Tembo public beta

Houdah Software 2010-11-30

Houdah Software is proud to pre-announce it's latest product. Tembo has reached draft / public beta status.

I hope you will like it.

Like HoudahSpot, Tembo is a search tool based upon the Spotlight engine. The job of Tembo is to make searching (and finding) of files, mail messages, bookmarks, … as easy as possible.

At first sight you will find Tembo to have been inspired by the original Spotlight interface as we knew it under Mac OS X Tiger.

Search results are grouped by categories. Preferences allow for categories to be enabled, disabled and reordered.

Behind a small arrow on the header bar for each group you will find the real power of Tembo.

Tembo provides appropriate result filters in each group.

Tembo may list up to 2500 search results. Rather than have you scroll through the long list to find the desired result, you would

apply filters to narrow down the list. The Messages group, for example, offers filters on author, recipient and subject.

Thus Tembo is much more than a file search tool. It works as extension to Mail.app / iChat.app to locate messages.

As extension to Safari to search browsing history and bookmarks, …

The latest beta / draft is available at

http://www.houdah.com/tembo/drafts/Tembo%201.0%20draft%204.zip

The final version of Tembo is headed to the Apple App Store.

Thus Tembo requires Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.

Houdah Software 2010-12-02

Hi!

A new beta is available:

http://www.houdah.com/tembo/drafts/Tembo%201.0%20draft%205.zip

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.

Houdah Software 2010-12-02

A few crucial fixes bring us to draft 6:

http://www.houdah.com/tembo/drafts/Tembo%201.0%20draft%206.zip

Member #43 2010-12-05

Nice app. I always preferred Tiger's Spotlight results window to Leopard and Snow Leopard's, so this is good for me 🙂

It would be good if you could use keyboard shortcuts to move from the search field to the results after typing a search. And then enter the different search categories via the keyboard, as well as going back to the main search after entering a search category.

I guess the most obvious other thing I'd like to see is a global search with keyboard shortcut (like Spotlight, and HoudahSpot).

Once thing I don't like at all is the strange pattern at the top on the toolbar. It doesn't improve the look and I don't see a reason to ignore Apple's HIG. I removed the image from the Resources folder and it looks much better without.

I also noticed a problem. If I close Tembo's window I have to restart the app to get it back.

Houdah Software 2010-12-05

Hi Member #43!

Thank you for the feedback.

I am still undecided about the pattern. I'll definitely factor in your vote.

You should be able to hit cmd-N to get a new Tembo window. Even after closing the last one.

Tembo is headed for the AppStore. I don't quite know if I should dare adding a global shortcut to the first version. I am not sure what Apple's stance is on that.

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.

Member #43 2010-12-06

Thanks Pierre, ⌘-N works to get the window back. Hopefully clicking on the dock icon will also open a new window if all have been closed in the future.

Tembo is headed for the AppStore. I don't quite know if I should dare adding a global shortcut to the first version. I am not sure what Apple's stance is on that.

Ah, good point. Maybe it's best to play safe for now and get it accepted through the Mac App Store. Hopefully in the future.

Houdah Software 2010-12-06

Hi!

Indeed, clicking the Dock icon should create a new window. That feature is currently missing.

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.

Member #43 2010-12-06

I'll look forward to it.

Houdah Software 2010-12-12

Hi all!

Tembo has reached Draft 7.

This version adds a lot of smaller features, enhancement and general polish:

- settings apply immediately

- menu items and keyboard shortcuts for most features

- integration with Mac OS X services

- new document when needed on Dock icon click

- …

Get it here:

http://www.houdah.com/tembo/drafts/Tembo%201.0%20draft%207.zip

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.

Member #533 2010-12-13

I just tried Draft 7. This is just ultimate in how fast it works. Keep up the great work. I like the nice clean interface.

Member #198 2010-12-14

Very cool app: fast and with a clear UI.

Regarding future features:

1) another vote for a global search with keyboard shortcut (like Member #43 suggested).

2) integration with LaunchBar.

Best,

-- MJ

Houdah Software 2010-12-14

Hi!

Tembo should already be able to forward the selected file to Tembo.

Do you also expect to be able to start Tembo searches from LaunchBar?

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.

Member #168 2010-12-14

Very nice, and it seems to be a bit quicker than Houdahspot (which is my main search engine).

Member #198 2010-12-14

Hi there --

Regarding your comments:

Tembo should already be able to forward the selected file to Tembo.
Do you also expect to be able to start Tembo searches from LaunchBar?

I was mostly mentioning the last one.

