Have we really not covered iChat before? iChat AV is the latest version of Apples instant messaging client included as part of OSX Leopard. It allows you to send and receive text, audio and video directly to your OSX desktop.

Updated in Leopard, iChat AV also has some new advanced features enabling you to share your screen or even deliver remote video presentations via iChat Theatre.

In this weeks show I cover:

• iChat Basics
• iChat Accounts
• Using iChat on a Bonjour Network
• Text messaging with iChat
• Audio messaging with iChat
• Setting up and Using an iChat Room
• Sharing a Keynote with iChat Theatre
• Screen Sharing with iChat

Something different this week is that I'm joined by a couple of other well know podcasters to help me out on the chat side of things, so you hear an appearance by Chris Marshall as we audio chat between the UK and Spain, along with Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast podcast as we video conference all the way from the US. As well as a quick text chat with Klaus Lovgreen all the way over in the United Arab Emirates - truly a global show this week!

As promised, here are the links to some of the topics and people:

Chris Marshall - Blog
Klaus Lovgreen/Geoff Smith - RingtoneFeeder and Digital Album
Allison Sheriden - NosillaCast and Podcast on Podcasting

Thanks also to Justin and Danny for popping along to the Chat room!

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution No embedded chapters and only available via iTunes or Miro.

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Peter Maurer is a name familiar to many Mac users, as the original creator of Textpander (re-launched as TextExpander by Smile on my Mac) as well as many other excellent Mac utilities we've touched on in previous episodes of ScreenCastsOnline (ServiceScrubber and Displaperture to name but a few!)

Peter has now turned his considerable talents to develop a brand new lightweight download manager - Leech

Leech was designed to be small yet powerful, with all the features you need to efficiently and quickly download files using full integration with the top OS X browsers - Safari, Camino, OmniWeb and FireFox (using the Flashgot plugin for FireFox).

With a simple yet elegant user interface, Leech was built from the ground up to be a great example of an OS X application.

In this weeks show, I take you through:

• Leech Features
• Installation and Configuration
• Using Leech to download files
• Creating and Using Leech Rules
• Using Leech History
• Camino and FireFox Integration

In addition, I also include details of a special ScreenCastsOnline discount code to get a 20% discount off the usual price of Leech, kindly supplied by Many Tricks, the sponsors of this weeks episode.

There is an additional discount available for users of other download managers who might want to purchase Leech. Just send proof of purchase of the other download manager to info@manytricks.com for futher information on obtaining the additional discount.

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution No embedded chapters and only available via iTunes or Miro.

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes

Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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As we start to spend more and more time using Web based applications (or WebApps), the standard web browser is becoming more and more critical. The problem is that with the advent of tabbed browsing, individual WebApps become harder to manage and locate on your desktop. Add in the fact that a single bad website can sometimes crash your browser or make it unstable, you can end up losing all of your browser sessions in one fell swoop!

Fluid comes to the rescue!

Fluid is a Leopard only application that allows you to simply and easily create "Site Specific Browsers" or SSBs.

A "Site Specific Browser" is a completely separate desktop application just for one single WebApp. In effect, it turns the WebApp into a manageble service with a dedicated desktop application that's configured just for that WebApp. Each SSB you create will have its own Menu Bar, Dock Icon and runs completely independently from other SSBs or browser sessions. So now you can launch SSBs at login, switch to them using CMD TAB, basically treat it as a desktop application.

In addition to these features, Fluid also gives you the ability to convert your SSBs into MenuExtra SSBs which reside in your menubar and are accessible at the click of a mouse. If you'd like your SSB permanently displayed as your OS X Desktop, it even supports Embedded SSBs to allow you to do just that!

Along with window customisation, an extendible plugin architecture, support for GreaseKit based Userscripting and most importantly, supported by 1Password, Fluid is a simply must have application.

