Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Tips and tricks, Internet Tools
Transmit 3.5 - where have you been all my life?
Last month Dave Caolo mentioned that Transmit
updated to v3.5, went universal and added droplets, amongst other things like Growl support. While I'm sure droplets
aren't a new concept by any means, these handy little DnD (drag-n-drop) extras that can perform all sorts of tasks seem
to be all the rage lately with applications both old and new. Photoshop does them, DVGuru discovered Compressor does them, and
Transmit 3.5's droplets were one of the few key reasons why I purchased a license a few days ago.Transmit's droplets are icons you can effortlessly create that allow a quick DnD operation to send files/folders up to a specific directory in one of your Transmit FTP accounts. What's even nicer is that you can opt to save the relevant password in the droplet, or require it to be input each time you use it to upload something. Creating a droplet is simple: right-click (control-click) on a directory in Transmit and chose the "Save droplet for Folder..." option like I have pictured.
The one drawback of these droplets is that they still have to start Transmit in order to actually perform the upload. On the flip side, however, they also automatically quit the app when finished. Ultimately, these droplets are incredibly handy if you have multiple FTP accounts with various directories into which you simply need to dump stuff.
Another new feature is Growl support. Since I am a lover of Growl, this is most welcome, but Transmit's implementation is a little quirky as there is no option in Transmit to toggle this feature; it's all done through the Growl System Preferences pane. Heads up to those who are new to the realm of Growl.
The last major new feature in 3.5, the one that truly made this love affair flourish, is the "edit any remote file, in any application" feature Dave mentioned. This one almost has to be experienced to believe: you can now double-click remote files in Transmit (such as image or text files) and it will download and open them in an external editor you specify in the preferences. You can then work your magic, simply hit "Save" and Transmit uploads the altered file - seamlessly (try this on an image file with Photoshop for an insta-drool effect). Gone are the days of "download, surf to your local directory, open the file, edit, save, then upload." This alone was worth purchasing a license.
Which reminds me: Transmit offers a 15 day trial, while a single license is a bargain at $29.95. Bulk pricing and upgrades are available.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gozer said 11:12AM on 3-26-2006
panic kicks ass.
and they have katamari tshirts.
all around goodness.
Reply
matthew said 11:20AM on 3-26-2006
"The last major new feature in 3.5, the one that truly made this love affair flourish, is the "edit any remote file, in any application" feature Dave mentioned. This one almost has to be experienced to believe: you can now double-click remote files in Transmit (such as image or text files) and it will download and open them in an external editor you specify in the preferences. You can then work your magic, simply hit "Save" and Transmit uploads the altered file - seamlessly (try this on an image file with Photoshop for an insta-drool effect). Gone are the days of "download, surf to your local directory, open the file, edit, save, then upload." This alone was worth purchasing a license."
Interarchy has done this for years. Transmit does look pretty good, but I think Interarchy is a more mature and powerful piece of software.
Reply
henryaj said 11:44AM on 3-26-2006
Re: the editing remote files feature, Cyberduck has this too. And it's free.
Reply
henryaj said 11:51AM on 3-26-2006
But, so as to not sound like a total Panicphobe, Unison (their USENET newsreader) is damn good and you'll quickly find it invaluable for browsing discussions and binaries alike. Very good program.
Reply
James Huston said 12:10PM on 3-26-2006
Compared to Transmit Cyberduck blows, and I love free stuff.
The enat thing about the Droplets is that they aren't anything you couldn't have done before, Panic just automated the process of creating AppleScript droplets for Transmit.
Reply
Fraser Speirs said 1:10PM on 3-26-2006
On the contrary, I think Transmit's Growl implementation is more 'correct' (for some value of 'correct') than other apps which have a preference for Growl in their own preferences.
It seems to me that the idea behind Growl is that apps should blindly emit Growl notifications and these are controlled in the Growl Preference Pane. The Growl website explains this as part of the motivation for the project:
"Consistency: Growl centralizes all your notification preferences into its preference pane - you can control them all from one place, and you know exactly how they are going to behave."
Reply
Aaron Jacobs said 2:22PM on 3-26-2006
For another free FTP client that has supported editing in any external editor for some time now, try OneButton FTP (http://www.onebutton.org/). I'll be the first to admit that it doesn't come anywhere near Transmit's level of awesomeness, but it is open source and works well for many users who don't need a lot of the extra stuff. Some people also prefer its interface to CyberDuck, though not everybody does.
Reply
Twist said 3:35PM on 3-26-2006
I've been using Transmit since the OS 9 days and it is without a doubt the slickest FTP app I have ever seen. Haven't messed around with its droplets because I have been using custom made Konfab... Yahoo! Widget Engine widgets to do that job for quite a while now.
Panic rocks and I miss Audion.
Reply
armchairgeek said 5:09PM on 3-26-2006
Transmit is the king of FTP. I usually use a command prompt to ftp files. I use Transmit when I want to do more work in less time.
The Droplets are awesome.
Reply