10 Productivity Apps For Your Mac-Based Home Office

If you work at a home-based office like I do, you no doubt spend a significant amount of time getting things done on your Mac. While I have already written about the advantages of using a standup desk, there are also several important and general productivity apps for Mac, for almost any type of workflow you engage in.

Though there is no robot application (yet!) that can do all the work for me, the following are 10 of the most useful free or low-cost productivity apps that I use on a daily or regular basis. These applications not only save me time but in many cases help me work more efficiently.

Fantastical

It’s difficult to work in any home-based office and not need a useful calendar. Though OS X comes installed with a default Calendar Mac app, the third-party option, Fantastical ($19.99) is hands down the best calendar you should run on your Mac.

With Fantastical, you can input and check calendar events and schedules right from your Mac’s menu bar. You can create a new event simply by opening Fantastical’s drop-down window and entering the data for the event. Instead of clicking numbers and times, you simply write the event as if you were writing it on a scratch sheet of paper.

For example, to schedule a lunch meeting for next Wednesday, simply type: “Lunch with Bakari next wed, 11:30am, at Fresh Choice.” As you type, you watch Fantastical fill in all the data for you.

You can preset the type of reminders you want for calendar events. Fantastical syncs with Apple’s Calendar application, but there’s also an iPhone version ($8.99) of Fantastical that works the same way. By having Fantastical in your menu bar, you don’t have to open the Calendar app just to add or review a few events.

Super Memory Cleaner

If you find that your Mac slows down throughout the day or when you have several applications open, you should download Super Memory Cleaner (free). It does a great job of cleaning up hundreds of megabytes, or even gigabytes, of memory with one simple click. You can select to have it auto-clean, or clean at startup.

Desktop Wallpapers

If you meet clients in your home office, and/or you like your office to have professional décor, your desktop wallpaper should be just as classy as your iMac or Macbook computer. My wallpaper of choice is a collection produced by Vlad Studio.

These free wallpapers are designed by digital artist, Vlad Gerasimov, and you can download them for nearly any size desktop monitor. I recommend selecting and downloading a few dozens of your favorites and simply have your Mac change the pictures everyday, or each time you wake up your Mac. I find that these unique wallpapers add a little inspiration to my daily workflow.

Caffeine

There are occasions when you need to keep your Mac desktop or laptop awake when you’re doing a presentation, or playing a video while multitasking in another part of your office. This is where Caffeine (free) comes in. When you enable it, it keeps your Mac from going to sleep until you cut if off. Jackson reviewed this application when it was first released back in 2008.

Wunderlist

There are no shortage of to-do applications for the Mac, but if you’re still looking for one, you should give Wunderlist (free) a try. Dave reviewed the iOS mobile version of Wunderlist, but the desktop version contains a similar user interface.

Wunderlist is a clean, well designed cross-platform program where you can mange and sync all of your to-do lists. You can also share and collaborate lists with your colleagues. If you don’t need a task manager with lots of bells and whistles, Wunderlist can be very useful in your workflow.

FunctionFlip

FunctionFlip (free/donation) is a Preferences utility that allows you to customize those Fn keys at the top of your keyboard that you might rarely use. For instance, while I constantly use the assigned volume keys, I hardly ever use the brightness, iTunes, Exposé and Launchpad Fn keys on my iMac.

So with FunctionFlip, I can turn off those functions and assign them another purpose using applications like Keyboard Maestro or QuickSilver.

Trello

Another useful task and project manager is an online and mobile application called Trello. It’s sort of like a whiteboard for sorting ideas, lists of tasks, and project workflows. You can share your “whiteboards” with others, and view them in any web browser or the iOS version (free) of of the application and service. Erez reviewed Trello in more detail here.

Launchpad Manager

If you have amassed a lot of applications on your Mac, you have probably experienced how difficult it is to use Launchpad to access all of your applications. The Launchpad feature in Lion and Mountain Lion is not very useful if you don’t have your applications organized alphabetically or in folders. This is where Launchpad Manager ($7.99) comes in.

Launchpad Manager includes over a dozen features, including the ability to alphabetize applications, delete icons from Launchpad without uninstalling the applications themselves, and move selected applications to another Launchpad page. You can easily move applications into groups, rename icons and groups, and quickly cut and paste applications from one folder to another. You can use custom layouts of your Launchpad for different purposes.

