Software, Mockups, Requirements

Since an hour ago, MockupScreens 4.60 with new master screens feature is live. Which is not a minute too soon, regarding all the effort needed for two live betas and final two months of polishing it after it was “completed”

And what can master screens do for you exactly?

When you create many similar screens, you can easily do some copy-paste-ing and do it quickly. But when you want to CHANGE some tiny little thing you get into a problem.

Now, with “master” screens it’s as simple as it gets!

Elements from the master are shown as part of all screens explicitely derived from them. And not only that, any change to master will automatically reflect on all it’s “children” screens. Think of a situation when you need to change a header on dozens or hundreds of web page mockups!

You can see all your “masters” in the bottom right part of MockupScreens window. Simply work with them like you do with “normal” screens. To derive screen from any “master” screen, either you create completely new screen “from master” or apply the master to the existing screen from the right-click menu.

Simple. Straight-forward. And that’s it.

Simply download MockupScreens 4.60 now and start using new master screens feature!

P.S. Existing users can simply download the trial version from above link and “unlock” it with their existing license key… Don’t forget that once you have purchased MockupScreens, you are eligible for FREE upgrades for full 12 months!

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EDIT: Btw here is the list of other improvements:

Improvements

• Improved and simplified “Change Multiple Widgets” dialog.
• Screens trees reordering visual improvements.
• Pasted screens naming improvements in order to avoid duplicate names.
• Added a “Fix to Text” contextual option for widgets.
• Improved undo functionality for widgets font size changes.
• The last used custom image folder is stored during a program run. If such a folder is not stored, double-clicking the image opens the gallery; otherwise it opens the custom image folder.
• Images are now shown in screens thumbnails.
• Improved the usability of widget’s resize handles.
• Lot’s of minor usability improvements.

Fixes

• Updated send feedback url.
• Fixed and improved color selectors.
• Lot’s of minor stability and performance improvements.

I just wanted to share some of my today e-mail with you, verbatim.

I’m polishing new “master screens” feature for weeks now. (It works similar to master slides in PowerPoint). Creating something new is always rewarding. But the final polish can get pretty tedious. At such times it’s good to hear from people that MockupScreens really helps them to get the job done.

First e-mail is from Arvin, who asked whether the same license covers both his work and home computer (it does):

“Hi Igor,

Thank you Sir !  I am buying the license and this is the best tool I ever used after trying various other products in Market from last few years . Thanks for clarifying the issue, as I move around with a laptop when I travel and use desktop at home.So, it was important for me to use this fantastic tool on both.

Appreciate this very much! ”

And this one is from Joel:

“Dear Igor,

MockScreens is far beyond the similar product, I have tested several, MockupScreens is straight forward. One needs the help file to get the details only, but the concept is immediately after installation. Keep on the best work…”

After the initial MockupData release in November, I got tons of requests to add the ability to automatically generate e-mails.

It seemed easy at first glance, but proved pretty tricky to implement. Anyway, it’s finished now.

So as from few minutes ago, MockupData 1.10 is available for download. It brings the new “E-mail rule”, and you can generate huge quantities of realistic-looking e-mails just as easily as generating names or addresses.

Not only it generates e-mails, it does so from the name and company within the same record, if available. E.g. if the generated name is “John Smith” and the company is “MockupData”, then the e-mail address generated by default would be “john.smith@mockupdata.com”.

And if you want different behavior (e.g. your table have several names in it), you can of course specify exactly how the e-mail address should be generated…

In short, check MockupData 1.10. You can download it from the MockupData website:

http://MockupData.com

Now that MockupData is live, people keep asking me what’s next with MockupScreens. Before I tire of giving the same replies over and again, I’ll disclose it here. Luckily, that’s what this blog is for.

I have several major features ready: web skins, master screens, RTF export and custom widgets. I plan to test and release on of those per month. Beginning with web skins in a few days. It requires much polish though. So I can’t promise whether web skins and MockupScreens 4.50 will be live this week or the next.

Web skins are big improvement for mocking-up web applications. Three web skins will be available initially: mostly-grey corporate-like skin, slightly more colorful but still corporate skin, and one more lively but still “appropriate” for good measure.

Later on, we’ll see what kind of skins will be most asked for.

I’m starting a free-license program, for people that deserve it.

Some people push the boundaries of our own profession. They selflessly seek for knowledge and share it. Thus making life easier for all of us.

Other people selflessly help others, sometimes barely having the means to do their work. Non-profits, do-gooders, you know what I mean.

If you fit under one or the other of above categories, just contact me. For yourself, to get free licenses. Or for your organization, to start such program for all of your colleagues or members!

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It should be pretty obvious I’m an IT guy, so I have started by contacting the people I know.

