Dancing with OPML

I’ve talked several times about my reliance on OPML. I’ve developed my OPML workflow over the years and perfected it in the crucible of writing The Book. I’m getting lots of e-mail asking for further details, so here goes.

What is OPML?

OPML, which stands for Outline Processor Markup Language, is an XML format for outlines. Over the past few years, it has become the digital intermediary for getting your planning and outlining ideas from one app to another. Currently, it is enjoying wide adoption from Mac and iOS developers, which makes it particularly useful to writers and others who prefer to sort out those jumbled ideas knocking about in their brains.

Why is OPML Awesome?

Short Answer

It lets you choose your own weapon for organizing your thoughts.

Slightly Longer Answer

Most large projects (and in my case small) don’t start out with you sitting at a blank piece of paper and writing your first sentence. Instead, they require planning and chin-in-palm thinking that generally doesn’t happen while watching your word processor’s cursor blink at you mockingly.
The problem is, most people have different ways of going about doing their best thinking.

Speaking broadly, there are the linear outline folks and the chaotic mind map types but these are just the crudest of distinctions (ignoring completely sticky-pad, napkin, and legal pad varieties). Moreover, each genome has its own particular subsets. For instance, on the Mac and iOS platforms, there are so many mind mapping applications that you probably need a mind map to sort them out.

Regardless, no matter how good these applications get, writing your final product with them is as easy as hammering nails with a screwdriver. What you need is a standard that allows you to transfer your human thoughts between multiple digital applications. Specifically, a way to get your thoughts, outline, and mind map ported directly into your word tools. This is exactly what OPML does and THAT is what makes it awesome.

Who Speaks OPML?

There are several developers that support OPML on Mac OS X and iOS. This list is hardly exhaustive, but includes the stuff that works (for me):

MindNode Pro

MindNode Pro is my favorite Mac OS X mind mapping application. I’ve written about it before. This application is easy to use, includes a minimalist interface, and is reasonably priced. They also have an iOS application. Most importantly, once you are done with your mind map in MindNode, you can export it as OPML for use in your other applications like, for instance, OmniOutliner or Scrivener.

iThoughtsHD

Because I’m such a fan of MindNode, it took me some time to warm up to iThoughtsHD, an iOS only mind mapping application. Once I finally downloaded it, I was hooked. The iPad lends itself to mind mapping. It fits your hands. You can move and create branches with your fingers. I, generally, find sitting back with my iPad very easy to incorporate into my creative process.
The iThoughts developer gave this application extra love and attention with respect to the iPad interface including such features as tapping the space bar three times to create a child or pressing the return key three times to open a sibling entry. The application also includes robust export options for other mind mapping application formats, PDF, PNG, and … wait for it … OPML.

OmniOutliner

OmniOutliner is the best outlining application on any platform. It lets you add columns, notes, and easily move and reorganize your outlines. It lends itself to keyboard shortcuts so you can build them on the fly and, despite being long in the tooth, remains a gem. It currently is only on the Mac OS X platform but a major update and an iOS version are in development.
OmniOutliner opens and exports the OPML format. This means you can import an OPML file from, for instance, iThoughtsHD on your iPad, spend time refining it in OmniOutliner and then send it on to your next application in the process via OPML.

Scrivener

Scrivener is where it all comes together. Scrivener is my word processor of choice. (See my outdated review here with a new one coming soon.) Scrivener lets you import an OPML file to a project. In case you didn’t realize it, that was the hallelujah moment. All that digital thinking you did comes to fruition at the point you import it into Scrivener and start writing. All of your branches and sub-branches are organized into project folders and you are the beneficiary of all that prepartion. When I go through the trouble of developing ideas like this, the project comes out better, EVERY TIME.

So How Does It Work?

The Seed

Ideas come to me at the strangest times. When inspiration strikes, I immediately write something down. Perhaps on my iPhone, perhaps in my pocket notebook. It doesn’t take much, just the general idea.