You can download a free version of Launchpad Manager, but many of its advanced features are only available in the paid pro version.

Dropzone

Dropzone ($9.99) is a nifty little application that enables you to perform various tasks from the menu bar or from the left or right side of your desktop screen. For example, say you download a new application that is delivered to you in a DMG file. You can drag that DMG file to Dropzone and drop it on the Install Application action, and it will proceed to automatically open and install that application, and then delete the DMG file for you.

You can create another action that sends files to a pre-selected folder. There’s actions for quickly printing a file or converting a long URL to a bit.ly short URL. You can download a 15-day trial of the application, which I recommend. Spend some time with it, and check out theuser contributed actions for Dropzone.

If you find more than five actions that will enable you to get better at increasing productivity, then it may be worth paying for the application, which you should download from the Mac App Store.

Time Out

One of the ways to be more productive in your Mac-based home office is to actually take breaks from your Mac. Time Out (free) will remind you to take “normal”, say 10 minute breaks, and “micro” breaks, like 10 seconds every 30 minutes, based on the time intervals you set.

When I don’t use this application, I end up working at my computer for hours before I take a break. Not taking a break causes a strain on my eyes, and by the afternoon I’m less productive. You can postpone or skip breaks, but doing so too often will defeat the purpose.

That’s it for my Mac-based home office applications. Let us know which productivity apps for Mac that you find most useful in your workflow.SOURCE

The All New Evernote Web Clipper 6 for Chrome

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From the mind-blowing to the mundane, our daily web routine is packed with moments of inspiration and learning. In the span of a few minutes, we may discover a new design direction, plan our next vacation and make progress on research. Each of these activities is important and needs to be captured, but sometimes simply saving isn’t enough. You may want to add your own thoughts to the saved pages or share your findings with friends.

That thinking led us to completely redesign our popular Evernote Web Clipper for Chrome. It’s all new, super powerful and amazingly simple. Let’s take a look.

New users: Get the Evernote Web Clipper 6 for Chrome »

Existing users: The extension will update automatically.

If you don’t use the Chrome browser, we recommend getting it. Install Google Chrome »

The All New Evernote Web Clipper 6 for Chrome

The new Web Clipper combines the classic features you’re used to with new capabilities from across our family of apps, all wrapped in a sleek, new look and feel.

The Big Redesign

The first thing you’ll notice is the Web Clipper’s new look. When you click on the elephant icon, the Clipper panel slides in from the right, exposing all the features from top to bottom. Some sections, like tags and notebooks, pop out to let you conveniently choose what you need.

New Ways to Clip

Let’s take a look at both the familiar and the new clipping options.

• Article: Clips the body content of the page, including images, links and styles
• Selection: Clips the text and images that you highlight
• Bookmark (NEW): Creates a note containing a snippet of the page and the URL
• Simplified (NEW): We brought in features from our Clearly extension to strip the page of all distractions for easy reading and clean clipping

Markup and Screenshots

We’re bringing features from our Skitch app right into the Web Clipper to let you overlay shapes, arrows and text on top of the page you’re viewing. Choose from the available markup tools to point out something interesting or to give design feedback to a coworker. When you’re finished, you can either save or share your work. If you change your mind, hit ESC and you’ll return to the original page.

One important note: when you start using a Markup tool, the Web Clipper takes a screenshot of the visible screen area only. It doesn’t capture the entire page.

Sharing

The Web Clipper has always been great at saving the things you find interesting. Now, it lets you share them as well. Anything you do, from clipping to markup, can be shared with friends and colleagues over email, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Smart and Simple

We’ve added a ton of new capabilities in this new version, but we kept the Clipper as quick and smart as ever. If all you want to do is clip the page, simply click the icon and then click Save. The content will be saved to Evernote and our Smart Filing feature will make sure that the page is organized within your account just the way you like it.

Add a Reminder

Frequently, we clip things just to have them, not because we’re looking to take any specific action. Other times, those clips are directly related to upcoming projects or meetings. In addition to organizing your clips, you can add a Reminder to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. To add a Reminder to a clip, click on the alarm clock icon in the popup that appears after you finish clipping something.

