Home Screens - Brett Terpstra

Brett Terpstra (twitter) is my kind of nerd. He is an ingenious programmer that makes useful stuff all day (like nvALT and InstapaperBeyond). In my mind, Brett is like some benevolent mad scientist who takes things I love (like TextExpander and Notational Velocity) and starts bolting on exgra limbs. Most recently Brett made a Web site, markdownrules, that looks at a URL and spits back a markdown file. I had the pleasure of making friends with Brett at Macworld this year and am happy to report that, in addition to his coding prowess, Brett is a stand up guy. If you haven’t already, keep an eye on Brett because you just never know what he’ll do next.

So Brett, show us your homescreen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

• DuckDuckGo, the official app for the DuckDuckGo search engine, which is also brilliant, but I won’t go into that
• 1Password is essential to me (full disclosure: I work for Agile Web Solutions)
• PlaySafe is the simplest, best-looking touch controller for music, and I use it every time I’m in my car
• Camera Plus Pro is pretty spectacular so far. I just discovered it at Macworld this year, and I’m still breaking it in.

The apps on my iPhone’s home screen are, by and large, not my most exciting apps. They’re mostly workhorses. I’m going to stick with my iPhone for this chat, but I should mention that I’ve found that my iPhone and my iPad have very different apps on their home screen. Each device is better suited to certain environments and types of apps (I actually have games on the home screen of my iPad).

What gets an app onto your iPhone home screen?

It’s a pretty simple system. Apps on the home screen are ones that are either frequently used, or ones that I want fast access to. Shazam is an example of the latter. I don’t use it that often, but when I need it I usually don’t have time for a lot of tapping around. This is doubly true of the Dock, where QuickCal, Flashlight and Camera Plus Pro live. All three are useless if I miss an opportunity (or run into a door) while fumbling for them.

What is your favorite app?

It seems to change at least monthly. I’m fickle. Right now, I’m really loving Trunk Notes and Nebulous Notes (on both iPhone and iPad). Trunk Notes because it gives me a wiki that I can edit, search and browse on my iPhone, iPad and through any web browser, and because it syncs to Dropbox where I can edit in TextMate (and navigate using the Plain Text Wiki bundle), preview in Quick Look and search with Spotlight. Interoperability with my OS X workflow remains a major factor for me, though I’d love to someday be computing entirely on a more mobile platform. Anyway, Trunk Notes is also Markdown-based, and nothing in my geek world really makes me happier than Markdown.

Markdown is also the reason I like Nebulous. It doesn’t bill itself as a Markdown editor, but its ability to run user-defined Macros (including wrapping selected text) is perfect for that. Selecting text and pressing a button to have it wrapped in square brackets followed by a pair of parenthesis? Priceless.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Infinity Blade.

What is the app you are still missing?

I’m an obsessive collector of note-taking apps. To a fault. I’m still looking for the perfect capture tool that has it all in one, but I don’t really know what that would look like, or if I’d like it when I saw it. I like mind mapping, I like using text recognition in photos, and I love plain text notes. Honestly, though, I don’t think I’d love an app that did all of that at once. I just don’t see how it could be good at any of them if it tried to do all of them.

Answering this question actually makes me realize I have everything I want right now, albeit in separate apps. Good deal, though, I get to be surprised when some new and indispensable app drops into my life.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

It depends on the day. I use it every day, but some days it’s an alarm clock and an MP3 player (and a flashlight if I go to bed later than my wife). Some days it’s my GPS system, my note and task capture tool, my news, my leisure, my expense and time tracker and my connection to other people. On those days, I probably pull it out of my pocket a hundred times. But who’s counting?

Well, I guess my wife is, at least when we’re eating out with friends.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?

I think the feature that fascinates me the most is motion sensitivity with the accelerometer and gyroscope. It’s more because of the possibilities than because of any current implementation. It’s added an aspect to everyday app development that’s beginning to change the language of interface design. A few apps have made great use of it, even with the simplest of gestures (I fondly recall the first time I used it in Instapaper). Some apps make a mockery of it, but I think we’ll see more innovative (and appropriate) uses as time goes on. Can we quit with the shake-to-undo thing, though? It’s pretty asinine, even when it works properly.

Anything else you’d like to share?

