Introducing Extract

Zach Waugh • February 19, 2010

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.