Mac Power Users 440: Workflows with Thom Zahler

Artist, illustrator, and cartooner Thom Zahler talks about his life as a comic book artist and writer and the digital and analog tools he uses on this week’s MPU episode. He shares how he makes a living and his experience on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

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Automators Ep. 2 – Email Automation

The latest episode of the Automators is up. This episode focusses on automating email. Should all of your emails be special snowflakes? No. You should automate that email so you can spend your time making things you love instead of answering email. So what are the tools?

Automating Email on the Mac

TextExpander

TextExpander is one of the best ways to get started with automation, and it is particularly suited to email. While there are plenty of text expansion apps, TextExpander is the only one that allows you to code in keyboard control and scripting

For example, using TextExpander, I can make a snippet that I activate in the subject line of an email that will create the subject line, press the tab key (jumping the cursor to the body of the email), type in the recipient’s name, and finally write the body of the email. This goes way beyond basic text expansion and is a great way to handle repetitive emails quickly.

For bonus points, when I’m sending out emails for customer support, I will often have the snippet grab the contents of my clipboard which may contain a customer name or a discount code.

I know this is basic automation, but it’s something that everybody should know how to do. You can download the TextExpander snippet for your own use.

Adding a bit of AppleScript, you can also automate insertion of the recipient’s name. Here’s the snippet group and below is the video.

Automator

Automator is another vector toward automating email on your Mac. Automator includes a specific action to create and send an email. Unfortunately, you cannot insert variables for the recipient and other email fields. Instead, you either pre-populate in the script or you have it ask you when it runs. While this can be helpful, the way Workflow (and Siri shortcuts) let you populate these fields with automation generated text and contacts is the way to go. The below screenshot demonstrates the Automator actions available for email.

Keyboard Maestro

Keyboard Maestro excels at email assembly and sending. Our best example of this is a Keyboard Maestro script that looks for the existence of a particular file. When Keyboard Maestro determines the file exists, Keyboard Maestro generates an email and attaches the file and then, if you’re brave, sends the email for you.

Auto Sorting Email on the Mac

There are so many tools to sort your email. Apple Mail’s built-in mail sorting rules are powerful. If you use Gmail, they have a lot of cloud-based rules to sort email for you.

If you use Apple Mail, check out Mail Act-On which lets you automatically file email.

AppleScript

AppleScript still has its use in email. I have an Apple Script I use (demonstrated above) that grabs the name of the email recipient from the email field and inserts it in the email.

Automating Email on iOS

Often, automation for email on iOS comes down to the app you use. Rose uses Airmail and automates it often, as demonstrated by the below custom action screencast.

Dispatch is another good option for automating email. It automatically fills in the recipient name, it creates universal email links, and supports TextExpander. Drafts is another option for creating email. It’s a great app and allows you to write email without getting trapped in your inbox.

Workflow and Email

Workflow is one of the best tools for automating email on iOS. With Workflow you can truly create an iOS-based mail merge. Rose demonstrates this in a screencast. You can also download the Workflow and the Drafts action group.

Rose also mentioned a Workflow to automatically mail the most recent picture. Here it is.

Web-Based Automation

Google is the post child for powerful web-based email automation. There is almost no limit, so long as you are in the Google sandbox. Google’s not the only option though. Microsoft also has web-based email automation. MPU sponsor SaneBox also supports the rest of us.

About the Automators

As you can see, our mission statement at Automators is that anybody can automate. I’m looking at you. If you like Mac Power Users, consider this show the other bookend. Listen to the show, download the samples, become a badass. Also please subscribe to the show, give it a review, and check out the Automators forum.

iOS Customer Preferences

9to5 Mac linked to this Creative Strategies report concerning App Store user preferences. There are a few points of note.

Many Users Rely on Google to Find Apps

Only 16% of the surveyed iOS users exclusively rely on the App Store to find new apps. I view this as an indictment of the App Store. For years it was terrible. I remember when I would search for “Tweetbot” by name and the app would return five twitter apps, none of which were Tweetbot.

