Extract Directly from Time Machine
Normally you use Time Machine to restore lost data in a file like this: within the Time Machine interface, you go back to the time the file was not yet messed up, and you restore it to replace the file you have now.
You can also elect to keep both, but the restored file takes the name and place of the current one. So, if you have made changes since the backup took place that you would like to keep, they are lost, or you have to mess around a bit to merge changes, rename files, and trash the unwanted one.
As an alternative, you can browse the Time Machine backup volume directly in the Finder like any normal disk, navigate through the chronological backup hierarchy, and find the file which contains the lost content.
Once you've found it, you can open it and the current version of the file side-by-side, and copy information from Time Machine's version of the file into the current one, without losing any content you put in it since the backup was made.
Submitted by
Eolake Stobblehouse
Recent TidBITS Talk Discussions
- Strange doings at Vuze (1 message)
- DVD burning comment (1 message)
- Problems with Logitech Trackman Wheel with Snow Leopard (1 message)
- Help finding 10.5 Leopard for my iBook G4 (6 messages)
MacSpeech Dictate 1.5.6
MacSpeech has released a maintenance update for the speech recognition utility MacSpeech Dictate. The latest version adds a Dictation Preferences pane that has the capability to enable or disable the Auto Cache Document feature for TextEdit and Microsoft Word. Other changes in recent updates include a contextual menu for the Available Commands window, proper display of Selection Commands in the Status window under the Recognized Text area, and disabling of Email Commands if Address Book contains more than about 900 entries to avoid resource issues. Also, menu mapping is now compatible with the latest versions of applications bundled with Snow Leopard, an issue that caused documents to crash when caching or closing has been fixed, and a bug that caused crashes when editing with a mouse has been addressed. Full release notes are available on MacSpeech's Web site. ($199 new, free update for purchases since 1 April 2009, $54.95 upgrade for earlier versions)
READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS with a contribution today!<http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/contributors.html>
Special thanks this week to Peter Adams, Bill Freese,
Emko Witteveen, and Knut Vikör for their generous support!
You could buy a new hardware kit, etc, for $73 from Dealmac. http://dealmac.com/Mac-Speech-Dictate-for-73-6-s-h/319312.html
MacSpeech can't recognize from recordings, and has limited support for editing text from the keyboard.
I've updated the article slightly to clarify.

