All,
SheetPlanner 2.0 beta 1 is being released the week of May 18th.

SheetPlanner 2.0 will be a huge release with many new features and tweaks to existing features.

The two tentpole features of 2.0 are:

1. Multiple sheets in a single document
2. Advanced printing features.

We would greatly appreciate beta testers so if anyone would like to help, please contact me at support@sheetplanner.com

Thanks,
Peter

All,
Looks like we are delayed a bit. We are now looking at the week of June 8th

We are looking for lots of beta testers to ensure this is a quality release so please ping me if you are able to help.

support@sheetplanner.com

Thanks,
Peter


SheetPlanner wrote:

All,
SheetPlanner 2.0 beta 1 is being released the week of May 18th.

SheetPlanner 2.0 will be a huge release with many new features and
tweaks to existing features.

The two tentpole features of 2.0 are:

1. Multiple sheets in a single document
2. Advanced printing features.

We would greatly appreciate beta testers so if anyone would like to
help, please contact me at support@sheetplanner.com

Thanks,
Peter

All,

I was off quite a bit about when we would release the SheetPlanner 2.0 beta 1, but we are on track for the end of this week, perhaps the weekend.
Many people have signed up to participate in the beta, if anyone else wishes to be added, please contact us at support@sheetplanner.com

Thanks for your patience. SheetPlanner is going to be a terrific release and free to those who have already purchased it.

Regards,
Peter



SheetPlanner wrote:

All,
Looks like we are delayed a bit. We are now looking at the week of June
8th

We are looking for lots of beta testers to ensure this is a quality
release so please ping me if you are able to help.

support@sheetplanner.com

Thanks,
Peter


SheetPlanner wrote:

>All,
>SheetPlanner 2.0 beta 1 is being released the week of May 18th.
>
>SheetPlanner 2.0 will be a huge release with many new features and
>tweaks to existing features.
>
>The two tentpole features of 2.0 are:
>
>1. Multiple sheets in a single document
>2. Advanced printing features.
>
>We would greatly appreciate beta testers so if anyone would like to
>help, please contact me at support@sheetplanner.com
>
>Thanks,
>Peter
>

Great news - can't wait to see your latest offering.

Amontillado,
Good news, SheetPlanner 2.0b1 will go out to beta testers tonight.

Have you submitted a request to participate in the beta?
Peter


Amontillado wrote:

Great news - can't wait to see your latest offering.

Yes, and I got your email.

I got an external USB SSD drive this morning, which I'll use for a bootable clone of my Mac. That's what I'll boot and install the beta on.

Yeah, I know. I'm overly cautious. My wife said the same thing when I was flapping around on the cruise ship in my flippers with my snorkel and life preserver.

They all laughed, but who would have had the last laugh if we'd hit an iceberg on our Caribbean cruise?

SheetPlanner wrote:

Amontillado,
Good news, SheetPlanner 2.0b1 will go out to beta testers tonight.

Have you submitted a request to participate in the beta?
Peter


Amontillado wrote:
Great news - can't wait to see your latest offering.

Yeah, you tell ’em, dude – that’s why I always sit in an underground Faraday cage when I’m working on my laptop. Okay, so it’s a bit damp and I don’t always hear the doorbell, but details details, eh?

I need to try that! :-)

If anyone wants to know how to create a alternate Mac environment, Googling didn't get a clear step-by-step for me.

But it's easy. The steps I took were I downloaded but did not install Catalina from the app store. Then I created a bootable installer USB device with the createinstallmedia tool that's part of the MacOS download.

I plugged in an SSD USB 3 disk, rebooted the Mac from the installer USB I made, and told it to install Catalina to the SSD USB device.

Incredibly, booting from an SSD USB 3 device performs nearly as well as booting from an internal disk.

Easy-peasy. My boot drive was unmolested and I have a crash-and-burn Mac environment.

MadaboutDana wrote:

Yeah, you tell ’em, dude – that’s why I always
sit in an underground Faraday cage when I’m working on my laptop.
Okay, so it’s a bit damp and I don’t always hear the
doorbell, but details details, eh?

Hm, actually, that’s really interesting. I’m going to try it your way! I happen to have a ridiculously fast SanDisk USB3 drive I could use for that…

Cheers!
Bill

I think you can skip the step where I created the bootable USB device, although that's probably not a bad "in case of emergency" thing to have, anyway.

