Software, Mockups, Requirements

MockupScreens 4.74 is live and you can download it on the main website.

Beside the usual batch of fixes/improvements it brings the Link widget. That’s at least several clicks less than before – per link – when mocking the screens of common today applications.

New:

• Link widget

Improvements:

• Changed the font size of comments in exported documents from 14px to 11px.
• Renamed the Edit->Toggle Comment Visibility menu item to Edit->Toggle Comments
• Improved the naming of elements in the change multiple widgets dialog.
• New groups are automatically selected and scrolled to in screen trees.
• The font toolbar and the change multiple widget dialog now modify the sizes of both fonts in multiwidgets
• Default value of compound widget label is “Label” instead of “Text”.

Fixes:

• Thumbnails weren’t refreshed after applying or unlinking master screens.
• Thumbnails weren’t refreshed after setting the Form background color until some user action.
• The background color property editor value gets updated when a master screen is applied or unlinked.
• The suggested title and file name is not longer cropper when exporting a project with dots in it’s name.
• Under some specific circumstances, the selection operation didn’t worked properly after an undo operation.
• Word wrap was incorrectly wrapping punctuation characters
• Label.Dropdown appearance was broken when using an empty value for the dropdown.
• Multiwidgets appearance was broken when using an empty caption.
• Applying a master screen is now correctly undo-ed.
• Thumbnails of affected regular screens are properly refreshed when a master screen is deleted.
• Fixed how the line envelope is calculated. The perpendicular vector was incorrectly calculated, which caused selection issues in certain situations.

MockupScreens 4.73 is available from the main website.

The main addition is new Windows 8 skin. And there is myriad of small improvements – the full list is below.

Enjoy!

Complete list of changes included in 4.73 follows.

New:

• Windows 8 skin.

Improvements:

• Change multiple widgets dialog now uses the same font size control as the toolbar.
• Form maximum size increased from 1600*1600px to 7680*4320px
• Image widget property editor layout updated.
• Loading an incompatible version project now shows a dialog asking to upgrade to a newer version.
• Font properties now can be set for compound widgets.
• Custom colors in all color selectors are remembered for the current session.
• Windows installer and uninstaller checks if a MockupScreens process is running in order to avoid corrupted installs.
• Better attribute value management for masters Forms:
  - All master form attributes get copied when you apply or create a screen from master.
  - If a master form changes, changes propagate to the dependent screens.
  - If you make changes to a form on a dependent screen, these changes persist (ie. they don’t get overridden when master form changes propagate).
• Screens tree new items are now placed regarding the current selection.
• When adding a new screen or master screen, the relevant screen tree control scrolls to it.
• Scrolling is now possible while reordering items in the screens tree. In windows the panel will scroll if you drag an item near the top or the bottom. In MacOS you can use the mouse/trackpad scroll function while dragging the item.
• If “Show Marks” editor option is disabled, and an user tries to ad a mark, a warning dialog is shown.
• The about dialog shows the registration status, and the registration dialog confirms registration when a valid serial is entered.
• Improved the layout of the master screens screens tree contextual menu.
• Multiple selected widgets now can be resized at the same time.
• A master screen now can be selected with a double click in the master screen selection dialog.
• Thumbnails rendering is now much faster when quickly changing skins.
• When adding a new item into a group, the group is now expanded.
• The state (expanded/collapsed) of the screens trees groups is now stored in the project files.
• Renamed View->Display Comments menu item to View->Toggle Comment Visibility
• System information is written to a separate file so it wouldn’t get overwritten by the rotating log file handler.

Fixes:

• The dialog asking to show marks if these are disabled and the user tries to add one, is now shown just one time for each mark.
• Now it’s not possible to select a widget by clicking on the comment position when show comments option is disabled.
• Master groups are no longer added to the main screens tree when imported a project.
• Unicode and special characters are better handled in exported documents.
• Toolbar font options are now disabled for widgets which does not support them.
• Font selector “Default” item now works as expected.
• Fixed some issues with very large font sizes.
• The application could crash when printing if the spooler service was not started.
• Undoing a new screen operation now does keep showing that screens if there aren’t other screens in the project.
• The fit to text button in the geometry properties tab is only enabled if the selected widget uses text.
• A widget’s position sometimes changed during a resize operation.

In 2003, I started MockupScreens as a simple tool for myself and a small community of analysts. It took another two years making it good enough to show outside my circle of buddies and coworkers.

It grew ever since, striving to help its users. Just to mention the most recent improvements: export to Word and master screens.

And the result after 10 years? MockupScreens is now being actively used by thousands of people all over the world.

Thank you all!

To mark the occasion, all licenses will be 50% off this Thursday and Friday, (Oct 3-4) at www.MockupScreens.com.

