Balsamiq Blog

1.5 Weekly Release: what’s new this week

by Peldi Guilizzoni. December 28th, 2008 under Mockups, Release Announcements — 1 Comment

I am starting to batch updates and releasing once a week (Sunday morning, Italian time). I used to “fix it an release it” but now that the product is more mature I feel that “slowing down” to a weekly release cycle is the right thing to do.

This week, the new build brings us:

• curvature property for arrows (GetSatisfaction thread):
• “Empty Text” support: empty text is now accepted in lots and lots of control types. No more “use a space” workaround needed! (GetSatisfaction thread 1 and thread 2)
• Checkbox and RadioButton controls now support text styles like size, underline, etc. (GetSatisfaction thread)
• I fixed a bug with positioning of controls when cloning via the ALT+drag method
• I fixed a bug in the right-click unlock menu, now it properly says “Unlock Group” instead of just “Unlock “

I also fixed a few bugs during the week and pushed them right away (the most important had to do with PNG images failing to export in some cases) .

You can download the new version in the usual places:

• Mockups for Desktop
• Mockups for Confluence
• Mockups for JIRA
• Mockups for XWiki

Two Reminders:

• Help me design the Linking Mockups Feature
• I am looking for good Flex Developers

I also updated the website a bit with some FAQs and more up-to-date company info.

Onward!

— 1 Comment

 

 

 

New Release: Balsamiq Mockups 1.5

by Peldi Guilizzoni. December 19th, 2008 under Company / Business, Mockups, Release Announcements — 5 Comments

I am extremely pleased to announce the immediate availability of Balsamiq Mockups version 1.5.

This is a FREE upgrade for all Mockups versions.

Download links: Mockups for Desktop, for Confluence, for JIRA and for XWiki. You can also try the web demo version here.

This release introduces the #1 most requested feature and a host of other productivity enhancements which should make Mockups more flexible, powerful and hopefully even more fun to use.

Revamped intro video:

Themes of this Release

• The new Image Import feature, for logos, photos, custom controls and even templates!
• I added some new control types and customization enhancements, including a really powerful new Data Grid.
• Mockups fits better in your flow with native Printing, export PNG to clipboard, export all PNGs, partial XML export, full screen view and other enhancements
• Mockups is even faster and more powerful, thanks to more keyboard shortcuts, configuration options and some “magic” features!
• Lots and lots of bug fixes and little usability enhancements here and there

The Image Import feature

This has been the #1 most requested feature from day one, and it’s the first one that was designed with the help of the wonderful Mockups community using Mockups coupled with the GetSatisfaction forums: you can read everyone’s excellent feedback here:  “Help me design the import image feature“.

Here’s a quick overview video of how to use the feature and what it enables:

I like this feature because it’s simple to use and yet very powerful, enabling a number of use-cases which were previously impossible with Mockups. For instance:

• improving an existing interface: take a screenshot of the current UI and import it into Mockups to tweak or use as reference, like this:
• you can import images of custom icons or custom control types, like this:
• advanced feature: since images are linked in and not embedded, you can use the image import feature to create “master slides” and component templates, as shown in the video below:
  Please upgrade your Flash Player

  
  I realize it’s a bit tricky, but I think this is an advanced use-case so I think it’s OK, at least for now.

Aside from the Image control, you can also embed images in the Cover Flow component (as seen in the video at the top).

I can’t wait to see how you use this feature!

New Control Types and Customization Enhancements

Version 1.5 includes new control types like Arrows, Multiline Button, and Fieldset / Group.

A few existing controls were ehanced with multi-line support, like checkboxes, radio buttons, callouts and tooltips.

Also, the ComboBox has a multiline feature: if you only type one line of text in a ComboBox, you’ll just see the regular, closed combo. If instead you type more than one line of text, the ComboBox’s pulldown will appear with your content in it. Magic!

Other enhancements are the ability to not have anything selected in the Button Bar control and to type and resize the Date Chooser control.

Data Grid Power!

The Data Grid / Table became even more powerful in this release:

You can now toggle the header row, specify two colors for the rows, the row height, whether the grid should have horizontal and/or vertical lines, and use text shortcuts such as [] and [x] to display checkboxes and () and (o) to display radio buttons in the grid.

I think these enhancements alone will allow you to use Mockups for a lot more types of interfaces than before.

Mockups Fits Better in your Workflow

Mockups 1.5 introduces a number of features designed to make Mockups integrate better in your daily work without disrupting your flow.

