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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 19 June 2017

Tinderbox 7.1 — Eastgate Systems has released Tinderbox 7.1, which now fetches styled text from DEVONthink (requires DEVONthink Pro Office 2.9.11 or later). The note-taking assistant also improves performance, lets you collapse the text pane completely, improves scaling of XY plots to draw the point at the right edge of the graph properly, adds support for multi-character cues in Quicklinks, and fixes a bug that prevented URL buttons on attribute browser columns from opening the appropriate link. ($249 new with a 25 percent discount for TidBITS members, $98 upgrade,
30.4 MB, 10.10+)

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Microsoft Office 2016 15.35 and Office 2011 14.7.5 — Microsoft has issued version 15.35 of its Office 2016 application suite, adding the capability to create email templates in Outlook. The email client also now enables you to request a read receipt or delivery notification, plus improves setup when adding Exchange or Gmail accounts.

Both Office 2016 and version 14.7.5 of Office 2011 receive security updates that resolve remote code execution vulnerabilities (CVE-2017-8509 and CVE-2017-8511) by correcting how Microsoft Office handles files in memory. ($149.99 for one-time purchase, free update through Microsoft AutoUpdate, release notes, 10.10+)

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OmniFocus 2.10 — The Omni Group has released OmniFocus 2.10, adding an option to the Organization preference pane that shows the Inbox in the Projects sidebar and bringing support for the same /add and /paste URLs as the iOS version (as well as navigation links like /inbox, /projects, and /forecast). The task management app also revises its built-in clipping handler for Google Chrome to fix it for users with multiple applications
named “Google Chrome” (such as those who run Parallels Desktop), ensures consistent behavior when outdenting an inbox item or a top-level task in a project, and resolves a bug that could cause OmniFocus to use a keychain item created by the Finder to set your encryption passphrase to an empty string. ($39.99 new for Standard and $79.99 for Pro from the Omni Group Web site, $39.99 for Standard from Mac App Store with in-app purchase option to upgrade to Pro, 30.6 MB, release notes, 10.10+)

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BBEdit 11.6.7 — Bare Bones Software has released BBEdit 11.6.7 with fixes for a smattering of bugs, including one that caused the Perl syntax coloring scanner to get confused by backslash references and another that prevented the Text Options dialog box from accepting changes in the character width for Soft Wrap Text. The update also resolves a couple of crashes — one when closing a multi-file Differences results window and another when rapidly switching between files in a multi-file Differences window.

Finally, if you’re running the pre-release version of macOS 10.13 High Sierra (see “Tripping to macOS 10.13 High Sierra,” 5 June 2017), the long-standing text editor no longer attempts to use the built-in Consolas for BBEdit font due to the operating system’s refusal to load it. ($49.99, free update, 14.0 MB, release notes, 10.9.5+)

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PopChar X 8.0Thirty years (!) after its introduction, Ergonis Software has released PopChar X 8.0, a major update to the character discovery utility that enables you to create custom layouts and link fonts to preferred layouts (such as linking the Apple Color Emoji font to the new built-in Emoji layout). PopChar X 8.0 now finds and presents ligatures available in fonts, shows recently used characters in a dedicated group at the top of the character table, displays the number of installed fonts and font families in the PopChar About window, supports skin
tone variants of “zero-width joiner” emoji sequences, and fixes a bug that prevented removal of certain characters from the Favorites group.

PopChar X 8.0 is a free upgrade for those who purchased a license for PopChar X 7 on or after 1 September 2016, and upgrade pricing is available for owners of older licenses (visit the Ergonis Web site’s online store and enter your license key to find your pricing). (€29.99 new with a 25 percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 5.0 MB, release notes, 10.6+)

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Pages 6.2, Numbers 4.2, and Keynote 7.2 for Mac — Apple has released updates to its trio of iWork apps for the Mac — Pages 6.2, Numbers 4.2, and Keynote 7.2 — with all three receiving the capability to reply to comments, with each person in the thread receiving a unique color and author identification. They also all gain a library with over 500 professionally drawn shapes in categories such as objects, animals, nature, transportation, arts, and more. In addition, the three iWork apps receive a new Auto-Correction pane that
enables you to set up text replacements, enhanced support for Hebrew and Arabic languages, and improved Stock and Currency functions that return data from the previous market day’s close.

Pages improves on its desktop publishing powers by bringing back the capability to link text boxes (missing since the release of version 5.0, as noted by Michael Cohen at the Take Control Blog) and adding support for exporting documents as fixed layout EPUB books. Numbers adds support for print preview in collaborative spreadsheets, while Keynote enables you to scroll anywhere with new pan and zoom options plus edit presenter notes while displaying slides in Light Table view. Apple updated the iOS editions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote to version 3.2 with the same additions and improvements as their Mac counterparts. (Free for all apps; Pages, 237 MB; Numbers, 176 MB; Keynote, 474 MB; all three require 10.12+)

Read/post comments about Pages 6.2, Numbers 4.2, and Keynote 7.2 for Mac.

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