One of those annoyances is that the printer application stays open and in the dock after printing.

Fortunately there is an easy solution:
Next time you print something just right-click and select “Auto Quit” from the menu:

Voila - now the printer application will quit after the job is done.

The only problem is, that you can still hear all the system sounds. Pretty annoying if you are in a meeting or sitting in a class.

My workaround was to write an Apple Script to control the system volume:

This script will mute the system volume, or set it back to 50% if it’s already muted (the value for “set volume” is a percentage value from 0 to 100).

That’s it, I created a keyboard trigger to execute this script (I used Shift-Ctrl-Command + M) and I can mute my system without having to use the mouse or trackpad.

To summarize my opinion about TaskPaper:

If you want (almost) the flexibility of plain text files with just the right amount of user convenience,
TaskPaper might be the solution for you.

Here is a screenshot from TaskPaper, displaying a file similar to the one I used yesterday:

Even though Hog Bay Software had a different idea how to organize projects, I could still use it the way I prefer to do things. TaskPaper is not forcing me into a workflow that doesn’t work for me. A big round of applause for Hog Bay for not telling me how I have to organize my life!

Another big advantage is, in my opinion, that TaskPaper’s data file is just a plain text file. So I will always be able to access my data - even if TaskPaper is for some reason not available. So for example syncing the file to a PDA and edit it like a plain text file should not be a problem.

So - what kind of convenience does TaskPaper add to using a plain text file?

Adding what is called “Projects” in TaskPaper can be done by clicking one of the buttons at the top, or using a keyboard shortcut. Adding tags to your tasks works just the same way. In order to mark a task as “done” you can just click on the little “bubble” and the tag “@done” will be added, like in my task “Prepare papers for budget meeting” above.

The main disadvantage I see so far: It is not possible to “fold” sections of your data file like in BBEdit. So keeping the overview in a very long file might be a bit dicey. On the other hand, it is possible to jump between Projects with the click of a button, so navigation in a big file should not be a problem. This is similar to the menu in BBEdit to jump between headers, as shown in the following screenshots:

TaskPaper	BBEdit

TaskPaper is free to try for 15 days. Afterwards it’s $18.95 as an introductory offer, later probably something like $27.95.

But not everything is fine and dandy. After attending a session about GTD at a conference I realized, that many of the problems I have with this system are very similar to those of other users.

One of my challenges was that I was always on the prowl for the best software to implement my ToDo-lists (my favourite GTD tool is by the way iGTD). The challenge in this process was that I wasted a lot of time, trying to adjust my process to the software. Never mind the time I wasted switching all my tasks from one great software to the next.

I found it very interesting that this was the same problem for other users, especially Software Engineers, always on the search for the perfect tool. At the above mentioned conference several people mentioned that they finally found the perfect solution: just use plain text files. The advantages seem obvious:

• Highly adjustable to each individuals needs
• Never worry about software upgrades or a different operating system. Some kind of text editor will always be available, even after upgrading from Tiger to Leopard. So you will never loose your precious lists, as long as you have a backup system in place (you do, don’t you?)
• Synchronization with PDAs, dot Mac accounts and what-ever-you-can-think-of is always possible somehow.
• It’s easy to use Quicksilver to add new items to the list - just use “Prepend to…” from the Text Manipulation Actions plug-in.

So I changed my GTD system to plain text files and never looked back!

As it turned out just one file was enough for my needs and here is an example how it might look like:

For me - this is all I need. My real file is of course a lot longer (currently approx. 900 lines).

So, let’s look at it in more detail. The file has four sections:

• TODAY
• CALENDAR (It doesn’t really matter how far in the future your calendar goes, as long as it’s far enough for what you need)
• FOLLOW UP
• SOMETIME/MAYBE

Here is how I usually work with this file:

• The first thing in the morning is to move all tasks for today from the CALENDAR to TODAY. Now the first day of the calendar should be tomorrow.
• If I finish a one-time task I just delete it from the file.
• If I finish a recurring task (like paying the mortgage) I cut-and-paste the task to when it occurs next in the calendar.
• If I have to wait for somebody else I cut-and-paste the task to FOLLOW UP

That’s it in a nutshell. This handles 99% of everything I need to do.

Now, here are some minor tricks which makes working with this system easier:

• I named the file “_gtd.txt”.
  Note the underscore in the beginning of the name! The reason for the underscore is that this file will always show up at the top if I list multiple files in alphabetical order (like in the documents list of BBEdit).
• The “syntax” of my file is something like an over-simplified markdown syntax.
  I chose it this way for one important reason: My editor of choice is BBedit, a text editor that supports code folding. So if I define my file to have a markdown syntax I can fold sections of the file. So even if my calendar goes two years into the future, I can just fold the months and have a neat and small(ish) file.
• I added an indicator for the start of each “Week” to my calendar. This is mostly to have an easier frame of reference when I’m inserting a new task.
  For example: Adding something for this week’s friday is quick and easy, without having to look at an external calendar to find out which date we have on Friday.