You ask a dangerous question, my friend. I could probably talk an hour each about every app on my iPhone. For everybody’s sake, I’ll stop there.

Thanks Brett!

The Joy of Text

Why I Love Text Files

Over the last few years I’ve woken up to the problem of how I store my digital words. Up until recently, I just wrote in whatever word processor was the flavor of the month. As a result my digital noodlings are a long stream of computery-type gibberish in various formats ranging from MacWrite to Scrivener.

The problem is, I spent very little time thinking about exactly what it means to put words into word processing files. Relying on these application files for our precious words is a mistake. Standards and preferences change. What your computer can understand today, it may not tomorrow. Below is a simple Microsoft Word document.

Just six words, default settings. Below is a screenshot of the file generated by Microsoft Word for those six words. (Note the scroll bar.)

As you can see, there is a lot more to this file than those six words. This problem is exponentially worse with more complex formatting.

Below is a screenshot of that same document as a text file.

There’s something to be said for the use of plain text files. Text is simple. Text files are easy to read on any computer running any operating system and don’t require any proprietary word processor to interpret. Even more important, text files can be read by humans. Keeping your writings in text makes them digitally immortal.

Moreover, text is internet friendly. The files are small and can jump among connected devices with poor connections like hopped up Disney faeries. It is really easy to work with your text files on any device from anywhere.

Why Now?

So why this sudden epiphany about text files? For me, there were several revalations on this road starting with me adopting Scrivener a few years ago as my primary word processor. This forced me to start thinking about making my words portable. I also adopted the Notational Velocity/Simplenote Tango.

I’m not alone in this. When the Mac development software matured to the point that independent developers could commercially make word processing applications, a lot of us grabbed our life vests and happily abandoned ship from Microsoft Word, looking for software lighter, friendlier, and cheaper.

The watershed event, however, was the iPad. Very quickly after using the iPad, I realized I didn’t need a full blown word processor on my iPad as much as I needed a way to enter, edit, and manipulate text. It had to be seemless and fast. iPad developers largely delivered and the Dropbox API provides the glue to hold it all together. Now we can write 1,000 words on our Macs, add 500 more on our PCs, rewrite the introduction on our iPads from a park bench and do the final proofread over a Taco on our phones, all using text.

Text Worthy?

So what do I put in all these fancy text files? Just about anything. I’ve got hundreds of them containing everything from some of my favorite latin quotes, (Sit vis nobiscum), to travel plans, to legal forms, to half written posts, and half-baked ideas. I also have my current Scrivener projects synced to my text databases.

Would You Like Formatting on That?

Using Markdown, you can add basic formatting to these text files including headings, bold, italic, and links. Markdown is ridiculously easy to learn and there are plenty of resources including John Gruber, the Mac Power Users, and Screencasts Online (featuring some of my own markdown files). The point is that Markdown, originally designed to generate HTML, is perfect for sharing text with formatting. The iPad didn’t exist when Markdown first appeared but it feels custom made for writing in plain text on multiple devices.

Show Me the Way

So here is my text workflow. I write primarily on my Mac but also use a PC at the office and (of course) my beloved iPad and iPhone. Everything syncs with absolutely no effort on my part.

The Backbone: SimpleNote

SimpleNote is a Web based text service that grew out of an iPhone notes app but became much, much more. SimpleNote does nothing more than sync text files with the kind of focus usually saved for teenage boys at the beach. It just works. Think Dropbox for text.

There are free iPad and iPhone apps that give you access to all your text. With a paid account ($20 per year) you can sync your text over to your Dropbox account.

Moreover, there is an open API letting third party developers tie into your SimpleNote database, which leads to Notational Velocity.

The Mac

My SimpleNote client of choice on the Mac is Notational Velocity alt, a Notational Velocity fork by my pal Brett Terpstra. I’ve already written about how this works.

The PC

After playing with the various options, I’ve settled on ResophNotes to sync my SimpleNote data to my Windows 7 PC. It isn’t as good as Notational Velocity, but it works. Another gem for writing text on the PC is WriteMonkey.

iOS

I covered the iOS SimpleNote app above but for longer writing projects, I like Nebulous Notes. There are a lot of text editors on the iPad. Nebulous Notes is my current favorite because it is stable, uses TextExpander snippets and includes a customizable top row for the keyboard and macros. Moving text between SimpleNote and Nebulous Notes can be done with a block and copy or (if you are a SimpleNote paid subscriber) accessing the Dropbox copy of the SimpleNote database.

