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Review
PowerSnip
Issue: 1.5 (April/May 2003)
Author: Brian Jones
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 3,715
Starting Page Number: 9
RBD Number: 1504
Resource File(s): None
Related Web Link(s):
www.halldor.com/powersnip
Known Limitations: None
Full text of article...
PowerSnip provides another new take on a type of application that has been growing in popularity recently. Whether you call them nonlinear word processors, text organizers, or some other computer neologism, applications like ideaSpiral, MacJournal, and Z-Write have become a part of the typical Mac user's toolkit over the last couple of years. PowerSnip takes this idea in a little bit of a different direction by being a text snippet organizer. PowerSnip focuses entirely on keeping track of all the little bits of text you accumulate over time. There are no formatting rules to be tweaked, no folder hierarchy to be managed, nor pictures or sounds embedded in the text. PowerSnip does what it does, and that's it.
Although the type of data it can handle is very limited, PowerSnip adds some new fun features to the genre. One is the addition of user-defined keywords to every text snippet. When creating the text snippet, the user can specify a title, the text itself, and the keywords. These keywords can then be used to create different filtered lists of snippets. Another cool feature is the contextual menu plugin that is included. By installing the plugin, users can create new snippets using selected text from any application that supports contextual menus. This feature makes the application much more usable, because it need not always be front and center in order for it to be useful.
The interface for PowerSnip is simple and functional. Although there are some mistakes regarding compliance with the interface guidelines and clarity of function, once you get used to things everything hums along nicely. The search function is very useful, as is the contextual menu support. Although it is only intended to be a "snippet" manager, it would be nice if there were some support for text formatting in PowerSnip. Sometimes in even the shortest selections of text there is a need for font face variation. Similarly, it would be nice if snippets retained their font rather than there only being a single font in which all snippets were formatted.
PowerSnip is a good idea that has yet to be implemented perfectly. With some more attention paid both to superficial polish issues and to some new features, the application could become a must-have item. The author has released it as freeware, which is perfect for this application. It really must become a part of the daily routine before its usefulness truly becomes clear. Finally, if you've tried out similar applications and found them too complicated to be useful, this is the application for you; if you need something that's going to be feature-rich, then you should try out one of the alternatives.
In Brief Product PowerSnip 1.2 Manufacturer Halldor Gislason Price Free System Requirements Mac OS X 10.1+ Contact Info halldor-at-vortex.is
www.halldor.com/powersnip
Pros New twist on a proven idea, non-obtrusive interface Cons Lack of polish, Scarcity of features, Interface deficiencies Rating (1.0-5.0): 2.5
End of article.
Article copyrighted by REALbasic Developer magazine. All rights reserved.
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