The Catalina download left an installer in my Applications folder, visible in the Launchpad. If you run it, you will see - oh, horrors! - there is no quit or cancel button, but don't panic. "Install Catalina" on the menu bar, just to the right of the Apple logo, has a "quit" command.

I trust my multiple Time Machine volumes and the bootable mirror I refresh weekly with Chronosync. I think it's safe to run the installer and tell it to use an external USB destination for the install, and have done it a couple of times. If your mileage varies, be brave. Be willing to command your Mac to arise from its ashes.

Seriously, a bottle-to-throttle rule might be good, but other than that it all seems safe. It's just exercising the same utility that put your OS on your Mac to begin with. I would far rather restore my Mac (or my Linux boxes) from a factory-fresh wipe than a Windows box.

It's probably a good idea to not let the new install sign into your Apple account, in case your testing crashed your Contacts and deleted everything, or anything like that.

The new Sheetplanner looks much the same as the old one, but one test that the current release doesn't like on my Mac works fine on the Beta - improvement, in other words. After brief testing, I'd say the new version is going to be a stronger tool. It is rightfully a Beta version at this point, but it appears to be well on its way to a good release.

In the original Sheetplanner, saving smart filters was a matter of holding your mouth just right. The beta works in that regard exactly as expected.

Using Sheetplanner as an outliner, you can type nearly the same stream of keystrokes that you would type into OmniOutliner and get the same outline. In OO, the keys to indent/undent are command-] and command=[. Sheetplanner uses tab/shift-tab. Both use command=' to enter a note on a topic. Based on a close your eyes and type test, Sheetplanner really will do what OO does, at least for my outlining purposes.

Sheetplanner puts horizontal lines between outline topics. I had to get used to that, but it makes column navigation easier, and that is a little of a weak point in OO. If an OO column out of view is multiline, the vertical outline layout can get lumpy.

In OO, you can turn off the task completion "status" checkboxes. In Sheetplanner, they are always there.

Sheetplanner and OO are different tools. The idea of a outline that automatically maintains a timeline is pretty darn neat. With OO, you can add extra columns, export to CSV, and import directly into Aeon. Sheetplanner has toolbar buttons to select which views you see, and whether they are arranged side by side or vertically.

I haven't tested it yet, but I'm pretty sure a Sheetplanner CSV export would also feed Aeon without trouble.

As an enthusiastic OO user, Sheetplanner looked, er, unflattering at first. Opening the cover and looking at the book, though, shows much better utility than I first thought. The Beta is already very nice, and I have high hopes for the production release, which appears to be in the near future.

It's also nice to see active development at work. You don't quite have that feeling with OO these days.

My next mission is to replace OmniFocus and OmniGroup's proprietary sync servers. They work fine, I just don't like the idea and I can do without a watch app. TaskPaper and its integration with Reminders might be what I can live with. My needs are pretty simple. Huge task lists, some days, but operationally, just simple stuff.



MadaboutDana wrote:

Hm, actually, that’s really interesting. I’m going to try it
your way! I happen to have a ridiculously fast SanDisk USB3 drive I
could use for that…

Cheers!
Bill

Amontillado,
Thank you for your feedback on beta 1.

I had not seen the issue you describe with 1.x as it relates to smart filters. Is there any way you could send us a video of what you experience in 1.x?

If so, please send it to support@sheetplanner.com.

We are eager to fix bugs but had not come across this one before. Good to hear that your experience with this feature is improved in 2.0

Not sure if you are saying these are OO only features 'With OO, you can add extra columns, export to CSV, and import directly into Aeon. ' or not but for readers unfamiliar with SheetPlanner, we offer custom columns of many different types plus import and export of csv and opml files.

There is actually a setting to turn off the task completion checkboxes. Click on any topic cell and open the inspector and under the 'Column' heading, look for 'Completed' and you will see 3 options; 'checkbox', 'pie' and 'hidden'.

Beta testers will have had a chance to see the Tutorial vides as I attached links to them in the beta test email. They go a long way to unlocking the power of SheetPlanner 2.0.

We have uncovered a few bugs already in SP 2.0 b1 and expect b2 too be much improved.

Our roadmap for SP is terrific. We see the Outliner with Columns as the foundation to view data in many, many different ways. Timeline and Calendar views are just the beginning.

