March 2010 Software Closet
Click the links below to download each individual item.
Helpful Utilities
Caldera
Caldera (free) is an Adobe AIR-based image processor that resizes and renames images, and batch converts folders of JPG, PNG and GIF images to different file formats. It can batch rename files to standardized their names, add file name prefixes, and auto-increment numbers, batch resize images to specific dimensions or by percentage. When converting to JPG format, you can control their quality/compression.
ClicktoFlash 1.5.3
Flash content on websites can slow down your browser and sometimes even crash it. ClicktoFlash can help Safari users with those problems by blocking all Flash content, then displaying Flash items only after you click on them. Since it blocks Flash content from running, it can also help prevent hackers from trying to damage your system if you're still using an older version of the Flash plug-in. ClicktoFlash is free, but the developers are accepting $6 donations.
Mactracker 5.1
Ian Page's Mactracker is a free utility that shows almost every detail about every product Apple ever made, including Macs, peripherals, and System software. It identifies your current Mac for you, and lets you compare the differences between models. In addition, it lists the dates each product was introduced and discontinued, its code name, original price, related Apple KnowledgeBase article numbers, as well as its original operating system, drives, ports, video support, upgrade paths, and a zillion other details. It also provides the support status of Apple's latest "vintage" and "obsolete" products, a real-world speed comparison among recent models, and a Notes area to record your own data such as serial numbers, purchase date, warranty coverage, etc. It even provides a timeline of products that were being sold during any year. Our favorite feature is its ability to play the startup chime for every Mac ever made! :-)
Actions and Plug-ins
Auto-Create Paragraph and Character Styles in InDesign
Thomas Silkjaer's Auto-Create Paragraph and Character Styles script does just what its name implies: It creates styles based on formatted text. Whether you've created a document's text yourself, or imported it from another source, this script allows you to create styles after the fact. The script scans the text in a story, creates paragraph and character styles based on local formatting, and assigns those styles back to the text itself. The script is Java-based donationware.
List Links in InDesign
Generating a list of all the linked files used in an InDesign file can be as easy as running a script — here are two that do the job nicely.
The first, LinkExportPro, lists out every linked image used in your document, as well as page numbers, file paths, width, height, and effective resolution. The result is a tab-separated text file, which may then be used in a variety of applications.
Another option, from Hanaan Rosenthal, is actually a set of two scripts that do nearly the same thing. Both AppleScripts create a list of linked files as a text file. The simple version just creates a list of file names. The advanced version adds file size and type to the list of each image. Pick it up at http://indesignsecrets.com/create-a-list-of-linked-files.php
Here is a good description of how to install scripts in InDesign: http://indesignsecrets.com/how-to-install-scripts-in-indesign.php
Free Brushes for Photoshop
At CreativePro.com, Pariah Burke brought our attention to four sets of useful, free Photoshop brushes:
15 Moldy Paper Brushes: www.tinyurl.com/ycel6s8
21 Thick, Curly Smoke Brushes: www.tinyurl.com/yhgrm7n
40 Streaks of Light: www.tinyurl.com/ye2pls7
6 Marks and Scratches: www.tinyurl.com/ya3vvw5
Free Fonts
Clover Things
Federation Classic
Final Frontier
He's Dead Jim
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