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A GREAT Little Release

Hello friends of Balsamiq!

Today's release is both great and little. The great part is that we moved to a more modern version of the Flex framework, which allows us to support features we couldn't have supported before (see below).

The little part is that while we did fix a number of bugs and released a few highly requested features, we don't have anything earth-shattering to announce - we have some cool stuff cooking for the next release, stay tuned.

Alright, let's see what's new and improved!

Changes that apply to all versions of Mockups

  • We changed the code that draws our custom mouse cursor to a more modern flash API. The result was not only a MUCH more responsive mouse (it no longer lags behind), but also a big performance improvement of the application overall. Try it out, it should feel noticeably snappier, especially in the in-browser versions.
  • You can now link to URLs! As pre-announced in December, you can now specify Web Addresses (URLs) - http://, https:// and even mailto: - as link targets in all controls that support linking. Here's how it works. There's a new "Web Address..." menu item in the Link property inspector:

    Click it to show this little dialog:

    Type or paste your URL and click OK. Now when you click on the link while in full-screen, Mockups will open a browser page to that URL.

    Notice that we gave web URLs a different icon so that you can spot them easily. Thank you again robin, merle.corey.87, Besi and others for asking for this feature.
  • We switched to a more modern text rendering engine (Adobe TLF), which finally allows us to support font kerning in our Balsamiq Sans font. If you're someone who knows and cares about kerning, the difference is staggering. If you don't, just know that your eyes will thank you after a while. 🙂
  • We now have automatic fallback for glyphs that are not included in the font. You'll no longer need to turn on "Use System Fonts", yay!
    chinese
  • We added EXTREMELY LIMITED RTL (Right-To-Left) text support. As we said in the pre-release announcement last month, we're pretty ignorant when it comes to right-to-left support in software. We have received a long list of TODO items from some of you (thank you!), and we'll attack them slowly but surely. In the meantime, this release goes from "RTL characters don't even show up" to "I can type RTL characters and see them". Not exactly "full support" by a long shot, but a step in the right direction, right? 🙂
  • Editing text (adding or removing lines of text or even reshuffling them) will now maintain the correct selection and links! Thank you László, Jeron, Andy, John E. (via Email), Roman Florian for reporting this annoying bug which we've wanted to fix for a long time.
  • Added support for ~this notation~ for strikethrough text, in all controls.
  • Added support for {size:40}this notation{size} for setting the absolute size of part of your text, in all controls. {size:+2}relative size{size} will come in the future (it's a lot harder than you'd think!). Thank you Jenni and Win7Guru for the requests.
  • Added multi-line support via \r to the following control types: Alert box, Arrow, Breadcrumbs, Button Bar, Callout, Checkbox, Checkboxgroup, Field Set, Geometric Shape, Icon and label, Image, Link, Linkbar, Multiline Button, Pointy Button, Radio Button, Radio Button Group, Search Box, Subtitle and Title.
  • Made some performance improvements when UI Library is visible - and we have further improvements planned for the next release.
  • Fixed a bug with the "treat as markup" right-click menu not working for small controls. Thank you Anders for reporting it!
  • Fixed the "property inspector becomes huge if controls have long text lines" bug. Thank you Joe for reporting it!
  • Fixed the "couldn't drag controls in the top 20 pixels of the canvas" bug.
  • We fixed literally hundreds of little visual bugs in how the controls draw themselves at different sizes: the skins have never looked so good.
  • The menu control now supports using the checkbox or radio button, the label and the keyboard shortcut, all in the same line. Thank you Stu (via email).
  • We fixed the graph paper background when zoomed in or out. Thank you Shannon (via email).
  • We now deal with corrupted bmmls more gracefully.
  • The image inspector pulldown now correctly shows which image is selected.
  • Removed a bug which looked like an easter egg. Thank you Andrew Rowe and Patrik Boström for reporting it.
  • All versions that support Symbols: you now can see which symbol library a control comes from when hovering over it in the UI library and when selecting it (in the property inspector title).
  • All versions that support linking: we now show a "broken link" icon for files that are no longer found. Thanks Erik, robin and Matty Sallin for requesting it. 🙂

Changes to Mockups for Desktop

  • Bumped app requirement from Adobe Air 2.5 to 2.6 (which still runs on linux don't worry).
  • Added links to Local Store and Documents folders in the About box. Handy for debugging!
  • Fixed support for AltGr+S and other keys in some keyboard layouts. Thank you gk.klimek , sergeySafonov, Tomasz and Andi for reporting it.
  • Fixed several file name encoding issues on Windows.

