You may know by now that you can add comments to a file in its “Get Info” screen so that when you’re looking for that item you can easily find it again. We’ve talked about good organization and using color labels to help group things, but spotlight comments are a way to tag one file, or a few files with key words that will help you out later. As an example, I have a folder (aptly names “Italy”) with all of my photos from my Italy trip in it, but I want to add comments for each city. In other words, I want to add a spotlight comment of “Venezia” for all of photos from that city (known to some as Venice), then do the same for Roma, Firenze, Siena, et cetera. In addition to that, I want to add landmarks to some of the big places, like the Vatican, so that I can jump to those quickly.

The way you add comments to one file is simply to right-click, select ‘Get Info’ and add the spotlight comments you want. The problem comes when you want to add comments to multiple files, which is when we break out our good frind Automator. Know I know what you’re thinking….”this sounds complicated.” Well, it’s not. It’s about the easiest script in the world to create and for those that aren’t feeling so adventurous I’ll provide it for you later. For the rest of you, open up Automator and add these three simple steps:

1. From the Finder group, drag and drop the ‘Get Selected Finder Items’ action to the workspace.
2. From the Spotlight group, drag and drop the ‘Add Spotlight Comments to Finder Items’ action below the ‘Get Selected Finder Items’ action. The box that says ‘Append to Existing Comments’ should be checked. Expand the ‘Options’ area and check the box that says ‘Show Action When Run.’ At this point it should look like this:
   
3. In the File menu, select ‘Save as Plugin’ and name it whatever you like (I just call it “Add Spotlight Comments) and make sure you save it as a plug-in for Finder.

Once you are here you can select all the finder items you want and just right click, go to the Automator menu, and your plugin is there, ready to run.

For those of you who aren’t feeling frisky, download my Add Spotlight Comments workflow, open the file once you’ve unzipped it, and just do step 3 above.

Spotlight has a built in limiter called ‘Kind:’ (that’s that I call it anyway) that limits the search results to one specific type. For example, the search “Italy kind:photos” would just return my photos from my trip rather than photos, video, recent searches and the 8 billion emails that were exchanged in the planning of the trip.

For a complete list of ways to use ‘Kind:’ head on over to Apple and print out this list.

I’m sure this is a fluke and in 3-4 days I’ll get a nice email explaining it’s fixed, but I can’t imagine I am alone in this.

Anyone?

Psuedo Update: I still haven’t heard back from Panic and although I don’t doubt that I will, and that there will be a solution, I decided that since I loved it so much I may as well go ahead and buy it, so I did. For those of you looking for a solution I realize this may not be it (though I will post whatever Panic’s response is) but hopefully for those of you wondering about Coda this will help illustrate just how good it is. I don’t think there’s anything devious on their part and as phenominal as Coda is it doesn’t make any difference to me whether I plunk down $80 now or in two weeks.

Real Update: This is the word from Panic. I have not tried it, as I went ahead and bought it, but hopefully this constitutes a real solution for others.

We’re really sorry for the inconvenience — this premature timeout a rare bug that we’re working now to fix. The workaround? Delete your Coda preferences file — com.panic.Coda.plist — which is in your Home/LIbrary/Preferences/ folder. Unfortunately, you will lose your Coda settings, but your trial period will instantly reset.

If this problem pops up again tomorrow, please let us know about it. Otherwise, keep an eye out for the inevitable 1.0.1, and thanks for your understanding and patience!

Update to the update: Version 1.01 has been released. If you gave up on Coda out of frustration get your mits on the update and give it another try. You should be able to get he update through Coda itself, but if not click here and reinstall it.

I could rant all day about how great Coda is, but instead let me just outline what I have found thus far:

Graphical Sites List-
For legal reasons I can’t show you my sites window, as it would reveal the identity of some of my cliens who would rather not be identified. Instead, check out Panic’s screen shot here. This is just an example of the little things that make an app great. Instead of the usual list of bookmarks or sites, Coda gives you a nice little live preview for each site, which is easy to instantly recognize. Double click the site you’d like to work on and you are connected to that site and shown the file structure. Easy. Elegant. Unique.

Speaking of File Structure-
Maybe it’s just me, but I hate these FTP clients (you know who you are) that try to act like finder windows and only show you one directory at a time. It could just be the way I learned this whole website game but I am much more comfortable with a tree structure which I am happyto see Coda provide. Don’t worry, if you still like drilling down on directory at a tie and then get your kicks backpedaling through them again you can still do that. Another gold star for Coda, allowing people to navigate the file structure however they like instead of demanding one way or the other.

Easy Transmit Integration-
I don’t actually use Transmit, but from what I understand those of you that do will find a nice little surprise for you when you start up Coda for the first time– all of your exisiting sites are right there waiting for you. If any regular Transmit users have info I’d love to hear your comments.

