Did you miss out on Dejal Simon on MacUpdate Promo recently? Never fear — I've agreed to list it at a great price in their extended deals section.

What's more, Caboodle, my handy app to keep snippets of text, images, PDFs, etc organized, and Narrator, my fun app to speak text in multiple voices, are also still available via MacUpdate Promo special deals, for a limited time:

• 33% off Simon Basic
• 30% off Caboodle
• 30% off Narrator

Caboodle has been updated with some much-requested new features!

• Added a View button to the decryption sheet. If clicked, the entry is temporarily decrypted and displayed read-only until you quit, but remains encrypted on disk, so the next time you use Caboodle it will still be encrypted. To edit the entry or keep it decrypted, click the Decrypt button instead.
• Added a checkbox to the encryption and decryption sheets to enable saving the entered password in the keychain. The state of the checkbox is remembered automatically.
• Added a new Security preference page, where you can specify a default password to use for encrypting and decrypting entries, and options of whether to use that, the keychain, the previously-entered password, or nothing when encrypting and decrypting. The default password is stored in the keychain, for security.
• When displaying the encryption sheet, if there is a password for this entry in the keychain (i.e. it had previously been encrypted and the password saved), it is defaulted into the password fields. Otherwise if you've previously entered a password or any entry, it is offered instead. Otherwise if there is a default password specified in the preferences, it is suggested. The source of the password is indicated below the fields. These are all dependent on the preferences. You can of course replace the suggestion with a new password, if desired.
• Similarly when decrypting, it will pre-populate with the keychain, last-entered, or default password, if available and valid. It only offers the password if it is correct, so you can just click the View or Decrypt buttons without typing anything.
• Using the ServicesCaboodleAdd Entry with Selection command, or dropping text on Caboodle's Dock icon, will now set the Subject to the first few words of the first line of text. Also improved the entry creation decision: if the selected entry has child entries when using these functions, the new entry will be a child of that one, otherwise it will be a sibling.
• Now correctly indexes new text, instead of requiring a re-launch before it is available for searches.
• Fixed a crasher when adding a new entry if displaying the search results.
• Fixed a crasher when using the New Sibling button with no selection.
• Fixed an issue with the Preferences window, where edits might not be saved when quitting with the window still open (specifically when an edit is still active).
• Fixed a cosmetic bug with the Check for Updates feature when using a general release and wanting only general releases, and a beta release is available.
• Updated the built-in Kagi purchasing tool to the latest version, which fixes some issues with Leopard.
• Caboodle now requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later.

Download Caboodle 1.2b1 now!

The Mac Bundle Box collection of 15 great applications is now available!

The bundle includes my own Caboodle and Narrator, plus 13 more excellent applications from other independent developers, for the low price of $49.95 total. Save hundreds of dollars over the cost of buying them separately! My two apps are together worth $35, so If there are even just one or two other apps in the bundle that you want, you'll be saving lots of money.

Visit the Mac Bundle Box site to take advantage of this great deal, while it lasts!

Coming on August 1st:

A bundle of 15 great applications, including my own Caboodle and Narrator, for only $49.95 total.

Get a sneak peek at the contents via Chris Pirillo:

Visit the Mac Bundle Box site to sign up to be notified when it's available, or come back in a couple of days!

Caboodle is my handy snippet keeping app: as a blogger wrote recently: "Lean, clean, snippet machine to store information on your Mac."

One of the essential features of any snippet keeper is getting information into it, and Caboodle has a number of options, including direct entry, imports, and a handy Services menu command. This sub-menu is found within the application menu of modern Mac apps, and includes useful operations you can perform on selected text using external applications.

If you want to add some text to Caboodle from a web browser, word processor, text editor, or just about anywhere, you can simply select the desired text and choose Services Caboodle Add Entry with Selection. Caboodle will be launched, if necessary, and the selected text will be added to a new entry.

If you do this a lot, you might find it more convenient to assign a keyboard equivalent to the command. To do so, follow these simple steps to add the equivalent of your choice to the Add Entry with Selection command:

1. Open the Keyboard & Mouse system preferences.
2. Go to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.
3. Click the "+" below the list.
4. Select Application: All Applications.
5. Type Menu Title Add Entry with Selection (exact wording and case is important).
6. Press Keyboard Shortcut Cmd-Option-Ctrl-C (or a shortcut of your choosing).
7. Click Add.
8. Launch a new application that supports Services.
9. Select some text, press Cmd-Option-Ctrl-C, and it appears as a new entry in Caboodle.

