A Better Way to Remove Applications

Loading applications on the Mac couldn't be simpler.  Just drag the application icon into the Application Folder.  Done.  Some installers will do the job for you.  But what happens when you want to remove an application (or widget)?  Drag the application icon out of the Application Folder and into the Trash, right?  Yes, but not quite.  Applications have other files that are placed in various systems locations to make them work.  Dragging the application icon to the Trash won't clean out these files, leaving clutter in your hard drive.

As you might imagine, there are applications to do this job.  One that I use is called AppCleaner from a little software shop called FreeMacSoft.  AppCleaner is free to download but if you really like it, they would appreciate a donation.  Just click on the download button on the webpage and it will automatically be installed in your Application Folder.

When you want to remove an application, start up AppCleaner and then drag the application icon from Application Folder into the AppCleaner window.  AppCleaner will list all the files that are associated with the application and then give you a button to complete the deleting.  AppCleaner even keeps a history file of what it has deleted for future reference.  This is a very handy little application.

Books

I read a fair number of books.  I buy even more (with every intention of reading them).  Several years ago, I started looking for some software to catalog my books.  The best Mac program I could find was Books.

Books is managed by a software house called Audacious Software that still offers Books but has stopped development of future versions of the program in favor of something else they are working on called Codex.  But if you don't want to wait, you can still download Books at their website.  I find the software to be simple to use and stabile.

One of the nice things about Books is that you can simply enter a book's ISBN number and the software will go out to Amazon's servers and pick up all the metadata (author, title, cover art, even a summary) and bring it back to the program.  You can add your own comments on what you thought of the book, give it a star-rating, and even manage your collection as a lending library.  You can also import and export collections.  I have exported a database to Bento 3 which I then synced with Bento 3 on the iPod so that I have a portable version of my database.  You can get an idea of the interface below:

Books can handle several databases so I have one for Books Read and another for Technology Books.  It's a handy way to keep track of your collections.

I would not usually recommend software that is no longer being developed but this seems stabile and the developer is still there for questions.  You might want to think about alternatives such as Bento 3 which I have already mentioned.  Bento 3 is fully-supported commercial software from Filemaker so it is going to be around for awhile.  But if you want some freeware, Books is a good way to go.  If you have and iPod Touch, I have seen an app for that platform that is a book database but I can't imagine entering all the data on the tiny keyboard.

[By the way, if you have friends with a Mac (obviously smart people), feel free to share this blog link with them.]

Some Useful Bookmarklets

I spend a fair amount of time reading on the internet (surprise, surprise).  I use a couple of bookmarklets that make my reading a little more enjoyable.  First, bookmarklets are like bookmarks but they create an action rather than taking you to a webpage.  They are intended to be placed in the bookmark bar at the top of your browser page.  Then clicking on the bookmarklet launches the pre-programmed action.

Readability

The first bookmarklet I want to mention is Readability from Arc90 Labs.  This simple little bookmarklet does some very useful things.  First, if you are reading a page on, say, The New York Times, you can click the Readability bookmarklet and you get the article double-space on a plain white background sans all clutter.  See the images below.

Original Version

With Readability

You can see that the Readability version contains the images as well as the text but gets rid of the clutter. An added bonus is that Readability contains a Print button in the upper left corner of page that allows you to print a clean copy of the story.  With the "Print to pdf" capability on OSX printing, you can also save the story as a pdf file.  You can also use the e-mail button in Readability to send the clean version to someone else.

Installing the bookmarklet couldn't be simpler.  Set the parameters of how you want the Readability conversion to look on Arc90's webpage and then simple drag the bookmarklet to the Bookmark Bar.  That's it.  It is now active.

Read Later

The second bookmarklet I use is Read Later from Instapaper.  When I am browsing and I see something interesting but I don't want to read it at that moment, I hit the Read Later bookmarklet that I downloaded from Instapaper and the current webpage is saved to my queue on the Instapaper website.  When I log in to the website, I can see all the articles I have marked previously and go back and read them.  I can also designated the best with a star and archive them or delete them.

