This week MacSparky is sponsored by OmniOutliner. For many years OmniOutliner has been my go-to outlining application. The Omni Group has been hard at work on OmniOutliner and they just announced version 5, which will be shipping soon. In the meantime, you can try out the public beta. You should. I’m already hooked. There are some great features including:

Outline Filtering

You can now filter your OmniOutline based on column values, status, note content, and more. You can save each filter to reference later.

Keyboard Shortcut Sets

You can customize nearly everything with custom keyboard shortcuts.

Distraction-Free Writing

The new full screen mode hides the toolbar and sidebars. I like this better than I thought I would.

Built-In Themes & Templates

There are new themes and templates. Your outlines will look better than ever.

There’s a lot more. Go check it out.

This week MacSparky is sponsored by MailButler. While Apple Mail has a lot going for it, Apple Mail is hardly a productivity power tool. That’s where MailButler comes in. MailButler adds new features to Apple Mail to make processing, respond to, and acting on your email faster and more efficient.

An example of this is the MailButler Direct Inbox where you can access your most-frequently used mailboxes right from the menu bar. It’s a great way to check in on email without getting lost in email. You can even perform a variety of actions on the email from the menubar without opening mail including replying, archiving, and turning into a to-do item. Integrated to-do support is another productivity boost for MailButler. With one button you can turn an email into a to-do item and continue on with processing your email.

If you’re like me and use Apple Mail on your Mac, you really should check out MailButler. It adds a lot of great features that seriously up your productivity. The entry level plan is free so what are you waiting for? Make your Apple Mail better today. Go check it out.

∞
 

This week MacSparky is sponsored by SaneBox. Email is hard and if you’re going to have any chance against it, you need some powerful tools at your back. That’s where SaneBox comes in. 

The SaneBox robots are like having my own email personal assistant. SaneBox sorts my mail as it comes in so when I look at my inbox I just see the seven most important emails instead of three hundred emails with those seven important ones buried in there … somewhere.

That’s just the beginning though. SaneBox also has a great anti-spam service called SaneBlackHole. They also have a reminder service that can send you automatic reminders when people don’t respond to your email.

Best of all, it’s server-based so it can work with any mail client. I’ve been a paying subscriber to SaneBox for years and am a very satisfied customer. If you need help with email, check out the below video and give SaneBox a try with this link to get a discount. 

∞
 

This week MacSparky is sponsored by MindNode. By now you’ve probably heard repeatedly how useful mind mapping can be to help you brainstorm and organize your thoughts. The trouble is, mind mapping applications are–as a breed–generally frustrating and complicated.

That’s not the case with MindNode. MindNode has a simple, easy to use interface that makes creating mind maps a breeze. It uses iCloud to sync your data across all of its platforms so you can use the application on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. I love using MindNode to brainstorm. When I’m getting ready to start a new book or presentation, I create a mind map for in MindNode. Then, as ideas come to me I constantly update the mind map, whether I’m sitting at my desk with my iMac or taking a walk with my iPhone. You’d be amazed at how many problems your subconscious mind can solve if you keep a mind map to hold your ideas as they percolate to the surface. This little practice is super-useful and anyone can do it.

Why don’t you turn MindNode into your own secret weapon? Head over to MindNode.com to learn more. They’ve even got a series of videos (by yours truly) that walk you through the basics of creating mind maps with MindNode. Below is the introductory video just to whet your appetite. Thank you MindNode for supporting MacSparky.

This week MacSparky is sponsored by PracticePanther, legal practice management software for the modern attorney. Practice Panther includes tools for attorneys to manage contacts, matters, and documents, track tasks, track time and send invoices, and manage expenses. Using PracticePanther, it takes less than one minute to create and email an invoice to a client. You receive an email confirmation when the client makes a payment, and the software even alerts you when a client views the invoice. Practice Panther also lets attorneys interact with clients with a client portal, notification & chat.

PracticePanther also offers email and iCal integration. See everyone’s calendar in one central location. Attorneys can add events in their native calendar and it appears within PracticePanther’s dashboard.

There’s a lot more including custom intake forms, document integration with Dropbox and Box. PracticePanther was designed to be powerful, secure, and easy to use and it seamlessly integrates with all of the apps that attorneys are used to like Gmail, Outlook, Office 365, Quickbooks and many others.

Learn more at PracticePanther.com.

Schedule a demo today and get 50% off your first two months.

This week MacSparky is sponsored by Shimo, an outstanding Mac VPN client.

Later this week we’re getting the macOS Sierra update and if you use a VPN client, you need to take note that Apple’s built-in VPN client will no longer support PPTP VPN. Never fear though. Shimo does. Indeed Shimo supports several VPN protocols including OpenVPN, IPSec, PPTP, SSL, AnyConnect, SSH.

Shimo sits in your macOS menu bar and is always ready to work for you. User experience is key to this app and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to configure and operate. 

Shimo also takes your security seriously with its support of two-factor authentication and Trigger Automation, which lets your Shimo automatically connect VPN accounts based on certain trigger conditions. All of this adds up to seriously good security with a seriously good user experience.

Up your VPN game today with Shimo.

This week MacSparky is sponsored by SaneBox, the email service that brings order to my email chaos every day. Recently SaneBox announced the SaneFwd service. SaneFwd is an easy way to automate email forwarding to your favorite third-party apps and team members.

With SaneFwd, you can:

• Automatically turning emails into tasks with Any.do and Todoist

• Automatically saving emails and attachments to your Evernote

• Automatically forwarding receipts to Expensify

• Automatically forwarding trip itineraries to Kayak

• Automatically forwarding certain emails to certain friends or colleagues

As an example, let’s say you have a newsletter that you want to automatically save to Evernote. With SaneFwd, you can train SaneBox to keep on the lookout for future newsletters and automatically forward them to your Evernote account. 

Another great example is email-based bills. If you get an invoice sent to you via email every month, why not have SaneBox automatically route it to your Todoist account (or OmniFocus mail drop address)?

SaneFwd is just one more example of how SaneBox can help manage your email so you can get on with your life. I’ve heard from so many readers that tried and fell in love with SaneBox. You should give it a shot. Use this link to get a nice discount off your subscription and let them know you heard about it here. Thanks again SaneBox for helping me in the battle against email every day.

This week MacSparky is sponsored by HoudahGeo. HoudahGeo is a Mac app that makes attaching locations to your photos ridiculously simple. The case for adding geo-location data to your photos is easy. Looking at your photos on a map gives you all sorts of options for sorting, viewing, and sharing your pictures. Want to see all the pictures from that beach trip? With HoudahGeo it’s a snap. Because of the way our human brains work, years in the future we may not remember when we took a certain trip but we will remember where we went and with HoudahGeo on your side that’s all you need.

The trouble is that a lot of cameras have no ability to geocode your photos for you. That’s where HoudahGeo comes in. HoudahGeo actually geocodes photos. It writes industry standard EXIF/XMP tags to the original image files, which makes the geocode information permanent. (Not all geocode apps do that.)

HoudahGeo also works with multiple geocode workflows. You can automatically geocode photos form a GPS track log. You can also manually geocode photos using the map in HoudahGeo. It’s easier than you think. You can even drag-and-drop geocoding data. HoudahGeo also allows for viewing (and showing) photos in Google Earth.

If your camera doesn’t save geo-location data to your photos, you can solve that problem today with HoudahGeo. For a limited time, get 20% off with discount code “MACSPARKY”.