Watching FoldingText


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HogBay Software makes some great Mac and iOS software. (I’ve got WriteRoom on my iPad home screen right now.) So I’ve been watching the development of FoldingText with some interest over the past several months. The application is now at version 1.2.2 and available in the Mac App Store for $25.

FoldingText is a simple text editor with a few tricks up its sleeve I’ve never seen before. As the name implies, it folds text. While this is a common feature and high-powered text editors such as BBEdit, this is an uncommon feature in an App Store editor.

Implementation is very simple. Write your text using the markdown syntax for headings (e.g., #Heading One).

You can then add additional text underneath that in simple text format or make a bulleted list using hyphens or asterisks. FoldingText follows additional markdown syntax with the application of italics (with asterisks on each side of the words) or bold with a pair of asterisks on each side of each word. You’re basically writing markdown.

The difference is you can tap on one of your headings and all the text underneath the heading will fold into it. If you’ve got a large text document, this can be really helpful. I used it last week for writing a legal brief as an experiment and I really liked it. The application uses iCloud syncing so you can share your document between multiple Macs.

There isn’t an iPad or iPhone version yet and for me, that is a bummer. Because I so often write using these mobile devices, the inability to seamlessly share the information across to them will limit my usage. However, since Jesse Grosjean has already proven his ability to write outstanding iOS applications, I suspect this shortcoming is not a permanent one.

FoldingText in the App Store

So Long Surfbits


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When I first started thinking about putting myself out there with podcasting and blogging, one of the first people I contacted was Tim Verpoorten. Tim ran the Surfbits MacReviewCast and was always welcoming with advice, assistance, and that friendly midwestern accent. Tim’s been sick for some time but that still didn’t stop him from blogging and keeping in touch with his old Mac friends. Tim represents to me everything that is great about our geek community and today we lost him. So long Surfbits. I’ll miss you. Photo by Victor Cajiao

Absence of Paper

For years I carried a little paper notebook (usually Field Notes) in my pocket along with my iPhone. I don’t do that much anymore. At the day job I still carry a pen and notecards in my breast pocket—which are useful for sharing—but after hours I’m no longer with paper. This shift wasn’t intentional but instead a gradual thing as I became more smitten with Drafts. It just isn’t that much more difficult for me to tap a quick note into Drafts and carrying less always feels better.
If you are on the fence about this, the gang at DODO just released an interesting notebook with a sort-of iPhone nest built in called DODONotes. A year ago I would have probably tried one but right now, I’m good.

Wordify for Fun


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Over the weekend I bought a copy of Wordify from the Mac App Store. Wordify takes an existing picture and a stack of words about that picture and then outputs a PDF that recreates the picture with your words. I made one of my daughter and her cousin and I thought it came out great.

The New York Times was doing something similar to this at Macworld/iWorld and people were lined up around the booth. My wife and kids are really into this.

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Hacking The Onion

I found this article about the Syrian Electronic Army hacking The Onion fascinating. They pulled it off with phishing. In particular, they embedded malicious links in friendly sounding email. Once they got a few people to bite, they used those compromised email accounts to double down and phish more employees using their friends’ emails. This really makes me question the use of embedded links in email. They are so convenient but also so easy to abuse.

There are some tools in Apple mail to expose a link before opening it. Regardless, be careful out there. (Link found via John Gruber).

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Automated Icon Extractor


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Ben Waldie, who is, in my opinion, probably the most savvy AppleScript author not actually working for Apple recently published a script on TUAW that automatically extracts an icon from an application. I created a similar service using scripts I learned from Sal Saghoian’s AppleScript 1-2-3 book a few years ago but Ben’s solution is much better. I’ve added it to my script menu and if you ever have need of app icons, you should too.

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