ScreenFloat 2: Power Up Your Screenshots

This week, MacSparky is sponsored by ScreenFloat 2, a major upgrade to the Mac’s built-in screenshot tool. With ScreenFloat 2, screenshots become so much more.

To begin, your screenshots will float, just like the name implies. You no longer have to dig through windows to find your screenshots. It’s right on top, waiting for you.

Then, there is a suite of screenshot tools: markup, annotate, colors, rotate, and trim. ScreenFloat 2 lets you record your screen and trigger screenshots on a timer. If you need to re-capture, there is a tool for that, so you don’t have to reframe the shot from scratch. You can even extract text and barcodes. If you need to redact, there are tools for that as well. You can remove text, faces, or barcodes.

Shots float by default: anything you can capture on your screen can easily become a reference. It’s like Picture-in-Picture, only for screenshots and recordings. Shots can be effortlessly shared with a simple drag and drop, with extensive formatting and export options also available.

Also, every shot is analyzed for texts, faces and barcodes, which allows you to vuew, extract, copy, share and redact this information hassle-free. You can also search for a shot’s content in the Shots Browser, or with Spotlight.

Screenshots and recordings are stored in the Shots Browser, keeping the Desktop free of clutter, and allowing you to organize, categorize and find your shots. Shots are optionally synchronized via iCloud.

If you want to redact a text line, a face or a barcode in a shot? A simple right-click will let you do it without any further interaction on your part. But you can also go in and annotate, markup and redact manually. All annotations/redactions are non-destructive, so you can always go back and change or delete them.

I often want to get exact color matches out of screenshots, which is pretty difficult. But not so with ScreenFloat 2. The app has a built-in color sampling tool. If you want to use screenshots, you can drag and drop them out of the browser, or directly from floating shots. ScreenFloat 2 also includes a browser to organize your images with folders and tags, and it all syncs over iCloud. If you want to use your screenshots, you can dmrag and drop them out of the browser.

Check out ScreenFloat 2 today and learn just how much more useful screenshots can be.

Automators 154: Automating on the iPad

After Apple’s latest announcement, Rosemary and I are using this episode of Automators to review our iPad usage and how we automate on it.

The Lab Report for May 17, 2024

It’s time for the Lab Report, covering this week’s Apple news, rumors, and more… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?

Ideal Weeks – MacSparky Labs Deep Dive (Video)

Building on the Calendars Revisited Deep Dive from March, in this session we covered the topic of Ideal Weeks, how we create and use them.… This is a post for the Early Access MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?

Using Soulver

Soulver is one of the strangest calculator/text apps you’ll ever encounter. Here’s a brief introduction to how it works.
… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?

Block Scheduling Tricks in Calendar and Fantastical

Here’s a collection of simple tricks I use when block scheduling in both Fantastical and Apple’s Calendar.… This is a post for the Early Access and Backstage MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?

The iPad’s Sins

Federico Viticci did an outstanding job cataloging ways in which getting work done on your iPad is still difficult in 2024. What’s most frustrating about this list is that many of these points could have (and were) written about ten years ago.

It is frustrating when you consider the untapped potential of the iPad. With different stewardship, it could have been so much more by now. I keep coming back to the conclusion that the iPad didn’t blossom into something more because Apple is not interested (or interested enough) in doing that. Even more so with the recent Mac renaissance, Apple, through its actions, is saying, “The iPad is for people with simple tasks who don’t want the complexity of a Mac, and the Mac is for all that complex work.” If you just look at the sales spreadsheets, you could argue that that is the right approach.

But as an Apple fan, that isn’t satisfactory to me. Apple has often been the tech company with both the vision and temerity to blaze a new path. With the iPad, all the pieces are there. The hardware is innovative and cutting edge, but when it comes to software, Apple just doesn’t seem interested in taking the training wheels off of iPadOS.

Mac Power Users 744: Apple’s “Let Loose” iPad Event

This week, Apple unveiled new iPad Pro and iPad Air models. On this episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I talk through the news and discuss why hardware isn’t at the heart of the iPad’s struggles.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

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Calendars Revisited – MacSparky Labs Deep Dive (Video)

Here’s the video from a recent MacSparky Labs Deep Dive. In this session, we discussed revisiting calendar strategies, and pull-based productivity. … This is a post for the Early Access MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?

The Lab Report for May 10, 2024

In this week’s episode of The Lab Report: It’s all about the new iPads, Tandem OLED and M4 explained, a little Apple ad drama, and…no more Apple stickers?
… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Members. Care to join? Or perhaps you need to sign in?