This week is the final in the short series of product updates (at least for a month or two!) and I take a look at the newly launched version of PDFPen - PDFPen v4.

As well as PDFPen, I also take a look at a side benefit of some of the new features of PDF Pen that will help Evernote users in enabling PDF files to be fully searchable in Evernote.

As we're talking about PDFs, I also take a look at a free utility that allows you to take a standard full sized PDF and convert it automatically into a printable A5 booklet - very cool!

PDFPen has always been a great low cost PDF editor with some features previously only found in very expensive, top end editing applications. With the advent of PDFPen 4, there are even more features and the show will take a look at:

• Newly revised User Interface
• New Thumbnail view in the sidebar
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) - This is a big one, enabling you to take your scanned, uneditable and unsearchable PDFs and convert them automatically to have full searchable and editable text.
• New Highlighting & Annotation Features
• New Print options for Comments and Notes
• New TIFF Output

The show also covers:

• Using PDFPen to convert your PDFs for Evernote
• Installing and using Create Booklet 1.0.1

Links:
SmileOnMyMac
Evernote
ScreenSteps
NosillaCast
Create Booklet

Discussions: Forum

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Tags: PDFPen

Another sneaky peak this week, this time on an update to one of the most capable image editors and that's Pixelmator.

Since its launch exactly a year ago, Pixelmator has firmly established itself as one of the stellar graphics applications for OSX, or as they like to say "Image editing for the rest of us". Sporting many features previously only seen in high end image editors (and now with additional features not seen in high end images editors), Pixelmator delivers a wealth of functionality and some leading edge technology. With the advent of the soon to be released Version 1.3, the Pixelmator developers have been focussing on delivering better performance and re-working and adding to Pixelmators rich toolset.

For this weeks show, I've split the contents into two halves:

The first half is all about the new tools and significant enhancements to some of the old tools. This section covers:

• Smart Palette Hide
• Magic Eraser
• Magic Wand
• Enhanced Paint Bucket
• Hue and Saturation
• Replace Color

The second half of the show looks at some of the other features and techniques used within Pixelmator to make it such a powerful package. These include:

• Layers
• Layer Masks
• Clipping Mask
• Curves Tools
• Gradient Tool
• Transform Tools
• Crop Tool

And don't forget, there are a wealth of filters and effects also available in Pixelmator that I ran out of time to cover. Check out the previous screencast to see some of these in action.

Please note, Pixelmator 1.3 is due for release in the next week or so!

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
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It's here! One of the most eagerly anticipated applications for both the iPhone and iPod Touch is here - 1Password.

Regular viewers will know that 1Password is one of my favourite apps for the Mac and I use it each and every day to manage my passwords, my internet identities and also to protect me against phishing scams. Although, previous versions of 1Password offered support for the iPhone via Safari bookmarklets, I've been longing for the day when a native 1Password application would be available for my iPhone.

Much to my delight, a few days ago, Agile Web Solutions released a native iPhone/iPod Touch 1Password application via the iTunes App store. What's really amazing is that the App is a free download!

In its standalone form, it allows you to keep a secured database of your usernames and passwords (and notes) for your commonly accessed websites. However, its real power comes when you combine it with the 1Password desktop application (available from Agile Web Solutions). 1Password for the iPhone allows you to sync over WiFi with your desktop 1Password data, giving you access to all your stored URLs, usernames, passwords and secure notes in your pocket! Just configure the iPhone application to securely connect to your Mac over WiFi and transfer all your invaluable web data to the iPhone or iPod touch.

This show covers:

• Installing the iPhone Application
• Setting up the 1Password Desktop Application for Sync
• Configuring the iPhone Application
• Syncing your 1Password data
• Accessing your Logins
• Using your Logins
• Using the 1Password Mini Browser
• iPhone 1Password Settings
• Accessing Secure Notes on the iPhone

In addition, the first part of the show covers a few of the major changes to the Desktop application since we last looked at it back in December. These include:

• Additional AntiPhishing Support
• New Autosave prompt in Safari
• Go&Fill HUD in the Web Browser

Along with some invaluable preparation tips you need to undertake before syncing your iPhone or iPod touch with 1Password for the first time.

Correction: One slight error in the screencast - The keyhole icon in the mini browser is in fact the list of "Logins available for the current website" not the current open browser sessions. Mind you, the developers like that idea, so you never know!

Link to buy 1Password Desktop edition - ScreenCastsOnline Affiliate Link
Link to the free iPhone App - App Store

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
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An invaluable utility this week, one that I seriously could not function without!

