Shared Space 2.0b3 review
DownloadTool for visual thinking, group working and content management.
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Tool for visual thinking, group working and content management. It allowsusers to create visual maps of information using web-like structures.
Documents from any application can be imported into a space, and thesoftware's built in version control allows users to keep track of earlierversions of documents easily. Relationships between elements can bedescribed using visual links.
Unlike hypertext links, such as those found on web pages, links arepresented in a visual fashion, allowing users to see both linked elementsconcurrently, and traverse the space in both directions.
Eventually, Shared Space 2.0 will be a networked peer2peer system, allowingusers to transparently share information with other users.
Here are some key features of "Shared Space":
Share your spaces and views with other computers
Select spaces and views to share, turn on sharing, and you're away!
With Rendezvous sharing, you'll automatically see computers on your local network sharing spaces.
Work offline, then sync with the remote computer later!
Interact with your information in a visual fashion!
Drag in your documents from other applications, then add notes and links to build up a map that describes structure and relationships.
Shared Space 2.0 gives you an infinite plane on which to create your information structures. You view this plane through the main viewport - the window on your world. Dragging the cursor to the edges of the main viewport scrolls the visible area in eight directions.
Sophisticated navigation tools
The overview shows a miniature map of the entire view, with a rectangle illustrating the part of it you are currently viewing.
Drag this rectangle around to move your viewable area, or click on an area to move the viewport there.
Use the zoom tool to zoom out and find what you need, then double click on an object to zoom in and interact with your information.
Search for the information you need
'CMD-F' for a list of every object in your view. As you type your search terms, the list is filtered, instantly!
With 'auto-jump-to', you can get straight to an object in a few key-strokes. Start typing part of it's description, and your search results will automatically filter. Once your object is the only one that matches your keywords, SS2 jumps straight to it.
Manage object meta-data through a consistent interface
Shared space 2.0 allows all your objects to include additional descriptive information, such as descriptions, authors or details on how to present it to the user.
More complex objects have a properties window, allowing you to keep all pertinent information together without the clutter associated with more traditional methods of storage.
Integrated version control
Shared Space 2.0 includes integrated document version control. As documents are treated a group of files, you can easily manage multiple copies of the same document file from one place.
In the latest version, you can create new versions, make a different version active or get information with 1-click!
Text and image previews
Many documents can be shown as previews directly in the Shared Space application. Many popular graphics formats, such as GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PSD, PNG, PICT or BMP are supported, as are quicktime movies. In addition, text file contents can also be previewed directly in Shared Space 2.0
Draw previews at a size that suits you - anywhere from 64x64 - 512x512 pixels!
Fine grained control over your user experience
Everyone has a different way of working, and Shared Space 2.0 contains options that will allow you to tailor your working environment to one that best suits your needs.
Customise your view windows to show only those viewports you find useful. Turn on auto-magnification for working on views when zoomed out. Use a number of visual options to help you see what you're doing, or turn them off for increased speed.
Automatic version control
Double click a document, and you'll be asked if you want to create a new version before editing automatically. Choose yes, and each time you open that document, a new version will be created.
To revert to an older version, simply CTRL-click the document instance, and choose the version you want to make active.
Manage documents with ease
Views can contain references to document files, also called document instances. Delete or move one of these documents, and you can change where the document instance points using the choose replacement window.
Quickly open and create new information spaces
The friendly space selection window allows you to see what spaces and views are available, get information about them and even see a preview of their structure.
Views can be deleted or duplicated from here, and exported views imported into any space.
Manage your installation
Once you have lots of spaces, managing objects can become difficult. Share Space 2.0's manager tools make this process easier.
Use the manager windows to quickly view information about documents, colour schemes and authors. Edit, duplicate, view and delete directly. Document versions are grouped by the document they belong to.
Full online help system
New in Beta 3 is an Apple Help based online help system.
Take the tutorial, find information on specific windows, get answers to frequently asked questions and browse release notes, all in one place!
Share and backup important information
Because a shared space may be comprised of hundreds of individual files, moving information around can be difficult. Using Shared Space 2.0's export feature, you can save all required files for a view (including documents from other applications) inside a single file. Email this to a friend, and they can import all the objects for your view in a couple of clicks.
