DesktopShelves leaves Beta - Custom shelf designs and new app icon
It is my great pleasure to announce that DesktopShelves is now officially out of Beta. Version 1.0 comes with a brand new app icon and, among others, three of the most requested features:
- The ability to drop multiple files on a shelf at once
- Adjustable shelf width by dragging either end of a shelf
- Custom shelf designs
But that's not all. DesktopShelves comes with a total of 7 new features, 4 usability improvements, and 3 addressed issues (full details below).
Starting with this version, DesktopShelves comes as a 14-day demo version with all new features activated. At any time you can purchase the full license in the store. For those of you who took advantage of the pre-order discount you are all set – your license will be recognized just fine.
Your chance to win a free license: show off the new shelf designs
To celebrate the new release we are giving away 10 free licenses to the first people (one per person) who submit a screenshot of their desktop organized with DesktopShelves! Head over to the DesktopShelves User Gallery for the full details on how to participate.
Full list of changes
- Adjust shelf width by dragging left or right end of shelf
- You can now select multiple files and drop them onto a shelf
- Choose from 5 built-in shelf designs
- You can now drop more items on the shelf even if the shelf is full
- Visual feedback if dropping on shelf is not allowed
- All shelf items are now aligned with the shelf (no more floating items)
- Beautiful new application icon
- First and last shelf item won't minimize while cursor is still over them
- Disallowed dropping of system folders on a shelf (you don't want to move those)
- Removed the shelf label action button
- Shelf label now of same size as Finder labels
- Addressed possible crash when removing shelf with not all thumbnails created
- Right-click on shelf label now also opens shelf context menu
- Shelf can now be dragged by label on first click
How do I upgrade?
Click on the DesktopShelves icon in the menubar (or bring up the shelf context menu) and select Check for Updates...
If you do not have the app installed, you can download DesktopShelves here.
Text Selection Drag & Drop in DesktopShelves 0.9
A new week, a new release of DesktopShelves. This one is a follow-up for the "drag file contents" feature from last release completing the drag & drop cycle. Let's jump right in.
Text Selection Drag & Drop
Last time I showed you how you could drag and drop the contents of a file on your shelf into other applications. But what about the other way? Is it possible to drag text from an application like Mail.app, Safari, or TextEdit and drop it on a shelf? Well, now it is!
Just select text in any application, start dragging it and then drop it on one of your shelves. A new file named something like "text selection 1.txt" or "text selection 1.rtf" is then created with the contents of the text selection. This works for plain text and formatted text (including text with images).
This should make it even easier for you to organize frequently used text blocks, Mail signatures & templates, etc. on your shelves. Here's a short demo video.
Align Shelves with the new Snap-to-Shelf Feature
Having one shelf is nice, but many shelves are even better if only they would line up nicely on the Desktop. Here comes the Snap-to-Shelf feature. When you move a shelf around, it will now snap to the horizontal and vertical position of other shelves on the same screen.
Reveal the Shelf Folder in Finder
Another popular request: you can now reveal the shelf folder in Finder from the shelf context menu. Mike, Karim-Pierre, this one is for you.
Other Changes
Renaming the shelf folder? Not a problem. The shelf will update itself automatically even if you move the shelf folder.
Moving the shelf folder to the Trash? Say Goodbye to the shelf. It will go away automatically when you move the shelf folder to the Trash.
Oops. Removing a shelf when not all file thumbnails had been generated could cause DesktopShelves to crash. Not anymore. Thanks to "anonymous" for the crash report!
One more thing: Version 1.0 is almost here
This release will be the last version before the "official" 1.0. Again, big thank you to everybody who submitted feedback and suggestions and to those of you who showed your support by ordering a license through the pre-ordering process. The final price for DesktopShelves version 1.0 will be $15 USD (plus tax, if applicable). DesktopShelves is a small utility aiming to increase your productivity, but not getting in your way. $15 sounds like a fair price for such a tool.
