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WorkStrip X version 2.5
© Copyright Softchaos Limited 2002
www.softchaos.com

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Important information for international users of WorkStrip X 2.0.2
WorkStrip X 2.5 only has English localization. A localized version will be available at a later date.

Important information for everyone
Please read this document (including the Release Notes further down) as it contains information that will help you get the most out of WorkStrip X whether you are a new or existing user.

System Requirements
Any Macintosh running Mac OS X version 10.1 or newer can run WorkStrip X.

How to Install
Quit any previous version of WorkStrip X, drag the WorkStrip X application to your Applications folder, go there and launch it.

What is WorkStrip X?
WorkStrip X is an intelligent, system wide productivity enhancement tool for professional and intensive Mac users. Situated on the desktop, WorkStrip provides a host of intuitive features:
  • Multiple “Workspaces” to organize your work
  • Instant file previews without loading an application
  • Advanced tracking of applications, documents & web sites
  • Bookmarked favorite items for ease of access
  • Instant panel views of recent files, folders and bookmarks
  • Ability to place folders and files directly on the strip
  • Flexible auto-hide options to suit your tastes
  • Fresh Aqua look and feel

Important information for users of WorkStrip prior to WorkStrip X 2.0
WorkStrip X represents a dramatic change from WorkStrip for Mac OS 9 and the WorkStrip X Preview release. Because of this, Workspaces created these versions cannot be used with this release — entirely new Workspaces must be created. If WorkStrip X notices the WorkStrip X Preview on your hard disk, it will remove it.

Where's the manual?
A detailed, printable PDF manual is accessible within WorkStrip X from the Quick Access menu and panel window.

WorkStrip X 2.5 Release Notes - Changes since 2.0.2

What's New
Items that are kept on the strip can now be rearranged or removed by dragging the Tab behind the item's icon. To use automatic ordering of items instead, turn off 'Manually arrange items' in WorkStrip X Preferences. 

It is now possible to have disks automatically appear on the strip when they are mounted, e.g. CDs, DVDs, iPods, Zip disks, disk images, servers etc. These options are controlled in the Automatic Items panel in WorkStrip X Preferences.

It has been made easier to add certain special folders to the strip. By default, the Home, Desktop, Documents and Applications folder are added to the strip. To change these settings and add other common folders, see the Automatic Items panel in WorkStrip X Preferences. As always, it is still possible to add any folder to the strip by dragging it to the Quick Access item's icon.

It is now possible to exclude specific/any applications from ever appearing on the strip. See the Automatic Items panel in WorkStrip X Preferences. 

The WorkStrip X Trash can now be positioned on the menu bar. Use the Trash preferences to enable this. (Note, when it is on the menu bar, you have to hold down the command key to move it.)

Files and folders inside of WorkStrip X panel windows can be renamed via their contextual menu.

It is now possible to create new folders inside of WorkStrip X panel windows. Use the contextual menus inside the panel windows to do this.

Items that are kept on the strip can now have a tint applied to their icons. This allows you to differentiate files and folders with standard icons. To set a tint, use the Tint menu in the item's panel window.

It is now possible to assign a different Desktop picture for each workspace. This provides a more visual clue as to which workspace is active. Desktop pictures can be set in the Manage Workspaces window.

What's Improved
The Tab for each item on the strip now highlights when the mouse is over it to make it more obvious that clicking the tab does something. We think some people completely missed this side of WorkStrip X!

It is now possible to drag files onto applications (or application aliases) inside of WorkStrip's panel windows in order to open them. 

An eject option has been added to the pop-up menu for disk items on the strip.
IMPORTANT - Using this option on a CD-R/DVD-R that you want to burn will cause the disk to be ejected WITHOUT burning it. Please use the Finder to eject such disks if you want them burned. We hope to resolve this issue in a future version.

The maximum size of WorkStrip X preview images can be changed in the Preferences window.

The panel windows are now much smarter and will automatically zoom to the best size when opened (unless you have resized them manually). Also, double-clicking on a folder in a panel window will grow the window to fit as many of the folders contents in as possible. Double-clicking an open folder will close the folder and shrink the window to its best fit. (To prevent the window changing size when opening and closing a folder, use the triangle next to the folder to open and close it.)

The tag for items kept on the strip is a different color (yellow) for items that are only kept on the strip when a specific workspace is open. This helps differentiate such items from those that are always kept on the strip (red).

