Introduction into Features of the Snippets App

Hey folks!

Today we are announcing some useful features that have been added since the last release. Your great feedback since the version 0.5 gave us a lot of exciting ideas and we have already implemented part of them. We are going to talk about global menu integration, label management, and refined inspector UI. So, one by one…

Menu Bar Integration

This feature was requested almost immediately after the initial Alpha release. Thanks to Jack Welde and Eugene Kharitonenkov for this idea. And here is a snapshot of how it's implemented:

It's really simple. As long as Snippets application is launched, you can access the library items via ‘scissors’ icon built into the menu bar. Just find the Snippet you wish to paste into the active text window and click it!

We hope you will enjoy this really fast and convenient way to use the Snippets library :)

Label Management

Every Snippet can have one or more assigned labels, or tags. This is very useful way to filter items or organize them into Smart Groups using the Sidebar. Sometimes you also need to correct typos or just to remove the obsolete labels.

And here is a tool for label management: the Labels window.

This window is a special editor that allows you to edit, delete, and review all labels. You can access it using ‘Window > Labels’ Menu, or just by pressing the ‘Command+L’ shortcut.

Label management is a good habit in general. Authors of the Things application for Mac proved this by creating just wonderful implementation of a label filter. And now you can find the similar control in the Snippets application:

This label bar provides the one of the easiest ways to filter snippets along with Smart Groups: you just select the label to display only items marked with this label.

Important: it's also possible to select more than one label by holding Shift or Option key while clicking the label button!

Refined Inspector

Some our early users may remember the first version of the Snippet Inspector :D Here it is:

Now, after some iterations its design has become more stylish and useful. So please meet the new Inspector UI!

On this snapshot you can view the labels for the snippet and its description. However, it's quite boring to have just Labels and Description fields. Isn't it? The solution is hidden in the little arrow icon in the top right corner. Click it, and you will switch to the additional Inspector pane:

Here you can attach a pre-defined file name used for drag & drop into Finder, setup the license to use for the source code, and also define the author and the URL for the Snippet. Great!

P. S.

User experience is a very important part of any mac application and we'll keep improving the Snippets UI. And all we need to make the Snippets better is your Feedback. Please don't hesitate to request any things you wish to see in the next releases. We promise to do our best to bring them into life.

That's it for today! Thanks to everybody who has taken a participation in our movement during the Alpha stage. Please stay tuned, more features to come…

See ya! :)