Tag Archives: Techie Scheky

A Marked Difference

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Michael Schechter • 0 Comments

The Techie Scheky series offers tips and tactics for being more productive and creative through technology (especially with a Mac).

Note: Once you’re done here, take a moment and check out my recent 2×4 interview with Marked developer, Brett Terpstra. It’s well worth your time. You can find a link to the interview at the end of the post (I’m shady like that).

If you write for the web and we’ve spoken longer than five minutes, you’ve heard me go on about plain text and applications like Brett Terpstra’s nvALT. If that conversation goes on for ten minutes, we get into my undying love for Markdown. For the few people who have let me get to 15 minutes, you’ve likely heard me talk about Marked, Brett’s universal Markdown preview application which received a substantial update today with version 1.4.

What Is Marked?

An nvALT document being previewed in Marked, A Markdown preview application for any text editor from Brett Terpstra

On the left: A blog post draft in nvALT

On the right: A “live” preview of how this post will look on this site in Marked.

Marked is an application for Markdown that offers a “live” preview of whatever you are writing in any text editor. At its core, it lets you take any formatted text file that you’re working on and see what it’s going to look like on the web. Marked also does a bunch of geeky goodness, but for the sake of this post, I’m going to stick to the basics (’cause the basics are all I really know). For a full look at what Marked can do, be sure to check out the newly updated site. Regardless of what text editor you use, you can export your preview to HTML, print your preview, and save a copy of the preview to PDF… These are all great, Rich Text options, but where it’s really useful is allowing you to copy the HTML source directly to the clipboard.

And Why Should I Care?

At first, if I’m being honest, I mainly purchased Marked to support Brett. I’ve found tremendous benefits in several of the free tools he’s created including nvALT and his TextExpander tools and jumped at the opportunity to support just about anything the guy was doing. I wasn’t sure if I was going to find use for it, but happily I’ve found it to be a useful tool for Markdown newbies, frequent bloggers and avid geeks alike. While many of my text editors have Markdown previews built in, MarsEdit and nvALT are the only application that enable me to simultaneously write and see the impact of my edits. Marked allows you to have a “live” preview1 with any text editor.

But What Are The Benefits?

When I was first getting started with Markdown, this was invaluable. It helped me get up to speed a lot faster. At the time, I was working exclusively in nvALT and the preview left a lot to be desired, so Marked was a natural addition to my arsenal of apps. While many modern text editors do a great job of managing Markdown, several don’t. For those who just want to use something simple like TextEdit, Marked can handle the rest, offering preview and a way to print the formatted version or export the HTML. Those working on larger projects who use heavy-duty programs like Scrivener can also benefit from Marked. The latest version supports full document previews and live updates of Scrivener projects; something that was extremely complicated in previous editions is now as simple as dragging your Scrivener file onto Marked. Marked also has a table of contents that makes it easy to jump around in larger documents. Providing you have a custom CSS stylesheet that mimics your blog, Marked also allows you see exactly what your text will look like when posted to the web. There’s a lot more to the app than that– including the ease at which you can copy the HTML of your post (just hit Command-Shift- C)– but these are the key features.

Some Extra Marked Goodness

While Brett offers up several tools for getting more out of Marked, I’ve created a few of my own for nvALT and Byword that will help those of us who are not quite up to speed or comfortable with using scripts. As regular readers of this site well know, Keyboard Maestro is my standard way of hacking my Mac while avoiding things like scripts, terminal commands and other tactics that generally scare me. Brett offers up several options for speeding up the opening of files in Marked, but here are my Keyboard Maestro macros for quickly opening files in nvALT and Byword.

Note: You’re going to want to set these up in separate folders in Keyboard Maestro and set them to work exclusively in nvALT or Byword.

Marked is a tool that was made for those of us who write for the web. It is frequently updated and cared for by Brett and it makes our lives easier. If you’re looking to improve at Markdown, Marked is for you. If you want want a better way to turn your Markdown in HTML, Marked is for you. If you just want a better preview for your text editor of choice, Marked is for you. And you just want to support a hell of a developer who has created and continues to create multiple free and amazing tools for the Mac, Marked is for you. So stop by your local Mac App Store and grab yourself a copy.

