With Adobe’s new subscription model, a lot of people are asking if they should switch to something less expensive. I’ve been using Pixelmator for years and it has a lot more firepower than I need. Since you can buy Pixelmator for $15, which is just a few months of an Adobe subscription, Pixelmator’s looking even better. Michael Cohen at TidBITS did a nice article looking at this very question and came to the same conclusion I did: For most people Pixelmator will get the job done.
Put Your Mac to Sleep with iOS Drafts
Occasionally, I have sensitive things on my Mac’s screen and occasionally I leave an office, or conference room, or courtroom and forget to shut the lid on that Mac. While I’ve got my Mac set to lock itself down after a few minutes, I thought it would be nice to have a way to force the issue. Mac Power User listener Mariusz wrote me about Polish Mac Geek Milosz Bolechowski who pulls this off with Drafts, a Dropbox File, and Hazel. I thought it was pretty clever so I duplicated it tonight.
This is how it works:
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I type “MB sleep” in Drafts and save it to the standard Drafts folder on Dropbox. (In my case it is located at Dropbox/Apps/Drafts.) I use “MB sleep” because I’m going to add a second one for putting the iMac to sleep.
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Point Hazel at the Drafts folder and tell it to look for a file that contains the terms “MB sleep”
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When Hazel sees the file, it deletes it and runs an AppleScript to put the Mac to sleep.
This is a really simple script.
tell application “Finder”
sleep
end tell
Once you set this up, open Drafts and type “MB sleep” and save it to Dropbox. Within a few seconds, your Mac goes safely to sleep.
Extra Credit
Milosz had another great idea of using a URL scheme to further automate this. If you want to take it a step further, set up a URL scheme in Launch Center Pro as follows:
drafts://x-callback-url/create?text=MB%20sleep
Then when you tap the button in Launch Center Pro, it opens Drafts and fills in the text “MB sleep” for you. You just need to send it to Dropbox for the Magic to happen. The below screenshot gallery gives you the details.
Update
Extra Extra Credit
On Twitter, @Eiscik points out the following Launch Center Pro action performs the Dropbox upload for you with no further taps.
drafts://x-callback-url/create?text=MB%20sleep&action=Save%20to%20Dropbox
Markdown to .docx on iOS
Craig Scott, the developer behind my beloved iThoughtsHD has started releasing a series of iOS apps that feel, to me, a lot more like iOS Automator Actions than apps. The first app, makeDoc, takes the contents of your clipboard text (including Markdown) and spits out a Microsoft Word file. The other, makeSlides, does the same thing to create a PowerPoint file. I don’t have much use for making PowerPoint files. (Indeed, I have an irrational dislike of PowerPoint.) But making Word files is, sadly, a regular thing for me. Craig’s little app makes it possible for me to do this with any Markdown text on my iPad.
I like the idea of these little utility apps to solve an iOS problem. I hope Craig keeps making them and other developers follow suit.
TextExpander touch 2.0
The new version of TextExpander touch is now available for download and it’s fabulous. The big new features are rich text and fill in snippet support. Although this is a version 2.0, it is free for people who already purchased the prior version. The fill-in snippet support is huge for me. I use fill-in snippets every day. Federico did a nice extended review at MacStories and I made a short screencast showing off the new version. Enjoy.
TextExpander touch 2.0 from David Sparks on Vimeo.
Fifty-Seven Bucks Per Visitor
Horace Dediu breaks down the Apple Store numbers to figure out Apple earns $57 for every warm body that walks through the door. ($12 of that is profit.) So how does the popular press turn that into a call for Tim Cook’s head?
MPU 138: Syncing and Sharing
After 4 years, Katie and I go back to the subject of syncing data on this week’s Mac Power Users episode. In it, we cover the relative merits of Dropbox and iCloud and also expand the discussion to syncing all sorts of data between Macs and iOS devices. This is also the episode where Katie threatens to eviscerate me with a Klingon pointy-sword.
Watching FoldingText
HogBay Software makes some great Mac and iOS software. (I’ve got WriteRoom on my iPad home screen right now.) So I’ve been watching the development of FoldingText with some interest over the past several months. The application is now at version 1.2.2 and available in the Mac App Store for $25.
FoldingText is a simple text editor with a few tricks up its sleeve I’ve never seen before. As the name implies, it folds text. While this is a common feature and high-powered text editors such as BBEdit, this is an uncommon feature in an App Store editor.
Implementation is very simple. Write your text using the markdown syntax for headings (e.g., #Heading One).
You can then add additional text underneath that in simple text format or make a bulleted list using hyphens or asterisks. FoldingText follows additional markdown syntax with the application of italics (with asterisks on each side of the words) or bold with a pair of asterisks on each side of each word. You’re basically writing markdown.
The difference is you can tap on one of your headings and all the text underneath the heading will fold into it. If you’ve got a large text document, this can be really helpful. I used it last week for writing a legal brief as an experiment and I really liked it. The application uses iCloud syncing so you can share your document between multiple Macs.
There isn’t an iPad or iPhone version yet and for me, that is a bummer. Because I so often write using these mobile devices, the inability to seamlessly share the information across to them will limit my usage. However, since Jesse Grosjean has already proven his ability to write outstanding iOS applications, I suspect this shortcoming is not a permanent one.
FoldingText in the App Store
Reeder to OmniFocus Inbox with Two Taps
MPU Listener David Hall found a clever use for Reeder’s defeault address to send link setting. He put in his OmniFocus Mail Drop address and now can send an article straight into OmniFocus without leaving Reeder. I’m in.
So Long Surfbits
When I first started thinking about putting myself out there with podcasting and blogging, one of the first people I contacted was Tim Verpoorten. Tim ran the Surfbits MacReviewCast and was always welcoming with advice, assistance, and that friendly midwestern accent. Tim’s been sick for some time but that still didn’t stop him from blogging and keeping in touch with his old Mac friends. Tim represents to me everything that is great about our geek community and today we lost him. So long Surfbits. I’ll miss you. Photo by Victor Cajiao
Star Wars Character Periodic Table
Since posting strange periodic tables seems to be one of my things, how could I resist this one?