The Plan

Next I’ll start playing with the idea in iThoughtsHD. My best planning is done away from my desk with the iPad. Sometimes I’ll take my iPad to lunch and sit on a park bench or at the standing desk in my office. The trick with this step is to not “schedule” it. Just let your mind roll and go with it. A lot of times, I will spend a week going back and fiddling with the mind map several times. At any time I’ve got 15 or 20 half baked mind maps on my iPad. Because iThoughtsHD syncs with Dropbox and exports as OPML, I can always tinker with them on my Mac using OmniOutliner or MindNode Pro. Rarely does the final version end up looking much like the initial one.

Great Artists Ship

At some point you have to move on. When that day comes I take the final exported OPML and import it into a new Scrivener project. By then I’ve lived with the ideas for sometime and have a good idea of where I’m going with it.* As a result, I rarely encounter writer’s block. I just start cranking through the Scrivener binder. If something doesn’t feel quite right, I move to the next subject and come back later.

* This is not to say that projects don’t change (sometimes dramatically) after I get started in Scrivener. The point is that they don’t change willy-nilly. When I make changes later it is for the good of whatever I’m doing and not because I still don’t have my act together.

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Be Awesome

I don’t know what kind of person Steve Jobs is. I’ve never met him. I do, however, know that he is a father and a husband and I wish him and his family the best with his illness. The Internet is full of words today about Steve’s illness. Except for Merlin’s post, skip it all.

ABA TechShow 2011

I’m heading back to Chicago in April where I will participate in the American Bar Association’s TechShow 2011, the premier legal technology conference and expo. This year I’ll be doing two sessions: one covering alternatives to Microsoft Word (in the Mac track) and another on collaboration tools (in the litigation track). If you are a technology-minded legal professional, the TechShow is a great opportunity to learn about new technology and emerging trends and make some great friends and connections. Don’t miss it.

Tweaking OmniFocus: Project Template Applescript

OmniFocus is an amazing tool. I need this app like Smeagol needs his ring. If I don’t do my morning task audit, I get the shakes and start blurting out incoherent rambling about blown deadlines and crashing plates.

One feature missing in my precious however is the ability to create project templates. Everybody has some little group of tasks that gets repeated. For instance, I had a set of tasks that got repeated for each chapter of The Book. So how do I use this unsupported feature in OmniFocus? The answer is Applescript, that ubiquitous tool (that almost nobody uses) that lets you add features and bolt applications together like so many pieces of a digital erector set. In this case, I didn’t even write the script myself. Instead, I downloaded from Curt Clifton’s outstanding collection of OmniFocus scripts. Specifically, I’m using the Populate Template Placeholders script.

The download includes instructions but since so many find Applescript intimidating, I’m going to walk through it.

First a word about Applescript

Applescript is Apple’s own natural language scripting language that lets Macintosh applications hook up. You can tell one application to generate data and then send that data to a different application to lay it out, or print it, or post it to the Internet. It enables you to make your good apps great and your great apps awesome. It takes a little bit of time to figure out. The best way to learn it is to buy Sal’s book.

Regardless, even if you don’t want to learn Applescript, you can still use it. People like Curt develop all sorts of useful scripts and then post them to the Interwebs. You just download, install, and use without knowing a lick of Applescript code. This template script is just such an example. So here is how you go about it with my Mac Power Users show template:

Step 1: Install

Download the script and copy the script file to your script directory, located at:

~/Library/Scripts/Applications/OmniFocus

Most likely you don’t have an OmniFocus directory, so create one.

Step 2: Create

Create a project template in OmniFocus. This is set of tasks the Applescript will copy and populate for every new instance of the project.

Starting out, it looks just like any other project you may create except this one is more generic and includes Placeholders (nerd translation: variables). Placeholders are declared by adding them to the last line of the Notes section of the project description. They get surrounded by guillemets, those double-bracket looking symbols «like this». You can create them on a US keyboard by pressing (Option + \) for « and (Option + Shift + \) for ».

Once declared you can add the Placeholders to your project name and task items. As you can see from the example, I’ve created placeholders for the show name and show number. (If you want to prove your geek cred, open the Applescript and change the Placeholder symbols to something else.)

Step 3: Run

You can run the script from the script menu in your menubar. If you don’t see the script menu, which looks like this …

you can enable it in the preference pane of Applescript editor, an application on every Mac found in the Applications/Utilities folder.

