Apps
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Hey Dingus for his shortcuts and regular links posts
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Matt Langford for his work on Tiny Theme
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Manuel Moreale for his People and Blogs newsletter
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Flohgro- For his work on Drafts and Raycast
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Vlad Campos - For his videos on Obsidian and Evernote
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Numeric Citizen - For his videos about Micro.blog
- Download tab as markdown
- Download selection as markdown
- Download all tabs as markdown
- Send tab to Obsidian
- Omnivore - It’s the best read it later service around these days, featuring a mobile app with read aloud capability, newsletter subscription service, RSS feeds and a browser extension.
- MarkDownload - saves Markdown versions of web pages directly into my Obsidian vault with customized properties
- Perplexity - Although one of the unique features of Edge is the built-in access to Chat-GPT4, I like to use Perplexity as well. It’s a popular extension with over 200K downloads.
- Raindrop.io - I have a subscription and heartily endorse Raindrop.io for it’s cross platform support as well as its IFTTT integration which really helps me when I’m researching anything
- Aboard - This is the extension for the app my wife and I use to share links with each other. When I find an app, a TV show, a news story or whatever, I put it into Aboard and she gets a notification and can check it out when she has time. It’s free and useful.
- Chrome Remote Desktop - This allows me to access my home computer from other locations. It’s free, easy to set up and use and reliable. I don’t know what people pay for Screens or TeamViewer subscriptions.
- UBlock Origin- The best ad blocker on the planet. 31,000,000 downloads can’t be wrong.
- Toby - My new tab extension. It makes it easy to save and open windows full of tabs on the go. I use the free version and even though I maintain my start.me page, I stick with Toby for new tabs.
- Velja - Works in conjunction with the Mac app of the same name to open URLs in other bowsers and apps (e.g., Slack, Teams, Zoom, Freetube etc)
- Lastpass - I’ve had a paid account shared with my wife for more than a decade. Lastpass has gotten some bad PR due to a couple of incidents, but I haven’t had any issues. Still, peer pressure is getting to me and I’m looking to switch to Bitwarden when my subscription is up.
- Archive page - An indispensable extension for getting around paywalled content. I use it multiple times a dat for Medium posts and Atlantic articles.
- Postlight Reader - The Postlight Reader extension for Microsoft Edge removes ads and distractions, leaving only text and images for a clean and consistent reading view on every site.
- Reddit Enhancement Suite - I use this for one primary reason - to block pictures of other people’s graphs on the Obsidian subreddit. LOL
- Simplify Gmail- The only extension I pay for. It has hundreds of improvements (small and large) to streamline, simplify, and enhance Gmail’s design and functionality. Hide the features you don’t use, customize the ones you do including setting the list and message width and fonts.
- Raycast - Built-in page summary for Raycast Prousers.
- ChatGPT for Google- Adds a simultaneous ChatGPT search when you look for something at Google.com.
- Web Time Tracker - Provides stats on how much time you spend on web sites
- Street Pass for Mastodon- StreetPass is a browser extension that helps you find your people on Mastodon. Here’s how it works:
- Mastodon users verify themselves by adding a custom link to their personal site.
- StreetPass lets you know when you’ve found one of these links, and adds them to your StreetPass list.
- Browse the web as usual. StreetPass will build a list of Mastodon users made up of the websites you go to.
- Swipe between pages of a document
- Open Notification Center
- Show the desktop
- Open Launchpad
- Open Mission Control
- Use App Expose
- Swipe between full-screen apps
- A single (one-finger) click on the bottom right corner initiates a Google search
- A two finger tap acts as ALT+TAB and brings up my application switcher from Keyboard Maestro.
Path Finder by Cocoatech has been around as long as Mac OS X. Its dual pane file navigation and depth of features make it a must-have tool in my app belt. It is available on Setapp or by subscription or one time purchase without upgrades.
Mac people - excluding Apple’s own apps, what software have you been using the longest? For me it’s going to be BBEdit (released in 92) and ToyViewer (released in 95), both of which I’ve used since the 90s. Honorable mention to Launchbar and PathFinder.