How to I update?
Click on the status menu icon and select the "Check For Updates..." menu item.
New Drag and Drop Features in DesktopShelves 0.8
DesktopShelves 0.8 came with quite a few changes and a couple of new features. One of those new features is the ability to drag and drop files from the shelves directly into other applications such as Mail.app, TextEdit, and Pages. This works exactly the same way as if you would drag and drop the file from Finder so it works across applications.
Templating made easy with Content Drag & Drop
The second new feature is the ability to drag and drop the contents of a file into another application. Imagine this: you have a text file on your shelf and you drag and drop it into a new email. Mail.app will insert the file as message attachment.
However, if you use the right mouse button (or hold use the left mouse button and hold the Control key) to initiate dragging the file from the shelf, you will drag the contents. If you drop those into an email, Mail.app will insert the contents of the text file.
This works for images, all text files (including source code files such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.), rich text files (.rtf + .rtfd), and images.
Below is a short demo of the new features in action.
Let me know what you think of the new drag and drop features, or even better, record a video how you use them and reply to the demo video on YouTube.com.
By the way, the raspberry ones where the most delicious ;)
Pre-Order DesktopShelves during Beta for $10
Thanks to the awesome guys at FastSpring.com the DesktopShelves store is now open and ready for your orders.
As I promised, you can buy DesktopShelves during the Beta for $10. The price for the official release will be $15. You can save a few $s and show your support for DesktopShelves: pre-order now.
EDIT: The first 5 orders arrived! Country of first order ever: Canada. Followed closely (11 min) by the U.S., then Russia, Switzerland, and the UK. You guys rock!
Finder Integration and Auto-Updating Shelves
I promised you big steps towards the official Version 1.0 of DesktopShelves and here is the next big step: DesktopShelves 0.7.
The biggest additions are Finder integration and auto-updating shelves. Again, BIG Thank You! to everybody who submitted feedback and shared their ideas. I love reading your emails and usually respond within minutes to every one of them. Try it!
Here is a demo video of all the recent additions to DesktopShelves.
Finder Integration
Creating new shelves is easier than ever. You can now open any folder as a shelf right from the Finder context menu! When you right or control click on a folder in Finder or on the Desktop, you'll notice a new menu entry at the bottom of the context menu: Open as Shelf on Desktop.
To activate the Finder integration you have to launch the latest version of Desktop shelves once, then log out and back in again. That step is necessary for Finder to add the new menu item to the context menu.
Auto-Updating Shelves
Another important feature on the way to version 1.0: If something in the shelf folder changes, if you create a new folder, copy over some files, or move others to the Trash, the shelf updates itself automatically.
As a side effect, all items on the shelf are now always sorted by name. That's also done automatically. You can test this by dragging a file away from the shelf and then dropping it back on. It will appear at the end of the shelf for a fraction of a second and then move back to its correct position.
Selecting Adjacent Shelf Items
A lot of you have sent me feedback saying that it is too hard to select adjacent shelf items. I heard you! Try the new version and let me know if the new behavior works for you.
Accepting Pre-Orders Soon
With the official release so close, I will open up DesktopShelves for pre-order in a few days from now. That means that for the remaining time of the Beta you will be able to purchase DesktopShelves for $10 instead of the soon-to-be official price of $15.
For now, you can sign up to the Pre-Release mailing list to get notified when the store opens.
Full List of Changes
- New: Finder context menu entry to open folders as shelf.
- New: Shelves automatcially update when the shelf folder is changed (e.g. if you add or remove files).
- New: Items on shelf are sorted by name automatically even after dropping more files on a shelf.
- Improved: Selecting adjacent items made easier (special thanks to Mark, Ken, John, and yohmi for your feedback).
- Improved: Selected item animations are a bit smoother now.
How do I update?
- Right/control click on any shelf to open the shelf context menu
- Select Check for Updates...