[Joel]

We've just released the first beta of OmniGraffle 5.4, and here's a quick list of the new features it includes:

• Adds 64-bit mode for those with the hardware and OS to support it
• Quick Look previews are back, they are dynamically generated from a plug-in inside the app instead of writing out a PDF to the file or file wrapper
• Stencil searching is now much more logical
• Shadow rendering is greatly improved
• Overall stability is much better when running in 64-bit mode
• New application icon (woo!)

*** Of Great Importance: 64-bit mode has changed the minimum Operating System Requirement to Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later. ***

Full release notes and download links can be found at our website.

[Joel]

We've just turned on Sneaky Peeks for the beta releases of OmniGraffle and OmniGraffle Professional 5.4, this means that you should only have to check for updates from the OmniGraffle menu to see if there's a new version available instead of waiting for an "official" subsequent beta release. You can also see the list of 5.4 Sneaky Peeks on this page.

Recent Changes:

• Visio stencils (.vss files) should now be properly opening and displaying, however there may be some competition in Launch Services for these filetypes if you have BBEdit or TextWrangler installed.
• Fixed a crash when dragging a partition or mounted volume to OmniGraffle's application icon.
• Fixed a crash when working with connecting shapes.
• The titlebar and Open Recent… menu should now properly display OmniGraffle document icons.
• Xcode projects can now again be directly dragged to the OmniGraffle application icon.

[Joel]

We've just released a stability build of the OmniGraffle 5.4 beta, available at our downloads page.

This build has a number of bug fixes in it, most notably having to do with opening .vss files, file extensions on JPEG exports, and a crash when working with connecting shapes.

It's recommended that you download and install this build if you are running the OmniGraffle 5.4 beta releases, as it's on the proper software update track and will check for updates that are available on our Sneaky Peek page.

A quick list of what's left to do:

• Documentation for the new changes (keyboard shortcuts, etc.) is still in progress.
• We need to fix a very small regression in the Dutch localization.

Please have a look, and if you run into any issues with this release, don't hesitate to contact us at omnigraffle@omnigroup.com or via the Send Feedback… item in the Help Menu.

[Joel]

After some hefty beta testing, the 5.4 versions of OmniGraffle and OmniGraffle Professional are now in the release candidate stage.

You can find these to download at our website, which currently is the only way to get at them -- Omni Software Update is not currently seeing the releases, which we hope to get amended soon.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the beta test, and thanks for the feedback and bug reports.