Lee is spot on! Services are those little talked about, little known gems that all Cocoa applications can use. I love services and use them whenever I find them. Here's a list of other services that I have, in case someone else wants to try them out (if you are used to seeing extensions, they all end in .service): CalcService EvalService FindIt InstantLinks (This one is a MUST!) SearchGoogle Terminal Services WordService
That said, to preempt the "What is a Service" question, all Cocoa applications can take advantage of "Services" that allow selected text or images to be sent from one application to another. Think this way; I open a doc in TextEdit, highlight and Copy the text, open Safari, and Paste it in. TOO MUCH WORK!! For this to work both apps must be Cocoa applications. Before anyone says, "How to I know which apps are Cocoa apps?", simply select some text in the app of your choice and go to the Application menu and look at the Services menu. If nothing is highlighted or can be highlighted, then is is likely a Carbon application (see: MS Office for example) and cannot use the Services. For example, go download the FindIt service, drag it into the / Library/Services/ folder and log out and log back in. Now, open TextEdit (everyone has that) and type in your address on two lines, like you would when writing a letter. Like this: 2269 Lexington Rd Louisville, KY Now, highlight BOTH lines and choose TextEdit>Services>InstantLinks>MapLocation and BOOM (or BAM! if you are an Emeril fan) you get a Yahoo map of the location. Google fans fear not, just install the SearchGoogle service and use that one instead. Services are the hidden gems of Cocoa applications. Go have fun. BTW, I love my iPhone. Want a demo? Let me know about the next meeting. I may be in town. Schoun On Jul 4, 2007, at 5:46 PM, Jerry Freeman wrote: > invaluable! logout/login required for it appear in services. best...jf > > On Jul 4, 2007, at 4:59 PM, Lee Larson wrote: > >> I have been using a free service program for this forever. It's >> called Print Selection Service [1]. After it's installed a new >> service to print the selection appears under the Mail->Services >> menu. It also works with most other modern programs. >> >> Another way is to use the service Mail->TextEdit->Open New Window >> with Selection, print the window and then close without saving. >> (There's a similar option with the BBEdit services, if you have >> them installed.) > > _______________________________________________ > The next Louisville Computer Society meeting will > be July 24 at MacAuthority, 128 Breckinridge Lane. > Posting address: MacGroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu > Information: http://www.math.louisville.edu/mailman/listinfo/macgroup >