Shared Space 2.0 also allows you to save your views as images for use in other software.
Limitations:
Registration screen at startup.
What's New:
Key (NEW) - A new feature. (BUG) - A bug fix. (CHG) - Just like Jarvis said: Something changed. (KIS) - A known issue.
(CHG) IMPORTANT: The storage format for all objects has changed! Again! Objects created in B2 will be converted to the new format when opened in Beta 3. Once you start beta 3, you will NOT be able to use your storage folder with Beta 2 again, so ensure you make a backup first!
(NEW) Shared Spaces - you can now share your spaces and views over the local network or the Internet! For more info, see the Sharing documentation that accompanies the application.
(NEW) Unicode support - SS2 now saves data in unicode format! Mix and match characters from latin and non latin character sets! Note: Export templates may need to be updated to work with unicode data. For more information, see the help section on exporting views.
(NEW) Timezone support. Creation and modification date/times are now stored and displayed with a GMT offset. When syncing views with a remote server, the GMT offset is as part of modification date comparisions, so you can sync with users in a different timezone.
(CHG) Revamped look and feel. Again. Many windows have been redesigned to look nicer and work better.
(NEW) Version descriptions - rollover the list of versions in an
objects info panel to see partial description, if one was supplied for the corresponding document version.
(NEW) Multi-screen support - view windows can now go full screen on external displays.
(NEW) Live window resize - resize view windows and various managers and see everything update in realtime.
(NEW) Added 'System' to font menus. Selecting this will set the editing font to be the system default.
(NEW) Log window: added two new tabs. 'Network' records network errors, Object tree shows objects currently open in memory, and allows you to view their XML source (primarily a debugging tool).
(CHG) Speed improvements - reading data from disk is now faster than in b2. This can result in a drastic improvement in the time it takes to open larger views and to start Shared Space 2.0, though milage may vary.
(CHG) B3 doesn't suck CPU cycles like there's no tomorrow...
(CHG) Object descriptions no longer have a 2 character limit. I've improved performance in several areas relating to this, but it's inadvisable to have huge descriptions as SS2 performance tends to degrade when dealing with large amounts of text.
(CHG) Properties windows have been redone for Panther, and now look much nicer.
(CHG) Drawing improvements. Many elements are now anti-aliased, others have been cleaned up slightly.
(NEW) View windows now have a collapse button top right. This hides the toolbar at the top, and status bar at the bottom.
(NEW) Added fairly self explanatory 'Edit scheme...' contentextual menu item to colour menus.
(NEW) Help system now uses Apple Help. This results in a nicer looking help system which is fully searchable, and accessible through Apple Help. The tutorial is no longer tied into interactions in SS2, so you can now go back and forward. Some pages now include images illustrating the text.
(NEW) Help: two new sections added - Sharing spaces and views, and Text/HTML export guide (this was formerly in an accompanying readme).
(CHG) Context help buttons are now a bit more like the standard apple ones.
(BUG) Compositing improvements - editing object descriptions which overlap the overview should no longer cause screen corruption.
(BUG) Dragging in the overview no longer results in interactions with objects in the main viewport directly beneath it. So, you don't end up dragging objects under the overview when you click inside.
(BUG) Fixed various problems with menus, including menus being active when they aren't relevant, and version switching not working from the menu.
(BUG) Fixed a problem where the welcome screen would pop up
unexpectedly for no reason.
(BUG) Holding or releasing the option key when zooming will now update the cursor correctly.
(BUG) Fixed several problems with the handling of styled text.
(BUG) Fixed several problems with url links in object descriptions.
(BUG) Fixed a lockup which could occur when adding more than one colour to a scheme at once.
(NEW) Loads of other bug fixes and changes.
(KIS) There are two help menus in this version of Shared Space 2.0. If anyone knows how to get rid of the apple supplied one (on the right) please let me know!
(KIS) Welcome screen misbehaves when you re-open it - often unselecting a previously selected view.
(KIS) Compositing problems on Mac OS X 10.2 - clicking on object descriptions in the main viewport results in a small border on the left and top of the text area.
Requirements:
PowerMacintosh/Powerbook/iMac/eMac G4 733Mhz CPU
256MB RAM
Millions of colours (24-bit display) at 1024x768.
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