Bee Docs - Blog

Ask Bee Docs - Artisan Software

2009-06-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

In this episode Adam shows off his bass guitar and answers the question: Why do you choose an artisan approach to software?

For more information on the bass shown in this video, check out the Rob Allen website.

What does “artisan” mean to you? Please let us know in the comments. Also, we need some more questions for future videos. Please send a question to us at ask@beedocs.com.

OmniFocus Importer for Bee Docs Timeline

2009-06-29T12:42:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, we recently added built-in support for Things and The Hit List in response to customer requests. Well, we heard loud and clear from the OmniFocus fans who wanted support for their task manager of choice too!

We just published version 2.7.1 of Bee Docs Timeline which can automatically create timelines based on your tasks stored in OmniFocus that have due dates. We are proud to offer automatic timeline charting that integrates with three of the world class task managers on Mac OS X.

Thank you very much to the folks at OmniGroup who helped us with the OmniFocus integration. They even updated some of their custom images for us so that we could offer you a pixel perfect experience!

Download Bee Docs Timeline 3D (v2.7.1)

Ask Bee Docs - Customer Service

2009-06-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

In this first episode of our “Ask Bee Docs” video series, Elise and I answer the following question: Can you describe a great customer service experience?

How about you? Do you a great customer service experience to share? If so, please tell us about it in the comments. Also, if you have a question you'd like us to respond to in a future video, please send it to ask@beedocs.com.

Natural Selection Shirt on Sale!

2009-06-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

Need a funky tee?

This week, we reduced the price of our exclusive “Natural Selection” t-shirt to $9.95 USD plus shipping. That is 60% off!

Designed by Engin Korkmaz of Instanbul Turkey and printed by PJ Portlock of Portland Oregon. These shirts represent a global collaboration of artists and are made from 100% organic cotton and eco-friendly water-based inks.

These shirts have always been rad, and this week they are cheap.

Get yours today!

Introducing: Ask Bee Docs

2009-06-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

We thought it would be fun to record a series of videos answering questions that you may have. Please check out this intro video explaining how it works and then ask away!

New Movie: Transparent Backgrounds

2009-05-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

In our latest movie, Elise Hunt presents an easy way to layer your timeline on top of multi-media backgrounds using the latest release of Bee Docs Timeline 3D and Apple's Keynote.

As always, we would love your feedback and we can not wait to see how you put the new feature into practice!

Click here to visit our movie page

Kennesaw State University Pre-Graduation Video

2009-05-18T14:13:00.000-07:00

Since we posted Dale Suffridge’s Kennesaw State University Video last week, we have received at lot of positive feedback and questions about how the video was put together.

I asked Dale if he could provide some technical details on how he made the video and he was kind enough to write the following article for you! Please enjoy this behind-the-scenes peek at an creative use of Bee Docs Timeline and be sure to thank Dale if you learn something from his article.

The Creation of the Kennesaw State University Pre-Graduation Video

by Dale Suffridge

Our department was approached about creating a video that would run on the HD projection screen over the stage for the hour leading up to each graduation for Kennesaw State University (KSU). We had been impressed with the new Timeline 3D software and thought that this would be a perfect large-scale use for it.

Showing an historic timeline of how KSU got to where it is today seemed a perfect and engaging fit for a diverse graduation crowd. However, we also needed to include current facts about each graduating college within the university. So I knew that I would use Timeline as the base and “break out” of the timeline to cover the current facts whenever we shared a relevant historical fact regarding that particular college in the Timeline.

The final look was achieved using a combination of Timeline, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.

First I created and exported the Timeline using the Cherry Pie theme. I then screen-captured the red gradient background, bottom timeline bar and burgundy info box (all blank) for use within Photoshop and Final Cut Pro (FCP). Note: To get the burgundy info box to be large enough and blank, I created one that had a period at the top and then multiple line breaks and a period at the bottom. In Photoshop I used the clone stamp to take away the periods and the year and leave a blank info box.

In Photoshop, I created all the elements that I would need to recreate and manipulate the Timeline-look within FCP for the “break out” moments. These included:

All the burgundy “fact” boxes. I trimmed around the edges to keep the rounded-corner shape of the info box and I exported all info boxes as transparent PNGs for use within FCP.
And the timeline “pole” that would rise and fall from the bottom timeline bar connecting to the info boxes.

After I shot the HD footage of campus for the video portions, I brought it all together in FCP. Then it became a simple video editing project within FCP.

First I created a video opening and video segments for each individual college that would have it’s own “break out” portion. Then I recreated the Timeline look for the opening by using the elements created in Photoshop.

For the movement of the elements I utilized the “Motion Parameters” and keyframes within FCP. The fact boxes folding in and out upon themselves was achieved by key-framing the upper and lower right corners within the Distort section. And the pole ascending and descending was a basic "Center" motion path key-framing.

The transitions for breakouts of the various college were enhanced by creating a text layer of a keyword (or words) connecting the Timeline fact to the breakout college’s title bar. These text layers were then motion key-framed across the screen from the fact box into the title bar using a “Center” keyframe (and “Scale” was also key-framed if necessary to make the word fit). I added a “Scale” key-framing to the text layer to make the word(s) appear to move closer and then farther away as they travelled. And to achieve the glow as the text moved across the screen, I also incorporated the “Dazzle” filter that was key-framed to go from 0% mix to 100%, and then back to 0%.

If you notice during the breakout segments, the pole connects to the timeline at approximately the current time on the calendar. I would love to say that this was a forethought. But alas, it was a happy accident.

If you have any other questions, or if my convoluted explanation simply caused confusion, please feel free to contact me at dsuffrid at kennesaw.edu. Cheers.

Bee Docs on Twitter

2009-05-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

We have found that Twitter is a great tool to see what people are saying about Bee Docs Timeline and timeline charting in general. We have also been having fun leaving some tweets of our own.

Elise Hunt (@elisekarolina), our Community Development Lead, has been using her Twitter feed to feature outstanding projects that our customers have created using Bee Docs Timeline.

For example, Elise recently featured this beautiful graduation video from Dale Suffridge of Kennesaw State University.

My own Twitter feed can be found at @AdamBehringer. I sometimes tweet about what I am developing, sometimes random stuff... I am trying to limit the blog on our website to official announcements so the Twitter feed is a more casual way for me to keep in touch.

Please add us to your follow list if you are so inclined and be sure to send us examples of your best timeline projects so that we can feature your work too!

Bee Docs Timeline 2.6 - Released!

2009-04-30T14:36:00.000-07:00

Today I posted the 2.6 update to Bee Docs Timeline. This update contains a lot of “housekeeping” improvements that I wanted to get in there before turning my attention to the next major release. As usual, there are also some new fun features in the update.

I was happy to have Gary C Martin involved on this release to help me work a little more 3D magic. A few of our professional customers from film and broadcast television have requested a way to export video timelines with the background as an alpha channel (transparent). This would allow them to layer the 3D timeline movie on top of custom graphics using tools such as Final Cut Pro or Motion.

To do transparent backgrounds correctly was no easy task because wanted to make sure the feature supported motion blur, semi-transparent chart backgrounds, lighting effects, etc... However, we’ve done it in 2.6 and made subtle improvements to other aspects of the 3D rendering while we were at it.

We are working on a new demo video to show off some of the potential of this new feature. In the mean time, if you would like to try it, look for the “Include Alpha Channel” checkbox in the QuickTime export panel. Keynote does a good job of layering transparent movie files if you don’t have access to professional video editing software.

Our automatic importer for Things has been a popular feature since we added it last month. We also received feedback from other customers who are fans of another task manager called The Hit List by Potion Factory. So we have added an automatic importer for The Hit List is this release.

The Hit List was included in the recent MacHeist sale and has been getting rave reviews on Twitter so check it out. Whether you are using Things or The Hit List to manage your tasks, we hope you enjoy the integration with Bee Docs Timeline.

In the housekeeping category, saved document sizes up to about 40% smaller now if you are using lots of images. Also, PDF exports can be compressed which makes them more appropriate for sharing via the web or e-mail. There are some subtle improvements to the typography of date ranges. I’ve also modernized some of behind-the-scenes processes. For example, movie export is better at using disk space efficiently.

Version 2.6 is a free upgrade. So please use “Check for Updates” in the “Timeline 3D” menu or download Bee Docs Timeline today!

Chris Schlarb - Musician, Composer, Producer

2009-04-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

Musician, composer, and producer Chris Schlarb has been a Bee Docs Timeline customer since November 2008.

As some of you may have experienced, we are a fan of sending people pleasant surprises in the mail. Well, we like receiving them too! Chris send us a couple of his CDs after becoming a customer which was an awesome surprise.

Elise Hunt, Bee Docs’ Community Development Lead, just posted an e-mail interview with Chris. Check it out and be sure to check out the following video timeline as well:

Read the interview with Chris Schlarb

If you have an interesting story to tell about the way you are using timelines, please send Elise an e-mail. We would love to hear from you!

What's New in March '09

2009-03-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

There have been many small improvements to Bee Docs Timeline over the last few months. Besides the release notes, I thought it would be fun to get into the habit of putting a video together each month to highlight a few of the changes. Hopefully you will find it entertaining and informative!