In this weeks show I cover:

• Installation
• Creating Simple SSBs (Examples: Gmail and Google Docs)
• Window Customisation
• Creating MenuExtra SSBs (Example: Using Hahlo for Twitter access)
• Installing Userscripts
• Creating Embedded SSBs (Example: Using Google Calendars as your OSX Desktop)
• Fluid Plugins
• Finding Fluid Icons via flickr
• Updating Fluid Icons to High Res versions

Fluid is completely free and available to download from www.fluidapp.com

LInks:
Flickr Fluid Icon Group
Fluid Icons From Chris Ivarson
Hahlo Userscript by YungSang

Discussions: Forum

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution No embedded chapters and only available via iTunes or Miro.

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Get a 15% discount if signing up between the 20th and 30th June 2008 by using the Coupon Code SCOJUNE
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes

Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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Following on from last weeks Extra! members only show, this week is a free show and completes the tutorial on using Evernote - the cross platform and web based information management tool.

This week I finish off by looking at some additional features of Evernote including:

• Drag and Drop Support
• Using iSight Notes to catalogue and search your business cards
• Evernote Client Views
• Creating And Organising Tags
• Using Attributes
• Creating Saved Searches
• Accessing the Evernote Web Client
• Using Emails to Send Data to Evernote

I also include a really handy tip on using your iPhone to capture images and have them appear in Evernote as searchable items - very, very handy!

Evernote Invites? Share yours here or see if there are some spares!

Discussions: Forum

As from this weeks show, there are some changes to the free versions of the show.

• The free version of the show will be released a few days after the members versions of the show - I'll not be releasing the free version of the show (still every other week) until the following Monday. This will mean that Extra! members will still get each show on the Friday, but non-members will have to wait a couple of days to receive the show.

• Changes to the format of the free version of the show - As from this week, I'm going to change the available resolutions from 1280x720 overscan to 960x540 overscan plus iPod resolution for all future free versions of the show

Extra! Members Version formats	1280x720 - Full HD Resolution 1280x720 - Full HD Resolution with overscan 960x540 - HD Resolution 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution All versions with embedded chapter markings and available via iTunes, Miro or by direct download from the Extra! members site
Free Version Formats	960x540 - HD with overscan 640x480 - iPod and iPhone Resolution No embedded chapters and only available via iTunes or Miro.

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Full Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes

Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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I think I may have found the answer to my perpetual quest for an efficient and effective way to keep all the bits of information I accumulate everyday. You know the problem - lots of bits of texts, web pages, ideas, thoughts, images, reminders, notes, etc,. So much "stuff" but nowhere sensible to store them so that I have access from any computer or any device.

And then as for thinking up ways to organise and label things so that you can find it again - nightmare!

This weeks show is all about Evernote - a personal information manager which seems to address all the requirements I have for my information store.

There's so much to cover, I've had to split this show into two parts, the second part will be released next week.

Evernote is many things!

• Firstly, at its core is a web based service that allows you to access your information via any industry standard web browser.
• Secondly, Evernote has local client applications for both the Mac and Windows that allow you to capture and store information locally and syncronise with the Evernote Web service.
• Thirdly, Evernote has mobile clients, plus an iPhone optimised web interface, so you can access all your information on the move.

Not only that, but Evernote includes some amazing character recognition technology so that any photos or digital images with text (even handwritten text) that you capture in Evernote, become searchable!! You really have to see it to appreciate it and of course this weeks show will show you!

Next weeks show will look at some additional features of Evernote including some pretty handy tips on using Evernote with your iPhone.

Evernote Invites? Share yours here or see if there are some spares!

Discussions: Forum

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

This weeks full show is only available to ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members. A trailer for the full show is in preparation.

To View the Trailer
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes

Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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An invaluable utility this week, one that I seriously could not function without!

It's TextExpander from Smile On My Mac.

On first glance, it looks like a very simple utility to help you save time. It allows you to create small textual abbreviations that, when typed, will expand into words, sentences, paragraphs or even images. It can even trigger AppleScripts, just by typing a few characters or even a single character!

