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BackTrack Logs Everything Typed Into Your Mac.

BackTrackLet’s face it, sometimes we type something into our Macs and then lose what we type. Sentences. Paragraphs. Whole documents. Poof. They disappear.

Wouldn’t it be great if your Mac remembered everything you typed, all the time, and would store it for you? Somehow that seems like both a blessing and a curse.

BackTrack does just that. It’s one of those handy little Mac utilities which does pretty much what we’d all like to have on our Macs. It records what we type, stores it in a log.

That’s pretty simple, but BackTrack does it in a very Mac-like way. It’s quiet, out of the way, so much so you won’t really know it’s there until you’ve lost something and want it back.

Install BackTrack and it records what you’ve typed into the keyboard. Everything gets logged except passwords, and I’m not sure that wouldn’t be a bad idea, though it’s open to plenty of abuse opportunities.

Assume that you’re working on a document and you’ve typed and type and typed. Then, something happens. You hit the wrong key, but don’t know what you did, and you keep typing, and only find out later that you deleted plenty of text typed in earlier.

Or, worse. Have you ever typed away for half an hour and forgot to save along the way, only to have your document, or your email message, or whatever you’ve typed just disappear, crash, burn, died and buried? Sure. It happens.

BackTrack makes it easy to find what you’ve typed and bring it back t life. BackTrack’s interface is deceptively simple and straightforward. It shows the Date and Time when a particular Application was running, what Window it was in, the Time you were working on the document and the Text.

Search for what you typed by simply skimming back through you documents or the time (BackTrack isn’t really Time Machine for text typed into documents, but it’s close), or just use the Spotlight search field. It all works.

Once you find what you lost, simply Copy it again, and Paste it back into your document and edit accordingly. What? You’re expecting more? Nope. That’s what BackTrack does. It logs what you type into your Mac’s documents.

BackTrack is not bad for a low-cost, one-trick-pony of a Mac utility that just might save your bacon one day.

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   • Article by Kate MacKenzie • Published on Thursday, July 17, 2008
   • Category: Tips & Tricks • 2 Reader comment(s) • Email This • Digg This • Shop Now
  Page 1 of 1 Page(s) for this article.

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Readers Talk Back:
Losers says:

This sounds like a key logger to me.. know how week security is on macs this file could be access in a matter of minutes if you know where to look..

   — Posted on Wed Aug 13 at 1:46 pm by Losers

Pro Dual 3 Gig says:

I don’t know! Yes somebody came up with a good software idea but It just seems a bit creepy to me. LIke having a warden hanging over your shoulder at all times with his little scratch pad writing everything you write.

Think I’ll pass on this one.

I am learning to be skeptical with third party software, not that I don’t have any installed on my Mac. I think for me it is more of a matter of trusting Back Tracks software makers. I would like to see what Little Snitch reports, if Back Track phones home with out your knowing it.

   — Posted on Wed Jul 23 at 7:54 am by Pro Dual 3 Gig

  Page 1 of 1 Page(s) for Comments on this article.
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