Tuesday, June 6th, 2006

I think VP3 is ready for a little more testing by a wider audience. Specifically for the folks who read my blog and like to play with new stuff. I figure most people who read this site are already familiar with VP and have a sense of what to expect.

And there's a lot to go over, but I don't want to spend a huge blog post going over it all. So be sure to read the little window that pops up when you launch the beta.

A couple of notes though:

Update: It's 10.4 only, so if you're on 10.3 sorry- it's time to upgrade!

There's a new version- VoodooPad Pro. This is the version for the folks who want some crazy advanced features and are willing to pay a little extra for them. VoodooPad regular is still the main focus, and is meant for "everyone else". So don't worry about the Pro version getting all the focus, and Lite is still around as well. If you have any concerns about this addition to the VoodooPad family, please let me know.

And backup your VoodooPad documents! Beta software has sharp edges, and sometimes cut!

The documentation is updated as well describing new features and has a bunch of examples for script plugins. If you would like to check it out without downloading 3.0 just yet, it's online right here: vp3 docs

So what's new?

* Tabs - Open up multiple pages in the same window using tabs. Command click on a link to open it in a new tab, or right click on a link and choose "Open Link in New Tab". (And you can still open up pages in new windows by holding down shift-command when clicking on a link)

* Search Improvements - Search in VoodooPad is lightning fast now, and returns results in record times.

* Support for big documents - Stuff gigabytes of data inside a VoodooPad document, it won't mind. A new file format makes saving documents super quick as well.

* Linkback - A user can paste content from any LinkBack-enabled application into VoodooPad and reopen that content later for editing with just a double-click. See http://www.linkbackproject.org/ for more info.

* Embed images, pdfs, and other types of files. - The improved file format for VoodooPad 3.0 means you can embed files such as images, pdfs, mp3s, and most other types of files as well. VoodooPad also includes a new PDF Service so you can print from any application directly into VoodooPad.

* Full Screen - Edit your pages in full screen mode, to keep you focused on the task at hand.

* Script Plugins- Script Plugins are an easy way to extend the functionality of VoodooPad. Download new plugins or write your own.

* Palettes - VoodooPad sheds the drawer and moves content out into easy to use palettes. Find your backlinks, pages list, categories, recently updated pages, and (new for 3.0) recently visited pages quick and easily.

* Text Styles - A new text styles palette lets you add and apply text styles to your pages.

* Custom Shortcuts - VoodooPad has a new preference pane where you can set and change the menu item shortcuts. So if you don't like that a certain plugin has no shortcut- now you've got an easy way to fix it!

* Merge and Split - Merge two VoodooPad documents together using the import menu option, or split pages from a document into a new file to slim things down a bit.

And the of course improvements and minor new stuff:

* Rulers stay in place now when moving from page to page.
* Smooth lines for sketch
* Clippings folder now supports RTFD files
* Sending by mail now includes images
* New Web Export date placeholders
* Upgraded linking engine recognizes CJK links without spaces, and much more.
* Copy no longer copies links that are only good to VoodooPad
* Plain text pages
* New package file format which is subversion friendly
* Double clicking an image will now prompt you to save the image to disk
* New toolbar buttons
* Rulers stay in place now when moving from page to page.
* Window and tab states are now stored in the document
* Updates to the plugin api
* New preference to choose wether or not to use the default welcome text for new documents.
* The open page panel is no longer case sensitive
* New applescript command "current page name" to get the name of the front most page.

And the VoodooPad Pro only features:

* Document level encryption - Have every bit of your VoodooPad document protected by a password, and not just on a page by page basis.

* Triggers - A handy way to script VoodooPad when certain events occur such as a new page being created or deleted, documents opening or closing, files being written on web export and more.

* Item Meta - Assign meta data to an individual page which can be used for whatever you'd like, and access them in script plugins or triggers.

* Webserver - A built in webserver to share your pages with friends or co-workers on your local network without any pain. Bonjour support so you don't have to hand around cryptic urls.

And finally, here are the links you probably want:

http://flyingmeat.com/download/VoodooPad3b3.dmg
http://flyingmeat.com/download/VoodooPadPro3b3.dmg
http://flyingmeat.com/download/VoodooPadLite3b3.dmg

It expires on July 15th. You can't purchase VP3 just yet, but anyone who buys VP2.5 now will get a free upgrade to VP3 when it's released. VP Lite will be free as usual, VP Regular will jump to $29.95, and VP Pro will be $49.95. Upgrades from VP2.x will be $9.95, and upgrades to Pro will be $19.95. So if you don't already own VP you can save 5 bucks by buying it right now. Saving money == happiness.

If you have any questions or if you've found a bug (or even some UI element you think could be fixed up a bit more, like the crappy startup window or the insane preferences) please let me know. And of course I'm taking a little trip tomorrow, so I won't be able to answer everyone's emails right away.

comments (9)   # posted 7:09 pm (uct-6)