As I mentioned, I've been trying YoruFukurou as my main Twitter client.

After using it a bit more, I still really like it, for all the reasons I listed in my earlier post:

• Command-F not only brings up a text field for filtering my timeline, it also dismisses that text field. I like Command-F being a toggle rather than using Escape to dismiss. For one thing, it's easier to reach. For another, it doesn't rely on the text field having keyboard focus.
• Command-S shortens URLs, and the same shortcut also unshortens, which I like. While editing my tweet I might change my mind and prefer to show the full URL if it will fit. [Update: It looks like I was mistaken about Command-S unshortening. Use Undo to unshorten URLs.]
• You can set the font size for composing tweets.
• You can change the font size of the timeline by zooming in and out using the standard keys. For some reason I like this better than using a preference.
• The app has a cute owl icon.

…[Y]ou can't edit multiple tweets at once like you can in Twitter.app, but Twitterrific has this limitation too and it never bothered me, though it's true I tweet very little.

I have a few more observations and minor suggestions. I'll Direct Message this blog post to the developer, since there doesn't seem to be an email address or forum for feedback.

Keyboard navigation

See their home page for a list of handy shortcuts (plus lots of screen shots of other features). I was pleased when, just guessing for the heck of it, I tried J and K to go to the next and previous tweets and they worked. I prefer them to arrow keys.

• SUGGESTION: Put the J and K shortcuts in the menu so they're discoverable.

Opening links

If a tweet contains a link, you have to select the tweet to click the link. In fact, there's an option to make links unclickable altogether, which puzzles me. Do people often click links by accident? Maybe I don't use Twitter enough to understand.

I discovered an option to open all links in a tweet by double-clicking, which in a way is actually better than clicking the link because it gives me a much bigger mouse target. Hitting L is another quick way to open links in the selected tweet.

• SUGGESTION: Make links clickable without my having to select the tweet.
• SUGGESTION: Always highlight all links so they're easier to spot visually even if I can't click on them.

Translation

There's a Translate command (Command-T) to translate the selected tweet into a language you select in Preferences, which is English by default. It reminds me of a great Safari/Chrome extension called Franker, which I find handy when reading Facebook posts by my Russian and Chinese friends.

• SUGGESTION: Provide a way to translate all tweets from particular users. It could be a checkbox in the Accounts pane: "Translate all tweets from this user". This could open up the world of people I might be interested in following — the YoruFukurou developers themselves, for example. I wonder if there's something about Google's terms and conditions that disallows this kind of automatic batch translation.

Time display

There's an option to show absolute time on tweets rather than how old the tweet is. I thought I would prefer this, but actually I like their way of showing relative time, with a phrase like "10 hours ago" rather than the abbreviation "10h".

• SUGGESTION: Remove the word "ago". It's not needed and makes the timestamp more intrusive than it has to be.

Copying tweets

When you select text anywhere, the standard Copy action works as you'd expect. There is also a contextual menu for tweets that contains a "Copy" action for copying the tweet as a whole. You can configure how this is done:

For example, copying one of my recent tweets in STOT format (whatever that means) gives me:

cocoadog: Twitterific: No Cmd-C in tweets? Cmd-F only works in compose field? No key/menu for Shorten Links? Links not draggable? This is Mac-like? [http://twitter.com/cocoadog/status/51874394028519424]

• SUGGESTION: Have Command-C copy the tweet when a tweet is selected, so I don't have to use the contextual menu. For now my workaround is to use System Preferences to indicate Command-C as a shortcut for "Copy". You might think this would be redundant, but it makes the shortcut work in contextual menus. [Update: The developer @aki_null pointed out that Command-C does in fact copy the selected tweet — my mistake!]

Switching views

Someone replied to one of my tweets and I wanted to see the whole conversation. In other apps, this is done via an icon or menu that is within the tweet itself, and therefore fairly discoverable. In YoruFukurou, viewing the conversation is not treated as a tweet-level action but an overall mode for the timeline view. The timeline view options are "Normal View" (Command-1), "Single User View" (Command-2), and "Conversation View" (Command-3), which is the one I wanted. You can switch views using the menu, a keyboard shortcut, or a segmented control in the toolbar:

When you switch between the views, there is an animation, but it's not the sliding transition that Twitter.app uses. It's a sort of zoom-and-fade, which I prefer; it feels faster than the sliding transition, and it doesn't distract.

I have no suggestion here. Although it took me a minute to figure this out, it's not totally undiscoverable. I think the view switching is nicely done and I prefer it to the way other Twitter apps navigate.

Switching accounts

Another thing that confused me for a minute was how to view more than one Twitter account. I could see how to sign in to multiple accounts, but not how to switch between them. It turns out you do this with the "Previous Account" and "Next Account" menu items or their keyboard shortcuts.

[Update: @aki_null pointed out another way to switch accounts. When you have more than one account, your account icon appears in the tweet input field. You can click on this icon to select a different account from a pulldown menu. I had not noticed the absence of the icon when I only had one account, and it did not occur to me that it was an interactive control. Nice to know.]

• SUGGESTION: To help with discoverability, add a popup button to the toolbar that lists my accounts. Also add "Previous Account" and "Next Account" buttons so that I am aware of these actions and will know to look for them in the application menu.

Take my money

• SUGGESTION: Give me a way to donate, or make YoruFukurou a paid app. I wouldn't mind at all.

Cute app icon

When you quit the app, the owl closes its eyes and has a snot bubble coming out of its nose, which is the Japanese cartoony way of indicating sleep. I have no suggestion here, except maybe: don't underestimate my ability to be swayed by a cute icon.