How to use SamLogic’s Windows applications on a Mac

We are often asked about if our programs are available in Mac versions. Even though we have no dedicated Mac versions of our programs, you can still easily use them on a Mac (Macintosh) computer. All you have to do is to install a virtualization software on your Mac that allows you to install and run Windows on it. With help of such virtualization software you can use our programs on a Mac just as you would do it on a PC with Windows. The virtualization software lets you run Windows and Mac OS X on your computer at the same time. This has several other advantages, such as allowing you to copy data between programs running on different operating systems.
SamLogic's Windows applications can also be used on a Mac
There are several available virtualization programs that you can use. Among the best ones are VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop and Oracle VirtualBox.

Apple has developed its own product called Boot Camp that allows running Windows operating system on a Mac. However, Apple’s Boot Camp requires to reboot your computer when switching between Windows and Mac OS X which it is not very smooth. Boot Camp is included in Mac OS X version 10.5 and later.

To read more about Apple’s Boot Camp and how it is used, click here:
> Using Windows on Mac via Boot Camp

Half of all newsletters is opened on a mobile device

More and more people open their newsletters on mobile devices. According to a study done by Experian Marketing Services is half of all emails opened solely on a mobile device, compared to 23 percent for both email clients and web clients.

Important to use the right email software
This means that it is increasingly important to use a newsletter software that is designed for creating email newsletters that display properly on mobile devices. The MultiMailer 2013 email marketing software is designed for just that.

There is couple of things good to know about and consider when creating a newsletter that is to be read on mobile devices. In this article on our website we have compiled useful tips for you.

More information
> Experian Marketing Services study “Quarterly Email Benchmark Study Q2 2013” (PDF)
> Mobile Email – How to create a newsletter for a mobile phone and smart phone
> Responsive Email Design: One newsletter for a smartphone, tablet, laptop & desktop computer
> Android – The Rise to Success

The Picture Gallery in CD-Menu Creator

A powerful feature in CD-Menu Creator is the Picture Gallery, that displays all pictures in a folder on a CD/DVD or USB flash drive in a special window. The pictures are clickable and by clicking on a picture the picture will be shown in its original size in a separate window. It is also possible to make the picture gallery to open another file type instead of the picture when a user clicks on the picture; for example a movie.

Picture Gallery

We have added a new button command to CD-Menu Creator with the name Open Picture Gallery that can be used to open the picture gallery window.

New button command: Open Picture Gallery

By using this button command and by specifying a folder path, you can display all pictures in a specific folder on a CD, DVD or USB flash drive in the picture gallery window.

More information
> CD-Menu Creator – Picture Gallery

CD-Menu Creator 2014 has now been released

A new version of our menu designer tool SamLogic CD-Menu Creator has now been released. The name of the new version is SamLogic CD-Menu Creator 2014 and some of the new features in the new version are:

• Support for Microsoft Windows 8.1.
• Improved encryption functions.
• A picture gallery, that shows all pictures in a folder in a special window.

A more detailed list with the new features is available on this page. In coming blog posts we will describe the new features in CD-Menu Creator 2014 in more detail.

Visual Installer 2014: How to change user interface

In the previous blog post we informed about Visual Installer’s new user interface and the possibility to change visual theme for the user interface. In this blog post we will show how to change visual theme for the user interface.

If you want to change the visual theme for the editor, follow these steps:

1. Start Visual Installer
2. Open the Special menu
3. Choose the Editor options menu item
4. Open the Application window’s style combo box

Application window's style

5. Select the style / theme that you want to use
6. Click OK

Below you can see some samples of the visual themes included in Visual Installer 2014:

STYLE: Theme Silver 1
Theme Silver 1

STYLE: Theme White 1
Theme White 1

STYLE: Theme Blue 1
Theme Blue 1

Visual Installer 2014: Run program as administrator

Sometimes a program must be run with administrator rights in the system. This gives the program more privileges, which sometimes is necessary to make a program function as expected. In Visual Installer 2014 you can set an installed program to run with administrator privileges in an easy way.

To make an installed program to run with administrator rights you can right-click on the program in Visual Installer’s file list and choose the Run as administrator menu item in the menu that is shown. Thereafter you can select the Run program as administrator option in the dialog box that appears and press OK (see picture below).

Run program as administrator

Visual Installer 2014: Post messages to Twitter

You can now send Twitter messages (tweets) directly from Visual Installer. We have added this functionality to Visual Installer 2014.

This is useful for example when you upload an update or upgrade of your software to your website using the built-in FTP function in Visual Installer. In the same time you can inform your customers about the new version of your software (including a short description, version number and a download link) via Twitter.

Below is a screen dump of the Send Message To Twitter dialog box in Visual Installer 2014. This dialog box is used to send tweets to Twitter. You can open this dialog box via the File menu in the Visual Installer editor.

Visual Installer now supports Twitter

More information about the Twitter function in Visual Installer is available on this web page.

Visual Installer 2014: New variables and new script commands

We have added 3 new variables and 2 new script command to Visual Installer 2014. The variables can be used to handle shared files and shared settings, and the script commands can be used to change permissions for folders on the hard disk during the installation process.

THREE NEW VARIABLES
Three new variables were added to Visual Installer 2014. Below they are described briefly:

%SHAREDDOCUMENTS : Can be used to install shared documents.
%PUBLICDIR : Can be used to install shared files (documetns, images, videos etc.).
%APPDATADIR_ALLUSERS : Can be used to install shared settings.

TWO NEW SCRIPT COMMANDS
We have also added two new script commands to Visual Installer 2014. They can be used to change permissions for hard disk folders. Below are the script commands described briefly:

SETPERM : Changes permissions for an existing folder on the hard disk.
XCREATEDIR : Creates a folder on the hard disk with specified permissions.

More detailed information about the script commands is available on this information page and on this blog post. The picture below shows how the SETPERM command can be used to set read, write and execute permissions for a hard disk folder during the setup:

SETPERM