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DESCRIPTION
Fantasktik... Switching between windows has never been so easy. Fantasktik shows all your windows in a smart and stylish way, giving you a 1-click access to any of them. Fantasktik unleashes the power of Leopard with a pure Core Animation Interface. Sleek animations and gorgeous transparent effects all contribute to an amazing user experience.
WHAT'S NEW
Version 1.4:
  • Right-click menu to close or minimize windows
  • Right-click menu to hide, quit or Exposé applications
  • Applications can be excluded from Fantasktik through the new right-click menu
  • New option to show the applications in alphabetical order
  • Multi-monitor support (drag the bar using the side areas)
  • Automatically scroll the bar to show the current active application
  • Clicking on the active window minimizes it
  • Option to not monitor Safari actively to avoid a Safari bug that causes crashes
  • Option to allow Fantasktik to overlap the Dock at the bottom of the screen
  • Fixed fullscreen mode
  • Fixed a bug with applications having multiple instances
  • Fixed the hide mechanism for apps selected to hide Fantasktik
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

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SCREENSHOT

Developer:Dockland Software
Downloads:4,068
  - Version d/l:921
Utilities:Desktop
License:Shareware
Date:21 Jun 2009
Platform:PPC/Intel
Price:$9.99
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Fantasktik User Reviews (19 posts)Write A Review
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Oct 4 2009
***..

MAC007  Nice application that needs a customizable Apple menu like Fruitmenu provided and needs a fix for the icon display problem under Snow Leopard. The icons are too tiny in the task bar and nothing in the applications settings will fix it. I had no problem with this under Leopard.  
(Version 1.4)

praisebury
0
[ Reply ]
Sep 27 2009

DRDUL  I like this, despite its similarity to the Windoze taskbar. :-)

I am using it on a Mac Pro with dual 30-inch monitors. My left monitor has the menubar at top and the dock at the bottom. My right monitor now has Fantasktik at the top. When I'm working on the right monitor and want to switch windows or apps, my mouse now has an alternative to the dock that requires less movement to reach.

I like how Fantasktik provides an always-on display of which apps are active and what windows are open, even windows that have been minimized to the app's dock icon. The preview feature is nice, but the way it is coded means that previews of short wide windows appear much larger than previews of tall narrow windows. I have the preview size set as large as possible, and checking into the plist file I see a figure of 275, which appears to be the maximum height of the preview image in pixels. The developer should code it so that this number applies as a maximum to both the height and width of the window, and should allow for sizes of up to, say, 500 pixels. This change would better "equalize" the size of preview windows, regardless of how narrow or wide, short or tall they are.

I like that the colours of the Fantasktik bar can be adjusted. I fiddled around with them, and discovered that I can turn off the background colour by making the opacity of it 0%, which allows windows under the bar to show through. This is particularly useful, as on a 30-inch monitor my Fantasktik bar is often only half full. There's no point obscuring part of the screen with a blank bar.

I also like that all the windows of an app can be collapsed into an app's icon in the Fantasktik bar by double-clicking the icon. I use this for apps for which I typically only have one window open, like Path Finder and 1Password. Fantasktik can be set to remember the collapsed/expanded state of every app, so Path Finder and 1Password will always appear collapsed into the app icon (unless I choose to expand the windows out of the icon).

There's so much to like, but there's one glaring omission. As others have requested, Fantasktik desperately needs a hot-key for keyboard access, and the ability to navigate between windows with the keyboard. If this feature was incorporated, I would assign the hot key to one of the buttons on my Logitech mouse, and would use SteerMouse to assign the scroll wheel to the arrow keys (or whatever) to allow me to navigate between windows. It may already be possible to use the scroll wheel this way, but if so, I couldn't figure out how to do it.

The current version of Fantasktik is not without bugs. I experienced weird behaviour when I right-clicked and selected "Exposé" or "Close Window." Some of the time this would work, but other times it caused A Better Finder Attributes to launch (huh?) or some weird window I've never seen before to open.