If WorkStrip X is hidden, double-clicking its application icon in the Finder will make it show itself.

Auto-hide is temporarily disabled (for 3 seconds) after using one of WorkStrip X's pop-up menus. This allows you to access other items without having to unhide the strip again.

The sorting of items in the menus has been improved so that similar file types are sorted together regardless of whether the have an extension or not.

Menus for the contents of folders on servers are now more responsive.

What's Fixed
Sometimes the WorkStrip X Trash would float above all other windows regardless of the preference setting.

Opening multiple files at once via WorkStrip X now works more reliably.

Workspaces with long or multi-byte names now show up correctly in the Switch Workspaces menu.

Moving multiple items from a panel window to the Trash by using the 'Move to Trash' command is more reliable.

The number of recent items being tracked by WorkStrip X was not being limited to 100 and could grow quite large and unwieldy for busy users.

Some small Excel documents with embedded previews would not display their preview in the menus.

WorkStrip X 2.0.2 Release Notes - Changes since 2.0.1

What's New
WorkStrip X has been localized into the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.

Items in Web Browser panel windows (e.g. Bookmarked Internet items) can now be renamed via their contextual menu. Note. This does not affect the file names of local HTML files in these lists; only WorkStrip's internal name for the item is changed.

What's Improved
Local HTML files are no longer tracked as Recent Internet Items. They can still be bookmarked by dragging them to a Web browser's panel window.

It is now possible to drag non-HTML files to web browsers on the strip to open them (where appropriate).

Previously, when a file had been opened in multiple applications, multiple occurrences of it would appear in the Recent Items menu for the Workspace and Quick Access menus. Now only one occurrence will appear, and selecting that file will open it in the application it was most recently opened in.

What's Fixed
On Mac OS 10.2, clicks on certain parts of the Tab for items on the strip were being treated as clicks on the icon.

Having the WorkStrip X Trash shown no longer prevents other applications from using Command-Period to cancel operations.

Bookmarked local HTML files which are not on the startup disk no longer fail to open in some web browsers.

WorkStrip X 2.0.1 Release Notes - Changes since 2.0

What's New
Selecting 'More Applications' in the Recent Applications menu now opens up the Applications folder in the Finder.

The Quick Access menu now has a 'Quit WorkStrip X' option at the bottom.

What's Improved
Greatly reduced WorkStrip's CPU usage when it is idle.

On Mac OS 10.2 and later, you are no longer limited to 5 levels deep when working through WorkStrip's menus.

Command-Option-clicking an application on the strip is a shortcut to Hide Others.

Command-clicking an item on the strip is a shortcut to Show in Finder where appropriate.

Shift-clicking the tab of an application on the strip behaves the same as clicking that application's icon. This allows you to be less accurate with the mouse when switching applications. Command-Option-clicking and Command-clicking the tab can also be used for Hide Others and Show In Finder.

When copying/moving folders or packages by dragging them to a WorkStrip X panel window, if a same-named item already exists in the location you can now choose to replace the item instead of the operation being canceled.

Double-clicking a folder in a WorkStrip X list will now automatically scroll the list to show as much of the contents of the folder as possible. To expand a folder without moving it, click on its disclosure triangle.

Previewing icons no longer scales up icons which don't have 128x128 pixel versions.

Added support for previewing Mac OS X icon files ('.icns')

Added support for previewing more text-based file formats (e.g. Perl and other common Unix text files)

What's Fixed
WorkStrip X now works correctly on Mac OS X 10.2.
NOTE - If you previously ran WorkStrip X 2.0 on Mac OS X 10.2, some of the information stored for items in Workspaces may have been corrupted. This version will delete such items when a Workspace is opened.

Changing the 'Start automatically at login' option would sometimes fail to take effect.

Various visual inconsistencies were fixed.

Sorting a list by Date Modified now actually works.

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Web site: www.softchaos.com
E-mail: support@softchaos.com

Disclaimer
Softchaos Limited, its distributors and dealers make no warranties, either express or implied, with respect to the information contained in this document, or its fitness for any purpose.

This information is made available only on an "as is" basis. The entire risk as to its quality is with the customer. Softchaos Ltd. its distributors or dealers are not liable for direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages even if Softchaos Ltd. have been notified of errors in this information.