I guess that can be achieved with a Service (aka BlitzSearch in HoudahSpot) which triggered would allow us to make the search (word or name:word, tag:word, etc) without using the Tembo interface.

Another interesting feature would be a Service "Search Selected Text with Tembo."

[Note: I don't think that right now Tembo has Services included. Can you confirm?]

Best,

-- MJ Valente

Houdah Software 2010-12-14

Hi!

Tembo currently provides no Services.

I have added those to the ToDo list for the next update.

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.

Member #198 2010-12-16

Hi --

I was wondering what were the changes on Version 1.0 draft 7 (3418)? I searched for a changes log and could not find it.

Member #536 2010-12-16

just tried Version 1.0 draft 8 (3422), very nice features, but what kills it for me is too much information, would really like if it had a 'search by "file name" instead of "contents"

Member #198 2010-12-16

@jeffhcarter --

You can search by file name using name:xxxxxx ← xxxxxx being your chosen text.

In Tembo's Help:

What attributes does Tembo search?

By default Tembo searches file names, text contents as well as any other text attributes indexed by Spotlight.

Tembo allows for a minimal query language to let you control which attributes are searched. For this you need to prefix the searched for word with one of the following keywords:

• name: search only file names

• text: search only text contents

• any: search any text attribute but the name and text contents

• tags: search only OpenMeta tags

• whereFrom: search the files' origins

"text:Houdah name:Tembo" searches for files whose name contains "Tembo" and whose contents includes "Houdah"

"whereFrom:iChat text:Tembo" searches for iChat transcripts which contain "Tembo"

Best,

-- MJ

Member #537 2010-12-16

Love this!!! Doesn't seem to search external drives, though. I've not disabled Spotlight indexing on external drives yet Tembo can't locate files. Is it in the works?

Member #538 2010-12-16

Hi, I am very new to Tembo. I like the way it functions and look forward to the final release, I am sure that it will contain new features as discussed here, but please keep it simple (remember KISS). The only thing that I'd like to see, for convenient access, is to have an icon in the menu bar.

Houdah Software 2010-12-16

Hi!

@hcabbos: This is a bug in the Draft versions. The search scope switch is not operational. It always searches local drives. No matter what the selection is.

@astechman: The very purpose of Tembo is to keep it simple. I will carefully weigh which features to add.

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.

Houdah Software 2010-12-16

@mjvalente:

Hi!

I don't keep or publish detailed change logs for the Draft versions.

Draft 7 was a major update. Here are the changes I remember:

- settings apply immediately

- menu items and keyboard shortcuts for most features

- integration with Mac OS X services

- new document when needed on Dock icon click

- …

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.

Member #537 2010-12-17

Thanks for the update, Pierre. The one thing I love about EasyFind is that you can perform file operations with it. I'd love to see at least a Delete option when selecting a file or folder.

Member #167 2010-12-21

Hi Pierre, interesting app. i've got HoudahSpot but i've tried this and i may like it more. My problem is i can't figure out how to launch searches other than actually calling up the app itself. I thought this was supposed to be either a spotlight extension or replacement. But now, if i invoke the hotkey to create a new spotlight search, nothing happens, no spotlight results, no tembo results.

So, how does one quickly launch a search for this without having to first manually make Tembo the active application? if that cannot be done, then honestly, that's too big a process flaw for me to be interested in the app.

secondly, you asked above about LaunchBar. Yes! if i could launch Tembo searches from launchbar, that would be a good alternative. i'd prefer to be able to simply have a unique hotkey to launch tembo searches, though. and ideally, i'd like a preference that substitutes tembo searches for spotlight searches, with the same hotkey (ala houdahspot functionality).

thanks

Houdah Software 2010-12-21

Hi!

Tembo 1.0 draft 9 provides a service which allows for passing the currently selected text to Tembo (and launch it, if needed). You may use the Keyboard System Preferences panel to assign a shortcut to that service.

It might be possible to have LaunchBar call into that service. Not sure of that.

Tembo 1.1 should add AppleScript support which will make it easy to launch it from LaunchBar.

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.

Member #198 2011-01-05

Hi, Pierre --

Does Tembo Demo 1.0 maintain this Service? What's its name? (I'm supposing I can find it on System Preferences > Keyboard Preference Pane, but I didn't manage to find it.)

Best,

-- MJ Valente

Houdah Software 2011-01-05

Hi!

The service is available in 1.0.

It is listed in the "Text" section of System Preferences > Keyboard Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services.

I believe it is named "Search selected text in Tembo". I am already hard at work on Tembo 1.1. Here I have renamed the service to "Search in Tembo".

Best,

Pierre Bernard

Houdah Software s.à r.l.