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ICeCoffEE functionality everywhere

G.J.Perrin - 07:16am May 8, 2007 PST

Lewis Butler's reference to Apple Data Detectors made me think, why do we not have something like Apple Data Detectors in Mac OS X System Preferences for Universal Access?

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1264/>

<http://www.miramontes.com/portfolio/add/>

Universal Access aside, technologies such as ICeCoffEE are incredible time savers if you do much authoring with exposed URLs (as I'm doing now) -- simply:

(1) command- click _anywhere_ in the URL

-- your selection is logically expanded for you

-- the URL is handled by your preferred application.

All of that from one (1) carelessly-positioned single command-click.

<http://web.sabi.net/nriley/software/>

I don't encourage carelessness, but that single step is so much more user-friendly and time-saving than

(1) carefully select the entire URL

(2) do NOT extend the beginning of your selection beyond the URL

(3) do NOT extend the end of your selection beyond the URL

(4) application menu

(5) Services

(6) Open URL.

I'm not knocking services -- I love them.

Also, I'm aware of keyboard combinations such as

shift-command-o

that can equate to Service steps (4) (5) and (6) after you have carefully made your selection. But not all applications allow Services.

What I *really* miss is being able to simply command-click a URL whilst composing a plain text e-mail. (It's common sense; check what you write before you send or publish.)

Unfortunately, ICeCoffEE loses a little functionality in Apple's Mail application. In 2005 the developer Nicholas Riley explained:

Mail in Tiger uses WebKit (Safari) for composition, so you'll need to select the URL before Command-clicking it. It should be possible to remove this limitation ...

In other words, (1)-(2)-(3)-(4) then command-click.

I would so love a return to the single-step simplicity.

ICeCoffEE is not _quite_ Universal Access (command-click requires two hands) but I think it's is an absolute gem of an innovation that will require just a little polish to restore its full sparkle in the widest possible range of applications.

So ... can anyone suggest a work-around for this issue? Some snippet of code to allow ICeCoffEE to work within WebKit environments?

Thanks

Mark as Read

dianeofor (apparently) - May 9, 2007 11:30 am (#1 Total: 3)

via email - MS MVP

Posts: 24

Re: ICeCoffEE functionality everywhere

On 5/8/07 7:16 AM, "G.J.Perrin" <g.j.perrin

bton.ac.uk> wrote:

> What I *really* miss is being able to simply command-click a URL whilst
> composing a plain text e-mail. (It's common sense; check what you write before
> you send or publish.)

When you compose a plain text message the links do not appear active, but
they are. Just save the message as a draft and you will then see the active
links.

Enclose the URL with < and > viz: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/> so that
if the URL wraps over more than one line, it will still work when it gets
there. Don't forget to format with the http:// prefix.

Even this link which does not show the hand, you can command-click on the
link to activate it.

www.entourage.mvps.org/

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

G.J.Perrin - May 10, 2007 12:09 pm (#2 Total: 3)

Posts: 3

Re: ICeCoffEE functionality everywhere

I referred to Mail, and to other applications that use WebKit.

Diane's suggestion doesn't work for me; I guess she's referring to Entourage.

Jeff Porten (apparently) - May 10, 2007 12:11 pm (#3 Total: 3)

via email

Posts: 342

Re: ICeCoffEE functionality everywhere

On May 8, 2007, at 10:16 AM, G.J.Perrin wrote:

> What I *really* miss is being able to simply command-click a URL
> whilst composing a plain text e-mail. (It's common sense; check
> what you write before you send or publish.)

You can get the same functionality *without* software in Cocoa text
fields -- a command-click will open a URL.

I have some AppleScripts here that do the same for file references,
i.e., a file on my desktop becomes:

<file://localhost/Users/jporten/Library/Application%20Support/
AliasFiles/important%20meeting.rtf>

I'll be wrapping these up for general release shortly.

Best,
Jeff

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