[spishack]

I have spent the last nine months working on my first OS X application. Countless hours, frustration, elation and work. I created something, from beginning to end, and now I get to share all of my hard work with you.

It is with great pride and immense pleasure that I announce the immediate availability of xPad Version 1.0.

http://www.getxpad.com

Here is the official press blurb:

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xPad is a notepad/scrapbook application with robust drag and drop support for OS X 10.2 or greater. Manage an unlimited number of documents in a single window interface. Color-coded categories and document sorting allows for easy organization of text documents. xPad is a single solution replacement for Stickies, NotePad, Scrapbook and TextEdit. xPad costs $9.99 US. For more information and to download, visit http://www.getxpad.com.
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There are screenshots available on the site. I would love any feedback, comments or suggestions.

Thanks!
Garrett Murray
www.getxpad.com

[iOliverC]

Very cool app, especially like the whole one window GUI.

[dillerX]

Nice

[gorickey]

Wow, this is a little jewel for sure...

[fisherKing]

looks good, that combination of function & aesthetics, gonna dl & check it out.

good luck w/it!

[spishack]

Thanks everyone!

[philm]

This looks great.

I would love to be able to use an app like this with iSync.... I (we?) really need a syncable memo-type application.

Nice work!

[spishack]

philm--sync is coming. Didn't make it into this version, but it will be coming soon...

[philm]

Originally posted by spishack:
philm--sync is coming. Didn't make it into this version, but it will be coming soon...

Now, this makes me very excited. Any indication of timescale for this. Top work!

[chris v]

Looks cool. Atttempt to send to iPod failed, though.

Questions:
1. What file formats does it support? .doc .rtf .jpg etc. a Complete listing would be handy.

2. Where are the documents created in the application saved to? That would be a nice bit of info to add to the bottom "info" drawer. I created a doc in the app, then did a serach for that name on my hard drive, and came up with zero items.

CV

[spishack]

philm--not specific timeline yet, I'm still formulating for the next version. It will be soon, however. As soon as I know, I'll let you know.

chrisv--which generation of iPod do you have? Also, did you check the help instructions (cmd+?) about making sure your iPod is in firewire disk mode?

to answer question 2--all documents created in xPad are stored in a single file. this makes opening/switching/editing/loading/saving files a LOT faster. so yes, if you create a document and search for it you won't find it. if you would like me to explain anything else, please let me know!

[chris v]

1, First gen. 5 gig iPod. Yes, firewire mode is enabled. Still not working as of today.

I presume the xpad data file is ~/Library/App Support/xPad/content.xpad

What file format is that?

Anyway, this would be ultimately handy for me if I could use my iPod as the default file location, so whenever I launched the app at home, or at work, with my iPod attached, those were the notes that would open. I suppose that would take some reworking, though. Just a thought...

CV

[phillryu]

This seems like Text Edit with an organizer/manager at this point... It doesn't really seem to offer 10 dollars advantage over a folder full of color labeled text edit documents.

But it has some potential. Syncing sounds good, as does some more toolbar buttons. Text alignment, category selector, font +/-, font selector would be nice.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, I really think that it may be worth purchasing for its potential, but it needs a bit more for those people who buy products as is. However, it's a really nice, polished app. I do request that the info drawer be put somewhere else, perhaps made into a window or a drawer on the left. A bottom drawer is just awkward for those of us with lower resolutions. (I'm talking 1024*768 here.)

[spishack]

Originally posted by phillryu:
This seems like Text Edit with an organizer/manager at this point... It doesn't really seem to offer 10 dollars advantage over a folder full of color labeled text edit documents.

Unfortunately, I think the entire point of how xPad works is that it's better than just a folder full of documents. With TextEdit, you have to have multiple windows open. With xPad, one. With TextEdit, you have to manually save each document before closing it. With xPad, everything is saved automatically. With TextEdit, you need to find and load all the documents you want to edit when you need to. With xPad, all documents are loaded and sorted automatically, and are all contained within one window--close that window, xPad stays open, all your documents neatly sleeping in the background. Click xPad's icon, there they all are again. Drop new documents in, drag to export documents out, etc, etc, etc. I think there are many more functions to xPad than TextEdit, even if you ignore the simple fact that it's a more organized multi-document editor.