Those Others

I’ve wrapped myself in the warm embrace of the walled garden and not spent much time outside iOS but there are several SimpleNote friendly text editors available for Android and WebOS.

If your text needs further word processing, do that at the end. Open Pages or Word and copy, format, finalize, and ship. So go ahead. Take the plunge. Embrace the joy of text.

MacSparky.com is sponsored by Bee Docs Timeline 3D. Make a timeline presentation with your Mac.

The OmniFocus Screencasts

I’m now officially in production on the mother-of-all-OmniFocus screencasts. Note the plural. My initial idea of doing it as one big show isn’t going to work, too long. I’ve got an outline and most of the recording done for the first episode, Capture. It is going to end up being broken into several parts (at least three) and my goal is to have the whole thing done by the middle of March. I’ll be releasing episodes as they are done. If you have comments or questions you’d like covered, send ‘em in.

Supercharge TextExpander

Brett Terpstra has coded some remarkable TextExpander snippets including:

• the ability to auto hyphenate the clipboard
• encode e-mail addresses
• paste markdown referenced
• auto generate markdown references from your clipboard
• create lorum ipsum text using text from word lists from Dune, Foundation, Ringworld, Harry Potter, and Doctor Who.

There is a lot more. If you are a TextExpander nerd, go here and then here. Now go!

Mac Roundtable at Macworld

Macworld has kindly posted the video of the Mac Roundtable talk about the future of the Mac OS and iOS from the Macworld show floor. Enjoy!

Sadly there was a problem with the video for the Mac Power Users live show so that episode will be audio only and releasing in the Mac Power Users stream soon.

MacSparky.com is sponsored by Bee Docs Timeline 3D. Make a timeline presentation with your Mac.

Talking to iOS

At Macworld last week, Nuance, makers of DragonDictate for Mac and iOS announced the release of their own software development kit to embed Dragon’s voice recognition technologies in iOS apps. I think this is a big deal. Third party app developers should now be able to add voice recognition tools to their apps with a simple call to the Dragon engine. I can think of several apps on my iPhone and iPad right now that would get way better if I could talk to them. Imagine adding new tasks to your favorite task management application, doing Web searches in your browser, or composing documents in your text editor all with your voice.

The only other company I’ve seen create this sort of iOS resource is Smile’s TextExpander Touch that appears to be quite successful. If the execution is as easy as Nuance reports (I haven’t seen it myself) then we are going to be talking to our iOS devices soon.

MacSparky.com is sponsored by Bee Docs Timeline 3D. Make a timeline presentation with your Mac.

Do Stuff

The above is one of my favorite slides from my OmniFocus presentation at Macworld. A little known secret about me is that in addition to being a computer nerd, I also enjoy woodworking.

Several years ago a friend gave me an amazing Japanese pull saw. I love this saw. I could spend hours polishing and sharpening it. But at the end of the day, I need to cut wood. The same can be said about a task management application (or any fiddley productivity software). You can spend all day adjusting settings, prioritizing tasks, and setting estimates or you can get stuff done.

When I first started using OmniFocus, I often caught myself using it as a procrastination tool. Rather than actually checking off items, I would spend hours on end organizing and prioritizing my data. Although I can be dense, when I realized that at the end of the day I still had most of the same uncompleted tasks I had at the beginning of the day, I knew there was a problem.

The trick to using OmniFocus (or any productivity application) is to not let it govern you. Use it as a tool. For me, this means I open OmniFocus in the morning for about a half-hour and I set priorities and plan my day. In the late afternoon I go back in OmniFocus and audit what happened and make plans for the future. That’s it. I spend the rest of the day checking off items and doing stuff. The iPhone and iPad OmniFocus apps are great for this. They make it easy to see your tasks and check them off as you go along.

So the next time you catch yourself in the middle of the day wasting hours “planning,” or setting iTunes metadata, or cleaning out your address book, shut the lid and get back to sawing wood.

MacSparky.com is sponsored by Bee Docs Timeline 3D. Make a timeline presentation with your Mac.

Eddie Joins the Club ...

And curates a nice list of OmniFocus links including a few by yours truly.