Once you trigger the script, Applescript prompts you for the Placeholder variables …

and creates a new project replacing the Placeholders with your supplied data. Once you’ve got the script installed, setting up new templates projects takes a fraction of the time it did before.

Step 4: Drag

Drag the newly created project to wherever it belongs in your OmniFocus Project list.

Bonus Points

If you want to add start and due dates to templates projects, go nuts. The project itself, however, must have a start or due date in order for it work. Alternatively, if you add a line to the Project Template Note (above the Placeholder line) that reads Due date is, you will be prompted to type in your dates when you run the script. While I like start dates, I’m not a big fan of due dates and prefer adding dates (if any) manually later.

If you like the script, send Curt a thank you note for making this possible.

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More about The Book

It seems I’ve been writing entirely too much about my own activities here lately. Nonetheless, here is one more post with a summary of some of the places I’ve been showing up on the Internet with the release of Mac at Work.

Thanks everyone for the kind twitters and e-mails regarding the book. Your support and good wishes are humbling.

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Home Screens – Merlin Mann

By far, the best dividends from my activity in the Apple community are the friendships I make. Last year, I became pals with Merlin Mann. (twitter) Merlin (a hotel-room-trashing caliber Internet rock star) is a busy guy and, as a result, doesn’t come off as exactly cuddly. The truth is, however, that Merlin is warm, fuzzy, and compassionate. Not only that, he’s on his own personal crusade to straighten out knowledge workers all around the world. Since Merlin is busy finishing his book, he just gave me his home screen shots and folders. So let’s tuck in.

Birdhouse,
Calvetica,
GoodReader,
Reeder,
Wikipanion Plus,
Instapaper,
Google Voice, and
Nebulous (which I covered here).

JotAgent,
Simplenote,
PlainText,
Elements,
Due, and
now do this.

Siri,
Outliner,
Markdown Mail,
Pro HDR,
iThoughts, and
Tumblr Me.

I normally limit these posts to just the home screen. However, I couldn’t help but also include Merlin’s last screen. Inbox Zero indeed.

Thanks Merlin.

Mac App Store = Big Deal

The pundits (including me) are all cooking together our slants on the Mac app store. The thing is, the pundits don’t matter. The Mac app store is all about normal users who don’t know how to download software from developer web sites and don’t like giving their credit card information to strangers. The App store takes all the barriers down. Don’t believe me? Look at Evernote’s numbers.

90,000 downloads in the first 24 hours of the App store and 40,000 new users. This is going to be a big success. Expect a Windows App Store, within a year.

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Putting Down an Old Soldier – Capturing on Paper

I’ve written before about about methods I use for quick digital capture. It is time for my dirty secret: there are still instances where a pen and paper work best. Most often, when I’m sitting across the table from someone, I find it much more convenient to jot quick notes on a piece of paper rather than pulling out the iPad, booting up the necessary application, and tapping away. Also, I’ve noticed that using technology to capture quick bits of information distracts people. It is much easier to keep your focus on another person while writing notes on a piece of paper then when manipulating electrons. As a result, I’ve made a habit of carrying small notebooks in my pocket. Over the years I’ve used different brands. It really doesn’t matter what you use. Most recently, I’ve started using the Field Notes books but I suspect that has much more to do with me growing up watching Indiana Jones movies than actually needing this particular brand.

Either way, for me these notebooks are purely sacrificial. I scribble notes in them and at the end of the day incorporate information into my digital workflow (most often OmniFocus, Notational Velocity, or Address Book) and then scratch out the processed entries without mercy.

I beat the hell out of these books. They go in shirt pockets, jeans, get smashed into bags, and all other sorts of abuse. It takes me about a month to fill one and then I toss it in the shred bin at the office without further ritual. If you want to do something similar, here are a few pointers:

  • Make sure the size is small enough to fit in your pocket but the length of the page is long enough so you can store your pen inside it without the point poking out the bottom.

  • Make sure the paper is thick enough that if you write on one side, your pen doesn’t bleed through to the other.

  • Most importantly, make a habit of getting the information out of them on a daily basis. That way, when you lose the notebook (you will lose a few of them), you can keep your losses to a minimum.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go throw out the above pictured soldier and start a new recruit.

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