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OmniGraffle 4.2 beta 2 is now available

by Joel on March 14, 2007

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.

 

Comments

Guys: the link from the beta page returns a 503…

markyp

03.14.07 9:44 AM

The link's been fixed, thanks for pointing it out.

Joel

03.14.07 10:30 AM

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.

 


Is this the new policy for final releases too? If so, yuck. Clean, versionless names are nicer.

 

Anonymous

03.14.07 11:09 AM

*sigh* I keep waiting for the miscellaneous Vector PICT issues to be fixed so I can go back to using PICT instead of JPEG to get images into Word/PowerPoint…it's frustrating because it *almost* works. Maybe you could support exporting to WMF instead of PICT? That way I could get much higher better results. (Assuming there's an easy way to import WMF files into Word short of the provided clip art.)

David

03.14.07 2:16 PM

I agree with Anon - I don't like version numbers in Finder names. BBEdit used to do this and including the number would break AppleScripts since the name in the Finder would no longer match the name in the script.


I don't know if Apple has changed this behavior because I can't remember the last time I used an app with the version number in the name.

Eric

03.14.07 2:44 PM

Ditto on the Vector PICT request. Some of us, unfortunately have to deal with Word and/or PowerPoint. They don't speak PDF.


Adding vector PICT to the export options (or better Clipboard) would be wonderful.

Geoff

03.14.07 10:12 PM

Speaking of the update mechanism, what do y'all think of using Sparkle or some-such?


As a semi-recent Mac convert, I've been spoiled by those more-automatic updates.

Ed Brannin

03.15.07 1:36 AM

Vector Pict is already an export option and you can copy as vector Pict via the Copy As submenu in the Edit Menu. I think David's concerns are addressing Pict's inability to handle things like rotated text and gradient fills, etc.

Joel

03.15.07 2:04 AM

For the scripters out there:


I thought I'd never say this, but AppleScript is a lot smarter than that. The “tell” command will automatically update to the version number (basically the bundle identifier is the same, and coordinates with Finder and AppleScript to update the script based on what's available or running).

Joel

03.15.07 2:12 AM

Version numbers SHOULD be in ALL names. This is helpful to ALL users. At a glance, one can see if the version should be downloaded, whether the currently used version is out of date, and it will not accidently overwrite another version. A brief name without the version number causes problems! I have so many software applications, including SIX by the Omnigroup, that the version numbers in the names is very important for software management.

Oh Blah Dee Blah Dah

03.15.07 11:18 PM

I'll continue the vote against version numbers in the application name. Generally speaking, I only want one version of an application installed on my computer.  If I want to preview a new version, I will copy the bundle to my desktop and run it from there. It's not until I've decided to keep an application that it gets moved to the Applications folder. The very first thing I'm going to do if you name your app w/ a version number is rename it back to something generic.


Simply put, it is decidedly un-Mac-like to name your application so. Everything that I have installed in my Applications folder does not include a version number in the title.  Don't change that.

thirdjal

03.16.07 1:18 AM

I have OmniGraffle in my Dock.  When I tried to launch it after installing the beta, it launched the wrong version.  I thought maybe I had gotten the wrong file.  But I saw the culprit in the Finder.  Two versions of OmniGraffle…  I hadn't read the blog post before installing it.  Version numbers definitely should be left out of the app name.

Mark S

03.17.07 5:07 PM

I agree that having the version number there is kind of ugly. For what it's worth, you can rename it back to its numberless name in the Finder without breaking anything.

Wim

03.19.07 3:54 AM

Do you all manage localization directly or do you work with a outside company? If so, who? We are looking for advice to help us with Mac and Windows localizations. Any suggestions?

Willie Abrams

03.19.07 6:03 AM

As long as it's only the major version number (“4”, rather than “4.2.6”), I'm in favor of the switch—I like the idea of paid upgrades* having different filenames, so I can keep (say) “Writeroom 1” and “Writeroom 2” on my system at the same time without fear of overwriting the old one.


* This includes “total but feature-incomplete” rewrites, in the case of freeware and OSS apps.

Ed Brannin

03.19.07 12:00 PM
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