Mac at Work - E-Mail Sample Chapter

Until recently, the only sample chapter available for Mac at Work was Chapter 1 (found in the Kindle and iBookstore versions), which covers some basics about how to choose and operate a Mac. It really isn’t representative of the rest of the book. Thankfully, you can now download the introduction, table of contents, and e-mail chapter so you can get a better idea of what is available in the other 23 chapters. Download it here and let me know what you think.

Macworld 2011 Wrap Up

So another Macworld has come and gone and it’s time for a wrap up:

The Exposition

This year the entire conference was in Moscone West (and I’m told it will be the same next year). This was perfect. It allowed you to attend conference sessions and return to the exposition hall with an escalator ride. Another nice benefit is that the exposition hall is above ground and, as a result, the 3G signal is much better.

The exposition hall itself was packed every day. Some of the bigger vendors (Google, Adobe, and Microsoft) were not present. As a result, walking the halls you were able to discover many small and medium-sized companies with innovative products that you may have never discovered otherwise. One of my favorites was the iConnect MIDI box, a small box that allows you to send and receive MIDI signals between iOS devices and a MIDI instrument. It looks as if I may be doing sequencing with my MIDI keyboard and iPad in the near future. Another interesting product was LensPen’s SideKick, a carbon based iPad glass cleaner.

There was also news from well-established Mac developers. The Omni Group talked about 2011 releases of OmniPlan for both the Mac and iPad (with hooks to OmniFocus) and OmniOutliner for the iPad. The interface for iPad OmniOutliner (in its current alpha iteration) looks good. I’m looking forward to seeing the final release.

One of the recurring themes from developers was how the iPad hijacked 2010. Everyone’s plans changed as they raced to join the iPad goldrush. In 2011, I suspect a lot of these developers will be returning their focus to the Mac and we will get several interesting new software applications and updates.

The vibe on the show floor was electric. Attendees were having a great time, discovering new products, and making new friends. One of my indicators about the success of Macworld is the number of attendees you find sitting on the ground with their Macs and iPads out sharing tips and tricks. I’ve never been to any other conference were people do this. This year, these impromptu sessions were everywhere.

The Macworld planners outdid themselves this year with the Macworld Live stage. With full lighting, video, and audio support, the stage felt like a late night talk show set. They had nice couches and a full agenda of excellent speakers, podcasters, and other entertainers. It was thrilling for Katie and I to record the Mac Power Users from the show floor with a live audience. (We are working on getting a copy of the video.)

My biggest disappointment was my presentations at the Omni booth. I had way too much material to cover in 30 minutes and there were audio problems so I never really found my rhythm. The good news is, I spent plenty of time preparing and I’m finally going to make good on my promise to make the mother of all OmniFocus screencasts so stay tuned. Also, if I speak at Omni next year, I’m going to request an hour so things aren’t so rushed.

The Conference

Once again, there was a stunning assortment of conference topics ranging from the most basic to full on, third-degree propeller beanie nerdery. I was able to attend several conference sessions and learned plenty. My synchronization session went great.

This year, there was a new addition Macworld called the Macworld Industry Forum. This was, essentially, Macworld TED with feature speakers giving 20 minute summaries of topics relevant to the Mac community. Speakers included Jason Snell, John Gruber, and other smart people explaining trends and sharing insight. It was a brilliant addition to the Macworld curriculum. I hope it comes back.

The Book

It was thrilling for me to stand in the Wiley booth and watch people take Mac at Work off the shelf. I spoke with several attendees who read the book and their compliments made all the effort worth it.

The Social

It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to make new friends at Macworld. Every year I renew old friendships and make several new ones. This year was no different. Overall, there was a great vibe to this year’s show. Last year, there was an underlying tension with Apple’s departure. This year, nobody missed Apple. In fact, the conference had several interesting presenters (like the iFixIt guys showing you how to crack open your iPhone 4) that never would have been present in the days of Apple.

In summary, the show is alive and well. The trip was energizing and exactly what I needed to kick off 2011. I’m already making plans for Macworld 2012 (January 25-28).

The Macworld Live Stage and audience pictures are courtesy of Allison Sheridan.

MacSparky.com is sponsored by Bee Docs Timeline 3D. Make a timeline presentation with your Mac.