Despite these glitches and the lack of a hot key, I'll probably buy Fantasktik when my 15-day trial period ends. It already offers enough functionality to justify the $10 price. If a hot key and keyboard navigation are added, and if the weird behaviour on right-click is fixed, it will be a great deal at $10.  
(Version 1.4)

praisebury
0
[ Reply ]
Sep 17 2009

FRANKNS  I'm not quite sure I like this ...

It feels like a guilty pleasure. It's a little too much like the Windows Task Bar to feel really "Mac-like," but it does do the job well. Very nice to be able to navigate to individual windows crisply, seeing what's in the window before I land there. I've always use 'Witch" for this kind of navigation in the past. If it had a hot key to move between windows ... more people would use Fantasktik.  
(Version 1.4)

praisebury
+1
[ Reply ]
Aug 4 2009

JO*  Hotkey to invoke please. Otherwise too much mileage on the mouse.  
(Version 1.4)

praisebury
+1
[ Reply ]
Jun 21 2009
****.

GORDON142  This is a seriously cool update. It addresses most of the pressing limitations of this app present in other versions. It's really nice being able to close windows in any application easily. I have never found the earlier versions quite good enough to use all the time, but this really is a huge improvement.  
(Version 1.4)

praisebury
+1
[ Reply ]
Jun 7 2009
*****

EASER  Having fixed the problem I identified in an earlier commentary, I opted to purchase this program but never went back to review it. I am considerably delighted with Fantasktik. First, the developer is responsive and open to ideas. Second, it works very well and has some very nice customization options. Third, it does not slow down my system. Finally, although I like Unsanity's Windowshade and its minimize-in-place feature, I also find that the most current version slows down my system. And given that it took them nearly 2 years to actually finally get that feature fixed, I'm not optimistic about what will happen with Snow Leopard. I find that Fantasktik provides a nice alternative to minimize-in-place.

I highly recommend that you check this program out. I've tried literally all of the other window-switching programs out there, and this has been the fastest, most reliable of them for me.   
(Version 1.3.2)

praisebury
+2
[ Reply ]
Feb 3 2009

LARSEN2K4  Just tested it, bought it and got my license... Great piece of software - really handy while working with many apps at once ... reminds me of the new Windows 7-Taskbar ... anyhow - a great Extension to the Dock! :)  
(Version 1.3.2)

praisebury
0
[ Reply ]
Jan 22 2009

TOMIS  Alternate ways of interacting with the computer are always good I think. This has a surprising number of bugs for a 1.3 release, including the inability to display previews for windows of hidden apps. It just displays empty black rectangles for those windows.  
(Version 1.3.1)

praisebury
0
[ 1 Reply - Reply ]
Replies:
Jan 23 2009

DOCKLAND  We're working on a fix for this issue. Currently the Apple tools to get windows contents return a transparent window for hidden applications/windows.

What other bugs do you have ?  
(Version 1.3.1)

praisebury
0

Dec 15 2008

DOCKLAND  If you downloaded the latest version of Fantasktik and your preference panel shows "version 1.2.2", we recommend you download and install 1.2.3 .  
(Version 1.2.3)

praisebury
0
[ Reply ]
Dec 1 2008

THEBRIX2008  Very nice application - better than Exposé as it displays minimised as well as normal windows and is not so obtrusive. The only minor bug I have come across is that the thumbnail view of windows momentarily flicks on and off whenever the mouse pointer crosses a window button on its way to the Menu Bar; a "dwell time" could be introduced.

It would be worth having more display options. For example, the application icons could be removed from beside the window buttons; they are small to the point of losing clarity. Also, minimum and maximum window button sizes could be set, and transparency made adjustable. Finally, the button bar could be displayed down the left or right of the window, to exploit the mouse pointer's stopping at the edge of the screen (if Spaces is not used).  
(Version 1.2.1)

praisebury
0
[ Reply ]
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