Topic: Feature Requests / web links open in same window!

Do you have a mouse with a middle button? You can middle-click to open in a new tab. If not, you can hold down Control or Command while clicking.

Topic: Miscellaneous / Is this what I need?

Nope. Have you looked at Zoho Planner? It’s a blatant Backpack knockoff, but it can aggregate lists.

Topic: Writeboard / Writeboard/Writeroom integration now better than ever

/Applications/WriteRoom.app/Contents/MacOS/WriteRoom

or, /usr/bin/open /Applications/WriteRoom.app should also work.

Topic: Feature Requests / Alphabetize Option for Lists

That is the most awesomely ugly thing I have ever seen. Like, I don’t even mean that as a criticism. It brightened my day.

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / FF3 display issue in Backpack Newsroom

Is anyone else having this issue with Backpack lists and Firefox 3 on OS X? The checkboxes are several pixels too low.

Topic: Tips & Tricks / Notes text field size

There’s a Firefox extension for this, too. Search Addons for “resizeable”.

Topic: How are you using Backpack? / how do you delete the Pages?

At the bottom of each page is a link entitled “Delete this page”.

Topic: Feature Requests / create a netvibes widget or universe

Someone needs to jump in and write the widget. For that matter, someone needs to update the Mac Dashboard widget. And write a Google Gadget. :)

Topic: Tips & Tricks / Backpack and Launchbar on OS X

A while back I switched from Quicksilver to Launchbar. (Mainly, Quicksilver was too slow on my iBook.) The thing I missed most from Quicksilver was its Backpack plugin. So I wanted a way to recreate it on Launchbar, except Launchbar doesn’t have plugins.

Here’s how I did it. I wrote a Perl script that uses the Backpack API to get a list of all my Backpack pages and their URLs. The script writes out a .webloc file for each page. Then I add that folder of .webloc files to Launchbar. I use the Macaroni prefpane to make sure the script runs every day; you could also make it a cronjob to run every hour or whatever you like.

This is the worst kind of quick-and-dirty Perl script. In short, I hope it doesn’t make your Mac burst into flames, but no promises. It’s been working great for me for a week.

link

P.S.: I assume it’ll work just as well for Butler or Overflow or Stacks or other launchers.

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / Changing page sharing?

Aha! Good call.

Topic: Writeboard / user-specified styles

Here’s what I use:

@-moz-document domain(“123.writeboard.com”) { #version_body { font: 12px monaco !important; }
}

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / Changing page sharing?

This used to be an option when you deleted a page, but it seems to have disappeared.

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / Journal ?? What is this

Oops, according to the product blog, there is API support. Nice!

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / Journal ?? What is this

API support for this would rock. I want it in a dashboard widget.

Topic: Tips & Tricks / Resetting a checklist

You could write a script to do it using the API, but I’d probably just use Duplicate Page—make a template page with the checklist and copy it once a month (and delete the fully checked-off page). This will even give you an opportunity to call the page “Checklist (July)” or whatever, just in case there’s any confusion.

Topic: Feature Requests / .:: Quick Question ::.

No.

Topic: Feature Requests / Notes Feature

Writeboards have auto save; if you’re typing a note that would take you more than a minute to recreate, use a Writeboard instead.

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / Newsroom incorrectly reports changes to shared pages

I have the same problem, I reported it to support about a month ago, and they said they’re working on it.

Topic: Feature Requests / Common code

You can use the Stylish extension for Firefox to do this, or a custom stylesheet in Safari. If you’re using another browser, there’s probably a way to specify a custom stylesheet, too.

Topic: Writeboard / user-specified styles

I don’t know if there’s a way to embed style information so that anyone viewing the writeboard can see it, but it’s trivial to do so for your own personal machines with the Stylish extension for Firefox, or with a custom stylesheet for Safari.

Topic: Feature Requests / Easier to move items from page to page

One thing you can do is use PgUp/PgDn on the keyboard while you’re dragging. I agree it would be great if there were something even easier, but I’ve found this handy.

Topic: Writeboard / Writeboard/Writeroom integration now better than ever

I’ve been using Hog Bay Software’s WriteRoom more and more for popping a Writeboard out to full-screen on my laptop. I use Firefox as my browser and use the extension It’s All Text to give each textarea an edit button.

Recently, the developer of WriteRoom added a very handy feature: an option to save automatically when you quit. This means you can hit edit, have your Writeboard show up immediately in full-screen, do some editing, hit Cmd-Q, and be back to the updated Writeboard without having to answer “Do you want to save? Yes/No”.

The only bad news is, it’s Leopard-only: http://hogbaysoftware.com/forums/writeroom/topics/671_New_WriteRoom_Leopard_Test_52_

It will probably also work with the “Edit in Writeroom” functionality in Safari, but I haven’t tried it.

Topic: Tips & Tricks / Bullets and Numbers

Not without a custom stylesheet.

Topic: Feature Requests / Simple Spreadsheets / Tables

Actually, now I see that the method described embeds the password in the HTML. That’s fine, but it’s not the way I do it. From the spreadsheet I want to embed, I just go File|Properties, switch to the Post to Blog tab, and follow the instructions there. It warns:

Reminder: Your spreadsheet is not public-readable.
Others will not be able to view your spreadsheet unless you set it to be readable by the public.

Which in most cases is exactly what I want.

Topic: Feature Requests / Simple Spreadsheets / Tables

Thanks, Mindquest, and sorry I didn’t answer sooner. And in case it isn’t clear from that thread, you do need to have logged into EditGrid with a cookie, otherwise you will be prompted for your password every time. That is, anyone using your computer would be able to edit your spreadsheet, but it’s not public to the whole internet.