Note: You can check out my interview with Brett here.

To learn more, subscribe for free by Email or RSS to automatically receive future Techie Scheky posts from A Better Mess.

  1. I say “live” because you have to save or autosave has to kick in before the changes are reflected. [↩]
Filed Under: Technology

Going Paperless With Evernote And ScanSnap

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Michael Schechter • 8 Comments

The Techie Scheky series offers tips and tactics for being more productive and creative through technology (especially with a Mac).

Today’s post is a fast and easy approach for those of us who are constantly battling against a messy desk.

I love Evernote. I hate paper. A big part of my undying love for Evernote is that it has done more than anything else in my life to reduce the amount of paper in my world. While there are many who can get things done with nothing more than a pen and paper, I’m not one of them1. Over the past few years, I’ve looked to rid myself of the stuff as much as humanly possible and nothing has proven as effective as Evernote and my beloved ScanSnap scanner2.

While many use Evernote for a variety of tasks, I use it specifically. It is a repository for all of the paper I accumulate as well as the emails and web clippings3 I would have historically printed and filed away. By using Evernote to store the paper that comes my way during the day, I avoid filing cabinets that quickly become unruly and the piles on my desk that mysteriously seem to multiply.

Over the years, I’ve owned several scanners, but flatbeds and all-in-one models always felt as if they were in the way. It wasn’t until I got something as lightweight and speedy as the S1300 that I was able to make paperless a regular part of my workflows. The ScanSnap takes up little space on my desk, turns on instantly when you flip open the top and can be set to scan directly into Evernote. I also purchased the S1100 for our “cozy” Brooklyn apartment. It lacks a proper workspace, so I needed the smallest version possible, but to be honest, I wish I had gone with another S1300. The additional bulk is marginal and the S1100 can be a hassle with thicker paper stocks4.

Having something close (my scanner sits right next to my monitor) allows me to run paper through the scanner and throw the original in the trash. It doesn’t sit piled up waiting to be batch entered. The scanner is fast enough that I can get it into my computer and get it out of my life without breaking stride. There is also the added bonus that Evernote now enables you to create a link to each note. This means I can scan things I’m currently working on and create a task in OmniFocus that links directly back to files I might need at a later date.5

This setup is a fast, easy and space-conscious way for those of us who are constantly fighting a battle against the paper in our lives We may win the war once and for all!

Come back tomorrow as I will be talking a bit more about naming your files so that you don’t have to bother with things like folders and tagging your notes in Evernote.

To learn more, subscribe for free by Email or RSS to automatically receive future Techie Scheky posts from A Better Mess.

  1. Although those of you who are paper people should check Brad Dowdy’s new podcast The Pen Addict. [↩]
  2. This is an affiliate link, there will be a few of them in this post. It’s cause I’m shameless and stuff… [↩]
  3. I use Mailplane’s clipper for email and the Safari Clipper for getting things from the web into Evernote [↩]
  4. I’ve also heard good things about Doxie for this, but haven’t tried it myself. [↩]
  5. This is a bit of a manual process right now where you have to copy the link and paste it into an OmniFocus task. If anyone from Evernote is listening, it’d be amazing to have this be a bit more seamless. [↩]
Filed Under: Productivity

Four Tools For Four Types Of To-dos

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Michael Schechter • 6 Comments

The Techie Scheky series offers tips and tactics for being more productive and creative through technology (especially with a Mac).

Note: This post may seem familiar to those who have been reading the site for a while. I decided to update a previous post for two reasons: 1) Because some of the tools I’m using have changed or have been update and 2) Because I’ve changed a bit of my thinking.

Yesterday I shared the four types of to-dos. Today I want to follow up by sharing the tools I use to accomplish them. I’m going to start by letting you know my priority for each, my app of choice and the best possible alternatives.

