A long release process, finally done.
This marks the end of development on OmniGraffle 4, provided nothing unexpected occurs with the release of Mac OS X 10.5 (fingers crossed).
The upshot of this is that we're all now working on OmniGraffle 5. And speaking of Leopard, expect to see a public beta of Graffle 5 after the release of Mac OS X 10.5, as it will be required.
A couple of caveats concerning OmniGraffle 4.2 for those who haven't been running the beta releases:
- OmniGraffle 4.2 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to run
- OmniGraffle 4.2 is actually named “OmniGraffle 4” or “OmniGraffle Professional 4” and then localized to hide the number 4 in the Finder. This is done so users of Graffle 2 and Graffle 3 can download and install version 4 without overwriting their existing version of the application
Only change from the release candidate last week was a little icon polish.
Download, and enjoy!
Just a smattering of bug fixes this go-around.
Release candidate, thought we'd never make it. Barring unforeseen circumstances, expect the final release of OmniGraffle 4.2 (and the last Graffle 4 release as we start in full on OmniGraffle 5) real soon now, like proabably next week.
Download OmniGraffle 4.2 rc 1 and read the latest release notes here.
Japanese localizations, at long last.
Among other neat things like some crashes that got fixed, bug fixes, regression fixes, and a few forward-looking fixes for the future.
The beta download page and current release notes can be found here.
Take a break from checking your email for OmniFocus beta invites (we are adding people as fast as we can, I swear) and behold: new screencasts are now available for OmniGraffle.
Not only that, but there's a new OmniPlan screencast that you can watch from the ScreenCastsOnline website.
Enjoy!
Hi.
I've been seeing you around with OmniFocus (well, at least some of you) lately. Look, I'm really sorry about all that crashing I did, I swear I won't do it again. Can you, you know, maybe hang out with me for a little bit instead of Focus? Come on, it'll be like old times! Except, you know, the crashing part.
Oh, did I mention that I got my localizations done? (well, Japanese is still partly done and is underway as we speak)
Yeah anyways, another handy OmniGraffle beta release, fixed a very popular crash when saving, most of the localizations are incorporated.
Informative release notes in their usual location.
Beta download page awaits.
OmniGraffle 1.0 was released on May 7, 2001. I guess that makes it 6 years old today (that's 42 to you and me).
A couple of nice folks wrote in with great praise today (not really birthday greetings, but I'm gonna use them here anyways) for Graffle, so here they be…
OmniGraffle user J.C. writes:
What awesomely cool software. I am a first-time user and couldn't be more pleased with a software title than I am with OmniGraffle Pro. It isn't often that software just REALLY kicks butt on all fronts.
And J-A. B. chimes in with:
I just wanted to say I really love your Omnigraffle software (and I have only been using it 1 week)...It's great! I love it. I can do everything I used to do in showcase (and more!), which is fabulous.
There's no Amazon wishlist for OmniGraffle that I know of, but I was just having a discussion with Graffle about its somewhat rebellious behavior and as a six-year-old, it said it really really REALLY wanted a pony.
[Late update]: Today is also Support/QA manager Brian's birthday as well. Pie!!
Look, I realize that this post isn't concerning OmniFocus (I am seriously considering the idea of referring to OmniFocus as “Marcia”, but I cannot bring myself to refer to Graffle as “Jan”), but I don't want anyone to panic.
Really, I don't want any panicking.
Especially of the Kernel Panic variety.
A very small number of users have been reporting kernel panics on their Intel-based Macs in Mac OS X 10.4.9 when saving files with the OmniGraffle 4.2 beta releases. We are investigating the issue and of course would very much like to fix it if it's a problem in OmniGraffle. Therefore, it's recommended that if stability is absolutely crucial, you should run OmniGraffle 4.1.2, available at our Download Page . However, if you are a brave soul who would like to hazard a kernel panic, we'd also very much like to get your feedback, so that we can look at the data as well as pass it along to Apple.
That said, among the various bug fixes and crashes addressed in this release, OmniGraffle 4.2b4 also sports a significant change to how it handles its autosave backups—Now that it requires Mac OS X 10.4, we're taking advantage of storing that information in a more proper location, with the added benefit of newly-created documents that have yet to be saved gaining a backup as well.
Please to read the release notes.
As ever, the scary beta download page awaits.
New name, same as the old name.
So, enough folks gave feedback about appending the major version number in the Finder name, plus we felt we could do better, so this particular version sports just plain old OmniGraffle and OmniGraffle Professional.
However, you may notice that when dragging version 4.2 beta 3 to your Applications folder that it does not replace the existing version that may have the same name. Instead, it lives alongside the older version in strange harmony like some uncomfortable doppelganger.
How can this be? I'll let the gentle reader guess, unless they want to cheat and go look at the release notes.
Please note that this will require manually getting rid of your old versions of OmniGraffle, but on the other hand it means that licensed users of Graffle 3 or Graffle 2 won't accidentally replace their old version with one that requires an upgrade fee.
Other goodies in this release are a spanky new disk image background with an alias to the Applications folder, and more importantly a fix to a crash when saving files with placed images that was plaguing the current pool of beta testers.
So, go, download, enjoy!
From an iChat conversation with Bill this morning, he's on the left and I'm on the right:
So, what this all means is that we're finally building nightly alphas of OmniGraffle 5, and it's going to be a long long time before anything comes remotely close to being public.
But, I thought it would be nice to distract from all the OmniFocus talk for a bit.
(oh, and OmniGraffle 4.2 beta 3 may or may not be out today or tomorrow)
OmniGraffle's got a brand new name.
At least, to the Finder it does. OmniGraffle 4.2 beta 2 (including Pro) now sport their major version number in the Finder's view. This is for the benefit of users that get notified of its existence via the software update mechanism, download the new version, and accidentally overwrite their older version of OmniGraffle 3 or OmniGraffle 2.
Other goodies abound, like the Document Settings Inspector getting a new icon and being made available for the standard version of the application, and a number of bug fixes.
This release also represents UI and documentation freeze, and it will be the version submitted to our localization teams—Expect the next release to be fully localized for our international users, we thank you all for your patience in this endeavor.
Release notes are found at the usual location.
And the download is on our scary beta page.