The Hickensian

30.06.05

Technorati Tags organisation, osx, software

Using things for other things

Use your IMAP email account as a way of storing notes to view between machines. In the ‘To’ field, write a category (such as ‘To do’) and the note name in the subject, and save as a draft.

Set up a web scrapbook album in iPhoto. See an icon or logo you like? Stick it in there. Like a site design/colour scheme? Take a screenshot and bung that in there too. It may not be there next time you look. (A wee mention for Chronosync which can sync your iPhoto libraries, as well as everything else on your Mac).

Use the superb Sidenote to store a collection of form widgets/logos for use on side design mockups. Copying and pasting from The Designers Toolbox works a treat.
Sidenote, with widgets
You can also drop files (which creates an alias) or links in there for easy access/relevance to the note.

How about using NetNewsWire as a browser? It has many browser features beyond the tabbed browsing interface, such as appearance settings and downloads manager. It uses the same Safari shortcuts for navigating pages and tabs, and saves your tabs between launches. What’s more, tab setups can be synced across macs with either a .mac or FTP account. It shares cookies with Safari, so if you already have your details saved for someones blog comments, the fields will be autofilled as they would be in Safari. Extend its functionality by:

Using a Floppymoose usercontent.css file, for ad-blocking abilities.
Drag and dropyour Firefox bookmarks.html file into a tab. As NNW remember tabs when you shut down, you can keep this open all the time to see your bookmarks. Cmd-click will open your bookmarks in a new tab as normal.
Setting your ‘External weblog Editor’ to ‘Cocoalicious’, so that you can add links to delicious by using ‘post to weblog’. Alternatively, use this applescript to post via Safari (will also work in Omniweb, just change the application name in the script).
Bookmark a site in Omniweb with this applescript.
Take this a little further with the web apps now available, NetNewsWire becomes an email client (GMail) and Project Manager (Basecamp etc).

Please share if you have anymore!

Comments | RSS

No.1

Brutal said 1465 days ago:

Wow I never thought about about using IMAP as a notebook! Great idea! ;)

I use different machines at work and at home, so I’m always mailing textsnippets and links to myself. But by using drafts in Gmail, I get an online notebook.

No.2

Pieter Jelle said 1465 days ago:

I do use NNW as a browser most of the time, since I tend to get most of my links from RSS feeds. However, the lack of support for javascript and flash makes it a little less usable, so I do have to switch to Safari every now and then. Or is there a way around this? Another little flaw is that it tends to get too slow to be usable after being open for a while (I never shut my Mac down, I just put it to sleep and leave NNW running). So I have to restart the app to make it usable again – luckily it remembers my tabs.

And I’m really going to have to set up my IMAP server again now that you’ve given it a reason for living!

No.3

Jacob BÃ¸tter said 1465 days ago:

I am trying out Sidenote which is pretty cool, I am just wondering how to get images in there? When I copy/paste the Designers Toolbox none of the images show up and I can’t seem to find a way to get them in there. How did you do it?

No.4

Matthew said 1465 days ago:

Hmmph. Firefox does not allow for the drag&drop into sidebar much to my dismay as I only get Safari 1.3 and I don’t like not having RSS feeders in my browser. Just a note though, still using Sidebar :D

No.5

Brent Simmons said 1465 days ago:

Pieter—NetNewsWire supports JavaScript and Flash. It’s just that they’re off by default. You can turn these features on via the Appearance preferences pane. Click the News Items tab, turn them on, then click the Web Pages tab and turn them on there too.

(Note: due to a weird WebKit bug, you may have to enable plugins for both news items and web pages for plugins to work.)

No.6

Andrea said 1465 days ago:

Pieter: you can enable javascript and plugins in NetNewsWire by going to Preferences > Appearance > Web Pages. There is a checklist to enable plugins, java, and javascript.

I searched all over for this, too—it logically should be under Browsing…

No.7

Andrea said 1465 days ago:

oops—Brent beat me to it!

No.8

Craig C. said 1465 days ago:

In a pinch I once used my digital camera’s memory stick to move a 40MB file from one computer to another (my local network was acting up and it wasn’t worth burning a cd).

Also, a T-square makes a terrific back-scratcher.

No.9

Jon Hicks said 1465 days ago:

“Also, a T-square makes a terrific back-scratcher.”
– So it does! However, a scalpel doesn’t make a good ear bud (q-tip to out US cousins)

No.10

Craig C. said 1465 days ago:

I only clean my ears with a scalpel when I can’t find my car keys.

No.11

sgb said 1465 days ago:

Stickies (post-it notes) make great keyboard cleaners—just drag the stickie edge inbetween the keys and you’ll be amazed how much crud you collect… at least I’m amazed :)

No.12

Travis Vocino said 1464 days ago:

Nice IMAP tip.

I’ve actually been using IMAP for notes and reminders for a long while just by sending myself email. The “To” field for categorizing is excellent.

No.13

Mary said 1464 days ago:

Hey, that’s great idea! Thanks :)

No.14

Jeremy Boles said 1464 days ago:

You forgot to mention using your radiator as a stove.

No.15

Cam said 1464 days ago:

Thanks for putting me on to Sidenote, Jon… it’s a fantastic little piece of software.

@ Jacob Bøtter (comment #3): you can just drag-and-drop images from web pages into Sidenote.

No.16

Damian said 1462 days ago:

OS X’s “Summarize” function will clean and concatenate text for you. You just have to make sure you set it to 100% so it doesn’t summarize.

It’s harmful to slouch in a chair. When tired, it’s best to lie down on the floor with your knees drawn up and a pile of paperback books under your head. It allows the spine to straighten. A pile of books is good, but one thick one does. I’ve used the Yellow Pages. But some OS X books might do: David Pogue’s “The Missing Manual” or, for the geeks, “Cocoa Programing” by Anguish, Buck and Yacktman.

BTW, Don Yacktman now has a blog:

http://don.yacktman.org/blog/

http://don.yacktman.org/blog/feed/atom/