But it has some potential. Syncing sounds good, as does some more toolbar buttons. Text alignment, category selector, font +/-, font selector would be nice.

Syncing is coming, yes. But I don't quite know what you mean about some of these items you've listed. Text alignment is available in the Font menu. I don't know what you mean by a category selector, please elaborate. Font +/- is available both in the Font menu and as a toolbar item (not there by default, simply right- or control-click the toolbar, select customize and drag them on), and font selection is available on both the Font menu, the toolbar (by default) and in the Preferences (for new document default font).

Sorry if this sounds harsh, I really think that it may be worth purchasing for its potential, but it needs a bit more for those people who buy products as is. However, it's a really nice, polished app.

While I don't understand that you consider xPad "as is," and yet call it a "polished app," I will say that I feel xPad is polished enough at 1.0 to be a solid, stable, usable app that many people have already found very valuable. I also agree xPad has potential, and feel the application will become even stronger as time goes on.

I do request that the info drawer be put somewhere else, perhaps made into a window or a drawer on the left. A bottom drawer is just awkward for those of us with lower resolutions. (I'm talking 1024*768 here.)

I can understand this request. I did test xPad thoroughly on a 12-inch PowerBook (1024x768), and while I was comfortable with the placement of the bottom window, I can see how this might be a problem for others who utilize their space differently. I will consider adding the option to move this drawer in the future.

Thanks for your feedback!
garrett

[ambush]

Originally posted by spishack:
Unfortunately, I think the entire point of how xPad works is that it's better than just a folder full of documents. With TextEdit, you have to have multiple windows open. With xPad, one. With TextEdit, you have to manually save each document before closing it. With xPad, everything is saved automatically. With TextEdit, you need to find and load all the documents you want to edit when you need to. With xPad, all documents are loaded and sorted automatically, and are all contained within one window--close that window, xPad stays open, all your documents neatly sleeping in the background. Click xPad's icon, there they all are again. Drop new documents in, drag to export documents out, etc, etc, etc. I think there are many more functions to xPad than TextEdit, even if you ignore the simple fact that it's a more organized multi-document editor.

You have to accept criticism..

this app is not "ground breaking", period.

I personally see it as "yet another notes app"

It I really had to buy one of these apps, it'd be OmniOutliner, no doubt.

But for the moment, I can manage them with TextEdit and the Finder w/labels

[spishack]

Originally posted by ambush:You have to accept criticism..

I will accept all criticism. I just wanted to dispel any confusion about features.

[phillryu]

To clarify... I do think that the application generally feels good, and has had a lot of thought put into the UI, but I think it's not yet complete in the features department.

Would you buy an underpowered wintel PC housed inside the iMac's beautiful dome? I dunno, some people might.

[Synotic]

Since you wanted some feedback... xPad is definitely an application that has a lot of thought put into it but I feel somewhat that the "flow" of the app isn't very intuitive. By flow I mean the process you go through in adding new documents and then choosing a category etc...

First of all, IMO (although I believe it's probably somewhere in the HIG) the "New" and "Rename", "Delete" buttons shouldn't be in the main toolbar simply because it doesn't affect the current document. To me it'd make more sense if they were in the drawer. Look to Mail.app for an example.

Once you click "New" you're immediately presented with a sheet asking you for the name. This isn't really common behavior and it's kind of annoying. You have to deal with the overhead of the sheet coming down and going away. When you press New it should automatically select inside the newly made item, allowing the user to immediately put in a name. iCal does the same thing.

After that you have to choose a Category.. This is one area where it is highly counterintuitive. The only way you can set a category apparently is by going through the menus or control-clicking on an item. On Windows I know it's kind of customary to control-click on any object to figure out what to do with it, but on the Mac it's reserved for extra options that you don't need to normally do. You should have the option of choosing a category right away similar to the Finder. You could put a category chooser in the same place as the moved "New", "Rename", "Delete" buttons if you do decide to move them at all. Another problem with categories is that off the bat you don't have any categories to choose. You have to go through the whole setup process. You should have at least 5 common ones that can be renamed later so that everything works right away.

