TypeDNA is previewing its advanced font management software at Macworld booth 4037, and gave TUAW a sneak peek.

TypeDNA (also the name of the product) is cross-platform, standalone font management software that also includes some advanced features to help you select fonts based on similarity and type features. Along with standard activation and grouping features, TypeDNA includes Font Harmony and Similar Fonts tools to help you select aesthetically-compatible fonts for your projects.

TypeDNA will begin a public beta program soon, with an eye to releasing the software in March. If you want to sign up for TypeDNA's public beta, you can.

With Automator, you can easily streamline common tasks. If you work with many files (i.e. pictures), then you know how easy it is to lose track because of incorrectly named files. With this Automator workflow, you'll never lose your place (or a file) again.

Building the Workflow
To create this workflow, simply add the following Automator actions (in the same order):

• Get Specified Finder Items
• Rename Finder Items

When you add the "Rename Finder Items" action to your workflow, Automator will ask if you want to copy the files so you don't mess with the originals. Choose "Don't Add."

Configuring the Workflow
In the "Rename Finder Items" action, you have almost unlimited choices for renaming schemes. To get started, select a scheme from the first drop-down box. You can choose from: Add Date or time, Add Text, Change Case, Make Sequential, Replace Text, Name Single Item.

Once you select your renaming scheme, choose the options you want based on the scheme. For instance, if you wanted the "Make Sequential" scheme, you could choose to use existing naming, or create a new name. You can also select options for where to place the numbers, which number to start counting from, and how to separate the number from the rest of the text.

Running the Workflow
Once you have your naming scheme figured out, it's time to run the workflow, and have Automator do the heavy-lifting. Drag and drop the files you want renamed onto the "Get Specified Finder Items" workflow. They will be added to the list of files to be renamed. You can then click the "Run" button in the top-right corner of the window. Your original files will be renamed, leaving you with perfectly renamed files. You can now save your workflow.

Want more Mac Automation or AppleScript tutorials? Visit TUAW's Mac Automation and AppleScript sections.

The Macintosh Business Unit of Microsoft, that company we love to hate, has announced that a new General Manager has taken over the group. Craig Eisler, the former Mac BU big cheese, has moved onwards and upwards into the bowels of the Redmond-based software giant in a position with the Entertainment & Devices division.

His new replacement is Eric Wilfrid, a 14-year veteran of the company who has been with the Mac BU since it was organized in 1997. Wilfred started with Microsoft in 1994, working on the Mac version of PowerPoint. He was also involved in all five releases of Office for Mac, the Mac versions of Internet Explorer and MSN, and Virtual PC.

Wilfred announced the change in a post to the Mac BU blog today. I don't know about you, but I'm hoping that Wilfred takes the Macintosh development team in a new direction -- preferably away from Steve Ballmer's recent comments about Mac users not getting "the full version" of Office.

If you had one thing to tell Mr. Wilfred as he takes over the helm of the Mac BU, what would it be? Leave us a comment!

Managing the power consumption of your Macs just got a little easier with the latest version of the LANrev cross-platform client management tool. In the new 5.0 build, the headline feature is bright green: you can assign power saving preferences to machines, including toggles based on whether a user is logged in and new reporting fields to monitor energy savings. For government users, the new FDCC SCAP component helps Windows clients meet Federal Desktop Core Configuration standards for 300-odd security settings on XP and Vista (yee-ikes).

LANrev's sometimes-confusing UI has been simplified, bringing many of the server-oriented functions (software distribution, license monitoring, etc.) under a single window; machines can now be categorized for ease of searching and organization. Software deployment has been jazzed up with new metapackage/multi-payload options and Adobe Creative Suite CS3 direct deployment for installers and updaters (no word yet on CS4 support). LANrev still offers one-click Mac reimaging without setting up a Netboot server, which is a big plus in large deployments.

Pricing for LANrev starts at about $50 per seat for corporate buyers ($40 for education markets) with tiered discounts for larger installations.