My 10 Favorite #Raycast Use Cases (and all the apps it replaced)
I’ve been using a keyboard driven application launcher since 2006. For the majority of that time, I was a devout Launchbar fan. installing it on Mac after Mac and dutifully paying for the infrequent upgrades. When I initially heard about Raycast, I wasn’t interested, but the uproar just kept getting louder. Tech bloggers and Reddit sang its praises and kept pointing out new features one after another. I finally relented and downloaded it. After spending my Thanksgiving break of 2023 getting it configured to match my needs, I’ve been an enthusiastic proponent ever since. I’m a paid subscriber, mostly to keep my setup synced between my two computers but also to take advantage of the many AI features only available to pro users. Not to fear though, absent AI and sync, almost everything else is included in the free version.
1. Clipboard History
I used to use Pastepal and at times I miss its ability to sync my clipboard with my phone, but there are work arounds for that. By using Raycast’s built in clipboard manager, I eliminate the need to run a separate program at all times. It’s very convenient to assign a hotkey combo to show my clipboard history and then to navigate it without the need for a mouse.
2. Kill Process
When I have the infrequent application crash, I don’t have to remember the Apple keyboard combo for force quitting an application nor do I have to use a mouse to click on the dock or Apple Menu. I just launch Raycast and type “Kill Process” and then the name of the rouge program and hit enter. Boom, just like that the crash is over and I can relaunch the application if I want to.
3. Image Modification
As a blogger, I have a frequent need to reduce the size of images before I post them on my website. The image modification plugin acts on whatever file is selected in the finder. I specify the width I want and it figures out the height for me. If I want to convert an image from a PNG to a JPG, it can handle that too. It can also pad and scale images as well as removing EXIF data.
4. Emoji Picker
I used to use Rocket, a separate program as an emoji picker but the one built into Raycast works just as well. I can select from my frequently used emojis or search all those installed. I can copy the result onto my clipboard or paste it into the active application. I use the hotkey fn+E to summon the emoji picker and I do it often 😃.
5. Unsplash
When I’m looking for a stock photo to use on my blog, I can use the Unsplash extension to do it right from Raycast without having to use a web browser. I can search and download a variety of images for free from the keyboard. I can search specific collections, my favorites or the entire catalog. I can even use Raycast to set my wallpaper to any image on Unsplash.
6. Brew
I no longer have to use the terminal to do maintenance on Homebrew, the Mac package manager. I can get a list of my installed and outdated casks and run the updates right from Raycast. I set a reminder in Things 3 to do this every weekend and I don’t have any issues keeping up with developer releases.
7. Google Search
In the age of AI, there’s still a lot to be said for searching plain old Google. I have a hotkey set to COMMAND+G to allow me to conduct a search wherever I am on my computer. The resulting window not only provides space to type a new search, it also shows me my history (which is erasable). I can open the Google page in my browser or copy the resulting URL to the clipboard.
8. Open Link in Specific Browser
Sometimes I come across a page that just won’t work in the browser I’m using. Using this Raycast command, I can choose another browser to try - Chrome, Arc, Edge - whatever. It doesn’t matter. it will take the URL I’m trying to open and send it to the browser of my choice.
9. Password Search
Raycast has plugins for most major password managers. I use LastPass (yes, I know about the breaches) but it works the same for 1 Password or Bit Warden. I can search for the password I need and either paste it into a browser window or copy it to the clipboard. No longer do I have to use a separate application or browser to get the password or secure not that I want.
10. Shorten URL
The Bitly plugin allows you to shorten URLs straight from the clipboard. Just highlight the URL in your browser’s address bar, invoke the Raycast command and you’re ready to paste the result into a document or social media post.
Honorable Mentions
Raycast quick links allow me to search YouTube, Amazon, NetFlix, HBO/Max, DuckDuckGo and Mac Updater right from the keyboard. I don’t use windows management tools that often, but when I do, they are built-in to Raycast, eliminating the need for yet another separate program.
KeyClu is a free app for aspiring power users. Once installed and running, all you have to do is press the command key twice to bring up a cheat sheet with all the keyboard shortcuts for the app listed on the display.
10 Lesser Known But Super Useful Obsidian Plugins
The most popular Obsidian community plugins, Excalidraw, Dataview and Advanced Tables have over a million downloads apiece. The Obsidian forums and Reddit are full of questions about the best ways to use them. There’s no doubting the power of these plugins and the value they add to Obsidian. But what about the lesser-known work of volunteer developers who make up the backbone of the devout Obsidian community? What about more niche cases and hidden gems? Let’s look at some of those. All of these have less than 50K downloads, some of them much lower than that.
