The heart of Waveboard is the menu system, which offers productivity enhancements that the current version of the Google Wave web app is lacking:

• File. While the File menu in the free version includes the typical menu options, the Pro version adds options for “Save Wave As” and “Print Wave.”
• Edit. The Edit menu includes options for Copy Wave ID, Copy URL, Spelling and Grammar (part of my Google Wave wishlist!), Substitutions, and Transformations. These editing tools are going to be very useful for any Google Wave users looking to do any serious document editing of blips (the single messages inside a wave) and waves.
• Wave. The Wave menu includes options for editing and manipulating blips.

Waveboard and Google Wave Productivity

Much like my review of Waveboard 2 for the iPhone, I see productivity enhancements in the Waveboard Mac as features that should or could be part of Google Wave. My hope is that the developers behind Waveboard stay in the Google Wave development community to play a part in the maturing of the platform through extensions, gadgets and applications.

While at first, I wasn’t sure about the necessity of a Waveboard Mac, the menu system and additional features that I would like to see in Google Wave help me use it more productively in collaborating with my clients. If Waveboard on the iPhone is the version that gets more attention, it is Waveboard Mac that provides more productivity and functionality for us users.

Have you used Waveboard Mac? Share your experience in the comments.

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Techsmith, the makers of applications including Jing (recently covered by Doriano), Camtasia and Snagit for Windows recently launched Snagit for Mac beta, the Mac version of its popular screen capture application that is pretty much a standard in the Windows technical writing community. This new beta requires an Intel Mac running OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard.

After you install and it place it on your dock, you can access it from the right side of your desktop and from your Mac toolbar. It offers the following capture options:

• All-in-One Capture for capturing the entire screen, a region, window, or scrolling window. This capture mode works differently than some other capture apps I’ve used previously, so I recommend testing it out for yourself prior to using it on a real project for the first time. It took me a couple of tries to get used to this mode.
• Window Capture for capturing an application or browser window that is hidden behind other open windows or a transparency within an open window. I didn’t see where I would use this capture mode in my own my own work, especially after enjoying the flexibility of the All-in-One Capture mode.

While I did encounter some minor bumps in this beta product, I anticipate Snagit for Mac joining my regular Mac applications lineup because I found it easy to use and quite good performance-wise. I didn’t delve too far into Snagit for Mac’s tools, because I rarely need to add to or modify screen captures, outside of cropping. Effects aren’t yet available in the beta.

With the exception of InstantShot, I’ve been pretty underwhelmed with the state of Mac screen capture options, but Snagit for Mac won me over at the first screenshot with its ease of use and flexibility. I just hope that Snagit for Mac doesn’t go the way of its Windows cousin, which has suffered a good deal of bloat in its later releases.

Have you tried out Snagit for Mac beta? Share your experience below.

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But last week, my 10-month old MacBook crashed. And died. And now I’m slowly uncovering the depth and breadth of my arrogance. Because, my dear readers, I had not backed up my computer for 10 months. And the only reason I had a 10-month old backup of my data is because it occurred as I was getting my files from my old G4 laptop to my MacBook last Fall.

This is a cautionary tale for anyone out there who is still finding every excuse in the book not to back up their computer. And I had many.

My biggest excuse for not backing up was that I just couldn’t wrap my head around how to get it set up and how to make it happen. I think I also had a secret fear that I would set it up incorrectly and somehow save my files in the wrong place causing the disappearance of everything on my computer. I’m not sure how I got it into my head that backing up was going to be hard, but I avoided it like the Plague.

Today, less than a week after the Big Computer Meltdown (and my own tearful personal meltdown), I am assessing the business impact of lost data. My tears last week weren’t actually about my work files but about losing 10 months worth of photos and videos of my 2-year-old daughter. This week, I can’t muster up tears, but can see some dollars spinning down the drain as I have to:

1. rewrite half a dozen proposals that I was readying to send out to new and existing clients.
2. rewrite a new book proposal that was almost ready to send to my agent to shop around.
3. do a salvage expedition through my Gmail Sent Box to find any documents I sent to clients so I still have some semblance of a business record.
4. upload any documents I can find to Google Docs – the only other place where I had put some critical documents as part of my “experiment” with using Google Docs.
5. rewrite my long list of sites that I use to market my various projects and client projects that took me over a year to compile.

And for backups?

I left my local Mac store last week with red eyes from crying, a black MacBook, and an Apple Time Capsule. I charged the owner of the store to make sure I walked out with everything I needed to be up and working immediately as well as to be able to back up my files without any effort or thought on my part.

Now, every hour on the hour, when I am within range of my wifi connection (via the Time Capsule), my files are backed up (the Time Capsule has 500 GB of space). I don’t have to do anything more since configuring it. I don’t have to think about it. And I don’t have to wait until the end of the day or the weekend to do it. It happens behind-the-scenes while I’m still getting my work done.

My list of important files I have lost continues to grow. Each item I add to that list means another 1-3 hours of rewriting, recompiling, recreating. That is lost time. Lost income. I think if I had thought of backing up my computer in pure business terms – in dollars – I may have been motivated to do something sooner. For now, I just have to bite the bullet.

When was the last time you backed up your computer? And what is your backup set up like? Please share so anyone out there who is still making excuses can potentially find a solution that is right for them.

NOTE: I also blogged about the more “personal” side of this topic at Entrepreneur Mom on WorkItMom.

(photo by Apple; bullethole courtesy of clipart)

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