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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 21 April 2014

Microsoft Office 2011 14.4.1 — Microsoft has updated Office 2011 to version 14.4.1 with several improvements, most notably a fix for a security flaw that could allow remote code execution. Office 2011 14.4.1 also improves how Outlook handles synchronization of blocked senders and folder hierarchies, recovering from server errors, managing responses for meetings, creating Microsoft Lync meetings, and sending encrypted email messages. Additionally, the update fixes an issue that caused the mouse pointer to disappear in Word and increases Excel’s data validation control capabilities from 1,024 to
2,048 entries. (Free update via the Office for Mac Web site or through Microsoft AutoUpdate, 113 MB, release notes)

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Adobe Flash Player 13.0.0.201 — Adobe has speedily updated the Mac version of the standalone Flash Player to version 13.0.0.201 to fix a crash that was introduced in Flash Player 13. It turns out that Flash Player 13 was crashing because it was trying to use CPU instructions that were not available on certain Macs produced between 2006 and 2008. If you’ve been affected by this bug, you should update immediately. Or, like many of us, you could uninstall Flash Player, and instead rely on the version of Flash Player bundled inside the Google Chrome Web browser (see “Isolate Adobe
Flash by Using Google Chrome
,” 8 February 2013). Chrome’s version of Flash doesn’t suffer from this bug. (Free, 14.9 MB, release notes)

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PDFpen and PDFpenPro 6.2 — Smile has released version 6.2 of PDFpen and PDFpenPro, adding the capability to export plain and rich text, an option to select Word export languages for increased accuracy, the capability to drag documents from Thumbnail view and drop Word documents into Thumbnail view, a page count field in the document inspector, and support for removing owner passwords. PDFpen and PDFpenPro 6.2 also now support Automator workflows in the scripts menu in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and later, and include many additional fixes and improvements. The Mac App
Store versions are still at version 6.1.5. ($59.95/$99.95 new with a 20 percent discount for TidBITS members, 55.2/56 MB, release notes)

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Keyboard Maestro 6.4.1 — Peter Lewis of Stairways Software has released Keyboard Maestro 6.4.1, updating the essential automation utility with a number of bug fixes — there are no feature changes. The update fixes potential crashes when undoing Execute AppleScript actions, creating custom icons, and processing text tokens; prevents time triggers from executing twice due to timer drift; addresses a bug that could partially cancel actions that followed an Exit From Loop; and more. ($36 new with a 20 percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 24.4 MB, release notes)

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Typinator 5.9 — Ergonis has updated its text expansion tool, Typinator, to version 5.9, with a number of bug fixes. Typinator 5.9 fixes problems with overlapping labels in input fields; addresses an “internal consistency problem” with certain application-specific adjustments; and fixes issues in Aperture, Mellel, SecureCRT, and Anki, and MacGiro. (€24.99 new with a 25 percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 5.6 MB, release notes)

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