It's TextExpander from Smile On My Mac.

On first glance, it looks like a very simple utility to help you save time. It allows you to create small textual abbreviations that, when typed, will expand into words, sentences, paragraphs or even images. It can even trigger AppleScripts, just by typing a few characters or even a single character!

What's really special is that it's a system wide utility so you're not restricted to just your email or word processor, TextExpander works with all the applications on your Mac.

Speed up your typing, use it to auto-correct commonly misspelt words, respond to emails in a flash, generate tons of CSS or HTML code, TextExpander really does give your productivity a boost.

In this weeks show I cover:

• Some common uses of TextExpander
• Creating your own Snippets
• Using Date and Time Variables
• Positioning the cursor in Snippets
• Using text selections to create Snippets
• TextExpander Groups including
• Adding from a File and URL
• Predefined Snippet Groups
• AppleScript Support

The free version of this weeks show is sponsored by Smile On My Mac and they have kindly offered a 20% discount to ScreenCastsOnline viewers up to July 31st 2008. To purchase TextExpander using this discount, just visit the special ScreenCastsOnline landing page at

http://www.smileonmymac.com/sco

Discussions: Forum

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by right clicking or CTRL clicking on this link Download Show
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Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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Time for an update on an application I last looked at over 12 months ago. Acknowledged as the premier diagramming, charting and visualisation tool for OSX, OmniGraffle has recently been relaunched with a mojor upgrade - OmniGraffle 5.

Available in both Standard and Pro versions, OmniGraffle is the tool that Mac users rely on to produce diagrams, process charts, UI mock ups and much more. Recognised as a perfect Visio replacement for switchers coming across to the Mac, OmniGraffle is a delight to use (see this recent blog post - "OmniGraffle makes it easy to leave Visio behind") combining simplicity with ease of use to deliver outstanding results.

This weeks show revisits some of the functionality I examined in the last show but focuses more on the new features in OmniGraffle 5 including:

• User Interface Update
• New Toolbar
• Configuring Drawing Tools
• Mini Inspector
• Style Tray
• Tools Basics including:
• New Bezier Line Tool
• Diagram Tool
• New Layout Engine
• New Stencil Palette
• Graffletopia Integration
• New OmniGraffle Pro features including:
• Subgraphs
• Presentation Mode
• Visio Compatability

This weeks free show is sponsored by the Omni Group and they have kindly offered a special discount to ScreenCastsOnline viewers. You can get 10% off any purchase of OmniGraffle 5 (upgrades or new purchases) by using the promo code:

SCO_OG5

when making your purchase.

Discussions: Forum

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Preview is one of OS X Leopards hidden gems. So much so, that most people are only aware of a fraction of its somewhat surprising range of features and capabilities!

Preview received a complete makeover with the release of Leopard, providing you with lots of additional power and flexibility. The great thing is, it's free and it's on all Macs so you never have to falter to make that image correction when your favourite shareware or freeware application isn't installed on someone else's Mac.

In this show, I'll take you through all the basic features of the latest version of Preview including:

• Image Capture
• Viewing Single and Multiple Images with Preview
• Slideshow Views
• Managing Images within Preview
• Color Correction
• Image Annotation
• Image Conversion and Resizing
• Opening and Re-arranging PDFs
• Annotation and Mark Up of PDFs
• Searching
• Bookmarks

See, I told you there was a lot to Preview!

Discussions: Forum

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Simple. Intuitive. Powerful. That's the strap line for this weeks application which is VectorDesigner by TweakerSoft.

Causing quite a buzz earlier this year by winning a "Best of Show" 2008 and also being featured as one of the premium applications in the last MacHeist* promotion, VectorDesigner is a fully featured vector drawing application.

Unlike raster or bitmapped based drawing applications such as PixelMator or Photoshop, VectorDesigner uses vector based graphics allowing you to create drawings that are infinitely scalable without any degradation or loss of quality. VectorDesigner has some pretty amazing features including:

• Fully editable Smart Shapes
• Bezier creation and editing
• Flowing text along a path
• Flowing text inside a shape
• Boolean operators
• Layers
• Image filters powered by Core Image and Quartz Composer
• iSight Integration
• Flickr Integration
• Scanner Integration
• iLife photo browser

In addition, VectorDesigner also allows you to import or scan raster based images and convert them into scalable, editable vector graphics.

This weeks show touches on all these features (OK, except for iSight integration, I don't think you're quite ready for my ugly mug in a screencast yet!) and even takes you through creating a vector image design from scratch.