Note: the new keyboard shortcut won't show up in applications that are already running until after you quit and re-launch them.

Caboodle version 1.1.4 is now available.

This release includes some important bug fixes and improvements:

• The state of the Check Spelling While Typing menu item is now remembered across launches, so you can turn it off if you don't want it.
• Fixed a bug where new child entries might not inherit a newly added icon or custom fields.
• Fixed a bug with exporting, where a "/" in an entry Subject could cause the export to not work as expected.
• Updated the built-in Kagi purchasing tool to the latest version, which fixes some issues with Leopard.
• Switched the distribution method to ZIP archives instead of disk images, as it's simpler for everyone. Feedback welcome!

Download now!

Caboodle, the handy snippet keeper tool, is now at version 1.1.3.

This bug-fix update addresses a bug with opening attachments: if you happen to have two attachments in Caboodle entries with the same name, and open both of them, Caboodle might have opened the first file again instead of the second one, thinking it was the same file. This is because the attachments are saved to a hidden temporary folder before they are opened. Now, Caboodle saves each attachment in a unique sub-folder, ensuring that files with the same name are still treated as different.

This update also adds German localization, kindly done by Ulf Dunkel of DSD.net, along with a few minor tweaks that came up during localization. Ulf will act as a reseller of Caboodle for German-speaking customers. Please purchase via his store to give him a cut of the proceeds.

This version is (as far as I can tell!) fully compatible with Leopard, and back to 10.3.9.

Download now!

All the cool kids are doing it, so it must be my turn....

Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" is available tomorrow. It's a great update, that I've mostly enjoyed using for the past few months, so I highly recommend it to everyone. But an important consideration is always: will my existing software run on the new OS version? So here's a summary of the Leopard compatibility status of Dejal products, as far as I'm aware.

I should point out that this is based on a recent seed (pre-release version): Mac developers don't get the final version of Leopard any sooner than you do... and in fact get it later if they wait for the copy Apple sends as part of the Apple Developer Connection membership. There's been a bit of an uproar about that, but it was the same with Tiger, and will probably be the same again with the next big cat. Such is life.

Simon: My website and server monitoring tool runs fine under Leopard. It has been updated to use Leopard's window style for the Monitor window when running under 10.5, or the custom window style under 10.4 or 10.3.9. I plan on making several more Leopard improvements in a future version.

Time Out: Version 1.5 of this break reminder app was released not long ago, which added Leopard compatibility. It has no known issues with 10.5. Work on version 2 is underway (though currently paused); you can expect that in Q1 2008. It will require a minimum of 10.5, as it leverages several Leopard technologies.

Caboodle: This handy snippet-keeper app is also Leopard-ready as of the current release, version 1.1.2. I have big plans for Caboodle over the coming year, once I've done the other updates.

Narrator: My fun speech synthesis app hasn't been updated for a number of years, but appears to run okay under Leopard. I am currently working on a long-overdue new version of it -- actually a complete rewrite. The new version requires a minimum of Leopard. Watch the Dejal blog for more information about that as it progresses.

BlogAssist: This useful HTML markup tool is Leopard-ready as of the current release, version 2.1.1. It will also see some improvements in 2008, using technology being developed for Time Out.

Macfilink: My affiliate link cloaking app hasn't had an update for Leopard yet, but it seems to work okay. I haven't decided what to do for its next update, but it's possible I'll replace the data storage with Core Data for the Leopard update. It's the lowest priority, as this app does one job and does it very well as-is, so it doesn't need much tinkering.

So there you go. I hope you enjoy Leopard as much as I do. Please let me know if you discover any compatibility issues, but as far as Dejal products are concerned, you should be good to go!

A quick tip for Caboodle, from the FAQ:

Normally when you drag a file into a Caboodle entry it copies it, allowing you to delete the original. But often you want to keep the original in place too, and want to avoid bloating Caboodle's data with large files (or folders).

The solution is to hold down the Control () key when dragging the file or folder to the Caboodle entry: the mouse pointer will change to include an alias symbol instead of the green plus. It will then make an alias (link) to the original. Then when you double-click on the file (or view it inline for images and PDFs), the original will open. Of course, in this case you shouldn't move or delete the original file.

