Joe Kissell

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since Sep 30, 2014
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Recent posts by Joe Kissell

:-) I could tell you, but then I'd have to have my robots kill you. Maybe I should have said "robot peace corps." That sounds friendlier, doesn't it?

Anyway, the more books I sell, the faster I can build the robots that will help me achieve world domination peace.

Joe
9 years ago
The upgrade from Mavericks to Yosemite is a pretty easy one—much more painless than going from, say, Snow Leopard. Of course you'll want to do a full backup (a bootable clone) before you upgrade, and as always, I recommend upgrading third-party apps before OS X. If you do those two things, the likelihood of problems is small, and they can all be repaired easily :-).

As for the benefits, the numerous ways Yosemite integrates with iOS 8 are quite interesting and useful. I like Mail Drop (when it works <cough>) and I'm prepared to like iCloud Drive (once the infrastructure and third-party support have improved). Extensions will be big, too—again, once third-party support ramps up. And the new Spotlight is almost (not quite!) enough to make me give up LaunchBar. It's really slick.

Joe
9 years ago
Keyboard Maestro is a fantastic general-purpose automation tool. I use it for macros, clipboard history, and so on—and it can indeed be used for text expansion and app launching too. If I had to pick just one automation tool, that would be it, no question.

However, I find Keyboard Maestro less flexible when it comes to text expansion than something like TextExpander or Typinator. A bonus with TextExpander is that it syncs with my iOS devices and has an iOS 8 keyboard that can use all my usual abbreviations. And, for app launching, I really prefer LaunchBar, which learns as you use it (something Keyboard Maestro does not do). LaunchBar also lets you select one or more items and send them to another app, just as you're describing. But it doesn't do text expansion.

So, for me, the solution to the specific things you want to do would be to use two apps: TextExpander and LaunchBar. I could use Keyboard Maestro to do both, but it's not the ideal tool for those jobs, in my opinion.

As for Butler and Quicksilver (and Alfred), the book discusses all of those too. They are good apps, and they have lots of loyal fans. I've tried them, and I don't dislike them, but I find that LaunchBar works more like the way I think.

Joe
9 years ago
I'm flattered! It's always good to hear about fans :-).
9 years ago
Keyboard shortcuts "count" as automation in my book, so that's already a good start :-).

Do you use code completion? If so, that's a form of automation highly relevant to programmers (and if not, you should!). There are tons of ways to automate the insertion of code fragments, and that gets you not only faster results but a decreased chance of typing errors.

My book isn't specifically for programmers; it's about automation more broadly. It goes far beyond functionality built into the Mac, including things like macro utilities, clipboard enhancements, launchers, programmable word processors, AppleScript, Automator, shell scripts, and much more. I'd be shocked if you didn't find at least a few things that will save you time and effort, regardless of what you're using your Mac for. (And, after all, I assume you use your Mac for things besides programming!)

Cheers,

Joe
9 years ago
I haven't seen that behavior, so at the moment I don't have a good explanation. That's certainly strange—Automator shouldn't be using energy like that when it's just open but not doing anything.

Joe
9 years ago
How kind! Thank you!
9 years ago
That's an interesting use case that I'd never thought of before—having an invitation trigger an AppleScript. I don't see a good way to do that in Calendar, but I suggest asking in the MacScripter forums—if it can be done, I'll bet someone there knows how to do it.

Joe
9 years ago
Nice to be here!

Joe
9 years ago