Tools to Increase Your Productivity


Tiger includes a nice selection of applications to help you be more productive, but it doesn't give you a complete toolbox to work from. A multitude of third-party developers have stepped up to the plate and produced some remarkably clever utilities to make your life and workweek run more smoothly. Here are a few applications that address features Apple should have included with Tiger.

PrintWindow

If you burn a CD or DVD full of files for a project that is moving to a service bureau, a print shop, or another designer, including a printed list of the files and what folders they are in can really help on the receiving end, and it's the polite thing to do. Printing a file listing like that is referred to as "printing the window." The problem is that Tiger has one of the worst window-printing utilities ever.

Print Window, from SearchWare Solutions (www.searchwaresolutions.com/products/printwindow), lets you print window listings, sort file listings, hide file icons, include file properties, and automatically include the contents of subfolders.

Print Window is free, but for $15, Print Window Advanced also lets you print CD and DVD covers, and control which file properties print.

A Better Finder Rename

Tiger includes everything you need to rename large batches of files at once; all you have to do is write the AppleScript that does it for you. The problem is, by the time you write an AppleScript that handles all of the different renaming scenarios you are likely to encounter, you might as well get A Better Finder Rename instead (Figure 8.29). Its renaming features give you detailed control over renaming without requiring any programming skills on your part.

Figure 8.29. Batch-renaming files is a tedious chore, but A Better Finder Rename can make the process go faster. It can rename files, modify filenames, add time-stamp information, and more.


If you create a series of graphics for a design project and find that your naming convention won't work for the service bureau that is outputting your film, or you get a CD full of digital camera images with names like DCSPro34823.jpg that need to be renamed, A Better Finder Rename will save you hours of time. It lets you insert sequence numbers and dates in filenames, fixes filenames to fit different operating-system requirements, alerts you to file-name conflicts, renames files based on document type, and more.

A Better Finder Rename is available for download at publicspace.net (http://publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/; $19.95).

DropCopy

File sharing is OK for exchanging documents on your local network, but you shouldn't leave it running all the time. File sharing can potentially slow down your Mac, and file servers are much better tools for managing your networked documents. DropCopy, from 10base-t interactive (http://10base-t.com/dropcopy.html), takes care of the quick file transfers for you, and it doesn't need file sharing to be active (Figure 8.30).

Figure 8.30. DropCopy lets you copy files from your Mac to any other Mac on your network that's running DropCopy, without requiring you to configure anything.


Let's say you are working on a new sales brochure, and someone else in your agency is working on a Web page to go along with it. The Web designer wants to see a mock-up of the brochure so that he can start working on the site layout. You make a quick PDF and let DropCopy send it to his Desktop without either of you needing to configure any sharing or network settings.

DropCopy adds a drop zone to your Desktop. When you drag a file or folder onto it, a list pops up showing all of the Macs on your network that have DropCopy running. Choose the Mac you want to send your file to, and a copy is sent to his or her Desktop. I use DropCopy every day.

DropCopy is free for up to three users, and a site license is $25.




Designer's Guide to Mac OS X Tiger
Designers Guide to Mac OS X Tiger
ISBN: 032141246X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 107
Authors: Jeff Gamet

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