Thanks for your support. If you have any more specific feedback, please provide it at support@sheetplanner.com.
Regards
Peter



Amontillado wrote:

I think you can skip the step where I created the bootable USB device,
although that's probably not a bad "in case of emergency" thing to have,
anyway.

The Catalina download left an installer in my Applications folder,
visible in the Launchpad. If you run it, you will see - oh, horrors! -
there is no quit or cancel button, but don't panic. "Install Catalina"
on the menu bar, just to the right of the Apple logo, has a "quit"
command.

I trust my multiple Time Machine volumes and the bootable mirror I
refresh weekly with Chronosync. I think it's safe to run the installer
and tell it to use an external USB destination for the install, and have
done it a couple of times. If your mileage varies, be brave. Be willing
to command your Mac to arise from its ashes.

Seriously, a bottle-to-throttle rule might be good, but other than that
it all seems safe. It's just exercising the same utility that put your
OS on your Mac to begin with. I would far rather restore my Mac (or my
Linux boxes) from a factory-fresh wipe than a Windows box.

It's probably a good idea to not let the new install sign into your
Apple account, in case your testing crashed your Contacts and deleted
everything, or anything like that.

The new Sheetplanner looks much the same as the old one, but one test
that the current release doesn't like on my Mac works fine on the Beta -
improvement, in other words. After brief testing, I'd say the new
version is going to be a stronger tool. It is rightfully a Beta version
at this point, but it appears to be well on its way to a good release.

In the original Sheetplanner, saving smart filters was a matter of
holding your mouth just right. The beta works in that regard exactly as
expected.

Using Sheetplanner as an outliner, you can type nearly the same stream
of keystrokes that you would type into OmniOutliner and get the same
outline. In OO, the keys to indent/undent are command-] and command=[.
Sheetplanner uses tab/shift-tab. Both use command=' to enter a note on a
topic. Based on a close your eyes and type test, Sheetplanner really
will do what OO does, at least for my outlining purposes.

Sheetplanner puts horizontal lines between outline topics. I had to get
used to that, but it makes column navigation easier, and that is a
little of a weak point in OO. If an OO column out of view is multiline,
the vertical outline layout can get lumpy.

In OO, you can turn off the task completion "status" checkboxes. In
Sheetplanner, they are always there.

Sheetplanner and OO are different tools. The idea of a outline that
automatically maintains a timeline is pretty darn neat. With OO, you can
add extra columns, export to CSV, and import directly into Aeon.
Sheetplanner has toolbar buttons to select which views you see, and
whether they are arranged side by side or vertically.

I haven't tested it yet, but I'm pretty sure a Sheetplanner CSV export
would also feed Aeon without trouble.

As an enthusiastic OO user, Sheetplanner looked, er, unflattering at
first. Opening the cover and looking at the book, though, shows much
better utility than I first thought. The Beta is already very nice, and
I have high hopes for the production release, which appears to be in the
near future.

It's also nice to see active development at work. You don't quite have
that feeling with OO these days.

My next mission is to replace OmniFocus and OmniGroup's proprietary sync
servers. They work fine, I just don't like the idea and I can do without
a watch app. TaskPaper and its integration with Reminders might be what
I can live with. My needs are pretty simple. Huge task lists, some days,
but operationally, just simple stuff.



MadaboutDana wrote:
Hm, actually, that’s really interesting. I’m going to try it
>your way! I happen to have a ridiculously fast SanDisk USB3 drive I
>could use for that…
>
>Cheers!
>Bill

The smart filter issue was a user issue, I believe. When you click the 'save' button, the action to complete the save operation is to hit the enter key on the name. I was clicking the 'save' button a second time. Smart filters work fine on the current release. Just hit 'enter' to save with the desired name.

For some reason, I took the right course on the beta where I didn't on the production version.

You're right about adding custom columns in SheetPlanner, of course, and that's how I would export to Aeon Timeline. I'd add columns for Participant, Observer, etc.

I missed the checkbox options - thanks for the tip. That's nice.

Great work on the beta - thanks for your efforts.

SheetPlanner wrote:

Amontillado,
Thank you for your feedback on beta 1.

I had not seen the issue you describe with 1.x as it relates to smart
filters. Is there any way you could send us a video of what you
experience in 1.x?