Instapaper also has a free iPod Touch reader app and you can set up your queue of reading material for loading on a Kindle.  See the website for details on these features.  All in all, I find it useful.  Of course, I  also have the problem that if I didn't have time to read it immediately, I may never have time to read it. But it does give me an out if I need it.

Capturing Stuff

I thought I would write a little bit about how I capture stuff using some features and software on my Mac.

I have found that one of the most effective ways to move text I want to save from one application to another is through the Services menu which you can always locate on the upper left of the header bar under the name of the application or the Finder.

For instance, if I find something that I want to save in Scrivener, I will highlight it in its original application and then scroll down under the Services menu till I find the Scrivener entry and then either create a new clipping or append it to an old clipping as you can see in the screen shot.

The Services approach saves the step of having to copy and paste.  You can also send things directly to Mail (if you use Apple Mail) or perform a variety of other tasks.

I already wrote and earlier post on another application called CopyPaste Pro that improves on the clipboard built into OSX.


What about screenshots or images?  I have never found Apple's keyboard shortcut of Command-Shift-4 to be particularly memorable.  It does let you select a segment of the desktop and save it to the desktop as a file.  Hitting the Shift key (after hitting Command-Shift-4) lets you save the whole open application window as an image to the desktop.

A better way is built into the Apple Utility called Grab (which you can find under the Applications/Utilities).  Grab allows you to make either a manual selection of an area, a window, or the whole screen.  You can also do timed grabs so that you can capture something that otherwise would not be visible unless you hover the mouse over it.  Grab is a great little built-in utility but it has its limitations.  For starters, to use what you've Grabbed, you have to save it as file somewhere (I save mine to the Desktop and then throw them away when I am done with them).  Files are saved as TIFF images which don't work for all applications.  They won't upload into Blogger as an example.  So to use the image, you have to open it in Preview and re-save it as a JPEG.  Easy enough to do but it adds steps.  The other problem with Grab is that you cannot adjust your grabbed image once you have released the button.  Okay, you could do it by cropping it in another application but that is another hassle.  Usually, I will just grab the original again until I get what I want.

I have found an even better application, called EasyCrop, to accomplish captures.  EasyCrop is pretty reasonable ($12) and is sold at the website of Yellow Mug.  EasyCrop has a lot of advantages over Grab.  It starts, like Grab, by allowing you to select either an area, a window, or the whole screen.  It also allows timed grabs.  If you already have an image file you can simply drag it into the left hand window to further manipulate it. But from this point forward, it has it all over Grab.  You can easily rotate your image, convert a color image to black and white, and constrain the captured image to a specific aspect ratio (such as 5 x 7).  EasyCrop then allows you to further refine your selection in the left hand screen and automatically import it into the right hand screen on the application. You can set the maximum size of the image file, sharpen the image, and set multiple file formats.  Best of all when you are done, you directly drag the right-hand image into anything that will accept it (such as mail or a document) without having to save it first!  Voila!  no multiple-step operations, no clutter, complete control.

If you don't want to spend the twelve bucks, Yellow Mug offers a more limited utility for free called SnapNDrag which does some, but not all, of what you can do in EasyCrop.  SnapNDrag is more like a slightly improved Grab.

One last simple way to grab an image on a webpage is to simply click and hold the mouse button over the image and drag it to the desktop.  This makes a copy of the original in whatever format the webpage used.  Handy but limited in some cases.

Got any other ways to do these tasks?  I would love to hear your comments.

Scrivener

I know some of you already use this software but I think in fairness to the intent of this blog (Gregg's Mac), I need to mention my favorite writing tool, Scrivener.  This application gives me a tremendous amount of flexibility in writing while also containing my research notes, pictures, organizational tools, and more.  It is not a word processor.  It does not format your final output beyond some simple draft (i.e., double-spaced) formats.  To format the output you send it Word or any other regular word processor.  Check it out at the Literature and Latte home website here.

Scrivener costs $40, which I think is a very fair price for all that it does.  It is very highly rated by almost all Mac magazines and websites.

