I am happy to announce the release of SunFlower 0.11. As there are some user interface changes I have decided to post a brief walkthrough of the changes.

The Inspector

The most dramatic change is to the info window, which is now a Apple iLife/iWork style inspector.

The info window, pre 0.11

The new inspector panel

Like the iWork and iLife applications there is a set of icon based tabs at the top of the panel, and it has animated transitions between the tabs. You might be thinking, “Hey, but now I can’t see the whole website URL?”. I’d like to draw your attention to the blue button with arrows.

After clicking the blue button

Clicking the blue button summons a window where you can see the full text. You can edit the text in this other window. If you are interested in the design process for this interface you can read more about it here.

Anchor Selection

The interface for setting the anchor corner of an exclusion filter has also changed significantly. In the old interface you needed to control-click on the selected exclusion filter to change the anchor. This hid the option. Filter anchors are also one of the more complicated features in SunFlower and the interface did not make it apparent as to what happened when you changed the anchor corner. You needed to read the documentation to understand how everything worked.

Changing the anchor, pre 0.11

In the new interface it’s easier to find the option because it’s in the inspector. You also get instantaneous feedback from the animated view beside the anchor selector.

The new anchor interface

New Preferences

Another change in the latest version of SunFlower is the ability to enable or disable plug-ins and JavaScript. This can be done on a global or per subscription basis.

Global settings for plug-ins and JavaScript

Custom Settings in the inspector

Filters Icon

Finally the filters icon has been changed. The original icon was borrowed from Adobe Photoshop, and is used for layer masks in Photoshop. It was a good place holder, but exclusion filters cannot be circular so the icon has been changed to something more appropriate.