1. Beautitab
Beautitab creates a custom new tab page in Obsidian with customizable elective elements for search (with native search or Omnisearch), time, greeting, recent files and bookmarks to keep often used notes readily available. You can include a daily quote and an ever changing and beautiful collection of photographs as a background.
2. Local Images Plus
Local Images Plus downloads the images in web pages you add to you vault so that if the page is taken down or the URL changes, you still have the images to illustrate your notes. It converts images to jpg from png and makes sure you don’t have duplicates by using the MD5 hashing algorithm. It will also remove orphaned images from your vault. You can even use this plugin to localize images from existing notes.
3. Auto Note Mover
Auto Note Mover allows you to set rules that automatically move notes to the folders of your choice based on tags. You can also set up rules to manually move notes based on tags or you can include a file property yo exclude a mote from being moved. If the destination folder does not exist or if there is already a note with the same name, you will receive a warning and the note will not be moved.
4. Callout Manager
Callout Manager is a plugin that makes creating a configuring callouts easy. With it you can browse a list of available callouts, change the color of callouts, create custom callouts. As a bonus, it works on mobile.
5. Extract URL Content
Extract URL content works when you select a URL in a document and execute a command from the command pallet to replace the selection with the markdown content. Additionally, if you use a file property of link:, followed by a URL, the markdown content will be created. Finally, if you have multiple links in a note, you can run a command to have notes created for each URL in a separate folder.
6. Automatic Table of Contents
Automatic Table of Contents is useful for long and detailed notes. It will create a table of contents for you at the top of a note based on the headers you have used. If you make changes to the note, the table of contents will automatically change to reflect your input.
7. Media DB
Media DB is useful if you use Obsidian to track content consumption. You can search a movie, television series, anime, game, music release or wiki article by its name across multiple APIs. You can make customized templates in each category and even convert existing notes into Media DB notes using the API.
8. Raindrop Highlights
Raindrop Highlights imports your collected bookmarks from the Raindrop.io service along with your highlights into your Obsidian vault. You can import them all or selectively choose the folders you want to bring in. You have the option of running a sync process manually or having it run automatically. If you have decent JS skills, you can even use Nunjucks to create a template for custom front matter and the importation of content with your bookmarks.
9. Attachment Management
The Attachment Management plugin is central to my workflow for the importation of web content. It centralizes the location on attachments in a single folder with subfolders matching the structure of my vault. It renames images to match the note names they are a part of. It works well with the Local Images Plus plugin. If you have folders where you don’t want the attachments moved or renamed, setting up exclusion rules is easy.
10. Waypoint
Waypoint is an Obsidian plugin that automatically generates tables of contents/MOCs within your folder notes. Once a waypoint is generated, it’ll automatically link to every note within the folder and its subfolders. The Waypoint plugin will detect when you create/rename/move/delete a note and automatically stay up-to-date.
Custom Shortcuts by Houdah Software is a free Mac application that allows you to assign your own keyboard shortcuts to any menu item in any application.
Back in the days of the pre-OS X classic Mac OS, you could configure the Apple Menu to serve as an app launcher and conduit to the folder system. XMenu, a free utility from Devon Technologies offers the same functionality.
Apparency by Mothers Ruin Software is an app that also serves as a plugin for the macOS QuickLook feature. After installing Apparency, you can select an app in the Finder, press the spacebar and get a variety of information in the resulting window.
If you use more than one browser or non-standard apps for things like YouTube, getting links to open in the app of your choice can be a pain. Using Opener by tijo inc., you can force links to open where you want them, not where your phone thinks they should open.
Pro tip - when browsing #Obsidian plugins, click the arrow in the browsing interface to change the sort order and see those most recently released. The plugin count is up to 1,626 as of today. My Obsidian Tips
The One a Month Club's I've Joined So Far
Ever since @jarrod started the One a Month , I’ve looked for people to acknowledge with that token contribution. It’s not much, obviously, but it’s really the thought and the tangible appreciation that really count. I encourage everyone to pick out a few of your favorites to do the same thing.
