Michael Matti's dashboard

A comment on the problem "Command-line batch export is broken" in Balsamiq:

Ahhh ... life is good again. Really appreciate the quick fix. Just out of curiosity, what the heck happened? – Michael Matti, on July 08, 2009 16:53

Michael Matti marked one of Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni's replies in Balsamiq as useful. Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni replied to the problem "Command-line batch export is broken".

Michael Matti reported a problem in Balsamiq on July 07, 2009 23:50:

Command-line batch export is broken

Not sure if it happened with the latest upgrade, or the one just before, but command line PNG export is apparently broken. I've been using a batch file for months as part of a UI spec workflow, so the system context has remained stable. When the export command fires, Mockups loads and reads the first file in the sequence, but then hangs as a background process -- I have to use the task manager to kill it.

The "Export All Snapshots" menu option is working fine, and has provided a temporary workaround. But I've got some projects that have forty or more screens edited between versions, and batch processing is a much better way to go.

Can command-line export be repaired?

Michael Matti started following the idea "Export as interactive flash movie with linked files" in Balsamiq.

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Funny you mention this ... today it crossed my mind that, since the NEXT interim upgrade, I haven't seen any more of the notepad or library. Have been teased and disappointed before, but maybe it's really, truly gone this time. Let's see if we make it through Friday ... – Michael Matti, on February 25, 2009 04:31

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Installed the latest version on Monday, after a final delete of SharedObjects. Yesterday, the notebook background began re-appearing. Today it was joined by the UI library. So maybe SharedObjects was never really the problem? – Michael Matti, on February 17, 2009 21:04

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Deleted #SharedObjects and updated to 1.5.23 this morning; this afternoon both the UI library and notebook came back. Do you want me to mail the Local Store log file? – Michael Matti, on February 09, 2009 22:27

Michael Matti reported a problem in Balsamiq on February 08, 2009 05:28:

List line height, row shading, and selection position

If you use an installed font and the List component, there's a problem with alternate-row shading and item highlighting. Check this out:



For all examples, the selected (highlighted) item is supposed to be "Theta". The font is Adobe's Helvetica Rounded, but any font other than the default Comic Sans can cause an offset. It looks like line height in List is not keyed to the actual height of the font -- in this case, it assumes something taller than what's installed. Aside from the alternate-row shading misalignment, selected item highlighting becomes pretty much guesswork. In the first example, if you set the selected row to "Sigma" instead of "Theta" the highlighting is shoved down so far that it doesn't even show on the list.

This issue first came up five months ago (selected_list_item_mis_positioning) and seemed to be solved by a one-pixel tweak. But it looks like that fix was Comic Sans specific, instead of dealing with a deeper font awareness problem.

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

OK, a moment ago the notebook came back uninvited. At least the UI library hasn't reappeared, so it's possible we're 50% fixed ... – Michael Matti, on February 06, 2009 21:30

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Installed 252 and bounced it up and down for a while. At first it kept displaying the notebook on each startup, but after deleting #SharedObjects it's remembering the setting. We'll see if it lasts. In the meantime, thanks for the speedier startups -- it's noticeable. – Michael Matti, on February 06, 2009 01:39

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Sorry for the delay getting back on this ... was out of town for the weekend. It doesn't take 50 restarts to re-trigger the problem; more like 20-25. Also, my daily workflow might be relevant: I typically edit 8-10 screens at once in a session, with Mockups started and each BMML file loaded by double-clicking the files on the desktop instead of using the Open dialog. Then I'll quit Mockups in order to run a batch file that makes Mockups generate a series of 40-odd PNGs. (If we count each command-line invocation as a restart, we eventually wind up with a count in the hundreds.) Eventually, after a day or two of these edit-followed-by-batch-PNG-generation sessions, I'll double-click a BMML file to restart Mockups and the library and notebook background have returned. – Michael Matti, on February 02, 2009 17:40

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Made it as far as Thursday afternoon. The library and notebook are back, like Banquo's ghost. :( – Michael Matti, on January 29, 2009 20:49

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Will do. As it turns out, I'll be using Mockups quite a lot through the rest of the week, so there will be plenty of opportunity to check the fix. – Michael Matti, on January 28, 2009 13:51

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Turns out I _did_ have to delete SharedObjects. After installing the new build and turning off the notebook and library, they reappeared when I restarted a session. But after closing again and trashing the SharedObjects folder, it's now remembering the settings. Let's see if it sticks... – Michael Matti, on January 27, 2009 17:42

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Sounds good. Should we empty our SharedObjects folder first? – Michael Matti, on January 27, 2009 13:52

A comment on the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

After using this build for the last three days, thought I'd be able to report success. But alas, this afternoon I fired it up on my Windows box and both the UI library and notebook background are back again, uninvited. Time for the drastic measures? – Michael Matti, on January 24, 2009 20:15

Michael Matti replied on December 29, 2008 21:14 to the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Sorry to confirm that, as pswulius reported, deleting SharedObjects turned out to be a temporary fix. Granted, it was a fix that held for a couple of days, but I'm back to manually turning off the UI library and notebook background on most launches.

So, how about this as a workaround: what if we had command-line flags to fire up Mockups without those features? Something like -uilibrary or -notebook (along with +uilibrary and +notebook) to force the suppression/display of those items at startup. Since many Windows users launch Mockups from a shortcut, we could just add those flags to the shortcut's command-line string, and guarantee the way things get set up.

It's not a kludge, mind you ... it's an, um, er ... minor feature. ;)

Michael Matti shared an idea in Balsamiq on December 29, 2008 05:05:

Border for image component

Have found myself needing a simple border around imported images -- particularly shots that were taken on a mostly white background, which makes the image boundary bleed into the mockup background in a visually confusing way. At the moment, the only solution is to stack the image on a canvas/rectangle, carefully match their sizes, and create a group. Then, of course, you've got to un-group to make any changes to the image.

Could the same border on/off checkbox that's used in the canvas and other components be added to the image properties panel? A small thing, and I'm hoping an easy one, and it would save a lot of cumulative busy-work.

As always, thanks much.

Michael Matti marked one of Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni's replies in Balsamiq as useful. Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni replied to the problem "Text color selection oddity".

A comment on the problem "Text color selection oddity" in Balsamiq:

Ahh ... that's more like it. Looks and works now exactly as expected. Thanks much. – Michael Matti, on December 15, 2008 17:32