More to Come

Big redesigns always come with big opportunities for expansion. We’ve spent the past several months building the Web Clipper 6 and there’s still a lot more we plan on doing. Get it today and let us know what you think.

If you want to learn more, check out our Web Clipper for Chrome Product Guide »

The Evernote Conference

If you’re looking to expand your Evernote skills and learn how to use it for like, work and everything in between, then join us on September 26th and 27th in San Francisco for the Evernote event of the year. Get your tickets now » Source

Power Up Your Mac With Advanced BetterTouchTool Automations

I started using BetterTouchTool back in 2011, and since then it has become one of the top three Mac applications (the other two are Keyboard Maestro and TextExpander) for boosting my productivity and streamlining my workflow.

BetterTouchTool is a free application that allows you to use finger gestures with your Magic Mouse, MacBook Trackpad and Magic Trackpad to activate keyboard shortcuts, move and resize windows, launch applications and URLs, select windows, and add functions to applications.

Please Check an overview of BetterTouchTool’s main features and how to get started using it. Though BTT can be used by any Mac user, it does require some time to setup and configure gestures that you can remember and are not awkward to use. The following tips will help users who are familiar with the app get more out of some of its more advanced features.

How I Use It

I use dozens of BetterTouchTool actions in my everyday workflow. Some actions are global and most others are specific to individual applications. I use the app along with finger gestures to play and pause iTunes, hide the frontmost application, close Safari tabs, post a tweet in TweetBot, adjust the volume control, delete files on my desktop, and much more.

If you’re a current user of the app, you’re probably already familiar with the basic automations, so now let’s explore some more advanced features, actions, and ways to use BTT.

Predefined Actions 

If you want to get an idea of what the type of actions you can perform using BTT, just click on the Predefined Actions button on the bottom-right. It includes over a hundred actions that you can apply finger gestures to. Some of the more practical ones include Hide All Windows,Open Application/File, Open URL, Sleep Computer, Mute Sound, Trigger menu bar item andEnter Full Screen.

Check out the list and see which actions you manually perform on a regular basis, and instead assign finger gestures to perform those actions using BTT.

Two Or More Actions

A later update to the app added way to include additional actions for a single gesture. For example, you probably experience applications that require to you use the Command+Delete keys to delete a file. And typically you also have to confirm the deletion by activating the Delete key before the action is fully complete. With BTT you can perform two or more actions with a single gesture.

Here’s an example of how to use this feature with an application called NoteSuite. To create the action, I started off with a Two Finger TipTap Left gesture that activates the Command+Delete keyboard shortcut. I then clicked on the Attach Additional Action button.

Next I assigned another action to the same gesture. In this case I added the Return keyaction. With this setup I perform two keyboard shortcut actions with single finger gesture. This is especially useful for an application like NoteSuite that only allows you to delete one file at a time, and it’s definitely tedious to activate the two keyboard shortcuts each time to delete files.

Resize Windows

If you click on the Advanced button in the menu bar then click Action Settings, there are whole set of actions for moving and resizing windows, and for dragging and snapping them to different parts of your screen. The developer’s other application, BetterSnapTool, provides even more control for quickly resizing windows.

If you prefer to keep all your gesture controls within one application, BTT will suffice.

Adjust Gesture Sensitivity

If you find yourself becoming a BTT power user, you might want to take a look at the various settings for adjusting the speed and pressure sensitivity of finger taps. The developer says you shouldn’t have to fiddle with the settings much, but if you find that your gestures are a little slow to activate actions, or if they set things off too quickly, try making some adjustments to those settings.

You can always click the Reset ALL button to get back to the default settings.

BTT Remote

There’s also now BTT Remote ($1.99) app that allows you to perform actions you set up on your Mac using BTT. It goes well beyond Apple’s own Remote app in that you can remotely activate virtually any action in your BTT library.

I use it for playing and pausing iTunes or Rdio, taking an application full screen, adjusting the sound volume, putting my display to sleep, assigning a 5 star rating to a currently playing song—all from my office recliner. Warning: an app like this can make you pretty lazy.