Fortunately swapping the keys so that the “Command” and “Option”-keys are in the same location like on an Apple keyboard is very simple:

1. Open your “System Preferences”
2. Select “Keyboard & Mouse”
3. Select the “Keyboard”-tab
4. Click on “Modifier Keys…”

In the resulting dialog map the Option Key to “Command” and vice versa. This is a screenshot made with Tiger, the dialog in Leopard looks a little bit different:

Voila - that’s it. Now the Microsoft keyboard should behave just like an Apple keyboard.

Now, for one additional problem (if you are still using Tiger or before):

I am using my MacBook Pro in my office, so I’m frequently connecting and disconnecting my keyboard. Since my external keyboard is an ergonomic keyboard with Microsoft keys I would have to change those settings each and every time I connect or disconnect the keyboard. This is only the case if you’re still using Tiger or before, because in Leopard you can set the keys for each keyboard type as shown in this screenshot: Keyboard settings in Leopard

One solution is an AppleScript, which I found on the following website:

Change keyboard modifier keys automatically on OSX with Applescript

Now I have a Quicksilver Trigger to execute this Applescript, which makes the swapping of the “Command” and “Option”-keys quick and painless!

So I tried to figure out how to eject CDs and DVDs from my MacBook Pro using Quicksilver. What I discovered was something that probably a lot of users know, but I didn’t . So I thought I’ll share it here:

If you don’t have an “Eject” button on your keyboard you can just press and hold the “F12″ key for two seconds and you CD/DVD will be ejected!
(Small disclaimer: I think you need at least Mac OS 10.2 for this to work!)

It’s that simple, no need for some fancy Quicksilver action. Sometimes life is just so much easier than expected.

There are two kinds of triggers: Keyboard and Mouse triggers. The mouse trigger is very similar to the keyboard trigger, only that you click a mouse button along with some function keys instead of just a key.

Here is how to create a trigger in Quicksilver to do something very basic, for example launch Apples “Mail” application:

First select “Triggers” from the Quicksilver menu in your toolbar at the top of your screen:

In the dialog that appears Click on the little plus-sign at the bottom and select “HotKey” for a keyboard trigger or “Mouse” for a mouse trigger. In my example I am selecting “HotKey” for a keyboard trigger:

Quicksilver will show a dialog very similar to the normal Quicksilver interface. Define the trigger exactly the same way you would ususally use Quicksilver to do something. So in this example I select “Mail” as item and “Open” as the action:

You should now have a new trigger to open the mail application, so the only thing left is to define which key combination will invoke the trigger. To do that select your new trigger and click the little “i”-button at the bottom right of the dialog:

A drawer will open with the details of the trigger:

Click on the “Edit” button for the hot key. Enter the key combination you would like to use for the trigger.

I always use the combination “Shift-Control-Command” along with a defining key for all my Quicksilver triggers. This key combination may feel odd at first, but it didn’t take long for me to get used to it. The advantage of this combination is that it only very seldom causes any conflict with keyboard shortcuts in other applications.

This concludes the creation of a keyboard trigger. Mouse triggers are created similar, only that the drawer to define the Hot Key looks a bit different to cater for the options you have when using a mouse.

43 Folders: Quicksilver demo by Nicholas Jitkoff

It’s a must-see for every Quicksilver fan!

The probably most common way is to define a “Hot Corner” (under System Preferences -> Desktop & Screensaver -> Screen Saver -> Hot Corners) to launch the screen saver. After doing so a quick move of the mouse into the specified corner will engage the screen saver.

My problem with this method is that I rarely use the track pad on my Mac Book Pro, so decided to use a Quicksilver keyboard trigger to engage the screen saver.

First Step: How can we launch the screen saver with Quicksilver? All we need to do is open the Screen Saver Engine, which is located here:

Therefore, we launch Quicksilver, enter Text Mode by typing a period and enter the path to the engine. Quicksilver should look something like this:

The only thing left to do is to define a keyboard trigger. I’m using “Shift/Control/Command-L” as my trigger.

This key combination may sound a bit awkward at first, but I’m using “Shift/Control/Command” for all my Quicksilver trigger. The nice thing about this combination is that it rarely cause conflicts with other keyboard shortcuts, and once you are used to this combination it’s really not this bad. So in this case I combined it with the letter “L”, for “Lock”.

This “night vision mode” is more than just a toy - there are situations when it comes in very handy! I like to use it in meetings and presentations where the light in the room are dimmed down. In those situations, the “night vision display” makes the display more comfortable for my eyes and reduces the annoyance of the bright laptop display for other people in the room.

The only drawback to Nocturne is that (to my knowledge) it doesn’t have an easy way to toggle between night vision and normal display with Quicksilver - so here is my solution:

Once Nocturne is set to “night vision” it will remember this setting and switch the display immediately when invoked. So all I needed was an application that would start Nocturne if it’s not running and quit Nocturne otherwise. A short apple script does this job for me:

You can download this script here: toggleNocturne

That’s it. Save this script as an application and define a keyboard trigger in Quicksilver (I used Shift-Control-Command-N) to invoke it.