Tame Your Email with SaneBox – Sponsor

This week’s sponsor, SaneBox is the solution to so many of my email problems. SaneBox is the email service that adds a pile of productivity features to your email, regardless of what email client you use. For a lot of folks, email is a constant pain point, and it doesn’t need to be. With SaneBox at your back, you can:

Wake up every day to find the SaneBox robots have automatically sorted your incoming email for you so you can address the important and ignore the irrelevant.
Defer email for hours, days, or weeks, so it is out of your life until a more appropriate time. They’ve even added a new feature that can optionally auto-reply to snoozed email with something like, “I’m sorry, but I’m underwater right now. I’ll get back to you in a few days.”
Set secret reminders so if someone doesn’t reply to an important email SaneBox gives you a nudge to follow up.
Automatically save attachments to the cloud (like Dropbox).
Use their SaneForward service to automatically send appropriate emails to services like Evernote, Expensify, and Kayak.
Move unwanted email to the SaneBlackHole and never see anything from that person again.

The list goes on, and MacSparky readers love this service.

The SaneBox team has been hard at work lately improving the SaneBox interface and releasing even more new tools. For instance, now you can have SaneBox send an auto-reply when you defer an email. Why not straighten out your email by getting a SaneBox account today. If you sign up with this link, you even get a discount on your subscription.

Power Up with TextExpander – Sponsor

This week MacSparky.com is sponsored by TextExpander, the easiest way to start automating your work on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. TextExpander is a text replacement tool. With it, you can type a phrase like “ccell” and it will automatically fill in your cell phone number. But TextExpander is so much more than that.

Using TextExpander, you can have it automatically create the date and time. For example, when I talk with someone on the phone related to the day job and want to keep notes about the conversation, I just type “xdts” which, in my head, means date and time string. Then TextExpander automatically creates something like this, “2018-03-28 06:42”. If I need to put the full date in a letter, I just type “fdate” and TextExpander puts in the current date, like this, “March 28, 2018”.

But TextExpander can still go deeper. It can use the contents of your clipboard to auto-fill in snippets. It can press keyboard keys, like the tab key, to automate filling in forms on the web or creating an email. You can get it for yourself and your team members so you can share snippets with your team members.

I’ve done so much with TextExpander over the years that I even have a page of snippets I’ve created that you can download ranging from movie to reviews to conference calls. One of my personal favorite groups is foreign thanks where you can say thank you to people in most language. Sending an email to a French friend, just type “french thanks” and TextExpander gives you “Merci”. It’s like your own, personal translator.

To learn more, head over to TextExpander.com and let them know you heard about it at MacSparky in the “Where did you hear about us” field.

Solve your Email Problems with SaneBox – Sponsor

Wake up every day to find the SaneBox robots have automatically sorted your incoming email for you so you can address the important and ignore the irrelevant.
Defer email for hours, days, or weeks, so it is out of your life until a more appropriate time. They’ve even added a new feature that can optionally auto-reply to snoozed email with something like, “I’m sorry, but I’m underwater right now. I’ll get back to you in a few days.”
Set secret reminders so if someone doesn’t reply to an important email SaneBox gives you a nudge to follow up.
Automatically save attachments to the cloud (like Dropbox).
Use their SaneForward service to automatically send appropriate emails to services like Evernote, Expensify, and Kayak.
Move unwanted email to the SaneBlackHole and never see anything from that person again.

The list goes on, and MacSparky readers love this service. I was just speaking with the folks at SaneBox, and they report that 70% of the MacSparky readers that try SaneBox end up signing up for it. That’s crazy but not surprising to me because SaneBox works. Why not straighten out your email by getting a SaneBox account and bringing a gun to a knife fight. If you sign up with this link, you even get a discount on your subscription.

Clean Your Mac Safely with CleanMyMac 3 – Sponsor

I’m pleased to welcome a new sponsor to MacSparky, MacPaw, makers of CleanMyMac, an app that I’ve used on my Macs for years now.

