Bare Bones Software Ships BBEdit 8.5; Significant Upgrade Provides Major Interface Overhaul, Now With Ruby, SQL and YAML Language Support and Much, Much More.

BEDFORD, Mass. -- Bare Bones Software today announced the release and immediate availability of BBEdit(R) 8.5, a significant upgrade to the award-winning HTML and text editor for the Macintosh.

With more than 160 new features and improvements, BBEdit 8.5 represents a major interface overhaul for this time-tested and widely respected product. The changes are designed to streamline navigation and ease discovery of BBEdit's powerful feature set.

"BBEdit is a mature and deeply capable product," explained Rich Siegel, founder and CEO of Bare Bones Software, Inc. "As such, we have to constantly consider the question of how to maintain and enhance its feature set, choosing only well-conceived, attractively presented features which serve the goal of increasing our customers' productivity. For BBEdit 8.5, we've taken a huge leap forward in interface polish and usability, increasing the potential for our customers to be more productive than ever."

BBEdit 8.5 introduces code folding, which aids comprehension of complex files by allowing the customer to collapse ranges of text. Predefined ranges are generated on a language-sensitive basis, and the user can also fold any arbitrary range of text.

The traditional Glossary feature, which provides for storage and easy insertion of frequently used chunks of text, has been superseded by an enhanced Clippings system. A new Clippings menu provides quick access to text clippings, as well as the means to create new clippings and search for existing ones. Clippings can also make use of intelligent placeholders, and even invoke AppleScript or Unix scripts.

Extensive improvements to the layout and usability of text-editing views include a revised and simplified tool bar, and enhancements to the navigation bar to speed navigation of the current document. An expanded status bar displays document properties at a glance, and allows quick access for adjustments.

BBEdit 8.5 features new integrated support for Ruby, SQL, and YAML. Supported SQL variants include MySQL, PostgreSQL, PL/SQL and Transact-SQL. This upgrade also features improved language support for object-oriented JavaScript. Plus, customers can now adjust editing and display options on a per-language basis, providing maximum control in the pursuit of improved productivity.

BBEdit's Preferences window, the nerve center for controlling and customizing BBEdit's behaviors, has been extensively revised and simplified. A new Menus preference panel provides unified control over BBEdit's menu structure, including adjustment of keyboard equivalents and the ability to show and hide individual menu commands and even entire menus. Also new in BBEdit 8.5 is an innovative search function for the preferences, which allows customers to quickly zero-in on a desired preferences control.

"Our customers appreciate the extensive flexibility afforded by BBEdit's preferences," Siegel explained. "For BBEdit 8.5, we revisited many decisions that were made when the technological constraints were very different, reviewed every preference, rearranged, overhauled, buffed and polished, and we're very pleased at how easily customers can now manage and customize the myriad capabilities of BBEdit."

The powerful Find Differences feature now highlights specific character differences within a changed line, for faster and more accurate review of changes. An improved FTP/SFTP browser is now more discoverable, and in BBEdit 8.5 immediately becomes available when choosing "Open from FTP/SFTP Server." The revised Disk Browser window now presents a hierarchical file listing, and provides the ability to apply BBEdit's powerful file filters to reduce the size of the list, if desired. BBEdit 8.5 also seamlessly opens and saves gzip-compressed (.gz) text files.

BBEdit's innovative Text Factories now feature HTML Format, Translate, and Tidy actions for easier automation of repetitive web site maintenance and development tasks. A new Auto-save option, with an adjustable save interval, helps safeguard work in the event of a power outage or system failure.

BBEdit 8.5 now incorporates version 5.0 of the Perl-Compatible Regular Expression library (PCRE). The upgraded version of PCRE features extended Unicode properties, named subexpressions for greater readability, and additional regular-expression enhancements.

Detailed information on all of the changes and improvements implemented in BBEdit 8.5 can be found at: http://www.barebones.com/support/bbedit/current_notes.shtml

For more information on BBEdit, or to download a fully functional demo version, visit the company's web site: http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.shtml

Pricing and Availability

BBEdit 8.5 is available at a suggested retail price of US$125. Registered owners of BBEdit 8 can upgrade for US$30; registered owners of BBEdit 7 and older can upgrade for US$40. Anyone who purchased BBEdit on or after January 1, 2006 is eligible to receive a free upgrade. Customers who purchased directly from Bare Bones Software will be notified automatically via email. Upgrades are available directly from Bare Bones Software by visiting: http://www.barebones.com/store/

BBEdit 8.5 may be purchased directly from Bare Bones Software, the retail and online Apple Stores, and numerous major Macintosh software resellers. For a partial listing of domestic and international resellers, visit: http://www.barebones.com/store/resellers.shtml

Educational discounts and site license pricing, for both new purchases and upgrades, are also available. For details please visit the company's web site at http://www.barebones.com/store/, send email to [e-mail], or call [phone].

About Bare Bones Software, Inc.

Bare Bones Software, Inc. develops leading-edge power tools for the Macintosh. The company's passion for creating deeply functional software with a clean, effective interface has earned it devotion from Mac users worldwide. The company's award-winning products include BBEdit, a professional HTML and text editor, Mailsmith, an extra-strength email client, and TextWrangler, a high-performance plain text editor. The company's expanding product family also includes Yojimbo, an effortless information organizer, and Super Get Info, a file and folder info utility. Bare Bones Software has been crafting fine Mac software since 1993 and operates as a privately-held corporation based in Bedford, MA. For more information, visit http://www.barebones.com/ or send email to [e-mail].

TextWrangler, Yojimbo, Super Get Info and the Bare Bones Software logo are trademarks of, and BBEdit, Mailsmith and "It doesn't suck" are registered trademarks of Bare Bones Software, Inc. Copyright (c) 2006, all rights reserved. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.