Of special interest is the Flickr integration that allows you to browse Flickr via a VectorDesigner Flickr browser and search for images and photos based on subject, colour or your own criteria. Once you've found an approriate image, just drag the image directly into your own VectorDesigner document as a new image or to add texture to an existing object.

This week is a free show and is sponsored by TweakerSoft.

To order your copy of VectorDesigner with $10 off the usual price, just visit:

TweakerSoft store.

The offer is available until the 23rd May, 2008.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
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* If you'd like to see more tutorials on applications that have been featured in the Macheist promotions, just click on the MacHeist logo or on the "MacHeist" category in the sidebar. ScreenCastsOnline is not affiliated with MacHeist but offers these tutorials as a service to the Mac community!

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Finishing off the trio of shows all about iWork '08, this weeks show brings you up to date with the newly revised Pages'08, Apples flexible, yet powerful, word processor and page layout application.

Addressing the major complaints about Pages'06, mainly that it wasn't a "proper" word processor, Apple have completely revised Pages '08 to include a brand new "word processor" mode, in addition to its original page layout mode. To make it even easier to use, Apple have also introduced the context sensitive format bar in line with the other iWork applications to allow for less reliance on the inspector panels and give you control of the common elements right within the application window itself.

Following on from the previous show I did on Pages '06 (nearly two years ago!), this show will bring you up to speed on lots of the new functions and capabilities of this outstanding package!

This weeks show is a free show, but there is an extended show available for ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members with an additional 10 minutes of content and chapter marks. Extra! members will receive the extended show automatically as usual.

The show covers:

• Introduction to Pages '08
• Using the Format Bar
• Paragraph, Character & List Styles
• Page & Section Breaks
• Tracking Changes in Documents

The Extra! members extended show also covers:

• Working with Images in Pages
• Instant Alpha
• Wrapping Text around images
• Masking Images and Picture Frames
• Text Flow in Page Layout Mode
• Exporting

Discussions: Forum

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Tags: Wordprocessing, iWork

ScreenSteps is a great application from Blue Mango Learning Systems that makes creating, annotating and publishing instructions or task based documentation a breeze. Now although ScreenCasts are a brilliant way to get across complex information, sometimes there's no substitute for step by step instruction manuals with clear screenshots and good, consise instructions. The problem with creating "printed" documentation is that it can be difficult to assemble and can go out of date very easily requiring Herculean effort to update. And as for trying to keep on top of changes to videos - forget it!

Screensteps is cross platform application for both the Mac and Windows, which allows you to create libraries of "lessons", each lesson being a step by step process covering whatever tasks you want to document. Available in both a free version and a pay for version, the application has comprehensive tools built right in for screen capture and image annotation to easily and quickly build up step based documentation. Once you've created your lessons, ScreenSteps also has some powerful export functions that allow you export your lessons in either customised PDF or HTML format (in the pay for version) or even directly to a hosted ScreenSteps Live web service (included in the free version as well as the paid for version).

As well as exporting individual lessons, ScreenSteps allows you to organise your lessons into topics and sections, allowing you to create individual PDF files or HTML output containing an entire Library of lessons complete with a table of contents and easy navigation. The PDF version collates all your lessons into a multi page PDF whilst the HTML output provides all the code you need to upload to your website for online documentation.

If you're not sure about uploading HTML files to your website (or if you don't have a website) be sure to check out Part 2 of this ScreenSteps show where I'll be taking a look at ScreenSteps Live, a free service to host your ScreenSteps lessons. ScreenSteps Free and ScreenSteps Live are tightly integrated and it's really easy to export your lessons directly and automatically to ScreenSteps Live from within ScreenSteps.

As well as the free options, there are Standard and Pro versions of ScreenSteps which allow you to export locally to PDF and HTML so once you've tried the package, you can upgrade to get the full features.

Discussions: Forum

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Part 1 - ScreenSteps Desktop Application


Part 2 - ScreenSteps Live

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Tags: Windows, documentation, Writing, tags, instructions

Not one but two top applications featured in this weeks show! This weeks episode is sponsored by Houdah Software and I cover both HoudahSpot and HoudahGeo.

HoudahSpot is no stranger to regular ScreenCastsOnline viewers as we covered it back in March 2007. Since then, HoudahSpot has been completely re-written to take advantage of some of the new technologies in OS X Leopard. HoudahSpot is really what Spotlight should have been and even with the improvements to Spotlight in Leopard, HoudaSpot enables you to take search on the Mac to the next level. It doesn't replace the underlying Spotlight engine, it justs gives you a much more flexible yet powerful "front end" to your Spotlight data. Add in Templates, the new BlitzSearch Menubar icon, integration with Launchbar and much more, HoudahSpot is a great addition to your Mac.