Spread the word.

In corporate environments, installing a software product on one’s computer can pose a non-trivial problem.

As from today, you can use MockupScreens Portable just for such situations. No installation is required: just extract the zip file and run the executable directly!

You can use your existing license to unlock the MockupScreens Portable. Note that it’s for Windows only.

You can download the MockupScreens Portable from the main website.

Enjoy!
Igor

Sometimes you have to send the hardcopy of your mockups to your project’s management board. Or you simply need to discuss the screens using the old fashioned printouts.

In those situations it’s important for your mockups to be as “big and clear” as they can be. Which usually means printing them in landscape orientation, to get the needed space for your GUI to present itself in the best light possible.

MockupScreens 4.71 brings two things to help you with that: 1) printing to landscape directly and 2) much cleaner images than before.

You can download MockupScreens 4.71 right away from the main web site!

PS. Scroll down below the screenshot to check the complete list of improvements and fixes…

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New:

• Printing in landscape orientation.
• Better quality images in exports/printing

Improvements:

• All skins use now black as default widget text color.
• When printing, images are now horizontally centered.
• Font size now can be entered manually. The control now uses a more standard list of predefined font size.
• Comments now can be deleted via the comment “bubble” contextual menu.
• Undo manager now tracks skin changes.
• Simplified scenario export dialog.
• Renamed “Jump to Screen” to “Link” in widget properties.
• Improved slideshow toolbar layout.
• The 30-day trial period is now restarted each time a newer version is installed.

Fixes:

• Rounded corners where not drawn properly in forms.
• Windows 7 Skin now uses an Internet Explorer 8 web toolbar.
• In some rare circumstances images were not shown in the print preview.
• Text widget’s size can now be reduced by direct manipulation beyond the automatic best size if word wrapping is enabled.
• Properties panel select all shortcut didn’t selected it’s text.
• On MacOS prevented the top windows from being raised over already open modal dialogs on application reopen.
• Under some rare circumstances, Mark panel is displayed though Mark widget is no longer selected.
• Comments marks where shown in in snapshots when the related option was toggled off.
• The undo button become active after loading a project.
• Comments were displayed in HTML/Print/PDF/RTF exported file though “Don’t Print Comments” option was selected for these formats.
• Scenario export didn’t asked for overwrite confirmation.
• Under some rare circumstances, the application crashed on exit.
• The application crashed on start up if Tahoma font was not installed in the system.
• Mac dmg now displays correct version.
• Other minor fixes.

Thanks to MacZOT, today and tomorrow you can get MockupScreens at $29.95!

If you are a Mac user and do want the 70% discount, go to MacZOT’s daily deal page.

As one user recently emailed me, “MockupScreens is very useful in communicating ideas across a distance divide”.

What was lacking in MockupScreens was the ability to export your mockups to a Word document, and then continue developing your document further.

With MockupScreens 4.70, you can do just that…

What you already could do with MockupScreens is to print your mockups for a meeting. Or send them to your customer in PDF format. But the problem was that you couldn’t customize the report or edit the PDF document. And copying images to a Word document by hand feels cumbersome.

Well, MockupScreens 4.70 with new export to MS Word (in RTF format) feature is now live!  Download it from the main MockupScreens website.

Note: to upgrade from previous version simply download the latest trial and unlock it with your existing license key.

(Complete list of improvements & fixes follows below)

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New:

• Export to MS Word (RTF).

Improvements:

• An image widget will be created when copying and pasting an image file or image data into a form.
• Windows installer supports per-user and site-wide installs.
• When overwriting a file during PDF or RTF export, user is asked for confirmation.
• Several screens trees usability improvements. Added a “New Master” button.
• Increased the height of widgets’ multiline properties inputs.
• Moved the import and export menu items to the file menu).
• Added “Select All” option to the context menu and the edit menu.
• When exporting to PDF or RTF, a sensible output filename is suggested based on what is being exported (project, scenario or screen).
• Added node tooltips to the screen tree saying which master screen is applied.
• Improved the scaling of images when exporting to PDF. Exported images uses now 96DPI resolution.
• Some Minor Print/Export dialog improvements.

Fixes:

• Now derived screens form dimensions are not overridden by the master ones in the exported documents.
• Widget groups from master screens now can’t be moved.
• Windows uninstaller now deletes shortcuts properly.
• Resize and align tools ignore selected widgets from master screens.
• Fixed several minor undo feature issues.
• The cut, copy and paste operations in the main menu take into account the master screens control, and so the keyboard shortcuts there work correctly.
• Fixed pasting to a screen tree with no screen selected.
• In screens tree groups are no longer allowed to be dragged inside themselves or their descendant groups.
• Several minor stability and performance improvements.

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