Split Screen Editor-
I can’t say I have tried every editor out there, but of the ones I know about none have thought of this. Simply put you can split your screen to have multiple instances of the same file open at one time. So that function that is written at the top of the file and called later can be easily tweaked without all of that scrolling. Personally I like to have one split per chunk I am working on (usually only 2 or 3 max) and one split for a preview. Honestly this feature just blows me away. It’s so useful, yet so simple.

HTML Validator-
I must confess I have never concerned myself with HTML validators, especially integrated ones, but this one makes it so freekin’ easy. One click of the validator icon and it counts the problems and takes you to the first one with a nice little balloon explaining what is wrong and some insight on how to fix it. This serves as not only an easy way to validate your code but also as a great training device on how to write valid xhtml and css in the first place, which I for one need.

Collaborative Coding via Subetha-
Again, I have not tried this as I am stuck in an all-PC office (except my one lucky Mac) but Subehta is, as I understand it, a way for multiple people to work on one document at the same time without overwriting each other’s work and seeing changes real time (ala Google Docs perhaps?). If you’re in a large scale development shop and are all using Macs (do those exist?) then you’re probably using Subetha already and if not this seems like a great time to start. I know I for one would like to take CVS out back and shoot it.

Code Snipets That Are Worth a Damn-
Those of you familiar with my love afair with TextExpander might be surprised at my delight with this, but Coda has some great snipets (they call them ‘Clips’) that are worht while but would be a PIA to have in TextExpander such as the many DOCTYPE heads and an quick basic HTML layout snipet. Of course, you can add more and this is a great tool for those special cases where you just want to store chunks of code wihtout cluttering up TextExpander.

A Preview That Goes Way Beyond The Browser-
Sure it lets you preview in your favorite browser or any other installed browser, but who doesn’t? Coda takes it several steps further. Using Safari in the preview pane lets you see changes in real time, as you type. There’s no more need for any external DOM tools, that’s in there too. And for you hardcore coders, there’s a Javascript console built right in too (none for me thanks, I’m driving). Finally, everything under one roof in a preview pane that goes way beyond the standard “let me save you from having to switch apps” functionality.

CSS Your Way-
I haven’t used this yet, but the CSS editor (which I fully expect to be as elegant and amazing as the rest) does have one very clear advantage– letting the user view in a graphical layout or a text format. I personally alsways like thetext, but some people aren’t as confortable with that and with Coda they can make changes without knowing any CSS. Plus, there is the rare case where a visual editor can save you a little time. Positioning comes to mind, though I am sure there are others as well. More on this as I play with it more.

Books You Should Know By Heart, But Don’t-
Coda includes several books including references for HTML, CSS, Javascrip and the official PHP manual. With any luck I can get that w3schools.com bookmark out of Firefox, but we’ll see. I’d love to see more in here, or the ability to add to it, but it’s a great foundation for when you need a refresher on elements and atributes and syntax and….

Who Knows What Else?-
These are just the things I have found in the first day, and I have yet to write anything from scratch. So far I have only edited existing documents. I am pretty excited to see what else pops up when I am actually writing code rather than just editing it. I have especially high hopes for the CSS editor, but we’ll see. If anyone has more insight on any of these please leave a comment.

Coda is available from Panic Software and has a 15 day trial, after which the rack rate is $99. Right now it is only $79, but I imagine that will end pretty much 15 days after it was launched (which was April 23rd, 2007) if not before. In either case they’ll give you $10 off if you already bought Transmit.

The first thing I did was wipe my external hard drive clean, formatted it for a Mac and created 3 partitions. More on that later, but suffice it to say one partition was the exact size as my Mac Mini HD and is dedicated to nothing other than backing up the Macintosh HD.

Now even though Super Duper! is in fact super duper, they could have just as well called it Super Simple because in my eyes that’s it’s best quality. Just select the item you want to back up, select where you want it to back up to and the method you want to use (I think ‘Backup - all files’ is pretty much all most people need, but it’s nice to have options) and you’re all set. This creates a bootable backup on a separate drive so if your main drive goes south you can replace it, and restore with ease. Having backups is also handy for those rare but real times when an OS X update goes bad or you otherwise find the condition of OS X to be operational but hopeless.

Presently I have the free version and given that Leopard is a scant 6 months out I might keep it that way. The paid version doesn’t present a lot for me but it might for you. Key upgrades when you pay include the ability to schedule backups to happen regularly and the ability to quickly update an existing backup with only what has changed since the last one, which takes minutes rather than hours. Given the small $28 price tag I am considering it, but I’ll leave it up to you.