BetterTouchTool is definitely for Mac geeks and power users, but if you work at your Mac throughout the day and you’re not especially good at remembering and using keyboard shortcuts, BTT is an awesome alternative tool for navigating your Mac.

How Do You Use BetterTouchTool?

I’ve told you how I use this fantastic piece of productivity software, so now it’s your turn – what do you think of these advanced features? How does BTT integrate into your workflow? Let us know what you think in the comments, below.SOURCE

Hazel – Performing Tasks On Your Mac So You Don’t Have To

 A classic third-party application called Hazel is one of my personal automation  assistants that works in the background, requiring no keyboard shortcuts and mouse clicks on my part.

Hazel is an automation program that essentially goes into action when files are added or changes are made to designated folders. Automator includes similar functionality, but Hazel is much easier to use and faster on the draw. I have Hazel rules that automatically open new applications added to my Applications folder, change the file size of screenshots, automatically clear off files on my desktop after a certain period of time, and move PDF files in my Downloads folder to a designated folder in my Dropbox account (more about Dropbox here.)

Hazel costs $25, but you can download it for a free 14-day trial to discover just how useful it can be.

How It Works

Hazel basically watches folders that you assign rules to. So, for example, you could set up a rule in which Hazel automatically opens PDF documents, or any files, when they are downloaded or added to your Downloads folder. Once you set up the rule, and it works correctly, you don’t have to do anything else to Hazel in order for it to perform actions. Hazel gets installed in your System Preferences, but you can choose to interact with it from your menu bar.

The best way to learn what Hazel can do is to download the trial version and try out some of the rules described in this article. Hazel comes loaded with a few sample rules, but you will better understand what it can do by creating your own rule first.

Let’s start off by having it perform an action on your Downloads folder. On the left side of the Hazel interface, click on the + button at the bottom, and in the drop-down window navigate to and select your Downloads folder. Next, click on the + button under Rules, and set up the conditions as I have done in the screenshot below.

Click OK. If you already have PDF documents in your Downloads folder, Hazel will automatically run the rule and open them. Otherwise, locate a PDF on your computer or download one from our MUO Guides page and add it to your Downloads folder. Keep in mind, Hazel will automatically run a rule assigned to your Downloads folder. However, you can temporarily stop Hazel from running by clicking on its icon in your menu bar.

Rules & Conditions

The heaviest amount of work done in Hazel is setting up rules and conditions, and testing them out. Any time Hazel detects changes to designated folders that it monitors, it will run the rules you set up for those folders, so be careful how you apply the rules. When setting up a rule, you will first want to determine if you want to apply the rule to “all”, “any”, or “none”of a designated types of files or matching folders.

Note, rules can also be applied to sub-folders and files.

Next, you want to think about what type of files or conditions you want Hazel to monitor and act on. Hazel includes dozens of conditions to choose from, based on the type of things that we normally do on our computer. You may, for example, set up rules to act upon files added to a designated folder in the last hour or day, or when last modified or opened.

Your rule(s) may apply to only certain kinds of files, e.g. Movie, Image, Application, or Text files. This means, for example, that if you set up a rule for your Downloads folder to only apply to PDFs, then Hazel will ignore other kinds of files added to that folder.

Of course, you can click on the + button and add additional conditions for your rule. For example, since the Desktop is really a large folder, I have a Hazel rule that moves any files on my desktop that have been there more than three hours to a designated Junk Folder.

As you can see in the screenshot below, I also added another condition in which Hazel will ignore any file with the name “hold”.

I also have two similar rules – one set up that will change the dimension size of PNG files that are either greater than 580 pixels in width or height.

The second part of any Hazel rule is have it perform a certain action or set of actions. As you can see in the screenshot below, Hazel can perform the type of actions we normally do manually, including moving, copying, renaming, opening, or revealing designated files in the Finder.

For example, you might set up a rule that watches your Public folder for any new files added in the last five minutes.

I set up another Hazel rule that moves all PDFs added to my Downloads folder to a designated folder in my Dropbox account. I use this rule because I typically read PDFs on my iPad in which I access and open them from the designated Dropbox folder.

I have another rule that sets the color label of individual applications in my Applications folder, red, if they have not been opened in the last 465 days. I activate this rule only when I want to select and delete applications I have not used in a long time.

