Leopard

Is version 5.3.1 compatible with the new Mac OS?

I was told by a tech today that Contact and UpToDate should, but the Server and Server Manager won't work until an update is released or Night Hawk (MacWorld+...?)

However that was based on the last Beta Now got a while back.

NOW? How is it looking?

The applications run all right, but so far I have been unable to get QuickDay or QuickContact. I tried reinstalling; that didn't help. I'm going to try removing everything connected with the program and reinstalling to see what happens.

I would at least like to know if the basic application connects OK and syncs
with a server from a client running Leopard and Now Contact 5.3.1 I have 5
Mac to test this with and will try and client machine and report back.

I have to go out and get Leopard, but watch for my response in the next
couple days. I can live without QuickContact and not upgrading the
server just yet (I've had that same situation 3 times already), but the client
has to run and sync.

Apple has removed the ability for third parties to run Menu Extensions. This happens on every major OS release. It remains to be seen if third parties can hack their way in yet again.

We'll be doing further testing with the released version of Leopard in the days ahead. Apple does not seed developers with the final release, and they tend to make a lot of changes in the weeks leading up to a release. If anyone finds bugs, please report them to [url=mailto:support@nowsoftware.com]mailto:support@nowsoftware.com[/url].

Not totally accurate. i do have my other menu extension running quite nicely - iClock.

Cool! I just downloaded a copy to take a look at how they implemented their menu extras. Thanks for the info!

I just took a look at how iClock works. They use MenuCracker to enable their menu extras. We are currently using MenuExtraEnabler which hasn't yet been updated for Leopard (http://unsanity.com/products/compatibility/). Good to know that MenuCracker is working under the released version of Leopard. It provides us with a backup plan if MenuExtraEnabler isn't brought up to date soon.

John,

If you are interested in looking at another program to see how their menu location is implemented, take a look at WeatherPop. I am using version 2.6.1 and it is appearing in the menu bar as well.

Just downloaded WeatherPop and poked around in its resources. WeatherPop does something pretty interesting. Like NUDC, looks like their menu is implemented using MenuExtraEnabler. But if MEE isn't working, they fall back to using an NSStatusItem, which has a number of limitations vs a menu extra (can't drag it; it always appears at the left of the list; is implemented as part of an app rather than as a menu bundle loaded into the System UI Server). For info, see: http://weatherpop.com/?page_id=3#question87

Thanks for the heads up!

Two others that work under Leopard are ABmenu (version 2.0, made in 2004!) and ClamXav. Even if it isn't a fully featured menu extra, it would be great if you could issue a quick fix.

Very strange but I have the Quick Contact and QuickDay menus working in Leopard. Found I had to turn the options off in the preferences first, close preferences and then go back in and turn on.

Quickday is fine, but quickcontact menu is slightly offset upwards...

For me QuickDay says: "Still gathering menu contents. Please try again." This doesn't resolve.

Quick Contact works as you stated with icon slightly raised upward

Did either of you have to reinstall in Leopard to get these menu items showing?

Thanks, I have let support know but for those reading this blog;
I'm running NUTD 5.3.1 on a macbook 2Gig C2D and have just installed Leopard.

Very sad to find out QuickContact doesn't work and since the icons also don't appear in the menu bar any more it means keeping quick contact open all the time to access numbers.

Now contact talks to the server running on the same machine, But Now up to date won't recognise it's server.

Hi John,

All of the following programs have icons in our menu bar which work just fine under Leopard:

Timbuktu Pro
TigerLaunch
GmailStatus
ChronoSync
iSeek

In fact, the only applications that I have on my computer which don't currently work in the menu bar of Leopard are Now Up-To-Date and Now Contact.

Thanks,
Scott

For a client machine running 10.5, I can confirm that the application at least ran and
connected to a server on 10.4.x. It was able to sync and exchange contacts. No menus
as mentioned here.

If anybody is able to get the server running under Leopard, please let us know.

I didn't test anything else (printing, etc.) and this was with Now Contact 5.3.1

No, Just go into the Preferences in each NUD and NC and toggle the check mark for the QD or QC icon to display in the menubar.

HOWEVER, they are not in the menu bar when you start up or re-boot. They need to be reactivated using this procedure each day. But, like I said Quick Day shows up but does not work. Quick Contact is operational though.

Also, want to note I am running on a PPC 1.67 MHZ PowerBook platform

YMMV.

I try this and the preferences window dims and no sign of the menu items.
(MacBook 2Gig intel C2D)

Nope. I tried this and still no sign of QuickDay or QuickContact in my Leopard menubar.

Also note that the toolbar in the event info window is a bit flakey under Leopard.eg the show text fields icon can vanish after clicking on it. Click again and it appears back. On one occasion the whole set of icons in the toolbar vanished but mousing over the area indicated they still were there.
Doesn't always happen just every now and then.

RayR
Macbook 2Gig C2D

Status: we are currently testing an update that fixes the server and QuickContact and QuickDay. I'll keep you posted on availability. At this point we need to finish our inhouse testing and then we'll move into beta testing.

That's very welcome news, John. I've had to move to Leopard so I can get experience with it for supporting other users and even after only one day it's been painful not to have QC and QD. That there's a possibility of this being fixed before Nighthawk's calendar module becomes available will be great if you can indeed make it work.

Thanks for making the attempt. I know of a number of developers in a similar position - and we all can name a few, can't we? Wink - would just say "sorry, no more updates to the existing product. Buy the next product instead".

Dave Sawyer

Dudes — Can we get real about Leopard?

If NCT/NUD and its Menubar shortcuts are important to you or your clients, then perhaps it's NOT time to upgrade to Leopard? Really. There's no good reason to spend the time and effort transitioning unless it will all work.

I've got Leopard working on an external drive and I test it every day. However, until all of my critical software and hardware have solid drivers, verified compatible software and a baked bugfix update, I'm doing my real work in Tiger.

David Morgenstern
Contributing Editor
ZDNet Apple Core Blog
http://davidmorgenstern.com

Generally that's very good advice, David. It's a huge risk to move a mission-critical system to a brand-new OS. But sometime you have to take the plunge and if necessary accept limitations and partial success. It depends on what your "real work" is and what's the most important aspect of your computer usage. Since part of my job is supporting Mac users, I had to upgrade to Leopard so I could get a good handle on the issues involved in everyday use. Just booting to Leopard occasionally just isn't sufficient (I did that with the seed versions to get a feel for the new UI and features, but to really know how an OS works and what it's quirks and caveats are, you have to run it much more consistently). I knew when I upgraded that QuickDay and QuickContact wouldn't work thereafter, but that doesn't mean that I don't miss them.

Regards.

You can of course use spotlight (bit clumsy) or I've started using 'Launchbar' very neat little shareware app that Apple should have included in Leopard instead of spaces. In fact I think Launchbar's interface is better than QuickContact.

Launching Now Contact and Now Up-To-Date are not a problem for me. What I miss is the pulldown menu to show my appointments and to-dos for the day and the automatic reminders (the QD daemon doesn't run under Leopard either so I get no notification about events).

I am using 5.3.1 with Leopard. The menu items are not working. The NUDC tool bar works fine.

Missing Sync is saying their program does not work with Leopard and NUDC.

I have been able to sync with Missing Sync in spite of what they say.

My Quicken 2007 shows menu items that work. My Quickbooks Pro 6 displays the items but they do not work.