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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 11 July 2016

BBEdit 11.6 — Bare Bones Software has released BBEdit 11.6, a significant update to the venerable text editor that adds support for Kite, an “artificial pair programmer” that evaluates code as you write. Kite also provides advanced code completion, error correction, and contextual documentation of library and API calls. Bare Bones has also tweaked BBEdit’s demo model, making it easier to try out the app’s advanced features. For 30 days, all features are available, after which BBEdit remains permanently functional with a reduced feature set along the lines of the company’s
free TextWrangler editor — unavailable commands are badged with a Demo icon. Purchasing a license at any time brings back the complete feature set.

Notable changes in BBEdit 11.6’s interface include a location field in the file info panel along with buttons to copy the full path and URL, a popover for navigating by line number, and a New Text Window command in the Dock menu. Bare Bones has tweaked the editing view, shrinking the toolbar, moving the document icon to the right side of the toolbar, and condensing the text in the bottom status bar. Plus, a new Edit > Lines > Duplicate command duplicates the current line or selected lines, and Find Differences can now ignore blank lines and all whitespace. Be sure to read the voluminous release notes for more changes and details on numerous bug fixes. ($49.99, free update, 14.0 MB, release notes, 10.9.5+)

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PDFpen and PDFpenPro 8.0.2 — Smile has pushed out version 8.0.2 of PDFpen and PDFpenPro, a maintenance release for the PDF editing apps that fixes bugs related to displaying incorrect colors, AppleScript access for page and document properties, and more. ($74.95/$124.95 new with a 20 percent discount for TidBITS members, $30 upgrade, free update from version 8.0, 73.8/74.5 MB, release notes, 10.10+)

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Mellel 3.5 — RedleX has released Mellel 3.5, a notable update that improves the word processor’s layout capabilities through the addition of independent text boxes. You can customize these text boxes via a popover that lets you set width, height, padding, fill color and transparency, frame type and color, and corner radius. You can also style the text inside text boxes, and set text boxes to float or anchor to a position. A Smart Snap feature lets you align both text boxes and images to the edges and center of the page or to each other. Mellel 3.5 also enables you to round the corners of images, set dashed or dotted frame types, and
edit the weight of lines. RedleX also promises that “many, many bugs were securely removed from Mellel.” ($39 new from RedleX and the Mac App Store, free update, 105.2 MB, release notes, 10.6+)

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Audio Hijack 3.3.1 — Rogue Amoeba has released Audio Hijack 3.3.1, which adds preliminary support for the Instant On component in macOS 10.12 Sierra, which is currently in public beta. Additionally, the company modernized the audio capture utility’s Install Extras window and fixed bugs related to timer conflict detection, editing tags in iTunes, using VoiceOver, and more. ($49 new with a 20 percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 16.2 MB, release notes, 10.9+)

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Capto 1.0.2 — Global Delight has issued Capto 1.0.2, a worthwhile update to the screen capture utility formerly known as Voila. The release adds a new Highlighter image editing tool to mark and highlight sections, an option to customize the countdown timer before recording, and a new tool to capture floating windows. Capto 1.0.2 also fixes an issue with remembering the last selection. If you have a Voila or Boom 2 license, you are eligible for a 50 percent discount on Capto through Global Delight’s storefront. Capto is free for those who purchased a license to Voila on or after 1 October 2015. ($29.99 new from Global
Delight with a 25 percent discount for TidBITS members or from the Mac App Store, 20.2 MB, 10.10.5+)

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