TW Blog :: Entries for OSX

Quicksilver Tips 1. Screen Grab and Email

Also relates to Software

A bit to much grumbling recently - especially when today is my smile a while day! So time to get back to some informative blogging. When I was blogging first time round, a popular topic of conversation was choosing Firefox extensions and my favourite Firefox extensions but I think this particular topic has been well and truly saturated now. So instead over the next few weeks I will discuss a number of productivity tools I use on a day by day basis to help me get things done.

Where better to start than one of the stalwarts of any developer's arsenal on the OS X platform - Quicksilver (the art of acting without doing). I have a pretty exhaustive set of Quicksilver plugins installed on my all conquering iMac 3 gigabyte machine. Some of these rarely see the light of day, others I use on a regular basis - without thinking twice. One of Quicksilver's greatest strengths is it's ability to adapt to any task I wish to accomplish. One thing I do regularly is send visual scamps to collaborators during the CSS build stage of a job. Thanks to the Apple Mail Module and Screen Capture Actions I can complete this in three simple steps.

1. Fire up Quicksilver (I use Option + Space) and call up the Capture options (typing CAP is normally adequate but I have set Capture Window as the default for C to bring it up by default)
2. I choose Capture Window and then click the little camera on the window I want to grab.
3. Voila! The captured image appears in the first pane with focus on the second pane where I type E to bring up Email to…, hit TAB and start typing the name of the collaborator the scamp is going to. When their name appears hit ENTER and the the an e-mail will be prepared with the scamp in ready to go.

Of course, this can be extended further using the comma trick to add additional collaborators' addresses to the e-mail.

And since the captures are saved to the desktop could even capture a selection of screens and add them all to the same message using the comma trick. I guess I could take this one step further by introducing a trigger for step 1 but I actually find trigger overload weighs heavy on my short-term memory so avoid assigning too many short cut keys.

So that is my first little Quicksilver tip. More to follow…

Posted on Oct 04, 2007 at 18:04:09.

OS X Software I Cannot Do Without!

Also relates to Software

I am a software addict! Who isn't in this game. But I cannot resist downloading the latest software for a test drive.

But for every ten packages I download nine of those will inevitably wind up in the trash. In my Windows days this soon became a sorrowful affair as left trawling the registry cursing the total lack of usability. Fortunately on OS X this is simplified considerably with most software being self contained packages with only a small footprint left in the user library Preferences and Application Support folders.

Anyway my Dock is filled with logs of colourful icons (ooooh I love the eye candy!) for software I might use on a week by week basis. But what programmes must I have open at all times? Well here is a quick snapshot of some of my essentials. Perhaps a few are left off this list like Cyberduck, Photoshop and Fireworks but these are the major must haves if I were to reinstall.

From the right since that is where the interesting ones are:

iGTD

I procrastinate! This is the antidote.

Ecto 3 Alpha

Note this is alpha but it performs pretty well to me and I was already a paid up and very large fan of Ecto 2. I use this for my personal weblogs on both Blogger and Wordpress. Slightly different to other blog clients I have tried with great OS integration.

Mailpane Beta

Another pre-release this one. In essence it is a browser window for Gmail but it also integrates with the Dock, menu bar (instead of Gmail Notifier) and Growl.

Syncro SVN Client

I actually own this as part of the Oxygen suite (itself excellent software) and while I generally do must SVN management from the command line, this has become an essential client GUI for reviewing what went where and when along with integrated Diff viewer.

Adium

Feel the force! And see when my friends are around for a chat.

Brilliant - I store everything here from purchase receipts to notes to serial numbers. I just hope it holds out once the SQLite database starts hitting the gigabytes!?

Path Finder

It has taken a while to get used to using this Finder replacement which has similarities to Directory Opus (my old faithful on Windows) and I am still discovering cool features. But couldn't revert to Finder only ever again!

Billings

I test drove a number of tracking and invoicing solutions and this came out as the least bloated and simplest to use.

Mail

Can skip over that one!

Textmate

I really only use this at its most simple (for instance I rarely use the inbuilt SVN package) but it is quick efficient and effective syntax highlighting/macro support.

Foxy

I am a CSS developer - need I say more!

ITunes

With DockArt running as the Visualizer.

Endo

Ecto's companion (buy them together at a great discount) and a fresh approach to RSS aggregation with lots of hidden treats.

Navicat

MySQL client GUI of choice since it allows SSH tunneling and many other other powerful features.

Safari 3 Beta (Pimped)

Testing and general browsing.

Not exhaustive but an excellent set of tools.

Posted on Sep 20, 2007 at 09:48:29.