Author: admin

I forgot to mention a change I made to the naming rules of sheet files (introduced in version 1.5.1) for DropBox support which may cause problems for some users.

The rule: Sheet files are not allowed to contain parenthesis ( and ) or dashes – in their file name or they will not be shown in the sheet browser.

The reason: To work around a feature of DropBox which will suffix files with extra information to protect against synching conflicts. While these files are often good to keep for reference they will make a mess of your Sheet Browser so I had to protect against adding them.

I understand sometimes you’ll want to add those characters in your sheet file names so I will try to find another solution that works better. Until then please don’t alarmed if a sheet file doesn’t appear. Just renaming in the Finder to not include the aforementioned characters and it will reappear.

Just letting you know that I broke the Multiple Displays window in 1.5.1 which caused it to crash upon launching if you were using French, German or Japanese language on your Mac.

I released a small 1.5.1.1 update to correct the problem which you’re free to ignore if you’re not using one of the mentioned languages.

Thanks to the French user who pointed this out!

TaskCard 1.5.1 is the first release to feature well tested DropBox support which users have been reporting has worked in the past but not without bugs. As of 1.5.1 TaskCard will watch for changes in the sheet folder/files and update the contents of sheets in real time within TaskCard if changes are detected.

It was alway possible in prior versions to change sheet files in the sheet folder but changes to open sheets weren’t reflected nor were changes to sheet files that were modified outside of a running version of TaskCard. Worse yet you could lose/overwrite data if sheets were open while their files were being replaced in the Finder.

There are some instructions in the manual now but the basic idea is that after you install DropBox is to create/move a sheet folder into the DropBox folder (located at ~/DropBox)  and any changes made to sheet files will be transferred automatically (to any other Macs who have installed DropBox). Then any versions of TaskCard that have set their sheet folder location (in the preferences) will be updated in real time as changes are made to the sheet files from other Macs.

This is only the first step to TaskCard offering complete synching/collaboration features as sheets files still don’t merge changes as they are updated which means if 2 versions of the sheet were edited the sheet file with the newest date will overwrite the older file and any unique changes that were made would be lost. When the sheet files are merged instead of replaced a tool like DropBox could be used to allow users to collaboratively edit sheets simultaneously on multiple Macs without loosing any changes. Pretty sweet!

Finally please note that DropBox is not the only tool you could use and that any folder synching/backup tool could be used, for example Warehouse which is another I developed.

I just wanted to let all my non-USA users know that TaskCard will crash if you attempt to set the activation key in the preferences if you are using anything other than an USA English keyboard layout. Thanks to a user who reported the bug and identified the problem himself.

I will get this fixed soon and release a bug fix update but for users of on the Mac App Store this may take some time as Apple is slow to approve updates (one reason to buy direct from developers instead of the App Store). Until then change the keyboard layout before typing anything in the field and you’ll be fine.

Sorry for the hassle!

Sorry if there have been no updates recently but I have been busy getting TaskCard submitted to the app store and I didn’t want to do any active development until I knew it was accepted (Apple’s policy was very strict for submission).

Honestly there was every reason that TaskCard should have been rejected a few times causing me to miss the deadline so I’m quite surprised I made it. TaskCard is developed 100% using non-Apple tools and languages like TextMate (using all custom build scripts and custom HTML interfaces, before I used PascalGladiator my own IDE) for the editing/building and Objective-Pascal compiled using the Free Pascal Compiler. Not to mention TaskCard doesn’t use any standard OS X controls which all seemed to be against Apples strict policy they set.

I won’t write about it just now until I see the outcome unfold further but I’m really disappointed with this store and Apples level of control they’re trying to impose over their platform. The 30% they take for simply putting my apps icon and brief description into a database is totally over the top and just a scheme for Apple share holders to make billions of dollars off their developers. Not to mention the store is a pointless repeat of sites like MacUpdate.com which have existed for many years already…

Until later tell your friends to buy direct from the developers where they can get free trials, faster updates and all the proceeds go strait to the developer so we can continue to make software at fair prices.

I usually don’t update his often but there were 2 alarming bugs that appeared in recent updates that had to be fixed immediately.

First the “a” key was getting stuck as the activation key for users who didn’t specify any key (annoying!!) and second was a crash that occurred when dragging tasks over containers (very frequently). There were some other little things I fixed also since I was digging around in the code. I was nearly going to release some improvements so that changing sheets is much faster with card fading effects but I didn’t have enough time. I’ll leave that for the next minor version I suppose.

If you downloaded version 1.4.4 and were having these problems please get 1.4.5. I’m sorry to any potential new users who tried TaskCard and trashed it minutes later after being annoyed by these things.

Also, my first mistake using the new Sparkle update system was made which will cause users who downloaded the 1.4.4 demo to get upgrades to the full version of 1.4.5 and onwards. I fixed this in 1.4.5 so that demo versions don’t auto-update (to avoid extra work on my behalf when releasing updates because TaskCard uses a full and demo app instead of a serial number system) but the users who downloaded for those 4 days will get a freebie. However if you noticed TaskCard updated itself with a full version and you didn’t pay, please considering buying if like the software (which will get you free technical support also). Thanks guys!

The auto update feature that I crafted myself using a PHP script as a backend has been replaced by the popular Sparkle framework which is so prominent in OS X apps these days Apple might as well buy it or include something similar as a public system framework. Needless to say the updating will be more efficient now and reliable which is good for us all.

There were some minor bug fixes also with the activation key field in the preferences and broken multiple displays window in the French and Japanese localizations.

Version 1.4.4 is the last version that will be using the old auto update so once you get that version TaskCard will update itself using the new system.

1.4.3 accidentally broke the + key feature for making tasks into containers so I had to rush out a minor update to put it back to normal.

Also the auto-update feature I designed myself has been giving me problems (like the changes log not working) so I’m going to release another minor update this week that uses the popular Sparkle framework commonly found in many apps.  Until then I hope users will download the update even without knowing what it is and before complaining that the + key broke in 1.4.3. 😉

Thanks for being patient!

I’m sorry  that iCal sync didn’t make into this release (again) but there were some other smaller feature requests/bugs that needed attention first. With this out of the way 1.5 will feature iCal sync for sure.

Importantly in this release was the addition of real multiple monitor support, task indenting using tab/option-tab, duplicating cards and hiding completed tasks – all of which you can learn about in the manual once you update.

Before releasing I just noticed an unfortunate bug which affected 1.4 and I’m not sure how many earlier versions. The bug caused auto-update to fail to show the changes log in the window so if you’re upgrading t0 1.4.3 or higher from those versions affected you won’t get to see the changes and I can’t fix this for the older versions. However, you can always read the latest version history on the web site at www.taskcardosx.com. From 1.4.3 onwards it will be working again and I hope to change the list to HTML from plain text in the next release of 1.5.