Jul 08

Dragging emails into the OSX reminders app

GTD No Comments »

Here I blogged about how great the Apple Reminders app is for managing tasks in the GTD workflow. What I didn’t mention is that you can drag emails straight into the reminder app and it will link the email to the task. Here’s how.

The Reminders app needs to be open. Grab an email from Apple mail and drag it into any list in Apple reminders. A new reminder will be created with the email subject as the reminder name, and a link back to the email will be embedded into the task.

Check it out, a reminder with an email in it!

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Jul 04

GTD with Apple reminders

GTD 5 Comments »

I’ve previously used Things by Cultured Code and Todoist, Wunderlist and others. But recently I’ve given Apple Reminders a run and I must say it’s surprisingly good. After 6 months, it’s become my favourite place to organise my tasks. It’s got great integration with Siri. ‘Hey Siri, add a reminder to plan for holidays.’ It has enough features that you can roll out all the GTD methodology, but nothing extra to clutter it up. Stable. Syncs across to iOS devices. And it’s free. Here’s how to streamline it for GTD.

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Jun 22

How to find the large files in your photo library.

performance No Comments »

My Apple photo library was way bigger than it should be. It turned out I had some very large videos in it that I must have dragged into it previously. There’s no way of arranging your photos by size from within the Apple photos app. But you can find the files in your finder and then arrange them by size. Here’s how to see the largest files in your Photo Library.

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Jun 17

Great productivity tip: create a tmp folder.

productivity, tips No Comments »

I’ve been doing this for years, but I’ve never written an article about it. I have an easily accessible folder, available from anywhere, where I throw anything that is temporary. I can easily find what I need, but it doesn’t clutter other places up. Read on… it’s better than it sounds.

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Sep 02

My essential Mac apps

software 1 Comment »

I’ve just purchased a new 2020 13inch MacBook Pro and rather than use migration assistant to copy everything across I’ve started fresh. I have installed my apps one by one. So here’s a list of the first few ‘must have’ apps that I just installed…

1Password.

I can’t live without it. It’s the first thing I installed as it contains all the passwords and serial numbers to my other apps and email logins etc. It’s one of the one monthly subscription apps that I’m willing to pay for.
A great password manager

Dropbox.

I use dropbox to sync my working documents across all my computers. The free tier allows you to sync limited data across 3 computers but if you’re only syncing a few folders you can get away with it.
dropbox

Jumpcut.

Can’t live without it. Allows you to go back through your copy/paste history and find an item you pasted earlier in the day – like a browser history for the clipboard. For example writing this article I just went and gabbed the link to Jumpcut using Jumpcut, from when I installed it earlier today.
Jumpcut – multiple copy and paste

Dragon.

It’s quite unique but I prefer to dictate rather than type, for example I’m dictating this article right now. You can no longer buy Dragon for the Mac but it still works fine in Catalina and thankfully it’s a 64-bit app so should still work for a few more years. If you buy a second hand copy make sure that the serial number has been deregistered on the sellers computer otherwise you won’t be able to use it.
Dragon Naturally Speaking – keeping it going with Catalina

Karabiner Elements.

I have an extended keyboard with lots of function keys up to F15. I like to use these as shortcuts in apps but some apps do not let you use the function keys as shortcuts. Karabiner Elements lets you map keys to other keys. So for example I can map my F13 key to Option-F13 and use it as a shortcut in apps.

https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org


NValt.

A fast, simple app for keeping notes synced accross computers and phones. I sync them with Simplenote on the Android and iPhone. An older app but still works with Catalina.
Notational Velocity (NValt) and Catalina

Quicksilver.

Hit the command key once and then type the name of any app or document to launch it. So fast! Probably the second app I install after 1Password.
How to use Quicksilver

AutoMounter.

Automatically mounts my Synology Network drive which contains my movies and images. From NZ!

https://www.pixeleyes.co.nz/automounter/

Keyboard Maestro.

Allows me to easily run Applescripts. I have a great macro one to copy bible verses into any document with a single hotkey. There are times when I have used it to automate repeated tasks.

https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/

ImageOptim

I can drag images onto this app and it shrinks them before I post them to a webpage. It’s free.

https://imageoptim.com/mac





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Jun 07

Notational Velocity (NValt) and Catalina

software 3 Comments »
NValt

My favourite quick note syncing utility – NValt broke with Catalina. I was getting error that it could not find my notes folder, but when I tried to select another notes folder it did not work

I was able to get it up and running again, but it took a bit of fiddling. Most of the forums have given up on it, but it does still work. The trick for me was completely re-installing the app from scratch.

  1. Make sure your notes are synced using Simplenote.
  2. Delete the notational velocity notes folder from your ~/Library/application support folder.
  3. Delete the ‘net.elasticthreads.nv.list’ from your preferences folder.
  4. Delete the Notational Velocity App from your Applications folder.
  5. Download NValt 2.2.8 again from https://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/
  6. Re-sync with Simplenote and it will download all your notes again.
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Oct 02

How to change the icon of an AppleScript in OS X.

OS X 1 Comment »

In my previous posts I have lead you through how to make an AppleScript that can use to open a particular website URL in a particular browser. You can drag these Apple scripts to your dock to instantly access any URL from your dock. Obviously the next step is you will want to give these AppleScripts their own icon so that you can identify them from the dock easily. This is really easy to do in OS X.

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Aug 21

How to remap any key to any key on your OSX keyboard

productivity No Comments »

This is a somewhat technical post about how to remap keys in OSX using Karabiner Elements.

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