What's really special is that it's a system wide utility so you're not restricted to just your email or word processor, TextExpander works with all the applications on your Mac.

Speed up your typing, use it to auto-correct commonly misspelt words, respond to emails in a flash, generate tons of CSS or HTML code, TextExpander really does give your productivity a boost.

In this weeks show I cover:

• Some common uses of TextExpander
• Creating your own Snippets
• Using Date and Time Variables
• Positioning the cursor in Snippets
• Using text selections to create Snippets
• TextExpander Groups including
• Adding from a File and URL
• Predefined Snippet Groups
• AppleScript Support

The free version of this weeks show is sponsored by Smile On My Mac and they have kindly offered a 20% discount to ScreenCastsOnline viewers up to July 31st 2008. To purchase TextExpander using this discount, just visit the special ScreenCastsOnline landing page at

http://www.smileonmymac.com/sco

Discussions: Forum

Become a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Member
Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

To View the Free Show
Subscribe to either the free versions of the shows in iTunes, and have this show plus subsequent free shows delivered to your computer each week by clicking the links below!
Free High Definition version of the show in iTunes or Free iPod version of the show in iTunes

Download a High Definition version of this weeks show directly to your computer,
by right clicking or CTRL clicking on this link Download Show
and select "Download Linked File" in Safari or "Save Link As..." in Firefox.

Watch a low resolution version of this show from this web page by clicking on the video below.

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Something different this week, not one but three really useful utilities.

What's even better is that they are all free!

JumpCut - A great clipboard buffering application which takes a minimilistic approach to give you access to your recent clipboard entries. Go back in time and select from a list of recent clips from either your menu bar or via a hot key and bezel - Website Link
DejaMenu - Large or multiscreen setup? Fed up of having to travel all the way to the top of the screen to access your applications menu? Or even worse, having to traverse monitors to get access? DejaMenu allows you configure every applications menu to pop up right where your cursor is, saving you effort and time. You can even assign your menus to popup with a click of your mouse! - Website Link
SoundSource - Constantly juggling different audio outputs and inputs on your Mac? SoundSource gives you access to all your audio devices quickly and easily through a single icon in your menu bar as well as a volume control for each device - Website Link

In addition, the members version of this weeks show has a special section just for members which explains the renewal process and what to do to prevent your membership expiring, and what to do if it does!

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

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We revisit one of OSXs most misunderstood features this week and that's the latest version of Automator in Leopard.

Automator is a way of creating special applications or plugins that allow you to "automate" repetitive tasks. Each workflow is built up from a number of predefined actions that are bundled in with most of Apples own applications and an increasing number of third party applications. Initially introduced in Tiger, Automator has received a significant make over in Leopard with the introduction of some brand new features, mainly the ability to record tasks using the new "Watch Me Do" feature along with the introduction of user and system generated variables to use in your workflows.

So if the thought of AppleScript sends shivers down your spine, check out some the new features of Automator.

The show covers:

• Automator Basics
• The revised Interface
• Creating a Sample Workflow to resize images
• Creating a Sample Workflow with Text and Speech
• Saving Workflows as Applications
• Saving Workflows as Plugins
• Creating a Sample Workflow with "Watch Me Do"
• Creating and Scheduling an iCal Plugin

This weeks show also includes an Extra! section only available to ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members:

• Variables in Automator
• Creating a Sample Workflow including Variables

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

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Finishing off the trio of shows all about iWork '08, this weeks show brings you up to date with the newly revised Pages'08, Apples flexible, yet powerful, word processor and page layout application.

Addressing the major complaints about Pages'06, mainly that it wasn't a "proper" word processor, Apple have completely revised Pages '08 to include a brand new "word processor" mode, in addition to its original page layout mode. To make it even easier to use, Apple have also introduced the context sensitive format bar in line with the other iWork applications to allow for less reliance on the inspector panels and give you control of the common elements right within the application window itself.