Keeping up with the Leopard-centric changes to managed preferences and mobile accounts is crucial if you're responsible for a labful or campus-ful of Macs, and you want to gracefully control what permissions or resources your wanton users have when they log in. One great resource for Mac admins diving into MCX (managed clients for OS X) for the first (or hundredth) time is Apple engineer John DeTroye's Tips & Tricks documentation.

We mentioned John's Tiger edition of the T&T docs last year, and now that he's updated the handbook for Mac OS X 10.5 and Server 10.5, you'll want to bring your library up to date. Gone is most of the material specific to machine imaging techniques (I strongly recommend NetInstall [PDF], which is working better under Leopard than it ever did before), making room for more discussion of MCX settings and portable home directories. Download your free copy of the T&T file today and it'll make your life easier tomorrow.

Is your Dashboard cluttered with tons of widgets that you don't want to see any longer? You can easily hide widgets from your Dashboard by holding down the option key while mousing over top of your widget and clicking the "x" button that shows up.

Clicking the "x" button does not, however, delete the widget -- it will only hide it. To delete a widget, click the "+" button in the bottom left corner (or hit the command and + key combo) then select the "Manage Widgets..." button. From this widget manager, you will be able to click the red minus button beside the widget to completely remove it from your Mac. The deleted widget will show up in the OS X trash can.

Did you just upgrade to the latest version of Realmac Software's RapidWeaver? Then you might notice RWThemeMiner, which lets you edit your RW themes, is no longer working. Fret not because RWThemeMiner was just updated to version 2.0.5 which works with RapidWeaver 4.

RWThemeMiner is available for $15 (US) and you can download a free 20 day trial version from the developer's website.

Together 2.1 is a major upgrade for this ever-evolving information management application. Steve Harris, author of Together (and Feeder), has listened very carefully to user feedback and is turning up the heat with features that I've personally been waiting anxiously for. I'm a fickle suitor of many apps in this genre, constantly switching amongst the likes of Yojimbo, DEVONthink, Evernote, EagleFiler, SOHO Notes and some of my own concoctions. I've always liked Together's interface ... it just lacked certain functionality in some key areas of my workflow. Version 2.1 makes great strides to fill those gaps.

My current workflow -- one that's lasted long enough for me to call it my system -- is heavily based on Spotlight comment tagging for gathering project-related information. This is rapidly becoming a universally-accepted method and is supported by many applications which can read and write their internal tags to and from Spotlight comments. Together has added both read and write functionality for such tags with a user-definable prefix, as well as the option to import keywords as tags. This means that the system I use in applications like Leap, Mail.app (with Mailtags), FileSpot and directly in Finder (with Spotlight) work hand-in-hand with Together now. You can even define default tags for groups and folders to assign to imported items, and Together can now automatically import files saved by external programs into its Library folders. The new support for external linking to internal items and a complete AppleScript dictionary kick off the highlights of the extensive release notes.

A few other highlights include:

• Smart groups can now be based on other groups (including other smart groups)
• Recording of the date items are imported
• The option to create visually accurate Web PDFs instead of web archives
• A system-wide import hotkey
• A more useful Shelf that can tag and sort quick notes
• Quick Look in the Shelf
• Performance improvements in multiple areas
• Text highlighting in notes and documents
• Extensive preview options
• Text in imported emails is now selectable

One deciding factor for me in choosing a system is the database vs. file system debate. It's a debate that spurs quasi-theological discussion, but ultimately it's a personal choice and somewhat dependent on your particular needs. I like file system storage as found in Together and EagleFiler because of its automatic integration with the rest of my applications. Files edited in an external application from Together are treated just like regular Finder files (because they are) and will show up in Recent Files menus and your Spotlight index. Yes, Yojimbo and DEVONthink have Spotlight plugins, but they have to go the extra step to write out their metadata. Together is also quite adept at dealing with filetypes it doesn't necessarily understand, letting the system handle default applications and Quick Look handle the previews. And lastly, all of my files are easily accessible outside of Together and not locked into a proprietary database.

Together 2.1 is a free upgrade for current users. A new license will run you $39 and there's a demo available. And if you're thinking of switching from Yojimbo, there's an importer just for you on the downloads page.

Update: If you're in the market, be sure to check out what's new with Evernote, too!