Changes to myBalsamiq

  • Updated the text of most of our email notifications to make them more clear and less marketingy.
  • Fixed custom icons when converting mockups to images. Thank you Graham for reporting it!
  • Moved from Beaconpush to PubNub - that's the service that provides us with real-time notifications for mockup updates etc.
  • Fixed a load-balancer configuration that resulted in occasional "you're not logged in" errors.
  • We made it possible for us to recover your deleted assets if needed.
  • Fixed an issue with user photo upload button not displaying when changing staff member photo on staff page.
  • The site owner no longer needs to know a user's password in order to change it. Thank you Dr. Cris Bloomfield for reporting it!
  • Finished implementing the owner@subdomain.mybalsamiq.com email alias feature.
  • Fixed thumbnailing for gray scale images with alpha channel.

Changes to our Plugin versions

  • Mockups for Confluence and JIRA: made it easier to switch from a marketplace trial license to a balsamiq-issued license.
  • Mockups for Confluence: fixed mime type for attachments.
  • Mockups for Confluence: fixed an issue with attachments containing spaces in their names.
  • Mockups for Confluence: resolved a serious issue causing images to not display. Thank you Andreas, Wilm, Marco, Jack Lindsay, Oliver, Paul B, davet, Eriks Nukis for reporting it.
  • Mockups for JIRA: you can now edit mockups even if their snapshot was deleted manually from the issue.
  • Mockups for Google Drive: upped the trial period from 7 to 30 days!
  • Mockups for Google Drive: we now show the email you're logged in with in the help menu.
  • Mockups for Google Drive: we now show server-side errors (like going over quota) properly.
  • Mockups for Google Drive: we now correctly update the browser page title after a "Save As...".
  • Mockups for Google Drive: fixed an issue for people who have multiple google accounts. We have more work planned in this area.
  • Mockups for Google Drive: fixed an issue stopping the delete and arrow keys from working after using Save As New Mockup… Thank you Brendon McLean for reporting it.
  • Web Demo: removed empty item at the end of the Mockup menu.

How do I update?

If you're using myBalsamiq, you're already updated. Just log back in and enjoy.

For other versions, simply install from our download page on top of your current installation. You won't have to re-register.

As always, if you hit any snags with the new build let us know immediately and we'll fix it right up! 🙂

For posterity, these are the version numbers of today's release:

  • myBalsamiq: build #3895
  • Mockups for Desktop: version 2.2.4
  • Mockups for Google Drive: version 2.2.4
  • Mockups for Confluence: version 2.2.3
  • Mockups for FogBugz: version 2.2.3
  • Mockups for JIRA: version 2.2.3
  • Mockups for XWiki: version 2.2.3
  • Web Demo: version 2.2.3 launch it

UPDATE: we just did a little release this morning (Jan 21st) to fix a couple of regressions. The new version numbers are here:

  • myBalsamiq: build 3899
  • Mockups for Desktop: version 2.2.5
  • Mockups for Google Drive: version 2.2.5
  • Mockups for Confluence: version 2.2.4
  • Mockups for FogBugz: version 2.2.4
  • Mockups for JIRA: version 2.2.4
  • Mockups for XWiki: version 2.2.4
  • Web Demo: version 2.2.4 launch it

UPDATE 2: we just did another little release of Mockups for Desktop this morning (Jan 28th) to fix this bug. Mockups for Desktop is now at version 2.2.6.

What else is going on?

The next release is going to be focussed on performance (especially when using Symbol libraries) and improving the lives of our power-users who have lots and lots of mockups in their projects. We have two little features in the works which I'm sure you'll like.

Today we are also releasing a new estimate creation and invoicing system which provides you with a better user experience while helping us be more productive. It's awesome, and getting better every day.

We are also busy updating our documentation and interviewing for our open positions, stay tuned for some exciting announcements on these fronts soon.

Onward!

Peldi for the Balsamiq Team

Leave a Comment

Comments (4)

  1. Hi

    I still don’t see my images on mockups for confluence, just displaying “Image not found”.

    I’m using confluence OnDemand:
    Balsamiq Mockups for Confluence
    Version: 999.1502 – 02/16/2013
    Editor Version: 999.875 – 02/16/2013 07:19
    Flash Player Version: WIN 11,6,602,180

    Felix.

    Felix Niederer
  2. Hi Joackim, I’ll take a look right away!

    Peldi Guilizzoni
  3. Great update! But unfortunately Horizontal Curly Brace pointing upwards seems to be broken. The text is place on top of the curly brace. =/

    Joackim Pennerup
  4. What an awesome update! The performance improvements are huge. I very easily get motion sickness and would sometimes get a bit of nausea from the mouse lag. Not anymore. Thank you 🙂

    Eric Chan