The Reminder

I’ve tried a variety of solutions, from post-it notes to iPhone alarms and nothing worked until I was recently turned on to Due. This iPhone app is nothing short of a stalker. It takes seconds to set up a reminder and upon the due date, your phone will start sending you an iPhone Notification every minute (you can also set it to every hour). This sounds horrible, but it is a fantastic way to never forget the little things again. I’ve gotten my $5 and more from this app.

Due

The Pros: Super fast to set up, easy to use, simple to share and almost impossible to ignore.

The Cons: Lacks the location features of Apple’s own Reminders app.

The Flat-Out Bad: iOS limitations mean you can only get a reminder every minute or every hour when 5 minutes would be ideal.

Alternatives: If location support is essential and persistent reminders are not, go with the Reminders App.

The Appointment

While I use Google Apps to store my calendar, the native iCal on my Mac sucks. I’ve tried a few things, including the popular BusyCal, but nothing was ever really sufficient. That is until Flexbits introduced Fantastical. This menu-bar based application drops down to provide you with a look at your week and makes it fast and easy to enter new appointments (which has always been painful for me.). Now, I simply use one keyboard command and start typing in natural language (e.g. Lunch with Dad at McDonalds at noon tomorrow) and Fantastical takes care of the rest. It also works with Outlook and Exchange, so those of you Mac folk who still have some remnants of your Windows life can still take advantage of this kick-ass way to quickly get a look at your week or to swiftly add something to any of your calendars.

Fantastical

The Pros: It could not be easier to use and is almost impossible to screw up creating an appointment. The latest version also added the ability to edit and delete items which has eliminated the need for any other calendar app on my Mac.

The Cons: The app will occasionally put information in the wrong field, but fixing this has always been preferable to using any other option.

The Flat-Out Bad: There is nothing I hate about this app.

Alternatives: If you need a full fledged calendar try iCal, BusyCal or, if you hate yourself, Outlook. If you’d like another option, give QuickCal a try.

The Task

OmniFocus is the leading choice amongst nerds everywhere. While I resisted this for a long time in favor of the more straightforward Things, I have now converted and am blissfully happy with that decision. OmniFocus gives me an environment that’s extremely powerful, yet can be customized to feel simple. It also has excellent iOS apps and a great syncing solution that ensures I’m always up to date and always able to capture new tasks.

OmniFocus

The Pros: A robust app with an amazing team behind it. Once you understand the app it’s exceptionally fast, to add and classify tasks. The Quick Entry Box and Clipper alone make my life sane.

The Cons: It’s expensive and the learning curve can be a bit steep. Thankfully David Sparks helps by offering a comprehensive series of videos.

The Flat-Out Bad: The communication from Cultured Code leaves a lot to be desired and OTA Syncing has been “imminent” for far too long. There are also some key features like collaboration and pre-set projects that are missing or could use serious improvement.

Alternatives: Asana, Things, Hit List or Wunderkit.

The List

Lists need to offer quick entry, quick completion and most important of all, quick reorganization of tasks. While the new iPhone app Clear has brought this tier of to-do to the forefront, I’m sticking with Listary. What it lacks in looks, it makes up for in features. So much of my list making (especially for short term things like grocery lists) come from my wife via text or email. Listary seems custom made for these kinds type of situations.

Listary

The Pros: The team has put their time and energy into making it as fast and easy as possible to add tasks. It’s especially helpful for taking lists from text messages and turning them into multiple items that are just waiting to be checked off. The shared list features are also great. As is the ability to sync your lists with Simplenote.

The Cons: Once you look at Clear, you realize just how much Listary is lacking in the looks department.

The Flat-Out Bad: More than the looks, once you play with Clear it becomes, well clear, that it’s a little harder than it should be to edit things. Thankfully, the team at Listary seem excited by the prospect of improving the app in light of the competition.