I think Apple improved the App Store (a lot) last year with the new iOS App Store (and they look to do the same this year on the Mac). Nevertheless, the die has been cast. It’s going to take a while for users to start trusting the App Store again. If you’ve given up on the iOS App Store, I recommend you give it a closer look. It’s a lot better than it used to be.

Users Still Don’t Like Subscriptions

54% of iOS users surveyed said they prefer a one-time payment over subscriptions. Frankly, I expected that number to be higher. While nobody is particularly happy about it, I do think users are coming to understand that there are instances where the subscription model makes sense. I’m also encouraged how some companies can avoid the subscription model and even achieve a sort-of upgrade pricing. The Omni group comes to mind. With the most recent version of OmniFocus, they did not require a subscription but instead, through some clever programming, give owners of the prior version a 50% discount. This is the closest thing I’ve seen to upgrade pricing on iOS, and I hope other developers consider it.

Lego Aston Martin

Screen Shot 2018-07-19 at 8.31.34 AM.png

It has been a long time since I’ve been tempted to buy a new Lego set, but this one really pushes my buttons. This famous James Bond car includes a working ejector seat, revolving number plates, rear-window bulletproof screen, front wing machine guns and wheel-mounted tire scythes. Hat tip to John Gruber.

Fantastical 2.5 for Mac and New Video

Today Flexibits released Fantastical 2.5 for the Mac. There are several notable new features with the new version including Meetup.com integration and support for sending and receiving time proposals for meetings via Exchange, Google, and iCloud.

I run Fantastical on my 27″ iMac in its own screen with 14 days displayed in week view. I think of it as my calendar control center. It’s the only full-screen app I run on my 27″ iMac and it’s glorious. With version 2.5 they’ve added a bunch of great keyboard support to let you move and change events with just the keyboard. That is definitely my favorite feature in the new version. I demonstrate all of the new features in the video below. It’s a free update if you already are a Fantastical for Mac user.

Mac Power Users 439: On Our Desks …

Katie and I share our home office setups on this week’s MPU+ episode. We discuss all the gadgets in, on, and under our desks; what’s connected to our Macs; and how we get work done.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

TextExpander from Smile: Type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander from Smile.
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Good Times in London

I had a lot of fun this week meeting with about 50 readers and listeners in London. As usual, I found most of the people in attendance are smarter than I am with Ph.D’s, Scientists, Attorneys, Doctors, and generally smart people of all ages. If you ever have a chance to attend one of these geek meetups, I highly recommend. Just about everyone makes a new friend or two. The next one will be next weekend at the MacStock conference. I’ll see you there.

Get Automating with TextExpander

I’ve heard a lot about automation this week as the Automators podcast gets launched. One of the easiest ways to get started with automation is by getting TextExpander installed on your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. TextExpander is a text replacement tool and so much more. With TextExpander, you can type a phrase like “ccell” and it will automatically fill in your cell phone number. But TextExpander is so much more than that.

Using TextExpander, you can have it automatically create the date and time. For example, when I talk with someone on the phone related to the day job and want to keep notes about the conversation, I just type “xdts” which, in my head, means date and time string. Then TextExpander automatically creates something like this, “2018-07-13 13:23”. If I need to put the full date in a letter, I just type “fdate” and TextExpander puts in the current date, like this, “July 13, 2018”.

But TextExpander goes much deeper. It can use the contents of your clipboard to auto-fill in snippets. It can press keyboard keys, like the tab key, to automate filling in forms on the web or creating an email. You can get it for yourself and your team members so you can share snippets with your team members.

I’ve done so much with TextExpander over the years that I even have a page of snippets I’ve created that you can download ranging from movie to reviews to conference calls. To learn more, head over to TextExpander.com and let them know you heard about it at MacSparky in the “Where did you hear about us” field.

Free Agents 51: Freedom Frogs

On this week’s episode of Free Agents, Mike and I talk about why “eating your frog” is an important free agent survival skill. I talk through a pivot in my approach to book publishing, and Mike shares his struggles with “Imposter Syndrome” and how he overcomes it.

This episode of Free Agents is sponsored by:

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