There are many good ways to manage your money on a Mac (oh yeah, there's also QuickBooks). We at TUAW found yet another money management application for your Mac, and this one looks really good. MotiMotion's Prospects allows you to keep all of your banking accounts (and credit cards) organized with graphs, a register book, and more. When you start the program, you get an overview that has a graph of your assets and liabilities -- giving you the ability to see everything you need to.

In addition to pretty graphs of your cash, you also can create: budgets, reports, categories, rules, and more. You can import QIF, OFX, and QFX files from your online banking website or from other money management applications. So, if you are in the market for a good money management application, then you should give Prospects a try.

You can download Prospects from the MotiMotion website. They offer a free version that limits you to 100 transactions across your accounts or a single-user license for $35 (they also offer a family license for $10 more).

Watch out Delicious Library, you finally have some competition on the way. Koingo Software's upcoming Librarian Pro for Windows and Mac will bring some interesting new features to the media cataloging table. While its standard UI doesn't look quite as flashy as Delicious Library's (though it features a 'Gallery mode' that displays everything by cover art that the company hasn't posted a screenshot for), Librarian Pro allows users to catalog PC hardware and software in addition to books, movies, music and games. In fact, it can scan your hard drive (I assume both Macs and PCs) to automatically catalog your software. Users will be able to create smart collections for organizing their stuff any way they please, and Librarian Pro allows for multiple media databases to help keep different collections separate (say, one for your home stuff and another for your work-related books and software). Speaking of staying organized, Librarian Pro can also display a panel of contacts from Address Book to show you who borrowed what, when and how many.

Another cool new feature takes Amazon integration one step further by allowing you to shop the site from within Librarian Pro, immediately adding anything you purchase to your collection. Fortunately, Librarian Pro works with Amazon Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, German and France, and the database is fully UTF-8 compatible spanning both Mac and Windows systems.

Librarian Pro will be available for download and purchase on September 1st (I have no idea why they announced two days early) for $29.95, with a 15-day trial available to get your feet wet.

[Update: By the way, I forgot one thing: to help facilitate switchers, Librarian Pro can import from Delicious Library, DVDpedia, Bookpedia, CDpedia and Gamepedia.]

We first mentioned NetworkLocation back in November '06, and since then this automated location manager and setting switcher has been upgraded to v2.0 with some killer new features. In addition to automatically changing settings like system volume, opening a webpage, playing an iTunes playlist or switching Mail servers all based on the wired or wireless network you connect to, this new version adds a great new feature that users have been dying for: the ability to auto-detect which network you're connecting to and begin changing any settings you prefer with no effort on the user's part. Also on the new actions list are things like disabling bluetooth and locking the keychain, with another great enhancement making it easy to duplicate locations and stets of actions: the ability to drag and drop said actions between locations. NetworkLocation has also received plug-in support, with the first plug-in available for rooSwitch, another utility we love that allows you to switch between multiple profiles and sets of data for an application (i.e. - multiple Yojimbo libraries or different Firefox profiles with their own bookmarks and add-ons).

I have to say, after the development crew was kind enough to allow me to test the beta, NetworkLocation 2.0 has become one of my can't-live-without Mac OS X utilities. I move between home networks, multiple coffee shops, wireless on campus and friends' houses, and allowing NetworkLocation to adjust all my settings automatically in the background is easily worth the $25 price tag (though upgrade licenses are free for 1.x owners). Heck, I'd go so far as to say NetworkLocation should be the next Cover Flow, deserving to get bought by Apple as a feature Mac OS X should have had a long time ago.

Going on vacation to see your just-born nephew and family will do funny things to you, like missing a handy update to a dear, dear application. Rod Schmidt's PackRat, the killer desktop client for the online PIM Backpack that we've mentioned once or twice, has been updated to v1.2 with some great new list management features. First up is yet another feature even Backpack itself doesn't have: a new 'Delete all completed items' option that appears below lists with items you've checked off. Second is another PackRat-only feature: condensing of your completed items. Instead of allowing checked items to take up more room than they should below a list, PackRat will automatically hide them and only reveal the top 5, with the option to reveal all just in case you need to double-check or recover a few.