Alternatives: Some of you will just double up and use the Reminders App to manage your lists. The more discerning will clearly want to go with Clear1.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “Dear god, Michael is a crazy person who uses too many apps” and you’re probably right. If you’re one of those naturally organized people, you won’t likely need more than one of these tools. If, like me, you have trouble keeping everything straight, try breaking them apart one at a time and see if taking a separate approach to some or all of these types of to-dos helps. It may seem like a lot more at first, but over time this approach has come to feel like a lot less.

To learn more, subscribe for free by Email or RSS to automatically receive future Techie Scheky posts from A Better Mess.

  1. At some point I will stop with the clear puns, clearly that day is not today… [↩]
Filed Under: Productivity

Getting Lazy With OmniFocus, Keyboard Maestro and TextExpander

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Michael Schechter • 4 Comments

The Techie Scheky series offers tips and tactics for being more productive and creative through technology (especially with a Mac).

Like most of my techie ideas, this one has essentially been ripped off by work that was already done by Sven Fechner of Simplicity is Bliss (amazing blog for OmniFocus users) and David Sparks of MacSparky.

Sven kicked things off by showing how he uses TextExpander within OmniFocus to track the status of projects he delegates to others. This encouraged David to share several of his own TextExpander shortcuts for speeding up new entries in OmniFocus. Driven by my innate laziness, I decided to see if I could push things one step further. Since they both “threw down with a video,” as David so eloquently put it, I decided to create one of my own to show you how to use Keyboard Maestro to significantly speed up repetitive email clipping.

Getting Even Lazier Keyboard Maestro

I wanted to see if I could clip text from an email, fill in my information and archive the message as quickly as possible. The macros are setup for users of Mailplane, but you could easily adapt it to work with Mail.app. This time there are two versions, the first is for follow up that has the same context, project and due date in OmniFocus. Rather than going through the motions to process the email, this macro will only prompt me for the task name. The second version gives me the added ability to set a single start and due date for deferring these email responses with greater control.

You can download the macros here and customize them to fit your needs. You can even create multiple versions to fit different contexts, projects or start and due dates.

Bonus For You TextExpander Fans

Update: Version 3.41 has been released. The snippet below will now work in Lion. Simply update TextExpander and close and reopen OmniFocus to get this working.

I initially started this project in TextExpander. While it wasn’t able to do everything I wanted, it’s still pretty darn useful. Especially when doing multiple entries through the quick entry box. Here’s the snippet:

%key:tab%Customer Follow%key:tab%Work%key:tab%%key:tab%tom%key:tab%Follow up on

Once I trigger the OmniFocus clipper for email, I evoke this snippet and get the following:

Using text expander snippets in OmniFocus

From there, all you need to do is finish the subject for a task and hit enter to add it into OmniFocus.

You can take the snippet above and change the information between the %key:tab% symbols and adjust this as many ways as you might need.

If, like me, you find yourself consistently creating the same deferred email responses, give these Keyboard Maestro macros and TextExpander snippets a shot. I think you’ll agree that this speeds things up quite nicely.

To learn more, subscribe for free by Email or RSS to automatically receive future Techie Scheky posts from A Better Mess.

Filed Under: Productivity

Get Started With Start Dates in OmniFocus

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Michael Schechter • 2 Comments

From Shawn Blanc:

I virtually never use Start Dates, and so my daily to-do list is usually filled with a dozen items which I want to do that day, but perhaps only one or two of them need to be done.

David Sparks recommends using Start Dates to populate your future-to-do list, and use Due Dates only for those items which have consequence if they are not done by the day they’re due.

Over the past week, I’ve been talking a lot about OmniFocus, but I haven’t really focused in on the biggest change that came from adopting this system and watching David’s excellent walkthrough1. When using Things, everything had or didn’t have a Due Date. OmniFocus, on the other hand, introduced the idea of Start Dates.

I used to use Due Dates to remind me to start tasks. Now I only use them to remind me when they are due. This way when I see yellow (OmniFocus’ default color for items that are looming) or red (items that are due or past due) I know I need to focus and get them done. Using Due Dates in this way alongside Start Dates gave me a clear way to separate the “want-to-do” items on my list from those I “need-to-do”.

