By Frank Petrie, Associate Editor
This time we review my favorite type of software — the one trick pony. The electronic paper clip, if you will.
A recent episode of Don McAllister’s ScreenCastsOnline (www.screencastsonline.com) demonstrated this gem. It was the app’s second version and had been rewritten from scratch. It was love at first type.
And if you do any writing, professionally or otherwise, you’d be crazy not to check this out.
“PopClip appears when you select text with your mouse, in any app. Instantly copy & paste, and access context-specific actions like search, spelling, dictionary and more.”
If you have an iPad or iPhone you are used to this bar. Now, Pilotmoon brings it to the Mac. But with exponentially more tricks.
THE JUICE
PopClip is a utility that brings the usefulness of iOS’s xxx bar to your Mac desktop. The difference being is that you can extra extensions. And with the rewrite of version 2, you can now have your choice from 22 extensions. You can customize the bar with as few, as many, or exactly the extensions that make your workflow more productive.
THE PULP
This app is amazing beyond words (irony). I only wish that the iOS version from Apple was this powerful and customizable. Seeing as I like to do the majority of my writing in the local coffee shop on my iPad, my iPad feels lacking.
You can customize the xxx Bar with extensions from ‘Search’ to ‘Dictionary,’ ‘TextExpander’ to ‘Wolfram Alpha,’ ‘Translate Tab’ to ‘Run Command,’ … The number of combinations is incredible and virtually endless. (You can view the entire list at http://pilotmoon.com/popclip/guide/ . And it’s intelligent enough to figure out which extensions are relevant to which selections.
I wish there was some way that Pilotmoon could release an iOS version of PopClip. My guess is that they could create it with no problem. As to whether or not Apple would let them release it …
I find it worth the price (and keep an eye out as they constantly have sales) just for the ‘dictionary’ extension alone. To be able to tap on a word and then tap on the ‘dictionary’ icon truly makes my experience ‘computing for the rest of us.’
THE RIND
Nada.
SUMMARY
If you do lots of writing on your desktop, there is no decision to make. And if your not sold, go to their website and download the free trial. I defy you not to purchase PopClip after fifteen minutes of use. It is just that indispensable once you start relying on it. And you will rely upon it.
(Geez, knowing the definition and the correct spelling of words, I may end up ruining my reputation.)
ADR rating: 10 out of 10
Product: PopClip v2
Author: Pilotmoon <www.pilotmoon.com/popclip>
Price: $2.99 as of this writing, but it varies
Requirements: 10.6, 10.7, 10.8
Test Rig: MacBook Pro (mid 2010), 8GB RAM, 240GB SSD