Click here to visit our movie page

Bee Docs Timeline 2.5.1

2009-03-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

I released yet another update to Bee Docs Timeline earlier this week. We are working on a video to show some of the new features, but until then, here is the list of improvements...

Release Notes - 2.5.1

NEW: Select which monitor the 3D Mode uses for display in Preference pane
IMPROVED: Up to 10x performance increase for automatic layout
IMPROVED: "Things" importer has option for excluding completed To Do items
IMPROVED: Tall timelines (stacked events, many rows) are more efficient in width
IMPROVED: Shift-arrow and control-arrow combinations now work as expected
FIXED: "Things" importer works with databases stored in non-standard locations
FIXED: Sometimes arrow keys didn't traverse in the proper order
FIXED: Height of complex timelines were sometimes too tall
FIXED: Subversion (SVN) compatibility for timeline documents improved
FIXED: Change default export from Pixlet to Photo-JPG for wider compatibility
FIXED: Exporting 3D timelines that use image backgrounds would sometimes show a white flickering line on the back edge of the chart

Bee Docs Timeline 2.5 - Released!

2009-03-05T14:17:00.000-08:00

I just published the 2.5 version of Bee Docs Timeline. This is one of our biggest releases since the launch of the 3D Edition almost a year ago. We (yes, we!) will be working on some more detailed blog posts and some videos to demonstrate the new features, but I wanted to give you an overview as soon as possible.

First, we have made bulk edit more stable. Bulk edit mode has not been as stable as the chart view modes and certain combinations of actions, usually involving undo, would sometimes freeze the application. I put an emphasis in this release on tracking down and fixing these bugs.

Second, I have improved the quality of video exports. I won't get into the technical details here, but the bottom line is that your video exports should look better (and render faster). I have also added professional quality motion blur for video exports. Motion blur is a advanced topic, but it basically makes the motion of your timeline look smoother and more realistic. Please note that turning on motion blur will significantly increase your video export wait times.

Third, this version allows you to export video segments to Keynote! Not only that, but you can choose to pause only on selected events which will allow you to highlight the parts of your timeline that you choose. See an example Keynote export here.

Finally, I added an automatic importer for Things by Cultured Code. Things is a new application winning rave reviews that allows you to create To Do lists. If you have To Do items with due dates, you can now import them into a timeline with just a couple of clicks.

Version 2.5 is a free upgrade. So please use "Check for Updates" in the "Timeline 3D" menu to update today!

Release Notes - 2.5

NEW: Export full motion 3D QuickTime to Keynote slides
NEW: Option to skip to selected events for 3D exports
NEW: Professional quality motion blur for 3D video exports
NEW: Automatically import To Do items from Things by Cultured Code
IMPROVED: Video export is more efficient (faster)
IMPROVED: Quality improved for video export presets
IMPROVED: When entering 3D mode, current selection is respected
FIXED: Removing an event in bulk edit while editing text caused freeze
FIXED: Undo was not working properly for deleted events in bulk edit
FIXED: Undo was not working properly for newly added events in bulk edit
FIXED: QuickTime chapters are no longer added to HD exports for compatibility with iMovie

3D Transition Speeds - Video

2009-02-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

I just posted a new video to our movies page that demonstrates the brand new 3D motion settings in v2.4 of Bee Docs Timeline 3D.

If you are interested in customizing the speed of your timeline transitions, be sure to check it out.

Bee Docs is Hiring!

2009-02-03T14:06:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to announce that we are preparing to hire Bee Docs’ first full time employee. Please read the following job description and take a moment to think of the most talented person that you know who would be a good fit for the job. I would appreciate your help identifying great candidates!

Mission for Customer Care and Community Development Lead

To receive, connect, and educate the Bee Docs customer community by providing personal contact with current and potential customers in a way that makes them feel valued and appreciated. Expand the reach and reputation of Bee Docs’ brand and products by leveraging the relationships and opportunities found in a passionate and connected community.

About Bee Docs:

Bee Docs nourishes individual human expression through the crafting of organically inspired software, fashion, and ideas. Bee Docs is located in Seattle Washington.

People who are interested in serving the Bee Docs community in this role should contact Mike Wisler via the e-mail address: mike at beedocs.com

Thanks!

Release v2.3

2009-01-22T16:41:00.001-08:00

I just posted the v2.3 update to Bee Docs Timeline (both the Standard and 3D Editions). You can use the “Check for Updates” feature in the software to install it or download Bee Docs Timeline if you haven’t yet.

This release contains some important bug fixes for our international customers. Notably PDF export is now working properly in the German localization and “BC” dates are working properly in all of the international formats.