For instance:

• you can now export an image snapshot directly to your clipboard instead of just to a file: this lets you paste your mockups into Word or Powerpoint documents and other applications directly
• you can export snapshots of all the mockups you are working on with one click with the new “Export All Snapshots to PNG” feature
• if you want to overwrite the same PNG file over and over, you have an option to do so:
  
• Partial XML export: you can already import a mockup into another with the Import feature, but now you can also select which controls to export. This will make it much easier to create a library of common mockup elements for reuse:
  
• Native Printing from Mockups for Desktop, making it the ultimate paper-prototyping tool!
• Full Screen View: ideal for presenting UI Mockups to your clients or team – it removes all distractions, centers your mockup on the screen and gives you a big blue arrow pointer to discuss various UI elements.

Even Faster and More Powerful

The following features have two things in common: they are nearly invisible (barely any new UI was added for them) while at the same time giving you more power and speed when creating your mockups.

They include:

• Paste In Place (CTRL+SHIFT+V)
• Nudge-resize: CTRL+ALT+arrow keys to resize the selection 2 pixels at the time, add SHIFT to resize 20 pixels at the time
• CTRL+Enter will commit multiline text, no need to click outside of the control any more (and remember, ENTER starts the editing as well as F2 and double-clicking already)
• Right-Click over a locked control to unlock it (no need to “unlock all”!)
• Right-Click over a file tab in Mockups for Desktop to Save / Close / Clone the selected mockup, or create a new one:
• you can select multiple files in the “Open Mockup” dialog
• for those rare times where you need something “pixel-perfect”, you can now specify the position and size of the selection in the property inspector:
  
  clicking on the position and size numbers makes them editable:
  the format is “X,Y WxH” or, spelled out “x position COMMA y position SPACE width LETTER X height, all in pixels”
• Auto-magic lorem-ipsum generator: just type “lorem” (all lowercase) in any Paragraph or Text Area control and you’ll get a chunk of lorem-ipsum text pre-filled for you: magic!
• A configuration file: BalsamiqMockups.cfg is a simple XML file that lets you specify, among other things, which font face to use for your mockups. Ehm, are you Comic Sans MS haters happy now? See instructions here on how to set it up on your system.
• A log file: BalsamiqMockups.log is a simple text file containing the output of command-line runs of Mockups for Desktop. See details here.

As always, you can see the full list of supported keyboard shortcuts here.

Lots of bug fixes!

• This is the most important one and I cannot take any credit for it: drag and drop from the UI Library now works on Linux! The fix comes for free when you install Adobe AIR 1.5. This should bring the linux version up to par with the Mac and Windows version, which is a nice feeling. Go Ubuntu!
• You might notice that the color that denotes selection is not as bright and attention-grabbing as before.
• In the Desktop version, the tabs at the bottom shrink so that they all fit even if you have lots of Mockups open.
• Tree controls take less room.
• Lots of other little things I cannot even remember…I hope you’ll notice them a little bit at the time.

Thank You So Much!

I may say that I am a one-person development team, but it sure doesn’t feel that way. This release was truly a collaborative effort. Most of the new features and bug fixes came directly from you, and were designed and discussed together on GetSatisfaction coupled with Mockups. I’ll write another post just on how well those two work together, but for now you should at least take a look at the Help me Design the Import Image Feature thread if you haven’t.

There are a few people whom I’d like to thank in particular:

• Michael Bourque – Mr.GetSatisfaction! Michael is behind many of the ideas that ended up in 1.5 and you probably all have had your questions answered by him on the forums before I could even get to them.
• Adam Wride – I can safely say that the JIRA plugin wouldn’t have existed without him, and you should all be thankful for his willingness to always test the latest version and find bugs before they get to you.
• Noel Gomez – the “generous marketing genius”. The many emails he sent me are filled with practical tips to make my website, screencasts and product better for everyone. I am so thankful.
• Michael Matti – I know I thanked him for his help in 1.1 back in July, but Michael has stuck with me and continues to be an invaluable resource of ideas and bug reports, what a friend!
• Riel Roussopoulos – Riel posted a ton of feature ideas and bug reports on GetSatisfaction, and is the reason behind the new configuration file. His video card software doesn’t play well with Adobe AIR, and it took us 3 days to figure that one out. Thanks for your patience Riel!
• David Miranda – I’ll blog about this separately, but you should know that David redesigned my website in his spare time and donated his new design to me, just out of the goodness of his heart. I have started incorporating some elements of his design already, and lots more is coming.
• Vince Samios – Vince is part of “The Manchester Mob”, a group of marketing and SEO experts in the UK. I have a couple of emails from him sitting in my inbox with feedback on how to improve my site and product, and I can’t wait until I have some time to go through them and implement them. It’s such good stuff!
• M.B. – M. is the brilliant Italian software engineer behind the “Sketch it!” feature of 1.5. I contracted him thinking it would take a couple of weeks and it was done in 8 hours. I hope to be able to reveal his name to you in 2009.

