Last week I gave a sneak peek of the post editor window in MarsEdit 2.

This week it’s on to the new “Media Manager” window, which replaces “Images & Files” from MarsEdit 1.2. You might notice a new tab…

Browse through all your Flickr photos, or filter by matching tags or image name. With keyboard shortcuts, you can bring up the window and insert a photo link without ever touching the mouse.

There are three things you should know about Twitter:

1. You should use Twitterrific on your Mac.
2. You only get 140 characters to make your point.
3. Once you’ve made your point, it can’t be edited.

It’s really frustrating when you type out a tweet quickly and send, only to realize that you’ve made an embarrassing typo or worse, said something you fundamentally regret. It’s too late, really. It’s probably already showing up on somebody’s tweet list and they’re gasping in horror. But it doesn’t have to live on in perpetuity!

While you can’t edit tweets, the folks at Twitter were kind enough to give us a sort of back-door method of editing, by allowing us to completely delete tweets that we don’t want to stick around.

So from time to time I found myself running to Twitter’s web interface after making a tweet. I’d find the little trash icon next to the item and click it. Not too much trouble, really. But I’m a Mac user, so of course I expect more.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could undo a tweet from right in Twitterrific? You can, with my spanking new script: Undo Tweet. This script requires FastScripts by default, but can be easily modified to use “display dialog” instead of the more user-friendly FastScripts message display.

For the sake of argument, let’s say you want to use FastScripts, or its free Lite counterpart, to set up your very own “Undo Tweet” functionality in Twitterrific. Here are the easy steps, once you’ve got FastScripts installed:

1. Download the Undo Tweet script, and open it with Script Editor to put your twitter name and password in.

2. Open Twitterrific and click its window to make sure it’s “active,” then create an app-specific scripts folder for it with FastScripts:

   

3. Drag the Undo Tweet script into the folder. Voila! You’ve got a Twitterrific-specific menu item for undoing tweets.

4. Select the menu item while holding down the Apple/Cmd key. Make sure that cmd key is down, or you’ll undo a tweet! This is a FastScripts trick for jumping right to the keyboard shortcut editor for any script. I chose Cmd-Shift-Z for mine. Just like Undo, but with a little more trouble since deleting a tweet is serious business.

   

And you’re done! Rest assured you can now easily undo any tweet. Let’s see how it looks in action.

First I write an embarrassing tweet.

Oh! That was embarrassing. Quick, press cmd-shift-Z! Since deleting the tweet can take a little while, I’m glad the author of this script was thoughtful enough to put up a little status message via FastScripts:

And a few seconds later…

Phew! A few people might have seen that tweet, but at least it’s permanently erased from the embarrassing annals of internet history.

Note that because of the way Twitterrific works, it won’t disappear from the visible list. Fear not, if the Undo Tweet script says it was deleted, then it’s because Twitter’s API claims it was deleted. Don’t run the script again or you’ll delete your previous tweet!.

Antagonizing Microsoft and its admirers has long been a part of my professional work culture. It’s easy to get a tinge of excitement when I see the giant stumble (ironic, given that I actually own some stock in the beast). But as I’ve matured (heh, heh, he said “matured”), I’ve come to know many people from Microsoft’s past, present, and I’m sure, future. And these people are passionate. They want to change the world for the better.

Microsoft is just a company, and yet its significance in the history of computing is so great, and its power over operating systems so daunting, that it’s far from being just a company. The company is a giant, figuratively and literally.

In his article, Be Microsoft, David Weiss expresses simultaneous love and disdain for the company he works for. In not so many words, it’s depressing to David that the giant lumbers around, fearful of all the smaller creatures surrounding it. So concerned is Microsoft with the competition, that it’s forgotten how to be itself.

I find David’s analysis to ring true. Grippingly true. It’s coming from the heart of Microsoft. The figurative heart, that is: straight from its precious employees. David’s blog is a perfect example of the thoughtful, well-intentioned self-criticism that I wish Apple would allow its employees to engage in more often.

The fear of anti-employee-blogging companies like Apple is that such off-the-cuff self-reflection might bode ill for the company’s public image. But posts like David’s only strengthen my impression of Microsoft as a company with character. A damaged character, perhaps. But one that is worthy of my consideration.

David draws parallels between Apple’s downturn several years ago, and Microsoft’s situation now. While David suggests that Apple’s recovery should instruct Microsoft about the value of “Being Microsoft,” perhaps Microsoft’s pro-blogging policies could teach Apple to “Be Human.”

Since I took over development of MarsEdit back in February, a lot has happened! I’ve released several bug-fix releases, and a modest 1.2 feature release, which added support for Growl, image uploads to Picasa for Blogger users, and early support for the Vox weblog system.

And of course, I heard feedback. Lots of feedback. MarsEdit users know what they want, and they’ve helped shape the priorities for the next major release of MarsEdit. And working on MarsEdit 2 is how I’ve spent a great deal of my time over the past few months.

I don’t want to give too many details away, because (crosses-fingers) things can always go wrong and features get pulled, but the release is starting to gel in some areas. Here is a sneak-peek at the new post editor window as it stands today:

(Click for full-size image)

Suffice to say, there are some features you can glean from the screenshot. The post editor window, and some other important parts of the user-interface, are being given a significant overhaul. I think most MarsEdit users will find it a refreshing cleanup, that manages to pack more features into MarsEdit without ruining its visual simplicity.

As for the complete feature list. Well, why don’t we wait until the features are actually complete :)