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moki · Jun 27, 2005, 09:56 PM

Well, soon anyway. Anyone remember an old product of ours called Easy Envelopes? It's baaaaaaaack

This time as a free widget.

Comments/questions/suggestions? Please do...

phillryu · Jun 27, 2005, 10:29 PM

Looks like a very cool widget, but it's huge! And it seems that a lot of the space could be trimmed down without losing anything. Otherwise, it looks like it does the job in a pretty aesthetically pleasing way. Except the fact that the info button shows through the text input area, and the fact that the search field isn't aligned with the text area at all.

ambush · Jun 27, 2005, 10:32 PM

ugly

:dragonflypro: · Jun 27, 2005, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by ambush

ugly

This opinion rendered with absolutely no ill feelings, begrudge-ment or malice in the least.

Naw, couldn't be…

T

PurpleGiant · Jun 27, 2005, 10:44 PM

Guys, he mentions in the thread that the design isn't final, and that it will look much better when completed.

vinster · 10:56 PM

Not ugly. Awesome!

Couple of comments/suggestions if you're interested:

- Please just make sure there's the ability to set a custom-sized envelope in cm and inches and that it's easy to get the envelopes to print properly (I seem to have problems with this sometimes).

- Also, countries like the UK typically put the return address on the back of envelopes, so you may want to make a Euro-mode for this market.

Looking forward to the release!

moki · Jun 27, 2005, 11:34 PM

Originally Posted by vinster

- Also, countries like the UK typically put the return address on the back of envelopes, so you may want to make a Euro-mode for this market.

Looking forward to the release!

Yeah... but there are not too many two-sided printers out there.

There is an option to not print the return address if you wish, though.

moki · Jun 27, 2005, 11:37 PM

Originally Posted by vinster

- Please just make sure there's the ability to set a custom-sized envelope in cm and inches and that it's easy to get the envelopes to print properly (I seem to have problems with this sometimes).

Yep, it just uses Page Setup... for the envelope sizes... so it is already localized in terms of sizes, language, and units.

moki · Jun 28, 2005, 12:23 AM

Originally Posted by phillryu

Looks like a very cool widget, but it's huge! And it seems that a lot of the space could be trimmed down without losing anything. Otherwise, it looks like it does the job in a pretty aesthetically pleasing way. Except the fact that the info button shows through the text input area, and the fact that the search field isn't aligned with the text area at all.

Yep, all of that will be cleaned up, no worries. As for the size, it really isn't much of an issue. It isn't a status widget that needs to be seen all of the time.

littlegreenspud · Jun 28, 2005, 07:01 AM

Looks like it will be very useful - keep up the good work.

Amorya · Jun 28, 2005, 07:32 AM

Originally Posted by moki

Yeah... but there are not too many two-sided printers out there.

There is an option to not print the return address if you wish, though.

Apple used to give away a two-sided printer when you bought a powerbook... I know 'cos I got one! Maybe there are more than you think

Other than that, cool widget

Amorya

Gee4orce · Jun 28, 2005, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by moki

Yeah... but there are not too many two-sided printers out there.

There is an option to not print the return address if you wish, though.

No, but plenty of duplex ones (like my Canon iP4000), where the sheet is re-fed into the printer and printed on the reverse of the first page. So, you could add an option to print the return address on 'page 2'....

Scifience · Jun 28, 2005, 08:19 AM

Originally Posted by Gee4orce

No, but plenty of duplex ones (like my Canon iP4000), where the sheet is re-fed into the printer and printed on the reverse of the first page. So, you could add an option to print the return address on 'page 2'....

Yep. I've got a Samsung CLP-550N that does this. Comes in very handy.

TETENAL · Jun 28, 2005, 09:11 AM

Cool widget, but since Address Book prints envelopes just fine I stay with that.

moki · Jun 28, 2005, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

Cool widget, but since Address Book prints envelopes just fine I stay with that.

Yep, but it is lacking a number of features -- including convenience. Ah well, it'll be free -- give it a whirl.

moki · Jul 12, 2005, 09:27 AM

Here's a little movie of Easy Envelopes in action. Still some issues to work out, but we're moving along with it!

We've also put it up on or Upcoming web page where you can view screenshots of it, read the development log, etc.

Mrjinglesusa · Jul 19, 2005, 04:10 PM

Very cool Andrew - can't wait to use this.

moki · Aug 12, 2005, 05:16 PM

We're almost done with our free envelope printing widget for Dashboard, EasyEnvelopes ... here are some finalized UI screenshots:

It's fully international-friendly, we're actually just finishing up some work on the Japanese localization (Japanese envelopes are "interesting"

)

Adam Betts · Aug 13, 2005, 02:49 AM

Not to nitpick but 120 degree shadow is ancient

Every shadow and lighting in OS X are 90 degree.

Letter graphic and UI is just perfect for its purpose. I like it.

ShotgunEd · Aug 13, 2005, 07:17 AM

This looks amazing. Good work.