Also, the minus sign can now be used to indicate a BC date when eras are being used in any global date format. For example, a French customer may prefer to type “-50” instead of “50 av. J.-C.” (or 50 B.C.E.)

For the 3D Edition, this release adds a new feature to Export menu. You can now export still image sequences in a variety of formats. These are similar to the event images used in the Keynote export, but now you can save them directly to disk. One image will be created for each event with a 3D perspective.

Image sequences will be helpful for people who want bitmap images of their events to use with Powerpoint, Photoshop, etc... You could also save out a high resolution image sequence and order some of the images as prints from iPhoto or your favorite photo processor.

Last, but not least, I have improved the line quality for 3D exports. Carefully compare the following two examples to see the difference. This change affects all of the smaller video and 3D image exports (iPod, iPhone, HD 480p, etc...)

Detail of export from Bee Docs Timeline 3D v2.2.2:

Detail of export from Bee Docs Timeline 3D v2.3 (note better line quality):

Macworld Wrap-up

2009-01-13T14:22:00.000-08:00

Well, I completed my first Macworld Expo. It took about 3 months of full time work plus the help of many others to get ready.

Special thanks to Ben and Stephanie from Turnstyle for help putting the booth together. PJ from Prolabro for printing a very challenging shirt design.

I learning a thing or two about how to sell my software from Lee and Amy who provided much more than backup at the booth. Thanks for taking time off your regular jobs to help out.

Blogs, podcasts, twitter, mailing lists and forums across the internet were abuzz with news of our sale. I just put out a press release and a few e-mails. Thank you to everyone who helped spread the word. People like you make it possible for people like me to make a career out of independent Mac software.

Thank you for everyone who stopped by the booth too. I enjoyed getting to meet all you.

Once I get caught up on my e-mail, I look forward to starting the next chapter for Bee Docs Timeline. That is what this moment feels like to me. 2008 was an amazing year for Bee Docs. I hope I can surprise and delight you in 2009. Stay tuned!

Lowest Price Ever - Macworld Sale

2009-01-05T15:12:00.000-08:00

In celebration of Macworld Expo 2009, I am pleased to announce the “lowest price ever” sale for our flagship product, Bee Docs timeline 3D. From January 5, 2009 through January 11, 2009 single computer licenses are available at the special sale price of $30 (USD).

This sale represents the lowest price that Bee Docs timeline 3D has ever been offered and is more than half off the normal retail price. Customers can purchase a discount license online or at Macworld Booth #3526-F in the “Digital Media & Multimedia” Pavilion.

Please help me spread the word about the sale. I hope to see many of you at Macworld Expo!

Macworld Expo 2009

2008-12-15T10:49:00.000-08:00

In addition to the work we have been doing on the website, we have also been doing a lot of prep work for MacWorld 2009. The booth has been designed and is now being manufactured, the t-shirts are being printed, etc… This will be our first major expo, so I am very excited.

Please stop by and say hello if you will be attending. Bee Docs will be at booth 3526-F in the “Digital Media & Multimedia” Pavilion in the North Hall.

If you would like a free expo pass to Macworld 2009, I have a few hundred to give away. Please contact me request one.

New BeeDocs.com Website

2008-12-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

I just launched a brand new version of the beedocs.com website. This is our fourth major site design in the history of the company and this one was nearly a year in the making. Thanks to Turnstyle for the graphic design. Thanks to all of the Bee Docs Timeline customers who shared their timelines.

The site has some new features for customers that I would like to point out:

A consolidated movie library with our tutorial and demo videos.
Bee Docs Timeline help documentation is now online, including several updated tutorials.
As much as possible, all of the timelines that appear on the site were created by customers. However, there is room for more. If you have a great timeline that you would like to share for this purpose, please contact me.
We now have hand-printed BEEDOCS shirts for sale.
About Us page is updated and contains more ways to contact me.
Education discounts and site licenses are now available.
Movies have all been transcribed. This should be particularly helpful for those who would like to use a translation service.
Movies are now optimized for iPhone viewing.
Pages automatically optimize themselves for printing.

This update also completes our brand transition from “Bee Documents” to “Bee Docs.”

For those of you who are interested in the business and marketing side of things, I would like to tell you about the ways that I have refined my strategy based on my experiences over the past year.

The previous website had two specific messages that is was designed to communicate. The first was “timelines created with Bee Docs Timeline are beautiful” and the second was “timelines created with Bee Docs Timeline are quick and easy to create.” I wrote these down before beginning the design and wrote a lot marketing copy along those lines.