Some other nitpicks regarding the drawer... It'd look a lot better and conform better if you moved category column into the name/document column like in iCal. Also, this is getting really nitpicky but is it possible to use a more standard height for the table rows? They're almost always the same and it feels wrong otherwise. I don't know if this is a requirement but it seems that in most apps secondary/drawer table views have lighter selections. Right now it's a bit overpowering with the dark blue.

The column lines don't seem to match up with the columns either. If you see the separator between "Documents" and "Date" the line doesn't match up. The text in the Date column header also seems to be too far to the left. Ending the column rant, when you resize columns horizontally the little "horizontal resizer" cursor doesn't come up like in Mail.app.

Moving on to the info drawer... It looks like some of the leading is off. The margins above ad below the "Notes" property are far greater than the other properties. Another thing is that property/data things like that usually have everything aligned on the colon. Like:

        &n bsp;name af
     category None
       &nbsp ;words 0
      created 23 December 2003 at 01:14 PM
last modified 23 December 2003 at 01:24 PM

With the dates I think they could be formatted more logically than "23 December 2003 at 01:14 PM". Drop leading zeroes, add commas rearrange some stuff etc... Or you can just do 12/13/03.

Directly underneath the main text view display you have the category. Isn't that a bit redundant since you have it right underneath in the info? And if you have the the info closed then it's in the listing. If you have both closed then then I suppose it's could be helpful however.

With the "Hide info" button, the opposite supplementary text is "Get info" which isn't as appropriate. "Show info"would make more sense.

OK, I think that's pretty much it for the main window

In your menus it seems kind of... nonstandard. Not very Mac like. Mostly in item position and key commands. I'll just list them to make it easier:

Renaming "File" to "Documents". I don't know many apps if any that actually change the name of the File menu.

The "Rename" menu item/command isn't really needed. You should be able to rename the currently selected item by either double clicking on it or hitting return. And doing this should simply select inside the current cell, not bring up a sheet. Refer to iCal for this functionality (in the To Do Items which you can get to by pressing the little thumbtack button on the bottom right of the window).

The Previous/Next don't belong in the File/Documents menu. Anything in that menu relates to the context of the current document. These items relate to the app/window interface as a whole. Therefore they should be moved into the Window menu like Safari.

Command-Delete is more of a Finder thing. You should just be able to hit delete. And at that it should be in the Edit menu. Also you should ditch the sheet alerting the user of the "non-reversible" action. It only disrupts the flow of the application. This can easily be alleviated by... making it reversible. Generally you can just hit delete and then do command-z and it comes right back.

Import using Command-O as a key command... I realize you use this because it will be your users' first instinct to use command-o to open something with the app. But that's what they're expecting... command-o to open something for editing. Import has a different context of converting the file for use in the application, without harming the original file.. You're mixing different concepts here. You're going to have to make a compromise somewhere.

Your breaking up of the Text and Font menus is suspect but it doesn't seem severely hampering to the experience so I'll leave that to someone else if they want to argue it

If you could simply change the menu item from saying "Command-=" to "Command-+" for enlarging text then it would be a lot more consistent.

In the Window menu you should move the "Close Window" command to the File/Documents menu and rename it as "Close". Although it may not seem to make much sense, it probably stems from the fact that closing the window affects the document(s) in that it saves them.

All the drawer and toolbar stuff should be be moved out of the Window menu into the currently nonexistent "View" menu. Don't worry, it won't make the current menu any longer because you'll be renaming Documents to File which will make up for it... Right?

Done with the menus...

The Preferences are rather... meh. I think the entire Confirmations section can be taken out. The first two options are redundant if you following the whole "select the text inside the row cell" convention. The second two, since they're specifically triggered by a menu/key command to bring up a window, it's already an out of flow action. I think it's kind of expected that there'll be an alert if an error has occurred or that it succeeded.