HoudahGeo is one of those applications you need to see to fully understand its capabilities! That's why we have ScreenCastsOnline! It's an application that allows you to easily "geotag" your photos with location data without needing access to a specialised GPS device or expensive GPS enable camera. HoudaGeo lets you simply add in location data visually using either a simple Map option or using its built in integration with Google Earth. But if you have got a GPS tracker, it can use that as well!

As well as allowing you to "Geotag" your photos, HoudahGeo also allows you to share you photos with its built in uploading integration with Google Earth and Flickr. Once Geotagged, just a click of a button and your photos will be uploaded and placed in the correct position on global maps with Google Earth or Flickr - it's really that easy!

Once you've exported to Google Earth, the show will demonstrate how you can create a virtual slideshow in Google Earth, flying from loction to location and displaying your photos at each location! Not only that, but you can email the slideshow to friends or family and they can watch it in Google Earth on their own computer (without needing a copy of HoudahGeo) - how cool is that!

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
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Tags: Photo Management, File Utilities, Flickr

[Extra Only Show] As promised, this week concludes the two part show all about Bento, the personal database from Filemaker.

As mentioned in the previous show, Bento is a very powerful application that harnesses the power of database creation and sophisticated data manipulation in a very stylish and easy to use package - the epitome of a mac application!

As well as allowing you to create your own databases (or libraries in Bento terminology) from scratch or via imported data, Bento also gives you direct access to your Address book data, along with your iCal tasks and events to design your own forms to view and manipulate your data. Eye candy is plentiful with the use of pre designed themes and the ability to create your own special views of your data via easily customisable forms. Even if you don't feel the need to dabble with a database, Bento allows you to access, view and amend your Address Book and iCal data with a great new interface, straight out of the box.

In this final show I take you through some of the more advanced aspects of using Bento to manage your personal data including:

• iCal Event and Task Integration
• How you might use iCal integration
• Additional Bento Fields
• Printing Tables and Forms
• Creating Mailing Labels
• How to import Data into Bento
• Backing up Your Data

Hopefully parts 1 and 2 of this tutorial will have you well on the way to managing your data more effectively and give you a fresh outlook on address book and iCal.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

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Tags: Leopard, Utilities, Organiser

By popular demand, this weeks show is all about Bento by FileMaker. Bento is a very flexible and elegant database package that many people consider to be the application that was missing from iWork.

It's a very powerful application that harnesses the power of database creation and sophisticated data manipulation in a very stylish and easy to use package - the epitome of a mac application!

As well as allowing you to create your own databases (or libraries in Bento terminology) from scratch or via imported data, Bento also gives you direct access to your Address book data, along with your iCal tasks and events to design your own forms to view and manipulate your data. Eye candy is plentiful with the use of pre designed themes and the ability to create your own special views of your data via easily customisable forms.

This weeks show takes you through the basics of Bento and even if you've no database experience, should give you enough information to start creating your own databases with ease. The show is an Extra members show and covers:

• Introduction to Bento
• The Bento Interface
• Core Concepts - Libraries and Collections
• Address Book Integration
• Records & Table View
• Form Views
• Creating a Library
• Adding Fields
• Form Customisation
• Themes
• Advanced Find
• Smart Collections

More than enough to get you started! This is the first of a two part show on Bento and we'll look at some of the more advanced features in part two.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

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Tags: Organiser

It's been a while since I first found PDFPen, a great utility for editing PDFs. With the introduction of Version 3, however, the application now has some amazing features allowing you to edit the embedded images and text in the PDF itself!

Add in the ability to create and insert text, images, signatures and scribbles into a PDF and even create your own libraries of often used material, no longer do you have to spend hundreds of dollars on Adobe Acrobat!

This show is sponsored by Smile On My Mac, the publishers of PDFPen and covers:

• Introduction to PDFPen
• Manipulating PDF pages
• Working with Text
• Editing original PDF text
• Working with Columns
• Copying Text
• Searching for Text, Notes and Comments
• Working with Images
• Editing original PDF images
• Adding your own Images
• Filling in PDF Forms
• Adding Your Signature
• Making Transparent Images
• Applescript Support

On top of all that, this weeks show also contains a special ScreenCastsOnline discount code to save 20% off the usual price of PDFPen - The code is SCOPDFPEN - This code has been extended to 5th March 2008

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPo