for sales. Customers are still able to download and purchase applications directly from smilesoftware.com. We have kept the same prices for both channels.

We will continue to provide updates to our existing customers outside the Mac App Store. Choose “Check for Update…” in the application menu to download the latest version. You can set automatic update checking and its frequency via the Update preference pane.

The versions of our software in the Mac App Store are functionally the same as the versions available on our site. We had to make a few adjustments to meet Apple’s criteria, and that resulted in a discrepancy in version numbers.

Updates for both Mac App Store-purchased software and independently-purchased software will be on the same schedule, although there may be a lag for the Mac App Store updates due to Apple’s review process.

You might have noticed that your Smile applications are not marked “Installed” in the Mac App Store. That’s because they weren’t purchased through the Mac App Store. The Mac App Store only supports updating products purchased via the Mac App Store. The fact that it shows some products purchased independently as installed is simply a convenience and is in some cases misleading.

If you have any questions at all, please let us know at support@smilesoftware.com. You’ll get a fast, friendly answer from our support team.

Apparently, people like the idea of a short work week, the shorter, the better. That helped Tim Ferriss’s first book, The 4-Hour Workweek, become a huge best-seller. An authority on working smarter, not harder, Tim is always looking for a better way to do things.

For the promotion of his new book, The 4-Hour Body, Tim contacted Smile with a question:

Can you make images clickable in a PDF with PDFpen?

Answer: Yes! That’s a standard PDFpen feature. Just use the URL tool to draw a rectangle of the element you want to make clickable. PDFpen will prompt you for a link and you’re done.

We followed up with Tim to learn more about how he uses PDFpen, and found out about his clever use of mini-books for promotional purposes, attractively designed with images linked to Amazon.

* * * * *

Smile: How did you find out about PDFpen?

Tim: My assistant, Charlie Hoehn, who scours the web for the best of the best.

Smile: Were you using another tool that didn’t work for you? Why?

Tim: There was nothing remotely effective and easy-to-use for what we wanted to do: quickly create special PDF excerpts of my new book, The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman.  It’s currently #4 on all of Amazon, and a follow up to my #1 New York Times bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek.

Smile: What are you using PDFpen to do?

Tim: To create excerpt “mini-books” that can be promoted by bloggers via blogs and Facebook as free downloads.  It was important that we made them attractive, and that we include clickable links to Amazon, etc.  

Here are a few live examples that are going gangbusters:
The 15-Minute Female Orgasm (chapter)
- promoted on Facebook via NorthSocial
Rules That Change the Rules: Everything Popular is Wrong (chapter)
- promoted by blogger Guy Kawasaki

There are many more used also in e-mail campaigns.

Smile: Do you have any PDFpen tips or tricks to share?

Tim: Haha… not really.  The reason I love PDFpen is that I don’t need any tips and tricks to make it work.  It’s a five-minute learning curve.  I just want to get #$%& done

Tim: Would you recommend PDFpen to other Mac users?
Absolutely.  It saved the day.

Smile: What are you working on now?

Tim: The new book, The 4-Hour Body, is looking to be bigger than the first book, and it took three years to write. Here’s the description — lots of blood, sweat, and tears (all literal)!

The 4-Hour Body is the result of an obsessive quest, spanning more than a decade, to hack the human body. It contains the collective wisdom of hundreds of elite athletes, dozens of MDs, and thousands of hours of jaw-dropping personal experimentation. From Olympic training centers to black-market laboratories, from Silicon Valley to South Africa, Tim Ferriss, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, fixated on one life-changing question:

For all things physical, what are the tiniest changes that produce the biggest results?

Thousands of tests later, this book contains the answers for both men and women.

From the gym to the bedroom, it’s all here, and it all works.

There are more than 50 topics covered, all with real-world experiments, many including more than 200 test subjects. You don’t need better genetics or more discipline. You need immediate results that compel you to continue.

That’s exactly what The 4-Hour Body delivers.

Here’s the YouTube trailer (1 min.):

We wish Tim all the best for success with his new book.