First group that gets free licenses for ALL it’s members is Microsoft MVPs or Most Valuable Professionals. They have been nominated by their peers (and selected by Microsoft though), based on their contribution and impact on the IT community.

If you are one, just e-mail me and provide your MVP profile. And tell whether you need the license for MockupScreens or MockupData or both.

What if I told you that I’ve created a simple tool that was specifically designed to eliminate much of the headaches and frustration involved with creating and testing a new IT system?

If you ever find yourself doing…

• Functional testing
• Demonstrating new software capabilities
• Database testing
• Performance testing

…then you’ve probably wished there was a “magic button” that would populate your database with information you can test.

Get Ready To Push That Magic Button!

I’m proud to announce the launch of my latest creation – MockupData.

It’s a software designed for Windows that generates a large quantity of realistic data. Names will look like names, addresses will look like addresses, and phone numbers will look like phone numbers.

It’s guaranteed to help you not only save time with your testing, but also to help you achieve more realistic results. Honestly, if you ever do any sort of software or database testing, you need MockupData. Once you’ve tried it, you’ll wonder how you ever did your job without it.

You can check all the details on MockupData website.

Why MockupData?

First off, large quantities of realistic data make test runs more realistic than just a handful of lines filled with random gibberish. Functional testing catches more bugs, saving you and your company both time and money. Plus filling your databases with a large volume of data allows for stress and performance testing to take place.

Secondly, real looking data makes more sense to anyone inspecting the application. Testing teams and company representatives will love seeing endless lines of real data, rather than a couple lines of random keystrokes. It simply makes everyone’s job easier.

MockupData will always be able to populate your databases when you have no previous information available (such as for a system in development) or privacy restrictions prevent you from using current information.

Finally, if you ever find yourself presenting your software to potential clients, you won’t want to pass up this software. How many clients have passed on your product simply because it had a “raw”, “unfinished” look to it due to fake data?

MockupData will help you make the best impression when selling your software to businesses. They want to see a finished product. They want to see what the software will look like with thousands of their clients inputted into the system. You simply can’t show them realistic results with fake data.

You can try this amazing software FREE for 30 days!

Click Here to get started!

MockupData is live. Technically. Which means it is live but most of the world still doesn’t know it  Below is the text I have sent to thousands of media outlets just yesterday.

Note: Current version is 1.03 RC (RC stands for release candidate), and “official” version will be available in few days. MockupData costs $99.95.

MockupData for Windows: Make Your Data Look Real

MockupData is a labor saving Windows app for software consultants, database developers, software testers and the like. The program can generate life like test data for software testing, which avoids costly and time-consuming hand entry.

MockupData is aimed for software consultants, database developers, database administrators, software testers, quality assurance professionals and the like, and is best described as an easy test data generator. Users of MockupData can generate huge quantities of data for testing purposes while creating realistic sample data for demonstrations of their software.

According to Igor Jese, the established author of the popular screen prototyping tool MockupScreens, “the data looks real: real looking names, addresses etc, which is paramount in both software testing and software demonstrations, and by using MockupData people avoid days or hours of tedious work of entering their test data by hand.” MockupData is designed to be lightning fast in generating data and easy to use. The learning curve is short and a new user can start using MockupData in minutes. Jese says, “There is no need for special training. MockupData has light footprint, it’s easy to install and very easy and intuitive to use. As a result of these performance enhancers, a user will be actually populating his/her tables within minutes from the moment they decide to download MockupData.”

Some uses of the application include performance testing and load testing new applications during quality control evaluations. A key advantage of using mock data is that fake-but-real-looking data avoids data protection and privacy issues. MockupData provides real-time data preview, so a tester does not need to go back and forth between the application and it’s results. A user can also generate massive amounts of data in a hurry: thousands of records without impacting live production data for populating test databases.

MockupData works on Windows 7, Vista, XP and Windows 2000.

To learn more about MockupData please click on this link:
http://www.MockupData.com

After 14 months of hard work, completely new product MockupData is ready. It is a lightning fast generator of real-looking test and sample data. It has been tested and tweaked and polished to exhaustion for months.

MockupData goes live on Tuesday, November 6!

And until then?

Well, I’ll keep introducing MockupData to you. In other words, what it does and what it’s good for. Just to whet your appetite, below is the screenshot of MockupData in action.

Stay tuned!

UPDATE: MockupScreens 4.41 for Windows is available on the website. Mac isn’t affected so 4.40 remains up-to-date version for Mac.

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Several people reported property panels completely missing. The problem occurs only on WinXP with desktop theme set to “Classic”. I have e-mailed the fix to the people affected.

New version 4.41 which fixes this will be on website probably tomorrow.