BumpTop for Mac

I came across something you might find of interest called BumpTop, an alternate desktop for the Mac.  It has been around for Windows for awhile but has just been released for the Mac completely re-written for the Mac platform.  Here's a picture of the one form of the desktop:

I found this on a site I follow called Mashable.  It seems that BumpTop is free, although there is a Pro version which costs some money with more features, particularly for related to the newer mousepads. The Mashable entry is here and the BumpTop website is here.

xPad - The Ultimate Notepad

xPad is freeware and is a high-powered replacement for OSX's Text Edit.  From the developer's website:

xPad is the ultimate notepad, TextEdit and Stickies replacement for Apple's OS X. With a simple, easy-to-use interface and powerful multi-document features, xPad will quickly become your daily text editor of choice.

With xPad you can create as many documents as you like, all of which are managed in one window. Attached to that window is a drawer containing a list of all the documents you've created. Any document can be selected and loaded instantly—at any time—allowing you to easily create and manage hundreds of documents without cluttering your desktop.

Staying organized with xPad is easy. With the category editor you can create and color-code categories, then quickly assign documents in the drawer. Documents can be sorted by name, date or category. Now you can efficiently manage limitless documents with color codingthat provides a constant reminder of your organizational scheme.

This little text editor is worth a look. 

CopyPaste Pro

One of the limitations of OS X is that the copy and paste function only has one slot, on one clipboard.  If you want to paste something that has been copied earlier (and in the meantime you have copied something else), the first copied item is lost.  If you do a lot of copying and pasting, something better is needed.  I read about a couple of copy/paste programs that fill the bill.

The first is one that was given "four mice" by Macworld Magazine, called PTHPasteboard Pro 4.5.2.  This is a systems utility that allows multiple copy paste and has a lot functionality built in via Apple Scripts that makes it very useful to someone writing a lot of software code.  The scripts (which run as filters) can do a lot to put in (or take out) html tags, etc.  You can build custom filters and save them for future use. It costs $30 and can be found here.

For the same money, however, I chose another piece of software called CopyPaste Pro that has some pretty cool features.  It not only allows multiple copies and pastes but you can put your copied materials into folders called archives within the application.  It even has a built in word processor called Bean to edit your saved clips.  There are lots of ways to see what you have copied through hot spots on the desktop as well as something like the Dock that opens on the right.

Other things I like are a nice set of screencast tutorials on the website as well as good Help material.  CopyPaste Pro was rated 4.6 out of 5.0 on MacUpDate.  The company even has an endorsement from noted Mac User, James Galway : - ) This is an application rather than a systems utility but you can set it up so that it launches at startup.

One interesting feature is that if you copy a segment from a webpage that contains multiple URLs or e-mail addresses, Copypaste Pro has a script that allows you to strip these out and save them separately from the rest of the stuff on the page.

I have been using this now for a few days and I like this application.  Sure, there are other ways to do this, including multiple copies to TextEdit or using the Services menu to park clips in different applications, but this is very intuitive and user-friendly.

ClicktoFlash

This is a free Safari utility that does just what it says: it takes Flash objects that are embedded in a web page and grays them out unless you click on them. The following is from the website:

Ever wanted to get rid of the scourge of the web that is Adobe Flash, but still retain the ability to view Flash whenever you want? With ClickToFlash, you can! Using ClickToFlash, all of those icky Flash bits that have infected most webpages on the internets are replaced with a nice, smooth gradient and the word "Flash" set in a nice, pleasing font. When you want to view the Flash, just click on it!

The advantages of ClickToFlash are numerous. Since Flash isn't loaded until you specifically ask for it, your CPU usage will stay at normal levels when browsing the web. This has tons of benefits: web browsing stays speedy, your Mac laptop won't get as hot, and your Mac's fan won't come on as often. In fact, we guarantee* that ClickToFlash will quintuple your battery life and that it will protect those precious parts of your body on which you rest your laptop! (*note: not actually guaranteed)

This is what a Flash grayed-out box looks like:

You double-click in the box to launch the Flash file (YouTube videos are Flash files). The little gear in the upper left-hand corner has other options and settings.

I've loaded this utility and it works just as described.  Find it here.