At first, like Shawn, I never used Start Dates, but over time, they have become the best way to focus in on my day. Sure, I could use flag the tasks I want to accomplish and leave everything on the list, but using Start Dates to either defer tasks until a specific date or even push something forward a day or two gets unnecessary information temporarily off my screen and out of my head. More than anything else, this has helped me to better plan my days and balance the work I want to do with the things that need to get done in a given day.

If you haven’t experimented with Start Dates, give them a try. While your mileage will certainly vary, this subtle shift was game changing for me.

  1. I know I sound like a broken record, if you want to use this app, watch these videos. [↩]
Filed Under: Productivity

How to get all of your crap into OmniFocus

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Michael Schechter • 23 Comments

The Techie Scheky series offers tips and tactics for being more productive and creative through technology (especially with a Mac).

After talking about how I take all of the varying types of tasks in my life, I thought I’d run through the various ways that you can create tasks in OmniFocus using their Quick Entry or Quick Clipper. This post looks to show you how to create one or multiple tasks using Quick Entry, how to create a variety of tasks using the Quick Clipper and how to make Quick Entry in OmniFocus work with Evernote.

Too lazy to read? I’ve got you covered!

Click here if you can’t see the video.

Quickly Creating Tasks in OmniFocus

Single Tasks

When setting up OmniFocus, go to preferences, select the General tab and set the Quick Entry shortcut. I use Control-Option-Space as suggested by David Sparks. From there you can quickly capture a task and add it to your inbox or fill out any relevant information including the project this action is related to, the context, a start or due date and any notes you might want to add at this time. You can also use the setting to add estimated time. Once complete, select save and your task will be added to either the inbox or your selected project.

Multiple Tasks

I also find that Quick Entry serves as a great place to do a brain dump. If you just want to get everything out of your head, use your keyboard shortcut to evoke the Quick Entry box and start entering your tasks. Once you’ve entered as much information as needed for each task as needed, type Command-Enter and you will get a new entry line. Once you’ve cleared your mind, hit save and all of your tasks will be added into the proper locations.

Using The OmniFocus Quick Clipper

Oftentimes, you are going to want to add text from a website or a specific file to your task. OmniFocus makes this easy with their Quick Clipper. Start by going into your preferences menu, go to the Clipping tab and select your shortcut. Again, per David Sparks, I use Control-Option-Command-M. With a little extra help, it can also create links that take you back to emails in Mailplane and Mail.app or notes in Evernote.

Text

Once you set a keyboard shortcut for the clipper, you can create a task that includes any highlighted text from just about any application.

Website

While this only works natively in Safari, you can highlight text, use the clipper and not only will it add the highlighted text, but a link that takes you directly back to the page. This is great for creating tasks that require you to reference a webpage at a later date. Sure you could just use a bookmarklet, but I love having the direct tie in between the task and the site.

File

Oftentimes you’ll need to use one or more files for a task. Simply highlight file(s) you’ll need, use the clipper and links to the files will be added into your task. If, like me, you work between two computers, you can save files in Dropbox in order to have links work seamlessly across computers.

Email

While you can add The OmniFocus Clip-O-Tron 300 to Mail.app directly from the Clippings Preferences inside the OmniFocus preference menu, I’m not a big fan of Mail.app. Thankfully for all of us Gmail folks out there, the team over at Mailplane came up with a great solution. It’s a plugin that allows for all of the functionality of the clipper in Safari, except instead of linking to a webpage, it links directly back into your email message. Every time I have a message that I cannot follow up on immediately, I use this clipper to create a follow up task in OmniFocus. It’s by far the easiest and fastest way I’ve found to defer email for response at a later date.

Scanned Document

Paper and I have a contentious relationship. I suck at it and it hates me. So part of saving my sanity was finding a way to properly store reference materials in a way that they could quickly be called up for use at a later date. While my love affair for my ScanSnap 1300 (affiliate link) and Evernote is a post for another day, it does play a major role in getting paper off my desk and into my system. When scanning something that requires follow up, I scan it in, right click the image on the main Evernote page (or by selecting Note menu option from the actual note) and select “Copy Note Link”. From there, evoke Quick Entry (or the Clipper if you select the note name in Evernote) and paste the link into the notes field of your task.