A wise friend saw the site and advised that I show these messages instead of telling them. Based on that advice, I stripped out most of the text and came up with the design that featured six timeline charts, each with a short movie showing the timeline being created in a few minutes or less.

I believe this design successfully communicated the two messages, unfortunately these were the wrong messages. The messages that Bee Docs Timeline creates beautiful charts and is easy-to-use were a result of comparing Bee Docs Timeline to other timeline charting products. Two observations have influenced my change of strategy.

Observation #1: I have sold Bee Docs Timeline to approximately 0.03% of the active Mac OS X user base. That means that I have sold a license to about one out of every 4,000 Mac OS X users. I’m guessing this is a good number compared to the competition. However, it is obviously not huge slice of the pie.

Observation #2: When I show Bee Docs Timeline to family and friends or other people who are not necessarily shopping for timeline software the most frequent thing I hear is, “That looks like really cool software, too bad I do not have any need for timelines.” In other words, “Why the heck would I want to make a timeline?”

My conclusion from these two observations is that I should not waste any more time trying to convince people that Bee Docs Timeline is the best timeline software. Rather, I should focus my marketing efforts evangelizing the usefulness of timelines in general. I want to convert a big chunk of the other 99.97% rather than focus on the ones that are already convinced then need a timeline creation tool.

So here are the top three messages that I specified for the new site design. I kept these in front of me when I was designing the site architecture, layout, imagery, and text copy. I asked Turnstyle to focus on these when they were doing the graphic design.

Answer the question: Why are timelines relevant to me?
Diverse, interesting, and successful people use Bee Docs Timeline
Timelines made with Bee Docs Timeline are beautiful (had to keep that one in there)

Hopefully at least the first message will sink in for visitors to the website, even if they only spend a few seconds on the site!

WWII Timeline - Class Project

2008-12-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

Professor Geoffrey Gekiere teaches at the Collège Paul Éluard in Châtillon France. His students made this beautiful video of major historical events of World War II using Bee Docs Timeline 3D.

I encourage you to watch the entire video, even if you do not speak French. I find it both interesting and emotionally engaging to have 12 different students narrate the major events of the war combined with historical photographs, maps, and sound clips. The 3D timeline provides a nice structure to the presentation.

Congratulations to Professor Gekiere and the students who participated in the project. It is my honor to provide a tool that can be used by creative people to bring meaning and understanding to our history.

Timeline Resume

2008-12-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

With the dismal economic situation, people are finding new and clever ways to market themselves when looking for jobs.

JR Harrell from the Denver Colorado area is using Bee Docs Timeline to create a timeline resume that sums up his 15 year IT career in 3 minutes and 18 seconds which he posted as a CNN iReport.

I really like how JR used the speech synthesis in Mac OS X to narrate his timeline.

If you have an interesting timeline that you would like to share, please send me an e-mail at Adam at BeeDocs dot com. Thanks!

Give Good Food to your Mac

2008-11-17T10:01:00.000-08:00

From today until December 1, 2008, Bee Docs will be participating in the Give Good Food to Your Mac promotion.

In this special offer, the more products you buy, the greater the discount gets. It starts at 20% when you choose 3 apps and increases to 50% with 5 apps or more. There are 60 applications to choose from, including Bee Docs Timeline 3D.

Check it out and tell your friends that this is one of the rare opportunities to buy Bee Docs Timeline 3D at a discount!

Snooker Timelines on the BBC

2008-10-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

If you are a fan of snooker, you may have noticed the 3D timelines used by the BBC recently during their snooker coverage. In case you missed it on television, you can see a couple of them here on the BBC website.

Broadcast Editor Peter Wiggins produced a series of twenty timeline motion graphics for the BBC using Bee Docs Timeline 3D. They look great and Peter provided us with lots of great feedback that will allow us to make Bee Docs Timeline even better for broadcast television in the future.

Pink Bee Tees

2008-10-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

This is the new "Pink Bee Tee" available in very limited quantities from the Bee Docs Etsy Shop.

My latest hobby has been experimenting with unique ways to hand print t-shirts. The Pink Bee shirt starts with a black Edun-Live shirt, grown and sewn in Africa. Check out this video to learn the great story behind how these shirts are made.

Next, I had a large rubber stamp custom made with our new bee logo. I used the stamp to print color remover on the shirt which, like bleach, removes the black color from the areas it is stamped. On the sleeve, I used a small silk screen to apply the color remover to spell "BEEDOCS".

Finally, I garment dyed the entire shirt pink to stain the bleached out areas pink. The result is a cool distressed vintage look where each shirt is unique. They are also very soft since they are made with dye instead of printed ink. I only made 9 of these shirts and they are only in women's sizes so get 'em while you can.