pswulius's dashboard

pswulius replied on February 25, 2009 03:59 to the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

At the risk of throwing a monkey wrench in, I have to report that I haven't experienced any of the state problems that we've been discussing on this thread since updating to: 1.NEXT.282 - 02/14/2009 15:02 (Air)

Sorry I've been out of touch, but I've been quite busy, and Balsamiq Desktop has been performing flawlessly.

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

Okay, when I get home, I'll get it together and email it to you. If the problem is not currently being exhibited, I'll wait until it does. :) – pswulius, on February 03, 2009 20:29

pswulius replied on February 02, 2009 20:34 to the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

I experience the problem often with only 1 or 2 restarts. However, my workflow includes leaving Balsamiq open for long periods of time (hours-days), and running other applications during that time. Then, when I finally close Balsamiq, the next time I open it, it fails this way. I normally delete my SharedObjects folder at the beginning of this process too. I feel like it's a time issue, or a conflicting resource problem with other applications. Hope this helps. Do you want a copy of my sharedobject file?

pswulius replied on January 24, 2009 20:53 to the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

been okay for me the past 3 days. will keep you updated.

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

I think I should wait until the problem reappears, then mail you a copy of my mockups.sol. I'm betting you'll experience the problem and can debug. Let me know if you want it. (-: – pswulius, on January 19, 2009 22:22

pswulius replied on January 19, 2009 21:59 to the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

I'm not sure what NEXT is! I hope it's in here somewhere (-:

Windows XP
Desktop version of Mockups
Version: 1.5.15 - 01/17/2009 13:20 (Air)
Flash Player Version: WIN 10,0,12,36

pswulius replied on January 19, 2009 21:47 to the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Any updates on this issue? I have not been able to pinpoint the cause. I know it does not require a reboot to appear. However, after 'fixing' it by deleting the SharedObjects stuff, you can quit and restart Balsamiq at least 20 times without the problem recurring. It happens some time after that.

pswulius shared an idea in Balsamiq on January 03, 2009 00:32:

W-A-S-D keys could be used for something helpful.

While creating mockupts, I'm used to keeping my left hand at the home position. Mostly to keep the Shift,Ctrl, and Alt keys in constant use. So at least for me, it would be nice to use more keys in that position.

I was thinking of WASD like the arrow keys (like games do), and use them for align left|right|bottom|top. And Shift WASD could be used for something else. Both feel really comfortable while keeping my pinky near the left-control.

pswulius replied on December 27, 2008 19:38 to the idea "control font size on checkbox control" in Balsamiq:

works great, thank you! i wouldn't say i've put it through its paces, but it looks like an acceptable risk to merge it in to me. (-:

pswulius replied on December 25, 2008 01:12 to the praise "Happy Holidays..." in Balsamiq:

I should be working, but this post was very distracting. (-: Thank you for that, and happy holidays to you all as well. I mocked these up as a sort of christmas gift of my own. Back to work!

pswulius shared an idea in Balsamiq on December 25, 2008 00:14:

control font size on checkbox control

I may be alone in this, but I've been doing all of my mockups these days using 10pt font. Checkboxes are one of the controls I always modify by inputting a space in the control, and grouping it with a 10pt label.

This is very low priority to me. I probably shouldn't say that, but I'm counting on getsatisfaction to pump up the "i like this idea" count if there is interest.

pswulius replied on December 24, 2008 06:22 to the idea "More arrows styles..." in Balsamiq:

Cool. Thank you very much. Short release schedules are really nice huh?

pswulius replied on December 24, 2008 00:35 to the problem "After AIR 1.5 upgrade, Mockups can't remember Show UI Library / Notebook preferences" in Balsamiq:

Deleting the SharedObjects folder does the trick for me, but it is temporary. I have no clue what conditions cause it to recur. In addition to the ui library and notebook, my instance also forgets the documents that were open upon last exiting of the app.

About
Version: 1.5.8 - 12/20/2008 02:31 (Air)
Flash Player Version: WIN 10,0,12,36

Will continue testing, if I learn anything resembling concrete, I'll post em here. Cheers!

pswulius replied on December 23, 2008 00:20 to the discussion "How (and why) do you use Balsamiq Mockups?" in Balsamiq:

My way of designing has not changed because this is the first project I've designed for. I've watched interface designers on previous projects work with other tools, with stacks of templates and many hours of paid time.

I was nervous about getting into the field of mockups because of the learning curve with those tools. I knew that I would have to immerse myself eventually and was sad I'd lose so much time designing the application to learning the tools. Now I don't have to. I was immediately productive. That is the power of Balsamiq in my opinion.

My good friend told me to check out Balsamiq, but not for this reason. He is an interface designer, and his excitement for Balsamiq was the 'unfinished' look of the mockups. He couldn't stress enough about how important it is for him to be able to share his work with colleagues, and reduce the 'attachment' to them in iterative development. For this reason, I've always found the Comic Sans war to have completely missed the point here. If there is a good use for that font, this is it!

He chastises me for putting color into my mockups.

Anyway, after ~200 mockups created with Balsamiq, I am very satisfied. Not to mention, it's been an entertaining ride, what with getsatisfaction, the blog, and all.

--pete

pswulius shared an idea in Balsamiq on December 22, 2008 23:53:

arrows in opposite direction from currently available.

I love the arrows. I've immediately started using them in my mockups since you released the first preview release with them. Just waiting for them to be available in the opposite direction, convex vs. concave.

1.5 is great. Lots of good stuff in here.

pswulius shared an idea in Balsamiq on December 11, 2008 23:46:

close tab with middle click

I know you have already closed the feature request for adding right-click function to the tabs, but a simple nicety I've grown accustomed to with some of my apps is the ability to close tabs by middle clicking. I would love for this to work someday!

BTW, Mockups is a great product. Thanks again.

pswulius shared an idea in Balsamiq on October 12, 2008 21:21:

Busy cursor during long operations.

The one that has bit me the most is 'undo'. Sometimes the undo step is long lived, leading me to believe that nothing is happening. This can result in many Ctrl-Z commands getting queued up. I've learned to behave properly, but it would still be nice for new users, as well as myself.

The prime example of this is when an undo step is to re-select a large number of objects. Try like 40-50 objects. Select them with a lasso, click elsewhere to de-select them, then hit undo.

pswulius replied on September 17, 2008 17:41 to the problem "Dragging an object to the canvas edge should auto scroll the canvas" in Balsamiq:

Maybe adding zoom would be easier?

pswulius replied on September 01, 2008 21:27 to the idea "Balsamiq recursively generates .pngs for all mockups in a directory." in Balsamiq:

That certainly addresses my issue. I almost added that a command-line option would be a great tide over. Thanks for the near instant reply!

I'm looking forward to the BMML feature as well. You are right, it is definitely related. Thanks for the blog and videos.

pswulius shared an idea in Balsamiq on September 01, 2008 21:05:

Balsamiq recursively generates .pngs for all mockups in a directory.

It would help me out considerably if I could run Balsamiq against a directory recursively and have it generate the .pngs of all the mockups I have stored there.

I currently have 35 mockups which are all changing on a daily basis, and I anticipate I'll have around 100 in the next couple weeks.

Before a meeting, I print out paper copies of everything. I'm willing to accept the burden of printing them in separate software in the spirit of keeping Balsamiq simple, but this step would save me a lot of clicking, and more importantly, help me feel more confident I have exported all of the mockups.

I would also like to add that I am very satisfied with Balsamiq. It's simplicity is a real productivity enhancement. Thank you for building it, and I wish you great success.