LinkBack offers inter-app editing

Posted on 7 Mar 2005 at 11:11

Three Mac software developers have unveiled a new technology designed to make it much easier to create and edit files across multiple applications.

LinkBack is an open source, embedded objects framework that makes it easy to edit and update files created in one application that have been pasted into, embedded in, another application.

For instance a chart created in OmniGraffle and placed into a Nisus Writer Express document can be edited by simply double clicking the object in the Writer Express file. Once edited, the OmniGraffle chart will then be automatically updated in the Nisus document.

The developers - The Omni Group, Nisus Software and Blacksmith - will include LinkBack in the next updates to OmniGraffle and Nisus Writer Express plus OmniOutliner, Chartsmith and Stone Create. By putting the technology on an open source footing, they hope other developers will adopt it.

'Our goal with LinkBack is to make it incredibly easy to use the best Mac applications together,' said Charles Jolley, managing director of Nisus Software. 'Many writers who prepare documents in Nisus Writer Express include charts and drawings created in other applications. With LinkBack you can update these documents without having to juggle different files.'

'Copying and pasting are fundamental to the Macintosh experience, yet until now there's been no easy way to edit a diagram that you've pasted into another document,'added Ken Case, CEO of The Omni Group. 'With LinkBack, when you copy from OmniGraffle to Nisus Writer, OmniOutliner, or another application which supports LinkBack, you won't just be copying a PDF picture of your diagram: you'll also be making an editable copy of the diagram itself.'

For more information and to download the source code go to www.linkbackproject.org.

Author: Matt Whipp