Black Ink 2.4.2 is now available on the Black Ink site and has been submitted for review on the Mac App Store.

This update addresses a loss of functionality in version 2.4.1 which caused inline images in clues to no longer be rendered correctly. These types of clues are not common, and currently are only supported by Black Ink for New York Times puzzles, but when they do come along it’s important to handle them well!

While fixing this, I took the opportunity to dramatically improve the handling of such clues. While they worked in release os of Black Ink earlier than 2.4.1, they appeared a bit clunky, and sometimes with nonsensical text alongside them. Now, for example, a New York Times clue from January 26 of this year looks like this in the clue list:

and like this in the selected clue marquee at the top of the window:

These subtle but important improvements are the kind of things that make Black Ink the most beautiful (if I dare say so) crossword solving environment on Earth!

Here’s a complete list of changes for this release:

• Improved layout of puzzle clue at top of window
• Restored and improved handling of inline images in puzzle clues
• Alt text on inline clue images are now conveyed to accessibility and tooltip text
• Fixed a bug that caused the “Congratulations” panel to appear twice if auto-check is enabled
• Fixed a bug that caused new puzzles opened without a save file to prompt for saving upon solving
• Clues with images are now handled more correctly in printouts

If you enjoy Black Ink, please consider writing a review or rating the app on the Mac App Store, and spreading the word on social media! Thanks for your support.

FastScripts 3.3.7 is now available on the FastScripts home page, or by selecting “Check for Update” from the FastScripts menu.

This update extends the sometimes overlooked, but very handy, feature whereby holding the Option key down while selecting a script causes the script to open in Script Editor, Script Debugger, a text editor, or whatever, depending on the type of script you selected.

Before this update, the feature worked for almost any file types liable to show up in your Scripts folder, but did not work as expected for AppleScript Droplets and Automator Applications. These work as expected, now!

The update also includes some minor finesses and a fix for a rare crashing bug:

• Holding the option key to edit a selected script now works with AppleScript Droplets and Automator Applications
• Alias files now show the icon of the destination file, instead of the incorrect icon provided by the system
• Fixed a rare crash that could occur while entering a license registration code
• Fixed the description of the “has keyboard shortcut” scripting property to reflect its read-only nature

If you enjoy FastScripts, please consider spreading the word to your automating friends! Thanks for your support.

MarsEdit 5.3.4 is now available on the MarsEdit site and on the Mac App Store.

This update improves performance for blogs with a large number of posts, and fixes a number of crashing and other bugs:

• Improved performance of handling blogs with large numbers of posts
• Fix a crash when opening Settings with no blog selected
• Fix misplaced text, overlapping the buttons in the “Add Blog” window
• Fix an issue that could cause the plain text editor to crash while editing very large posts
• Fix a bug that could cause the wrong value for Micropost tags and category defaults to show
• Fix AppleScript references to posts by index

If you enjoy MarsEdit, please consider writing a review or rating the app on the Mac App Store, spreading the word on Facebook, other social networks, or of course, by writing about the app on your own blog! Thanks for your support.

Black Ink 2.4.1 is now available on the Black Ink site and on the Mac App Store.

This update includes a mash-mash of fixes, but the one that I personally appreciate most is a fix for the Web Puzzle Chooser, to improve the chances it will highlight the latest available puzzle when one has become available while the app was running. If you’ve ever opened the puzzle chooser, well aware there should be a new puzzle available, only to be teleported back in time to the latest (maybe years old) puzzle that the app thinks you haven’t solved yet, then this fix is for you.

Complete list of changes for this release:

• Fix a bug that could prevent the newest available puzzle from being selected in the calendar
• Quicklook previews of puzzles with checkmark, etc., symbols are now shown in color
• Restored the functionality of the built-in crash reporting mechanism
• When duplicating puzzles from the app’s sandbox, the app now encourages saving outside the sandbox
• Fix a problem that could cause previously solved puzzles to open as new after changing system date format

If you enjoy Black Ink, please consider writing a review or rating the app on the Mac App Store, and spreading the word on social media! Thanks for your support.