In addition, Rod has also switched to a 30 day trial period (instead of limiting to only 4 usable PackRat pages), after which PackRat will restrict access to 5 pages until the user purchases a license. At $24.95, PackRat is an easy purchase for anyone who needs a powerful, feature-packed offline and synching client for 37signal's exception Backpack service.

Hazel is one of those truly clever, useful apps that I think could make the Mac computing world a better place if everyone bought a license (and used it, of course). If you haven't seen our previous coverage, Hazel is - in a nutshell - your "personal housecleaner," allowing you to specify rules for moving and organizing your files just like you would with Mail messages. For a basic example, you could create a rule that watches your Desktop for downloaded files types like .ZIP, .DMG, .SIT, etc., and automatically move them to a Software folder once they're a day old. Hazel's abilities don't stop there, however; not by a long shot. Hazel can automatically import image files into iPhoto, music into iTunes, add Spotlight comments, organize files into folders and even subfolders, add Finder color labels to files, run AppleScripts and so much more. Hazel can even manage your Trash for you by setting a specific time frame after which older (but not all) files should be deleted, or even a size limit that the Trash should be kept under (say, 2 GB). All this is done completely and transparently in the background, allowing you to get things done while Hazel works its magic.

Have I piqued your interest? Good, because Paul Kim at Noodlesoft has just released a much-anticipated Hazel 2.0 update in beta with some significant new features. At the top of my personal list is full-blown support for uninstalling an application and the ability to preview rule matches so you can polish your criteria before flipping the switch. Read on for details on these killer new features and more.

Typing tools that increase your efficiency are all the rage for anyone who has to type more than their name and credit card number on a daily basis, and ergonis just upped the ante with the release of Typinator 2.0. Competing directly with similar tools like TextExpander and TypeIt4Me, this new version of Typinator brings a virtual boatload of new features to the table, including:

• Sets allow convenient organization of abbreviations
• Import and export of abbreviation sets
• Comes with auto-correction sets for English, German and French
• Import from Textpander, TextExpander and TypeIt4Me
• Application-specific set assignment
• Typinator can be disabled in individual applications
• Clipboard insertion within expansions
• Streamlined user interface for improved conformance to Apple's guidelines
• The abbreviation table can be sorted by abbreviation, expansion, options, and conflict status
• Expansion of abbreviations is much faster now, even while typing extremely fast and with thousands of defined abbreviations and auto-corrections
• Significantly reduced memory requirements, especially with large expansions
• and much, much more

As a paid user of TextExpander, this new release of Typinator looks quite tasty indeed. I'm actually just glad the typing tool space is getting more competitive, as I can't write or work on the web without one anymore. A demo is of course available, while a single licenses sells for about $26 (EUR 19.99).

Address Book is one of Apple's apps that might seem too basic at first glance to many a user. While this under-appreciation could largely be due to its unassuming name, Address Book offers a surprising amount of useful features, especially in the contact management department. Of course, there are the typical Apple-esque Smart Groups which you can use to automatically and dynamically round up contacts based on any criteria you want (family last names, employers or even notes you add yourself), but check out the Card menu in Address Book and note two options: Merge Selected Cards and (my personal favorite since I play with way too much synching software in the name of TUAW and Download Squad) Look for Duplicate Entries. Those are two great tools for ensuring your contacts only take up one entry each in Address Book (if you only want one entry for each, that is), and I highly recommend using Look for Duplicate Entries if things get out of hand, as it's saved me countless hours after botched synching sessions and wayward synching software had their way with my contacts.

Importing new contacts cards (usually .VCF files) is nothing very special, but Address Book is pretty smart when you import a card for someone already in you contacts list. Typically, Address Book will catch the potential duplication and offer you four options for managing both the old and new cards. A window will be presented with four buttons along the bottom: Keep Old, Keep New, Keep Both and Update, allowing you to ensure that you don't blow away old data you want to keep for the contact while importing anything new you might need.

Combine some of these tricks and tools with the Mail + Address Book tips Merlin Mann wrote about back in April, and you have some pretty powerful tools for managing your contacts and organizing the correspondence you have with them.