Amontillado,

Just FYI, we took your feedback on the Smart Filters and how the process of saving them via the return key after you have named the filter is not always obvious.
In the next beta, in addition to hitting the return key, there will also be a green checkmark to accept and a red x to exit without saving the filter. If you look at how Numbers handles in cell formula editing it will be almost identical.
Thanks for the feedback. I often wondered was this an unintuitive feature.
Regards,
Peter

Amontillado wrote:

The smart filter issue was a user issue, I believe. When you click the
'save' button, the action to complete the save operation is to hit the
enter key on the name. I was clicking the 'save' button a second time.
Smart filters work fine on the current release. Just hit 'enter' to save
with the desired name.

For some reason, I took the right course on the beta where I didn't on
the production version.

You're right about adding custom columns in SheetPlanner, of course, and
that's how I would export to Aeon Timeline. I'd add columns for
Participant, Observer, etc.

I missed the checkbox options - thanks for the tip. That's nice.

Great work on the beta - thanks for your efforts.

SheetPlanner wrote:
Amontillado,
>Thank you for your feedback on beta 1.
>
>I had not seen the issue you describe with 1.x as it relates to smart
>filters. Is there any way you could send us a video of what you
>experience in 1.x?

Wow - thanks, Peter!

All,
SheetPlanner beta 2 will go out on August 7th.
We don't expect to have too many betas as we had a very long alpha cycle.
Looking forward to the release candidate stage.
Peter

All,
We wont be sending out beta 2 as we found some issues that we need to address. I think beta 3 will go out around August 21st.
Peter


SheetPlanner wrote:

All,
SheetPlanner beta 2 will go out on August 7th.
We don't expect to have too many betas as we had a very long alpha
cycle.
Looking forward to the release candidate stage.
Peter

All,
SheetPlanner beta 3 will go out Monday or Tuesday.

We had some huge unanticipated challenges with the print preview feature which set us back many weeks.

Beta 3 focuses on Printing feature bugs although some issues still remain.

Beta 4 and Beta 5 will focus on fixes that beta 1 users reported and that beta 3 users will report.

Regards
Peter


SheetPlanner wrote:

All,
We wont be sending out beta 2 as we found some issues that we need to
address. I think beta 3 will go out around August 21st.
Peter


SheetPlanner wrote:
All,
>SheetPlanner beta 2 will go out on August 7th.
>We don't expect to have too many betas as we had a very long alpha
>cycle.
>Looking forward to the release candidate stage.
>Peter

All,

SheetPlanner beta 5 should go out October 10th.

It's taking longer than expected. Bugs are difficult.

We built a beta 4 but have not released it, going straight to beta 5.

Peter

All,
SheetPlanner 2.0 Beta 5 is going out today. Lots of fixes. Beta 6 next week, beta 7 the following.

We are rolling Big Sur compatibility into 2.0 rather than the original plan to release a supplemental update.

Peter

SheetPlanner wrote:

All,

SheetPlanner beta 5 should go out October 10th.

It's taking longer than expected. Bugs are difficult.

We built a beta 4 but have not released it, going straight to beta 5.

Peter

Everyone hates writing printing code. It is always the last thing to get done. ;0)

--

Andy Brice
https://www.hyperplan.com

Andy,
Thats what my developer tells me!

That said, printing in 2.0 will be much improved especially in the next beta.

Regards
Peter


Andy Brice wrote:

Everyone hates writing printing code. It is always the last thing to get
done. ;0)

--

Andy Brice
https://www.hyperplan.com

All,
SheetPlanner 2.0b6 went out this evening with lots of improvements and fixes. Printing is thoroughly revamped in SheetPlanner 2.0 and much improved in b6.

B7 will go out next Wednesday brining Big Sur compatibility.

We are hoping that b8 will be a release candidate.

If anyone not on the beta test list wishes to be added, please contact us at suport@sheetplanner.com

Peter

All,
SheetPlanner 2.0b7 went out this evening.
We are expecting 2.0b9 or b9 to be a release candidate.

2.0b8 will go out Nov 10th
Peter

All,
SheetPlanner 2.0b9 will go out today.
We are getting close to release. b10 or b11 will be the release candidate.
After many months of delay, we should release SheetPlanner 2 in early December.
Peter


SheetPlanner wrote:

All,
SheetPlanner 2.0b7 went out this evening.
We are expecting 2.0b9 or b9 to be a release candidate.

2.0b8 will go out Nov 10th
Peter