So far I’m supporting:
iOS has a list of triggers you can use to launch shortcuts but for some reason Apple chose not to include that feature in macOS. Shortery from UnitNo5 steps in to fill that gap. It includes 17 triggers including time, WIFi connections and folder contents.
MarkDownload - The Browser Extension that Works With #Obsidian
There are a variety of ways to get web content into Obsidian, but the one I find myself using most frequently is the MarkDownload Web Clipper. With this tool, you can clip entire pages, snippets and images from most major browsers straight into your Obsidian vault. There are versions of MarkDownload for Chromium based browsers, Firefox, and Safari.
Customization
You can customize the file properties so that they match the standards you use in your vault. I have the creation date set to YYYY-MM-DD. Instead of “source”, I prefer to use “url”. I also like the URL included in the body of the created note so that it’s clickable. Depending which of the download methods you choose for the note, you have the ability to edit the title and include tags right from the browser. Besides custom front matter, you can also choose the flavor of markdown that you want right down to specific elements.
The default template is:
Setup
To use the Obsidian integration, you need to download and enable the Obsidian Advance URIcommunity plugin. Make any changes you want to the front and back templates. Specify the name of your Obsidian vault and the name of the folder where you want downloaded notes to go. You have choices for the download method but using the Downloads API is recommended. Finally make any changes to the markdown syntax that you want.
Usage
According to the developer “Because the website is first passed through a readability process, you won’t get extra content such as website navigation, footers and advertisements. However, please note that not all websites are created equal and as such some sites may not clip the content you expect.” To clip a page, simply click the extension button in your bowser’s toolbar. You’ll be offered a save as dialog box and the opportunity to make edits. An alternative way, one that bypasses the dialog box, is to right-click in the web page and select from the context menu for MarkDownload. Your choices are:
You can also use the context menu to copy the page or selection to your clipboard as markdown. The final context menu choice is to download images. Image Management in Obsidian - A Workflow
Better Display is a Mac app that lets you reach and control the full potential of your built in and connected displays. Your screen never looked so good after tweaking it with Better Display. Many free features, full package is $18. 15K Stars on GitHub!
Browser Extensions Personalize The Web Like Nothing Else Can - What Are Your Favorites?
Most of these extensions were designed for Chromium browsers. I am an unashamed user of Microsoft Edge. It can use the same extensions available to Google Chrome and there’s a vast selection to choose from. I don’t find that running all these extensions slows Edge down appreciably, so I install what I need. Extensions are specific to the profile you are using, but workspaces within the same profile share the same extensions. You can create a different Mac and PC profile is you find yourself using extensions that are platform specific. Here’s what I use:
Listy is a private list manager for iOS, iPadOS and macOS. It tracks media in the form of movies, books and TV by metadata and web sites like YouTube by URL. I use it to keep lists of media as well as YouTube videos I want to watch and restaurants I want to visit.
I’ve been collecting quotes for a long time. I currently use the free app, Thoughts - Inspiration Manager along with Obsidian to manage my collection. You can import from a CSV file, and it supports shortcuts.
Apple Magic Trackpad and Better Touch Tool - What Are the Best Use Cases, Tips and Tricks?
I got a new 24" M3 iMac at work last week and decided I wanted to try using Apple’s Magic Trackpad with it. I picked up a refurb on Amazon for $30 less than a new one from Apple. I got next day shipping as a Prime member. I used the included lightning cable to charge it overnight and it was ready for deployment this morning. I moved the switch into the on position, opened the Bluetooth settings in the iMac and in about 30 seconds it was paired, and I was in business.
I used it comfortably throughout the day, having no problems moving the cursor, selecting text or “right-clicking” (a two finger press on the force touch surface). There are built in gestures for trackpads in macOS 14 Sonora to:
I have Better Touch Tool from Folivera.ai installed. So far, I only have two gestures programmed:
I’d love to hear from anyone who has favorite Better Touch Tools settings they’d like to share. I’ve heard so much about the program and what it can do. I feel like I could really make use of it from a productivity standpoint.
What’s your favorite habit-tracker? I’ve used Apple Design Award Winner Streaks for years. It’s helped my make things like journaling and posting pictures to Micro.blog a part of my daily routine.