Following on from the previous show I did on Pages '06 (nearly two years ago!), this show will bring you up to speed on lots of the new functions and capabilities of this outstanding package!

This weeks show is a free show, but there is an extended show available for ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members with an additional 10 minutes of content and chapter marks. Extra! members will receive the extended show automatically as usual.

The show covers:

• Introduction to Pages '08
• Using the Format Bar
• Paragraph, Character & List Styles
• Page & Section Breaks
• Tracking Changes in Documents

The Extra! members extended show also covers:

• Working with Images in Pages
• Instant Alpha
• Wrapping Text around images
• Masking Images and Picture Frames
• Text Flow in Page Layout Mode
• Exporting

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

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We've all been there - You need to organise a meeting between a group of people and end up with an avalanche of emails from people who can make this day but not that. Or change their availability three times in a week. As for trying to arrange something across time zones with daylight savings time thrown into the mix - absolute nightmare.

Well recently I've been in just that position trying to schedule recording sessions for the Mac Roundtable! 10 very busy podcasters across 4 different time zones all trying to synchronise our activities and come up with a shared free slot to record.

In this age of Web 2.0, I thought there must be a service somewhere that could come to our rescue and sort out this complex organisational task.

So a quick bit of research and I found it! - ScheduleOnce

After using it for a day or so I was so impressed I thought I'd spread the word to help out ScreenCastsOnline viewers who are also tasked with sorting out meeting schedules. So I abandoned my plan for this week and did a show all about ScheduleOnce, especially as its completely free to use.

As a web based service its totally cross platform, you don't need to register and did I mention it's free. You don't even need to know what time zones all the participants are in.

It's simply a matter of setting up a meeting notice (which takes 2 minutes) and emailing a special link to your invited participants. They respond using the link, and the system gives you a view of all the responses and allows you to select the optimum time and email them with the confirmed date and time, all formatted in their local timezone.

This weeks show takes you through setting up a meeting, let's you see what the invitees receive and show you the responses and how you process them!

I hope this makes your life easier as it did mine!
Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

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ScreenSteps is a great application from Blue Mango Learning Systems that makes creating, annotating and publishing instructions or task based documentation a breeze. Now although ScreenCasts are a brilliant way to get across complex information, sometimes there's no substitute for step by step instruction manuals with clear screenshots and good, consise instructions. The problem with creating "printed" documentation is that it can be difficult to assemble and can go out of date very easily requiring Herculean effort to update. And as for trying to keep on top of changes to videos - forget it!

Screensteps is cross platform application for both the Mac and Windows, which allows you to create libraries of "lessons", each lesson being a step by step process covering whatever tasks you want to document. Available in both a free version and a pay for version, the application has comprehensive tools built right in for screen capture and image annotation to easily and quickly build up step based documentation. Once you've created your lessons, ScreenSteps also has some powerful export functions that allow you export your lessons in either customised PDF or HTML format (in the pay for version) or even directly to a hosted ScreenSteps Live web service (included in the free version as well as the paid for version).

As well as exporting individual lessons, ScreenSteps allows you to organise your lessons into topics and sections, allowing you to create individual PDF files or HTML output containing an entire Library of lessons complete with a table of contents and easy navigation. The PDF version collates all your lessons into a multi page PDF whilst the HTML output provides all the code you need to upload to your website for online documentation.

If you're not sure about uploading HTML files to your website (or if you don't have a website) be sure to check out Part 2 of this ScreenSteps show where I'll be taking a look at ScreenSteps Live, a free service to host your ScreenSteps lessons. ScreenSteps Free and ScreenSteps Live are tightly integrated and it's really easy to export your lessons directly and automatically to ScreenSteps Live from within ScreenSteps.