The auto create document isn't needed, just don't do it.

With the Exporting thing, I don't see why anyone would want they're files overwritten just because they have the same title. If you use xPad as a reminder you may always name a note "Friday Night Dinner" and you use the date to differentiate between them. I can't think of an instance where you would want the files to be overwritten. Also the RTF/TXT thing, that can just be put in the Export dialog... and apparently it is. That can be knocked out.

Speaking of the Export dialog. Format group box looks kind of cramped. Give it the same padding as the normal text encoding group box. Also ditch the note and use the same save dialog intelligence. Put an extension in there by default... if they remove it, add it, if they add it, leave it etc...

In the et-cetera the transparency is just gimmicky and isn't really needed. I'd ditch it if I were you. The Terminal utilizes it better because it keeps the text color the same and doesn't have any drawers and whatnot.

In the Updates panel, look at the actual Software Update panel to see how to rearrange the items. Putting the Last check underneath a separator. Changing it to "Check now" changing some of the other wordings etc... Also the little note can be knocked out. Also, this is just a suggestion, but why not just eliminate the whole update thing altogether and just check whenever there's an active connection? You can keep the menu item but have it open a dialog with a progress bar that checks. I believe apps like Watson/OmniOutliner do this.

Registration info is usually put into the application menu "xPad". Look at applications like Watson/Transmit to see how they do it.

I think I have made a point to remove every last preference in your app! The only one I don't think I axed was the font selection which some people use.

There are three types of preference panes, the one where there are like 10 or more, see System Prefs. 10 or less, see Safari or just a few choice item, see Chess (not a great example but an example nonetheless).

If you were to follow my suggestions (you're of course not obligated to) then I'd suggest the Chess like Preference items.

Also the group box thing isn't really in anymore. Look at Safari and some other apps. They follow a 12px Lucida Grande motif.

OK, I hope you haven't fallen out of your seat yet. Please take my suggestions with a grain of salt, I just notice these things a lot and take my time to make them known. xPad has a potential to be a great program, once you have a good foundation you can add on features and really make xPad a great program. (I'm sure I've used that line somewhere else...)

If you excuse me, I think I'm going to step outside for a while

[Judge_Fire]

Originally posted by Synotic:
Since you wanted some feedback...

Consistency rocks!

J

[proton]

Originally posted by Synotic:
With the dates I think they could be formatted more logically than "23 December 2003 at 01:14 PM". Drop leading zeroes, add commas rearrange some stuff etc... Or you can just do 12/13/03.

I've never heard of this magical 13th month. Is that something that only happens in the US?



- proton

[Jan Van Boghout]

Originally posted by proton:
I've never heard of this magical 13th month. Is that something that only happens in the US?



- proton

Sometimes they even have a 31st month

[MojoRising022]

The US and Europe format shorthand dates differently. It is also uncommon here to use a 24-hour clock.

[Synotic]

Originally posted by proton:
I've never heard of this magical 13th month. Is that something that only happens in the US?



- proton

For whatever reason we put the month before the day.

[gorickey]

Garrett:

It's been awfully quite on the developement of this awesome app lately and I was just wondering what the status/timeline of future features you have in store for it are...

[krove]

Originally posted by Synotic:
For whatever reason we put the month before the day.

Not for whatever reason ... we format it based on how we say it and write it the long way: December 31, 2004 is most common.

We do on occasion say the 31st of December, but in that context rarely is the year ever included. For full dates, we use the former as opposed to the latter, so 12/31/2004 it is.

For file sorting purposes, however, I prefer the true way: 2004.12.31, such that the finder and terminal properly sort files chronologically with which I choose to use the date.



</offtopic>

[Gadifae]

Originally posted by gorickey:
Garrett:

It's been awfully quite on the developement of this awesome app lately and I was just wondering what the status/timeline of future features you have in store for it are...

http://www.maniacalrage.net/archives...pad_status.php

[gorickey]

Originally posted by Gadifae:
http://www.maniacalrage.net/archives...pad_status.php

Thanks!