You Control

by Stephanie Rewis on September 3, 2004

Well, could be I'm the last to know, but I found a really cool program this week for my Mac. It has a handy Pasteboard feature that is useful for me when coding. I'm running it in trial mode, but I've already planned to purchase after only two days of trying it out. It's called You Control by You Software. I've only got the functionality available for Jaguar (yes, I really will upgrade soon … really!) but there is more I want access to within Panther — like some extra font control. More reasons to upgrade.

This program allows me to create custom OSX menu items. Everything from accessing my home folder, system prefs and recent items (through one little menu or hot key), to news and stock tickers, weather and Mail. But my two favorites that make it all worthwhile for me are the iTunes controls right on my menu bar and the Pasteboard.

The cool thing about the iTunes control is that I can leave a little start/stop forward/back functionality right in the menu next to my clock. I can click it and see every song in my library grouped by album, artist, genre or playlist. Each time my library switches songs, it shows an indicator with the song/artist/title/rating along with the album cover. OK, so I don't really need to see the album cover, but right now it's cool. And it's customizable if I get sick of it. If I'm not mistaken, those of you with Panther can actually download this functionality free.

My next favorite feature is the Pasteboard. How many times are you using Dreamweaver, or another program, and you need to copy/paste more than one item alternately. There might be a way to do go back and forth between a couple items, but I've never found it. With the Pasteboard, I've got a little icon (you can choose what you like, I use the scissors) and when I copy something, it's stored. If I get interrupted and have to copy something else, then go back to my original job, I can simply use the menu drop down and there are my last 50 items! OK, I'm not storing 50, but you can. And that includes graphics you copy. It tells you where you copied the item from and at what time. When you click it, it inserts it into your document. Though this program has a very high cool factor, the usefulness is what makes it for me.

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

Aaron Gustafson April 22, 2009 at 7:37 am

Thanks for joining me in donating to Habitat for Humanity Seattle, Stef. I’ve reached out to some of our fellow WDW speakers as well and am hopeful that they too will commit to the idea.

It’s always nice to do something for the local community when you speak somewhere. I know when Kelly and I volunteered for Habitat in New Orleans when we were there for An Event Apart last year, we found it really rewarding. Unfortunately, this time out, I don’t think I’ll have the flexibility in my schedule to put in a day of work for Habitat in Seattle, but figured the least I could do was make a donation. And when Jim and Toby at Web Design World presented us with the combined discount and incentive to get people to register, it seemed like a perfect way to raise those funds.

Anyway, thanks again for stepping up and getting the word out.

jkiel April 22, 2009 at 3:31 pm

I would also encourage those of you who are able (financially), to sponsor an educator’s registration. Education has been hit with budget cuts (in some cases, huge cuts) and conferences/professional development has been the one of the first things to go. Think of this as sponsoring your upcoming employees’ educational training (need to keep those trainers/educators up with the newest trends, ya know!)

Thanks!

Sean Corfield April 22, 2009 at 8:53 pm

In the ColdFusion world, there’s cf.Objective() in Minneapolis (mid-May) and CFUNITED in Washington, DC (mid-August).

Note that cf.Objective() goes down under in November: cf.Objective(ANZ) in Melbourne.

Sean Corfield April 22, 2009 at 8:55 pm

And for those ColdFusion / Flex developers in the UK, there’s Scotch on the Rocks in London, Manchester and Edinburgh during the first week of June.

Sean Corfield April 22, 2009 at 8:55 pm

And for those ColdFusion / Flex developers in the UK, there’s Scotch on the Rocks in London, Manchester and Edinburgh during the first week of June.

I added an update to the post with an example JavaScript code that uses this pipe. August 12, 2009 at 5:13 am

I added an update to the post with an example JavaScript code that uses this pipe.

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