partofus.org Mac-Tests > Office

Today I had to combine twi PDF files into one. A quick search on MacUpdate revealed the following tools:

• joinpdf (command line tool, different GUIs included in the package) and Join PDFs (Apple Script GUI):
  because of the command line interface it could also be used in scripts, can merge and split files, but also extract pages from PDFs, Java
• PDFLab:
  I couldn’t get it to run properly on OS X Leopard, the application crashed immediately after adding a PDF file, last update January 2007
• PDFsam (PDF Split and Merge)
  Java, GUI not in OS X stile, but functional, output format can be choosen from PDF version 1.5 (Acrobat 5) up to 1.7 (Acrobat
• Combine PDFs
  uses only OS X provided CoreGraphics libraries, no Java involved, typical Mac GUI, can only merge but not split PDFs

I recomend to use Combine PDFs if you only want to quickly merge files as it’s the easiest one of the above to use (drag & drop), if you also want to split documents you should use PDFsam.

Is your Mac Desktop cluttered? You have to give a presentation? You don’t want the auditors to see your desktop?

The simple solution: hide your desktop! At this point the little tool Desktop Curtain comes into play. It lets you completely overlay your desktop with an image, or change the background image and still display your desktop icons without the need to reconfigure your desktop settings: after the presentation simply quit Desktop Curtain and your previous desktop is magically back.

To access the settings dialog you can right-click on the desktop after Desktop Curtain got started, or relaunch it.

But I have to deduct 1 point for having to drag & drop a new image into the settings window instead of using a default file selection dialog.

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In the discussion about governmental surveilance, telecommunications data retention, and fighting terrorism in Germany everybody, not only citizens of Germany, should be aware of that also your email communication is affected. Not only the connection data (who correspondet with whom when) is concerned, but also, based on the so called TKÜV all providers with more than 1000 customers/accounts have to implement a special interface for government agencies to divert the contents of email communication and save it there. Even if you, like German Minister of the Interior Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble, can say that you are “decent” (german: anständig), for sure nobody is pleasured knowing that potentially every single email could be saved and analyzed by strangers without his knowledge.
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Maybe the following post is only of interest for readers in Germany:Olaf Willuhn developed a free and open source HBCI client named Hibiscus. Hibiscus is a plugin for his GPL licensed GUI-Framework Jameica which is due to the implementation in Java platform independent.At the moment a test of the software is impossible, because prior my bank has to reset my security tokens as my security key used in StarMoney seems to have properties which prevent it from importing into hibiscus. But just try it out, maybe your key works! As of the lack of a test I recommend a look at the screenshots available on the project page.

Some time ago i started looking for a library application for my DVD collection, including lending support, automatic information retrieval via e.g. IMDB, and so on. As you see, a typical library application. Actually i looked for a server based (web) application to do the job, but then i stumbled across the fine tool Fennel DVDManager.

DVDManager can search several services for information about DVDs: Overall DVDManager is very simple to use. The only problem I experienced was the search for some special titles (e.g. the Collector’s Box of “The Persuaders” cannot be found by the german translation “Die Zwei” by any of the services).Rating:  

For some reasons not further explained here I dumped my mobile phone, a new one preferably with iSync integration was to be bought. I took the Motorola L7 (german edition): synchronizing with iSync worked seemless, also file transfers worked right out of the box via Bluetooth.But, as most times with new gadgets, there is one backdraw I encountered: Apple offers the ability of sending SMS messages right out of the Address Book only for few mobile phones (mainly Sony-Ericsson’s).But David Reitter programmed a plugin to enable at least the Motorola L6 to work. Good news! Even Better news: the plugin also works with Motorola’s L7. As synchronization of Motorola’s L6/L7 is already integrated if you’re runnning a system up to date it’s sufficient to copy the folder “Address Book Plugin” from the downloaded disk image to the user’s Library (exit Address Book prior to this operation). After restarting Address Book you get a new entry “Send SMS via Bluetooth” in the context menu of the mobile phone numbers of your contacs.I say: Thank you, David! You saved me from breaking my fingers typing messages on my mobile phone.Rating: