MacTech posts

Filed under: Software

MacTech re-releases VBA to AppleScript Transition Guide

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Mar 28th, 2008

As someone who spent months hand-crafting Visual Basic scripts in Microsoft Office, only to have Microsoft pull the rug out from under me with the release of Office 2008 (they abandoned VB support for the Mac. Grrr.), I'm very grateful to MacTech magazine and longtime AppleScript guru Paul Berkowitz.

MacTech has re-released Paul's 150-page guide for making the transition from VBA to AppleScript (originally printed in the April 2007 issue of the magazine, and also available in modified form on the Microsoft Mac BU site). It's highly detailed, with step-by-step instructions. It looks like I know what I'll be reading next week (and if I run into trouble I can always bug Cory for help).

You can download the guide as a PDF for $9.95US, or get the PDF plus a hardcover version for $19.95US. Both options include a free subscription to MacTech magazine, which is a great bonus for anyone who likes to dig into the underside of Mac OS X. If your wallet is a bit light, you can read the entire thing online for free.

Tags: applescript, mactech, microsoft office, MicrosoftOffice, vba, visual basic, VisualBasic

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Developer

MacTech's 25 most influential, version 2007

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jun 7th, 2007

MacTech has released their MacTech 25 for the second year in a row-- it's a list of the top 25 most influential people in the Mac community (as selected by the community itself), and it reads like a who's who of people doing great stuff : John Gruber, the suave-looking Aaron Hillegass and Brent Simmons all make return appearances. This year they chose everyone who's ever programmed for MarsEdit (as Daniel Jalkut is happy to say), not to mention both co-founders of Rogue Ameoba, Paul Kafasis and Alex Lagutin.

Who's missing? Anyone from Apple-- MacTech specifically left them off the list to make sure they didn't hog the Spotlight, so to speak. They say that Apple employees are allowed to be put in the Honorable Mentions section, but as far as I can tell, while Leo Laporte, David Pogue and Merlin Mann all made it, no one from Apple actually did. Better get cracking on those influencing techniques for next year, guys.

Tags: aaronhillegass, brentsimmons, community, danieljalkut, davidpogue, influential, johngruber, leolaporte, list, mac, mactech, mactech25, merlinmann, paulkafasis, rogueameboa

Filed under: How-tos, Productivity, Developer

MacTech VBA to AppleScript Guide free online

by Mat Lu (RSS feed) on May 3rd, 2007

We've mentioned before Microsoft's controversial decision to end support for Visual Basic (VBA) scripting in the forthcoming Office 2008 and replace it with AppleScript. While normally moving to an Apple standard technology over a closed Microsoft solution is a good thing, this move will have major repercussions with respect to cross-platform compatibility. Once this is done many scripts and macros written for the Windows versions of MS Office will no longer work on the Mac version. There is a work-around, rewriting the macros and scripts in AppleScript, though that will take some doing. Fortunately, MacTech magazine has produced a VBA to Applescript Transition Guide to help with the process. Originally the Guide was only included with the April issue of MacTech Magazine, but they have now seen the light and are offering it free on their website. You can still purchase a PDF or paper copy as well. Check it out over at MacTech.

[via The Apple Blog]

Tags: AppleScript, MacTech, Office 2008, Office2008, VBA

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Troubleshooting, Universal Binary

AppleJack 1.4.3rc3 adds Intel support

by Laurie A. Duncan (RSS feed) on Nov 7th, 2006

AppleJack, the wildly popular open source, single user mode troubleshooting tool for Macs, has finally been updated to support Intel-based Macs. Version 1.4.3rc3, a release candidate, is downloadable now on sourceforge and the final version is expected within the week.

Besides Intel compatibility, the following tweaks have been made to the new version:

Added an automated uninstaller routine, to enable easy and almost foolproof uninstallation of AppleJack.
Added /var/root/Library/Caches to the system cache cleanup routine.
Experimental expert mode exists, but is currently hidden until it can be tested further. (see Appendix B of the Read Me). The only well-tested options at this point are the memory test using the included Memtest utility, and the option to disable auto login.
Improved the internal coding of user-input prompts. Uses a standardized interface for these functions now.
The preference file check now uses a null byte character to separate files rather than an arbitrary "improbable" string.

I'm just giddy about this. Integrating Memtest is a nice bonus since I use it all the time. Instead of launching Rember, which is a graphical interface for Memtest (proving my command-line phobia once again), I can just add it to my AppleJack routine. Thanks, Apotek, for your continued development of the troubleshooting tool I use the most!

Tags: applejack, mac tech, MacTech, memtest, rember, single user mode, SingleUserMode, troubleshooting tools, TroubleshootingTools

Filed under: Software

MacTech benchmarks Office 2004 on Rosetta

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Apr 23rd, 2006

MacTech has published what I am fairly certain are the comprehensive Office 2004 on Rosetta test results for Intel Macs. Honestly, there is so much literature and testing in this article that I simply skimmed most of it and skipped ahead to the conclusion: "in general, Office 2004 under Rosetta works "well enough" to "very well," and in some cases, it's even faster than on the PowerPC baseline machine." Having recently acquired a MacBook Pro, I have to agree. However, I think Word has a slightly longer startup time than on my previous PowerBook, but I would attribute that to Rosetta having to work some magic in the background.

Don't take my word though: check out MacTech's article for more than you'd ever want to know about how well Office 2004 will perform on Intel Macs.

[via MacMinute]

Tags: 2004, benchmarks, Entourage, Excel, MacTech, Office, performance, PowerPoint, response, Rosetta, speed, test, Word

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