Next up, a detailed description of how I got that external hard drive formatted and partitioned with disk utility. You won’t believe how easy it is.

And thus I myself, and probably many of you, have been chomping at the bit to see what’s next. Much to my chagrin,  Apple has rescinded it’s commitment to ship Leopard (or 10.5, whatever tickles your fancy) in spring of this year and has pushed that back to October in order to ship the iPhone on time. Here’s what Apple has to say:

iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard’s features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we’re sure we’ve made the right ones.

I have to say I agree. While it sucks, a lot, to have to wait, it’s worth it to know that we’ll be getting a better version of Leopard and the iPhone. While I wish Apple would have had the foresight to have ample resources to ship both on time, any fool could tell you they have a lot more riding on the iPhone than the incremental upgrade to OS X. In the end, consumers will get a superior version of both and Apple will retain its (almost) spotless record of product quality- it will just require patience on our part.

Apple is not without reprimand on this one though. It’s hard to imagine that a company that does things so right, from the smallest detail only 5% of users will ever see all the way to their minimalist designs will maximal appeal, could get something as fundamental as resource allocation wrong. Is Apple having a hard time finding engineers all of the sudden? It sort of lends credence to the rumors about Leopard that are circulating.

First of all, when you have a program running it appears in the dock. If you come to the realization while it’s open that you use it all the time, you can simply right click the temporary dock icon and select  ‘Keep in Dock’ and there it will stay. On my personal efficiency crusade I ask myself often whether a program should be added or removed from the dock. To this end, the dock stays a very focussed and useful resource for me rather than a one stop shop for everything I have ever installed.

You can also add files and folders you commonly access to the dock. To do this, just drag and drop like you would an application icon, but do it on the right side of the divider bar. The left side is apparently reserved for applications but the right side will hold much more.

Again, in my drive to be as efficient as possible I have a handful of folders that my go-to stuff is stored in and I leave those in the dock. This can also be a temporary fix. If, for example, you are working this week on projext x for client y, put the projext x folder in your dock rather than taking the HD>Documents>client y>project x route.

This is by no means limited to work use. If you love photos like I do, you’ll find yourself in the photos folder a lot. Save some time by dragging the folder into the dock (it’s in your ‘User’ section when you are in finder). At home I have a shortcut to photos, music and movies since I go to those the most. You can even add contents to the folder by dragging items into its dock icon. Try it with files too. If there’s a PDF you go to all the time (a rate card maybe?) stick it in the dock and never go fishing again.

Now, having said all this, let me also say that I am a big fan of a clean dock. Just because you can put something in the dock doesn’t mean you should. But if you are mindful about adding things that will save you time and removing things that you rarely access, you’ll find the Dock is much more than a simple application launcher.

First, if you want to eliminate the sound altogether you can do that in system preferences no problem. Personally I don’t mind it but there are times that I could do without it so I was happy to read that by holding down the shift button while changing volume the sound can be temporarily silenced.

On a larger scale though, this reminds me of what I love about OS X so much, which is the ability to change just about everything. Some other operating systems  like to use focus groups and hardwire settings to what they think you want. OS X on the other hand assumes nothing and makes nearly every detail configurable, no matter how small that detail seems. Sure it’s great right out of the box. Chances are you’ll change very little. But anything you do want to change is yours to change and that’s what makes your computer yours.

So to some it may just be a sound. To some the ability to change it, eliminate it or momentarily silence it might seem trite, but to me this little detail embodies what I love about OS X.

Update: By the way, I just discovered that by holding the Option button while adjusting my volume (via the keyboard volume buttons) it automatically launched the ‘Sound’ portion of system preferences. 

Now I might just be retarded, but for some reason I thought OS X only had the handful of “Shwooshes of Hope” wallpapers for us to pick from. I’ll even admit I had a little Vista envy for what I consider a great set of wallpapers in Microsoft’s latest attempt at an operating system. So color me shocked when the other day I was in the ‘Desktop and Screensaver’ pane of System Preferences and saw a bunch of other folders. Wow. Let’s just say my Vista envy has subsided.

Now these could be new with the 10.4.9 update, but somehow I doubt it. My bet is I just never looked very hard at replacing the default Blue Swoosh of Hope wallpaper which is a fine one indeed.

Some folks out there will tell you your wallpaper doesn’t matter. Those people are not your friends.  You stare at this screen for how many hours a day? How could putting something cool or special or funny or whatever up not be worthwhile? You’re of course not limited to the supplied ones. You can use any photo in iPhoto or anything else you find out there in internet land, but take some time and find something you like. If you work 40 hour weeks (lucky you) and don’t change your wallpaper for 3 months that’s 600 hours of staring at it. I know of no reason not to make something you’re going to spend 600 hours with as enjoyable as possible.