Mrjinglesusa · Aug 13, 2005, 09:59 AM

Can't wait for this. Well done Andrew.

Salty · Aug 15, 2005, 12:23 AM

Originally Posted by ambush

ugly

See this is why nobody will take your software seriously... cause you're a troll...

That said, great looking app... I have no use for it but it's hardly ugly.

pendragon · 07:53 AM

Andrew, How delightful! And free? For sure I have paid much more for much less. Alas, I am not sure I can use it because my addresses are in Palm Desktop and not in a .Mac or similar address book. Is that correct, am I really out of luck?

Still, thanks for your contribution to the Macsters everywhere.

JKT · Aug 15, 2005, 08:47 AM

I have to say I have been looking forward to this being released ever since you posted the movie... especially as I have since had the mild displeasure of using the Address Book to (try) and print a decent label... too restrictive in its layout options for non-Americans.

moki · Aug 16, 2005, 04:49 AM

Originally Posted by pendragon

Andrew, How delightful! And free? For sure I have paid much more for much less. Alas, I am not sure I can use it because my addresses are in Palm Desktop and not in a .Mac or similar address book. Is that correct, am I really out of luck?

Still, thanks for your contribution to the Macsters everywhere.

Alas, yes, it will not integrate with Palm Desktop. We may look into this in the future, but for now it just integrates with AddressBook.

Still, that doesn't prevent you from using it, you can copy and paste addresses into it with no problems. It just isn't quite as convenient if you're printing envelopes to people who would normally be in your address list.

moki · Aug 16, 2005, 04:54 AM

Originally Posted by JKT

I have to say I have been looking forward to this being released ever since you posted the movie... especially as I have since had the mild displeasure of using the Address Book to (try) and print a decent label... too restrictive in its layout options for non-Americans.

We've taken great pains to make sure it will work well with the particulars of address placement in various countries. To give you some idea:

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/...alization.html

We will ship with localizations for a few countries; I expect more will be added along the way. Essentially, the return address and mailing address can go in any of 9 locations on the envelope (top left, top middle, top right, right middle, bottom right, bottom middle, bottom left, left middle, and center).

Because some countries/people like to put return addresses on the back of envelopes, we support that too. The location for the return address on the back of the envelope is set independently, and it works by prompting you to re-insert the envelope upside down to print on the back.

(we need to make a few minor revisions to the above document, but you get the idea).

We have had to make a few special adjustments for printing Japanese envelopes, such as supporting text that flows from top to bottom (instead of left to right) for vertical envelopes. This was done in a generic enough way that it should handle vertical text in other languages as well, if needed.

After all this, I hope you're not disappointed: it doesn't print labels, just envelopes :/

Big Mac · Aug 16, 2005, 05:00 AM

I have some things to address for mailing tomorrow, so I'd love to take a look at that thar widget now.

pendragon · 07:30 AM

Andrew, Your reply prompted me to action.

I exported the addresses I have in my Palm Desktop as a vCard, and then imported them to my Address Book. Worked perfectly. Now I can use Easy Envelopes and Ambrosia can inform their loyal constituents of an easy way to use Easy Envelopes (and perhaps obviate the need to integrate with Palm).

Thanks again!

JKT · Aug 16, 2005, 08:41 AM

Originally Posted by moki

After all this, I hope you're not disappointed: it doesn't print labels, just envelopes :/

It already looks infinitely better than the Address Book options (which, fwiw, are OK... just a bit too limiting) so I doubt I will be!

DeathMan · Aug 16, 2005, 12:10 PM

this is sweet. way to go el presidente.

moki · Aug 16, 2005, 05:47 PM

We're still tweaking things a bit, but here's a sample of the Japanese envelopes. Similar things can be done in other language as well, there just needs to be a localization in place.

Horiztonal (modern) format:

Vertical (traditional) format:

osxisfun · Aug 16, 2005, 05:48 PM

kanji(?) loooks soooooooo coool...

moki · Aug 16, 2005, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by osxisfun

kanji(?) loooks soooooooo coool...

Well, a mixture of kanji and other Japanese scripts... the real trick was getting it to handle the vertical printing, the extraction of the postal code, and other Japanese-specific formatting details (which we're still working on). Clearly it's only really of use if you're Japanese... but it shows the flexibility we've tried to build into it for localization purposes.

moki · Aug 16, 2005, 06:29 PM

Originally Posted by pendragon

Andrew, Your reply prompted me to action.

I exported the addresses I have in my Palm Desktop as a vCard, and then imported them to my Address Book. Worked perfectly. Now I can use Easy Envelopes and Ambrosia can inform their loyal constituents of an easy way to use Easy Envelopes (and perhaps obviate the need to integrate with Palm).

Thanks again!

Ut oh... that's a lot of pressure. Hope you like it.

BTW, if anyone is interested in getting in on the beta test of this product, drop me an email at: andrew@AmbrosiaSW.com

We should be issuing a final candidate tomorrow, so some additional testers might be nice!