And to quickly remove the red color labels, I of course, set up another rule to do just that. Again, I only activate this when I need it.

The best way to get the most out of Hazel or any automation program is to think about actions that you perform manually on a regular basis. If you give this some thought, those redundant actions can typically be done for you by programs like Hazel, Automator, or another one of my favorite programs, Keyboard Maestro.

Let me know what you think of Hazel and how you use it to manage tasks on Mac.SOURCE

Automate Everything On Your Mac with Keyboard Maestro [Mac]

I’ve written several articles about Mac automation, including a MUO Automation Guide on how to get started with Apple’s Automator and the built-in OS X features for creating smart folders, playlists, albums, and mailboxes. But next to the application called Hazel, which I also recently reviewed, the classic automation program Keyboard Maestro ($36.00) is my most used application for getting things done on my Mac. You can download it for a 30-day free trial.

For what it does, Keyboard Maestro for Mac is modestly priced, and in my experience very reliable. Keyboard Maestro is similar to Automator in which you set up macros to perform tasks and steps that you perform manually. For example, almost any steps you take – to launch, hide, or quit applications; open folders and files; download webpages; input copied text; rate iTunes songs; email a family member; copy or paste a URL – can be done faster by Keyboard Maestro.

What It Can Do

If you’re new to Mac automation, Keyboard Maestro (KM) is made for you. You don’t have to know coding in order to build automations. You just need to take a little time to set up automations that mirror what you do manually, and from there Keyboard Maestro will perform the steps for you.

Don’t let KM’s user interface scare you off. Granted, the UI looks very techie and a little complicated, but after you create a few simple workflows, you will see how easy it is to use.

The following is just a partial list of automatons I have KM perform:

• Automatically launches specified applications and webpages at specified days and time (see demo below).
• Hides or quits an application after it has been unused in the background for a specified period of time.
• Automatically inserts username and password after an application like Yahoo Messenger is opened.
• Opens any folder or file on your computer with a keyboard shortcut or when a specified application launches.
• Automatically activates specified menu items in applications (or you can assign keyboard shortcuts to menu items that don’t have a keyboard shortcut).
• Creates a new document when an application like TextEdit, MarsEdit, or Pages is launched.
• Creates a template email that includes specified address(s), subject line, and message.
• Selects and copies a URL in a browser window using a simple keyboard shortcut.
• Resizes a window of an application, such as iTunes, when it is opened or brought to the front.
• Executes Automator workflows and AppleScript scripts.
• Lowers, mutes, or increases the audio on your Mac when an application is brought to the front.
• Simulates keystrokes in nearly any application.

The above are some of the basic automation workflows KM can perform (see a list of more features on its website.) Depending upon your needs, it can do even more advanced or complex automations, especially when you use it with applications like the mouse and trackpad program, BetterTouchTool, or with the keyboard navigation application, Shortcat.

Sample Workflows

Though Keyboard Maestro includes a manual, a more user friendly guide could also be written for the program. The following is a simple single-step workflow for an action performed manually by all computer users. Download the fully functional trial version of KM and follow the steps in this 5 minute demo that shows you how to have KM launch and/or quit an assigned application(s) at a specified time and day.

Other Features

The key to using KM is to open and explore its list of several hundred Actions to see which ones fit your needs. Notice it includes actions for copying and pasting text, launching its built-in application switcher, displaying text, hiding a specific application, playing a specific iTunes track or playlist, searching a particular website, pressing a button, etc.

KM’s Record Quick Macro can record a set of actions you perform on your Mac, and you can use the results as a macro. Also, you can assign and group macros to perform only in specified applications. I have macros that only work when Safari is in the forefront. For example :

• I have a keyboard shortcut that will select and copy the URL of a webpage.
• I can type the assigned letters, “nx” and KM will play the next track in iTunes without switching to the application.
• If I want to close a Safari tab without using a keyboard shortcut, I can type “ccw.”

Note, with string triggers, the typed letters automatically activate the assigned macro and then disappear from where you typed them – all within a fraction of a second.

If you download and try out Keyboard Maestro for Mac, let us know what you think of it. You can also visit my Google+ Community page on Mac Automation tips for additional ideas about using Keyboard Maestro.SOURCE