I just released version 1.1 of Extract¹. This update adds one big feature, support for a bookmarklet to simplify the usage of Extract. Currently, to view something in Extract, you have to find the embed code, copy it, and then paste it into the app. This is pretty quick to do, but can be a bit tedious. Also, in many cases, the embed code isn’t easily found or made available at all. The bookmarklet takes care of these all these issues. The bookmarklet will automatically find all the embedded content on the page and enable you to open it directly into Extract with one click.

To use, first just drag this bookmarklet - Extract - to your bookmarks bar. When you’re on a page with some content you want to load, just click the bookmarklet, and it will put an overlay on top of all the embedded content, and with one click, you can load that into Extract. You can see the bookmarklet in action below. It detected the video, and added a big overlay for loading it in Extract. No need to mess around with finding the embed code, just click to open.

I tried to test the bookmarklet on a bunch of different sites and browsers, but obviously couldn’t test every possibility. If you find any sites where the bookmarklet doesn’t work, let me know and I’ll see if I can figure out what’s going on.

Often while I’m working, I’ll watch a video of a talk or presentation. Usually, this involves jumping through a number of hoops to try to get a window that only shows the video. I’ll open it in a new browser window, resize it, hide all the toolbars and status bars, and adjust the scroll bars until it’s just right, and only the video is showing. Then I try to position the browser window so I can watch it while I do other things without obscuring the other apps. Needless to say it’s a pain, and I can never get it just right.

So I created a little Mac app - Extract - to handle this. With Extract, you can just copy and paste the embed code from a video and you can have it displayed in it’s own window, with minimal chrome. Extract will also modify the embed code so that the video will expand as you resize the window. Then you can have it as large or as small as you want it. Another feature I added was “Keep on Top” to the window. This will, not surprisingly, keep the window on top of other windows at all times. Why would you want this? Well, a lot of the time I can live with a small part of my main app window being blocked, but it’s annoying to have to keep selecting the app to keep it in the foreground.

Here’s a 1 min screencast (no audio) showing Extract in action. You can see how Extract will stay in the foreground, even if another app is activated when the “Keep on Top” option is selected, and how the video resizes with the window.

Hit the Extract page to download it.

Update: Version 1.0.1 is now available. It fixes a bug that caused Extract not to work on some computers running 10.5. If you were having problems, hit Check for Updates from within the app or re-download it.