I am truly blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful, brilliant and generous people. This is truly something I did not expect when I started Balsamiq, and something that really warms my heart. For instance, look at the 115 Mockups Fans on Facebook, this is such an awesome global community!

You are the people I write software for, thanks for pushing me and helping me make it as good as it can be.

What’s next

Oh, where to start. I have cleared the next few days to deal with whatever unexpected fire might flare up, then it’s Christmas, also known as “the best time for coding”, so I might start attacking the tough features of 2.0 like “double-click to edit groups”, “add control packs support” (for iPhone, Facebook and other UI control types) and of course “linking mockups together”, the main feature of 2.0. I am also working with Michael Bourque on a “Mockups Community Server” wiki where people can share and critique each other’s mockups.

Additionally, I have 6 (yes, SIX) more integrations in the pipeline for Mockups (other enterprise wikis, bug tracking and content management systems), which should keep me busy through the spring.

Today is the six-month anniversary of launching Balsamiq…so far it’s been an incredible journey. I can’t wait to see what the future will bring, I hope you’ll want to stick around for it!

Happy holidays!

Peldi

— 5 Comments

 

 

 

Mockups 1.5 is on the Way, it’s Screencasting Time!

by Peldi Guilizzoni. December 17th, 2008 under Branding / Marketing — 9 Comments

Hi there, just a quick update. I have been heads down coding and bug-fixing in order to get Mockups 1.5 out the door. I feel extremely close, hopefully I’ll be able to launch by the end of the week.

What I am doing now is recording some new screencasts for the web site, updating the documentation and preparing a few blog posts for the launch (one won’t be enough, there’s just too much stuff in 1.5!)

I thought it would be useful to share my screencasting techniques. I know there are lots of good tutorials out there, but I figured the more the better right?

Here’s my setup:

Things to notice:

• the big ugly but wonderfully functional Rode Podcaster microphone. I thought the built-in Macbook mic wasn’t so bad, but once I bought the Podcaster I realized what a fool I was. Honestly, it’s worth the money.
• 3 books so that I don’t have to crouch down while I speak.
• Screenflow

Here’s how I assemble a screencast:

• I set the monitor’s resolution to 1280×800
• I resize the app so that it’s all showing inside a 1280×720 area (the target size of the HD video)
• I record the demo, without the audio portion. I talk over it to help with the timing but I don’t record the audio at this stage so I can focus on the mouse movements instead. This might take a few takes.
• I play back the demo in Screenflow and add zooming and other effects.
• Now I start recording the audio, then simply play back the video demo and narrate over it. This might take a few takes, and is painful work (who likes the sound of their own voice?)
• If the audio is 90% good, I sometimes record little bits and pieces to replace the 10% that’s bad. You want to do this pretty quickly, your voice will sound different in a few hours.
• I play it back a couple of times, and if it’s at all acceptable, I call it done. I am not a professional screencaster and I’m not pretending to be one. I actually don’t think that something super-polished, with background music and a fake-sounding voice is appropriate for my product/audience. In fact, I always intentionally leave one “user mistake” that I make in the video, to show that it’s easy to recover from it.
• Export settings are a dark art, everyone has different “best Youtube HD settings” and I think you could spend many hours tweaking and learning what works best by trial and error. A good friend of mine once told me “never learn a new thing unless you’d be happy being asked to do it again” (thanks Brad!), so in this case I just follow whatever tutorial I find quickly on Google. Today for instance I used this one. It looks pretty good so that’s good enough for me.
• I upload it to Vimeo and/or Youtube. I like Vimeo’s playback UI much better, but YouTube is more reliable and can be played back on an iPhone.

It looks like my fist Mockups 1.5 video has just finished transcoding over at Vimeo (feedback welcome!!), so I’d better get back to it and make some more!

— 9 Comments