According to a study, people waste a full working week every year due to slow computers. It’s the same as losing your hard-earned 7-day vacation. Who would ever agree to that? What’s more striking, is how little it really takes to fix it and make your slow Mac work right. This is where CleanMyMac 3 kicks in. And here are a few reasons to give this native Mac app a chance.

CleanMyMac speeds up your macOS performance with maintenance scripts. What they do is remove temporary items, optimize system libraries so your Mac feels and works smoother.
It removes up to 74 gigs of junk on an average Mac. Yeah, you can delete files on your Mac yourself, but it’s those large invisible files that are the main burden. System junk, pieces of old apps, outdated, broken items and so on.

Have you ever wondered why a new Mac that is straight from the store works so slick and fast? Right. It’s because it is clean, so wiping all the months-old garbage does translate into speed. So try it on your Mac, just as an experiment.

I know some people are nervous about about these types of tools. CleanMyMac does it right. It performs a complete audit of your Mac and let’s you see and approve everything it intends to do before it makes any changes. I first bought CleanMyMac years ago and I’ve been running it regularly with no problems. You can speed up your Mac too with CleanMyMac 3. Best of all, to celebrate their sponsorship of MacSparky, you’ll beg 20% off with the links in this post until March 8. So what are you waiting for? Go clean your Mac.

The Omni Group in 2018 (Sponsor)

This week, MacSparky is sponsored by the Omni Group. Did you know that the Omni Group is going to do some amazing work this year on all of the Omni apps that you love? Ken Case recently did his 2018 Roadmap post, and we have a lot to look forward to:

OmniFocus 3 for Mac and iOS

Tags … check.

Manual sorting … check.

Flexible scheduling … check.

Improved notifications … check.

Updated design … check.

Collaboration … check.

OmniFocus for the web … check.

OmniFocus 3 is easily my most anticipated new software app of 2018.

OmniGraffle

They recently released the 7.6 update for Mac that makes using Stencils easier than ever. I use Stencils often in OmniGraffle when building diagrams, and you should too. Later this year, they will be releasing an update that makes improvements to diagramming tools.

OmniOutliner

We just got OmniOutliner 3 for iOS last week. It’s great!

OmniPlan

There are several updates for OmniPlan in the works. There will be a new “Project Summary Inspector”, and they are making improvements to the “Publish & Subscribe” sync functions.

JavaScript-Based Automation

Best of all, the Omni Group is pushing forward with its JavaScript-based automation tools across the board with its apps. Using these tools, you will be able to automate these already powerful apps with your own custom scripts, which will work in both Mac and iOS versions. Dust off your JavaScript chops, ladies and gents. This will be fun.

This is why I love Omni Group apps. As powerful as these apps are, the Omni team never rests. Go check out the Omni Group today and make sure to read the full 2018 Roadmap.

Manage Time Zones with World Clock Pro – Sponsor

There are a lot of time zone apps out there but there are very few that go beyond the basics. What if I want to know a time difference for some time other than now? What if my friend doesn’t live in a major city so the app can’t figure out their time zone? I’ve always wondered what it would be like if someone really sunk their teeth into making a time zone application. I got my answer with this week’s sponsor, World Clock Pro (website)(Mac App Store) (iOS App Store). World Clock Pro converts times throughout the world within seconds. It doesn’t just show you time conversion. It also helps you plan meetings, travel, and coordinate with other people. One of the things I like is the ability to drag an indicator inside the application to change the start time for your time zone calculation. If I’m trying to set a conference call with someone in Manila or Luxembourg Tuesday afternoon, World Clock Pro makes the task trivial. You can even add events to your calendar directly from the application. World Clock Pro supports 142,000+ locations.

World Clock Pro is not for everyone. It’s sold on a subscription model but for professionals, who deal with time differences on a regular basis, there is no better tool. There are versions for both iOS and Mac. The application even gives you the weather for every time zone you’re looking at.

Also, World Clock Pro’s developer was kind enough to give me a few promotional codes for the application. If you’d like to enter the contest, send me an email with the subject “World Clock Pro Contest”, and you’ll be entered in the random drawing. Please note the winners will be awarded by February 9.