Mac Power Users 605: File Management in the Cloud Era

Files and folders have been with the Mac user since the very beginning, but today, file management has gotten a lot more complicated. On this week’s Mac Power Users, Stephen and I tackle the topics of tags, search, backups, cloud services, and more, all in the hope of untangling the mess that storage has become for so many.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • 1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? You don’t have to worry about that anymore.

  • SaneBox: Stop drowning in email!

  • Pingdom: Start monitoring your website performance and availability today, and get instant alerts when an outage occurs or a site transaction fails. Use offer code MPU to get 30% off. Offer expires on January 31, 2022, and can be used only once.

  • Setapp: More than 200 powerful apps for your Mac. Try it free for a week.

Documents X from Readdle

One of my common complaints on iPad is the inadequacies of file management. Readdle’s Documents is a mobile file manager app that lets you do things like download videos, read ePUBs, open ZIP files, watch movies, and edit PDFs.  And now, with an update and redesign, Documents X is out with some major improvements. 

They built Smart Actions, which is like smart contextual shortcuts. You do a thing like upload a file or scan a document, and then Documents will suggest the best next action to take. For instance, it’ll suggest sharing the uploaded file or offer to download the scanned document. All the suggestions are contextual and natively integrated into the interface so you can speed up your workflow. 

The update now gives us faster access to cloud storage. With a dedicated “Connections” tab, you can find all your cloud services with just one tap. Now all your clouds are in “My Files.”   

With the updates to Documents, Documents X brings some real file management power tools to iPad and iPhone. Wouldn’t it be odd if the best file manager for an Apple platform wasn’t made by Apple?

Add TextExpander toYour Team (Sponsor)

My thanks to this week’s sponsor, TextExpander. TextExpander allows me and my team to work faster and smarter. I’ve got a team of people I work with and one of those people is an assistant. By using TextExpander, we can use shared snippets to keep us on message. I can manage and share snippets so she can easily and accurately answer some of the more common questions with just a few keystrokes. And I can style our snippet text and add images and links, which she can then easily personalize and edit when and how she needs to.

TextExpander gives us the ability to streamline and speed up what we type, which makes it easier for a productive Team MacSparky to to get our work done. Redeem an offer from TextExpander for 20% off and try for yourself how you and your team can say more with less work.

Using AppleScript to Announce Glanceable Information

Ernest Rudak (Twitter)(website), a blind Mac power user, wrote a really informative piece on using AppleScript to announce glanceable information. Of course, as someone who’s not visually impaired, there are a lot of things I take for granted or never really thought about, like getting information like time, day, or date with a quick glance on my iPhone. Ernest, with an interest in automation, Keyboard Maestro, and keyboard shortcuts, came up with a solution by writing an AppleScript. Have a go and read it for yourself to see what works for him. I agree with him that the best automations aren’t the ones filled with endless lines of code, but the “small utilities which smoothly fits in your everyday workflow.”

Yoink

You may have heard before how I don’t like to drag-and-drop. I think there’s too much room for error when you’re moving around important files and you have to get it just right. That’s one of the reasons I really dig Yoink. Yoink has vastly simplified and improved drag-and-drop on the Mac by offering a sort of “shelf” for what you want to move or copy. Put your files on the shelf. Yoink holds it until you need it, and then, without having to deal with a whole keep-your-finger-on-the-mouse-and-do-not-let-go situation, you can navigate to the destination of your files and move them more easily out of Yoink and get your files go where they’re supposed to go. 

To celebrate its 10-year anniversary on the Mac App Store, Yoink has lowered its price for a limited time to $4.99. It is hard for me to believe that I’ve been using this app for years but, alas, I have. In its 10 years, Yoink’s became even more powerful function-wise with even more things you can do with it. It’s also available for iPad and iPhone so you can even transfer files between all the devices you’re running Yoink on. Get things where they need be with Yoink.

Mac Power Users 604: Workflows with Jay Miller

Jay Miller, from Relay’s new Conduit podcast, joins Stephen and me on the latest episode of Mac Power Users to share some knowledge about the best workflows for video meetings, getting more out of the emerging Craft app, and even more uses for a Mac mini.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • 1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? You don’t have to worry about that anymore.

  • TextExpander from Smile: Get 20% off with this link and type more with less effort! Expand short abbreviations into longer bits of text, even fill-ins, with TextExpander from Smile.

  • Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

  • Pingdom: Start monitoring your website performance and availability today, and get instant alerts when an outage occurs or a site transaction fails. Use offer code MPU to get 30% off. Offer expires on January 31, 2022, and can be used only once.

TextExpander — Fuhgeddaboudit (Sponsor)

This week’s sponsor at MacSparky is TextExpander. With TextExpander, you create snippets, whether it’s a word, a phrase, a sentence or longer. Once you save that snippet with a short abbreviation, you can, with few keystrokes rather than typing your snippet out, quickly insert the text you want anywhere you type. 

There are some words and phrases that I can’t get my fingers to type correctly, or I don’t remember the correct spelling or where the accent mark goes. With TextExpander at my fingertips, I never have to worry about this. For instance, I like saying, “Forget about it,” but what I really mean is, “Fuhgeddaboudit!” I cannot remember how to spell that. I use four keystrokes and TextExpender pops in the 14-letter word. I’m lucky that MacSparky’s worldwide, and sometimes, I like to say thanks back in another language. There’s a Thanks group in my TextExpander library so I never have to look that up since I just keep (and update) TextExpander snippets on how to say, “Thank you.” 감사합니다, TextExpander.

TextExpander helps you work faster and smarter so you can focus your time on your most important work. Get 20% off TextExpander and get ready to minimize effort and maximize productivity.

The New DraftTable

ElevationLab has put out a new and improved DraftTable for iPad Pro. I think a lot of iPad stands just aren’t sturdy and adjustable enough for an iPad Pro, and ElevationLab has thoughtfully engineered a stand for some of the different ways we use the iPad Pro. DraftTable V2 for iPad Pro has easy-to-adjust spring-loaded legs that lock open and closed, and an extra wide adjustment range. That means you can adjust your iPad Pro to the best position for what you need to get done without it moving or tipping over when you tap or draw on it. But that doesn’t mean the DraftTable is bulky or cumbersome. In fact, it neatly folds away so that it’s flat and easy to store and travel with.

They’ve also got a DraftTable V2 Pro Kit available that includes ArmRest, which lets you draw comfortably all day without fatigue, and a silicone PencilStand, which holds our Apple Pencil locks to your desk with air suction so you won’t knock it over. Try out this ergonomic iPad Pro stand to get the most out your iPad.

I purchased the V1 DraftTable and I still use it. It is a great way to use your iPad on your desk and I use mine all time.