Bonus: One minor inconvenience of both the Quick Entry box and Clipper is that they only work when OmniFocus is open. Thankfully Shawn Blanc came to the rescue with a solution for all of you Keyboard Maestro or FastScripts users out there.

While this may not cover everything in your own personal workflow, I can tell you that just about anything digital and even most of the paper on my desk is out of whatever inbox it came from and into OmniFocus in a way that empowers me to take action at a later date. It’s helped me clean up my life and get more done; hopefully some of this will help you do the same.

Have a better way? I’m always interested in hearing one!

To learn more, subscribe for free by Email or RSS to automatically receive future Techie Scheky posts from A Better Mess.

Filed Under: Productivity

Turn Everything Into Something With OmniFocus

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Michael Schechter • 15 Comments

The Techie Scheky series offers tips and tactics for being more productive and creative through technology (especially with a Mac).

Over the years I’ve had far too many email accounts; all doubled as to-do lists. I had an inbox on my desk (that acted as a to-do list too). I had the blinking red light on my office phone, which, yep you guessed it, that served as a to-do list. I had my desk itself, which grew more and more cluttered with papers and projects. I had the desktop of my computer which was littered with files and folders. All of it added a tremendous amount of stress and disorganization to my already disorganized and stressful world. Just about every last one of these spaces was a dead end: the email accounts were overloaded, the inbox overflowing, the red light ever blinking, the desk piled high and the desktop a mess. It was driving me crazy and it had to stop.

About a year ago, I decided to seek out a task list that could begin to pull all of these disparate threads of my life together. At the time, there were two applications that stuck out above the rest; there was Things, a focused app with a great UI and what turned out to be a terrible data syncing solution and OmniFocus, a powerhouse application that is the clear favorite of most web geeks. I tried both out and couldn’t quite get my head around OmniFocus. It was too much and the learning curve was too steep for my needs, or so I thought.

I set out with Things and quickly fell in love with the ease of adding items into it. Things allows you to create tasks using one of two pop-up boxes that can be triggered at any time the application is open by a keyboard shortcut. One that offers up an empty box and another that automatically adds highlighted text, selected files or a link back to a specific email into tasks the notes field. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, Things did not have a great syncing solution1 and I would often lose data between my work and home computers. This caused me to trust the system less. It also bit me in the ass a few times. I decided to give OmniFocus another look.

Thankfully, right around this time the ever-amazing David Sparks came out with a series of three videos that I now consider to be standard for starting to use OmniFocus. This series goes from the basics to the geeky and shows you from a user’s perspective how to make the most out of the app. I made the switch and I never looked back. Their cloud sync is flawless, their apps are far more powerful (especially for when you want to review all of your upcoming work) and the clipper offered some sanity-inducing options like the ability to add several tasks at once. I just didn’t get that from Things.

Now, rather than jotting things down on paper, calls, reminders, and minor tasks all go into the app. Emails that require follow up at a later date go into OmniFocus with a link that takes me directly back into the email for reply. I scan documents that require follow up into Evernote and create a task along with a link back to that note in OmniFocus2. I put files in their proper place and create a task with a link to the required files.There was instantly less crap all over my desk, less email in my inbox, no perpetual blinking lights, a less cluttered desk and an organized desktop on both of my computers. Everything in my life that requires further action has became a checkbox inside a single, well organized, home inside of OmniFocus.

Come back tomorrow or subscribe for free by RSS or email as I walk you through some of the best ways that I’ve found for quickly creating tasks from various type of media in OmniFocus.

To learn more, subscribe for free by Email or RSS to automatically receive future Techie Scheky posts from A Better Mess.

  1. They now offer one, but it’s been in perpetual beta. [↩]
  2. Although to be honest, this isn’t as seamless as I’d like it to be. [↩]
Filed Under: Productivity