As well as the free options, there are Standard and Pro versions of ScreenSteps which allow you to export locally to PDF and HTML so once you've tried the package, you can upgrade to get the full features.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

Part 1 - ScreenSteps Desktop Application


Part 2 - ScreenSteps Live

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Not one but two top applications featured in this weeks show! This weeks episode is sponsored by Houdah Software and I cover both HoudahSpot and HoudahGeo.

HoudahSpot is no stranger to regular ScreenCastsOnline viewers as we covered it back in March 2007. Since then, HoudahSpot has been completely re-written to take advantage of some of the new technologies in OS X Leopard. HoudahSpot is really what Spotlight should have been and even with the improvements to Spotlight in Leopard, HoudaSpot enables you to take search on the Mac to the next level. It doesn't replace the underlying Spotlight engine, it justs gives you a much more flexible yet powerful "front end" to your Spotlight data. Add in Templates, the new BlitzSearch Menubar icon, integration with Launchbar and much more, HoudahSpot is a great addition to your Mac.

HoudahGeo is one of those applications you need to see to fully understand its capabilities! That's why we have ScreenCastsOnline! It's an application that allows you to easily "geotag" your photos with location data without needing access to a specialised GPS device or expensive GPS enable camera. HoudaGeo lets you simply add in location data visually using either a simple Map option or using its built in integration with Google Earth. But if you have got a GPS tracker, it can use that as well!

As well as allowing you to "Geotag" your photos, HoudahGeo also allows you to share you photos with its built in uploading integration with Google Earth and Flickr. Once Geotagged, just a click of a button and your photos will be uploaded and placed in the correct position on global maps with Google Earth or Flickr - it's really that easy!

Once you've exported to Google Earth, the show will demonstrate how you can create a virtual slideshow in Google Earth, flying from loction to location and displaying your photos at each location! Not only that, but you can email the slideshow to friends or family and they can watch it in Google Earth on their own computer (without needing a copy of HoudahGeo) - how cool is that!

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

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Busy, busy week! Apple finally released Leopard 10.5.2 and in a flash, put right a lot of the issues and complaints people were having with the User Interface. So this week I take a look at some of the changes in the new update and the best way to install it.

Also, I've been holding off doing a show on Spaces, the virtual desktop management system in Leopard, as I must admit, I did find it a little buggy! Hopefully 10.5.2 has fixed that so the second part of the show is all about Spaces. In this section I cover:

• Spaces Concepts
• Setting Up Spaces
• Moving Between Spaces
• Visualising Spaces

This weeks show is the first that contains an Extra! section just for ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members. In this additional section I cover:

• Moving Apps & Objects Between Spaces
• Organising Spaces by Task

Some major changes to the show format this week in that I've introduced a brand new theme and and transition clips. The new theme was commissioned from Geoff Smith, podcast theme maker extraordinaire! To celebrate, I spent some time putting together a new opening sequence, a new chapter marker and a new ending. All in motion graphics. I hope you like them!

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

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It's been a while since I first found PDFPen, a great utility for editing PDFs. With the introduction of Version 3, however, the application now has some amazing features allowing you to edit the embedded images and text in the PDF itself!

Add in the ability to create and insert text, images, signatures and scribbles into a PDF and even create your own libraries of often used material, no longer do you have to spend hundreds of dollars on Adobe Acrobat!

This show is sponsored by Smile On My Mac, the publishers of PDFPen and covers:

• Introduction to PDFPen
• Manipulating PDF pages
• Working with Text
• Editing original PDF text
• Working with Columns
• Copying Text
• Searching for Text, Notes and Comments
• Working with Images
• Editing original PDF images
• Adding your own Images
• Filling in PDF Forms
• Adding Your Signature
• Making Transparent Images
• Applescript Support

On top of all that, this weeks show also contains a special ScreenCastsOnline discount code to save 20% off the usual price of PDFPen - The code is SCOPDFPEN - This code has been extended to 5th March 2008

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member