Caboodle has now been updated to version 1.1.2. Similar to yesterday's updates of Macfilink and BlogAssist, this update includes minor tweaks to ensure compatibility with Leopard. It also includes some fixes for ruler handling within entries, to make the preference and menu item work better - existing entries now save the ruler visibility state properly, and new root-level entries now use the preference.

Enjoy!

Seth Dillingham is hosting a Pan-Mass Challenge software auction, as a fundraising project in support of his 300-mile ride across the state of Massachusetts for a cancer care charity.

He wants to collect hundreds of software products, which will be auctioned on eBay starting in July.

This is a very worthy cause, so I am donating 5 Standard licenses for Dejal Simon, plus 5 Household licenses for Dejal Caboodle (about $400 total value). I encourage other Mac developers to join in, too.

For more information on the fundraising, click this image:

If you look closely at the Caboodle icon, you may notice a kitten in one of the documents overflowing from the bag.

For those interested, this isn't stock art, but is actually one of my cats as a kitten. His name is Pixel, named after the cat who walks through walls in Robert A. Heinlein's novels. Like the cat in the book, he's an orange tabby, and sometimes he seems to walk through walls, too. :)

Here's another picture of him as a kitten, and now:

Caboodle version 1.1.1 is now available. It includes several fixes and improvements:

• Now automatically saves the entry when leaving the Subject field (via tab or click) or modifying the icon, so the entries list is immediately updated, to avoid confusion.
• The entries list now remains the same size when the window resizes, rather that being resized proportionally.
• Changed the default icon to a larger green ball, to avoid alignment issues that the smaller one had (it was 16x16 instead of 20x20).
• Fixed a longstanding bug where encrypting an entry that contains a table would lose the table formatting when it is decrypted. Note: entries encrypted with this version can not be decrypted by previous versions (but this version can decrypt previously encrypted entries).
• Fixed a crasher when exporting as PDF.
• Added French localization.

This is a recommended update for all Caboodle users.

Download now!

Caboodle version 1.1 is now in general release.

It adds support for import and export in several formats - a much-requested feature. Plus an enhanced print function, several user interface improvements, and more. Read the release notes for details, or download now.

For today only, you can get it at a low low price via the MacUpdate Promo page!

I just rewrote the Caboodle product page to be more like the Simon one, with better descriptions of the various features and benefits of Caboodle. I hope it all makes sense - feedback welcome in the comments, Caboodle forum, or the feedback form.

Anyway, I now have a bunch of space in the sidebar, a perfect place for customer testimonials (again, like on the Simon page). Of course, I could go through my mail archives, or pull some from VersionTracker or MacUpdate, but I'd since I'm about to release version 1.1 of Caboodle, I though some tasty fresh quotes would be better.

So, if you use Caboodle and want to encourage others to give it a try, how about sending me a brief quote that I can use, along with your name and such. The feedback form has fields in the sidebar with the info needed. You can say whatever you like; I don't edit quotes, other than to make it short enough for the space. What do you like about Caboodle? What do you use it for? How has it helped you?

I'll select a bunch from the quotes I receive and post them on the site.

Thanks!

Caboodle version 1.1b2 has now been released.

It includes much requested import and export features (by far the most popular requests), improved entry printing, New Sibling & New Child functions, an enabled window close button (which hides Caboodle), UI improvements, bug fixes, and more.

What do you think of the new fabric background for the custom fields area? Too busy? Let me know in the comments or Caboodle forum.

I've just released beta updates of Caboodle, BlogAssist and Macfilink. These releases are mainly part of rolling out the new Dejal logo, though they include some other tweaks too. See the release notes for details.

I've just released Simon version 2.2c7, which hopefully will be the last general candidate release, and the last release of 2006.

I currently plan to do the general release next week, after finishing migrating my custom PHP-driven web pages to the new host, launching my new logo, and releasing beta versions of Caboodle 1.1, BlogAssist 2.1, and Macfilink 1.4. I'll also continue work on Time Out 2. It'll be a busy week.

There have been a lot of promotions involving Mac software recently - MacZOT, MyDreamApp, MacHeist, MacAppADay, etc. Each with different approaches, of creating new apps, selling discounted apps, or giving them away. But the latest is MacSanta, celebrating the festive season with 20% discounts on participating Mac software. A great thing about this promotion is that it is open to everyone - all developers and all users.

Dejal is participating in MacSanta, offering discounts of 20% or more on all products. What's more, I'm offering these discounts through the end of the year!

Just visit the Dejal Store before the end of the year to take advantage of these great prices!