PFiddlesoft

	UI Browser - The ultimate assistant for GUI Scripting, and a developer utility for exploring Apple's Accessibility API. NEW VERSION!— Version 2.2.0 released March 2012 (requires Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or newer).
	UI Actions - Universal Attachability for AppleScript. NEW VERSION!— Version 2.1.1 released February 2012 (requires Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or newer).
	Event Taps Testbench - A FREE developer utility for exploring Apple's Quartz Event Taps API. Version 1.3.1 released October 2011 (requires Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or newer).
	PFiddlesoft Frameworks - Cocoa frameworks for Mac OS X that support and enhance Apple's Accessibility and Quartz Event Taps APIs. NEW VERSION!— PFAssistive Framework version 3.1.4 released March 2012, and PFEventTaps Framework version 1.3.4 released October 2011 (require Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or newer).
	The PFiddle Collection - a growing collection of useful and pfun Macintosh software. Buy the collection once for $4.95 US, and enjoy any and all applications in the collection, now and in the future, without additional charge. NEW VERSION!— The third PFiddle in the collection is Pointer Noodge 1.1.4, an update released in February 2012. Pointer Noodge slows down the system pointer, removing mouse, trackpad and trackball acceleration so you can place the pointer exactly where you want it in any application. You can also nudge the pointer one pixel at a time horizontally and vertically using the arrow keys. Pointer Noodge has many other features. NEW VERSION!— The first PFiddle in the collection is Applidude 1.1.2, an update released February 2012. Applidude floats over your screen and reminds you which application is currently active. NEW VERSION!— The second PFiddle is Waccy Accy 1.1.2, an update released February 2012, a pfun game. Wheel the pointer around the screen as fast as you can, picking up letters to form your user name as the pointer passes over text elements on the screen. (All PFiddles require Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or newer.)

To place an order for UI Browser, UI Actions, or the PFiddle Collection, visit our Web Store or purchase from within the trial version. Send sales questions to sales@pfiddlesoft.com.

To license the PFiddlesoft Frameworks, click the PFiddlesoft Frameworks product on the left. The license is FREE for personal use or for use with your free products. We charge a modest license fee for use of each framework with a commercial or other paid product. Send licensing questions to sales@pfiddlesoft.com

For technical support, click one of the products on the left and visit its support page. Send support questions to support@pfiddlesoft.com.

Mac App Store Policy:

PFiddlesoft's products are not distributed on Apple's Mac App Store. Most of our products run as developer utilities and as assistive applications for computer users with disabilities, and they utilize Apple's Accessibility API to control other applications. Apple does not allow products that control other applications to be distributed on the Mac App Store in order to promote the highest degree of security for typical users. In addition, we use advanced techniques, including shared frameworks, that Apple does not currently allow on the Mac App Store. When Apple releases the next version of Mac OS, announced as Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion, we plan to release versions of our products that will be signed with a Developer ID issued by Apple so that they will run on all supported Macintosh computers by default.

If Apple changes the Mac App Store requirements in the future, we will consider whether to distribute products with the same or similar features on the Mac App Store. If we do, they may require payment of the full Mac App Store purchase price even if you already own a version purchased here on the PFiddlesoft site. We will continue to support every product that you purchase here for a reasonable time, but the features and prices of our Mac App Store products and updates may differ from the features and prices of our products and updates available here.

PreForm Assistive Technologies, LLC
P.O. Box 326
Quechee, VT 05059-0326
USA
info@pfiddlesoft.com

PFiddlesoft™ is the name under which PreForm Assistive Technologies, LLC distributes software for Macintosh computers with an emphasis on assistive technologies. Some of these products were formerly distributed by PreFab Software, Inc.

PFiddlesoft has unmatched experience controlling the graphical user interface of applications running on Apple computers using AppleScript and other technologies. Our products carry on the tradition of PreFab Player, a seminal product released in 1994 for the classic Mac OS. Now, PFiddlesoft brings our expertise to you on Mac OS X with several established products and the frameworks on which they are based.

UI Browser was first released in 2003 to support Apple's GUI Scripting and Accessibility technologies. UI Actions followed in 2004, implementing "universal attachability" for AppleScript. Read about them and download fully functional 30-day free trial versions by clicking the products above. Event Taps Testbench was released in 2007 and is available to you for free. The PFiddlesoft Frameworks product page provides full documentation, download, and licensing information for our PFAssistive and PFEventTaps Frameworks.

All of PFiddlesoft's products are written and maintained by Bill Cheeseman of Quechee Software. He has been well known for many years in the AppleScript community as originator in 1996 and long-time Webmaster of The AppleScript Sourcebook website. He is the co-author with Sal Soghoian, Apple's product manager for automation technologies, of a popular book about AppleScript, Apple Training Series: AppleScript 1-2-3 (Peachpit Press, 2009). In 1999, he pioneered the original Vermont Recipes website where many current Cocoa developers learned their craft with the Developer Preview version of Mac OS X, and he has since written the 2003 first edition and the all-new 2010 second edition of a follow-on book about writing Cocoa applications for Mac OS X, Cocoa Recipes for Mac OS X: The Vermont Recipes (Peachpit Press, 2010).

To "fiddle" is to act idly or frivolously, and a "fiddle" is a lighthearted trifle. The silent "p" was inspired by the folksy beer hall songs of Bob "Fiddler" Beers and his record, Fiddler Beers Sings Psalty Psongs with Psaltery and Pfiddle, released in 1961.

This is not to suggest that writing assistive software is an idle or frivolous task. Far from it. Our UI Browser, Event Taps Testbench, and PFiddlesoft Frameworks are seriously powerful tools to help you write seriously useful assistive applications, and UI Actions adds enormous power to AppleScript.

But there is no reason why it shouldn't be pfun, too. In that spirit, we have released a number of clever little Macintosh applications, all based one way or another on the Accessibility or Event Taps API. They are designed to be useful and pfun, even for users with impaired vision. We call them PFiddles.

The third PFiddle in the collection, Pointer Noodge, gives you better control of your system pointer, including a hot key that slows it down by turning off acceleration when using a mouse, trackpad or trackball. It even lets you nudge the pointer a pixel at a time using the arrow keys. It also lets you add a rotating image to help you find the pointer, text and speech feedback to identify the application under the mouse, and a spotlight effect for presentations. The first PFiddle, Applidude, reminds you which application is currently active every time you switch, optionally with a spoken announcement. With Applidude, you'll never again forget what you're doing on your Mac. The third PFiddle, Waccy Accy, is a game based on Apple's Accessibility and Event Taps APIs. You fill in the blanks in your user name on the game board by moving the mouse pointer over text elements on the screen containing the missing letters. You can control the speed of spoken feedback, or turn it off entirely. Waccy Accy is surprisingly hard, and pfun, too—really!

PFiddles make it easier for anybody to use a Mac, including users with impaired vision or motor control issues. There are more PFiddles to come. Stay tuned!

— Bill Cheeseman, May 2011

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PFiddlesoft

Software for pfiddling with Mac OS X

All PFiddlesoft products have been successfully tested on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

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About PFiddlesoft™

PFiddles™ are PFun!