Hawk Wings » reminders

Backpack with TextMate to Get Things Done

Tim Gaden — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 11:42:13 +0000

Brett Terpstra has written a bundle for the cutting-edge text editor TextMate which enables the creation, editing and deleting of Backpack items within the editor.

TextMate won the Apple Design Award for Best Developer Tool at WWDC this year. It shares some interesting design features with Mail.

Like Mail, it is built on a “lean but extendible” philosophy. An array of bundles allow users to extend the app in ways that suit them, rather than loading it up by default with the bloat of every possible feature. For example, this blog is written with TextMate’s blogging bundle , crucial to me, but not important to every TextMate user.

Unlike Mail, TextMate developer Allan Ogaard encourages bundle developers by opening up the guts of the editor so that third-party developers can easily create new bundles. With Mail’s undocumented API, third-party Mail.app bundle developers can only beat their heads against their monitors until the code works. (Although some helpful notes on Mail’s plugin API exist.)

Brett’s Backpack plugin allows access to pages, reminders and lists. (The updated version released yesterday adds list support.)

All the commands are linked to the âŒƒâŒ˜R keyboard shortcut.

This pops up a list of all the options, which can be selected by pressing the required number or with the up and down arrows.

New items are created through a pop-up window:

Editing is done via a list of all the available items on your Backpack pages. Again, items can be quickly selected by number.

Of course, there are other ways to integrate Backpack into your workflow: a Dashboard widget (pictured), a Firefox extension , the stand-alone Packrat app, a plugin for Quicksilver and more.

If you spend a lot of time in TextMate, this bundle is a nifty way to get stuff into Backpack quickly and to edit existing items without switching around.

In other TextMate news, the app has been ported (sort of) to Windows.not apple mail, backpack, textmate, bundle, productivity, reminders, lists, pagesSimilar Posts:

todoPod: To-dos on the go

Tim Gaden — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:30:13 +0000

todoPod is an Automator action that takes a note or to-do you have written, records it and then syncs it to an iPod, where it is available in the “Notes” section and in a VoiceNotes playlist.

Grocery lists, short motivational snippets, thoughts and tasks for the day, as well the more traditional “to-do” can now travel with you wherever you go. (If you have an iPod. I don’t, although recently I nearly cracked, so I couldn’t test this.)

todoPod is freeware and available from Thought Bottle Software’s web site .ipod, to-do, productivity, notes, reminders, voice recording, automatorSimilar Posts:

MyTicklerFile: Web-based tickler site gets upgrade

Tim Gaden — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 13:47:19 +0000

MyTicklerFile is a web service that offers an electronic implementation of the “Tickler File” concept, part of the “Getting Things Done” workflow management philosophy.

A Tickler file is a set of 43 folders (geddit? ) into which you can file future events that will require your attention later but which don’t need to sap your energy right now.

There are ways to get a tickler file going inside Mail.app itself using MailTags or AppleScript, but for those who prefer a web-based solution, MyTicklerFile will do the job nicely.

A upgraded version of the service was launched today. It adds Projects, time-tracking, syncing with iCal and Basecamp for paying customers and new daily, monthly and project views.

Also new is the TicklerCal, an “iCal-like” representation of all your ticklers:

Click image for a full-sized view

MyTicklerFile offers a free plan with one project, 15 ticklers and 10 Backpack-style reminders, and two paying plans (USD 9/month and 19/month) which include more projects, ticklers and reminders and other extra features.

Head over to the site, read its blog and look at some sample screenshots.GTD, getting things done, tickler file, productivity, projects, reminders, web 2.0Similar Posts:

Reminder widget: Remember things easily

Tim Gaden — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:29:25 +0000

Reminder is a useful little Dashboard widget that allows you to create quick reminders to yourself in iCal, rather like a local version of the Reminders feature in Backpack .

Entering the reminder is easy.

After installation, just call up the Dashboard, enter the time after which you want the reminder and a summary of whatever you need to remember:

A reviewer on dashboardwidgets.com says, “Just the most useful widget so far for me!”

Reminder is freeware and is available from the developer’s web site ical, reminders, widget, dashboard, clever little piece of work Similar Posts:

Fix for empty To: field in iCal invitations

Tim Gaden — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 13:11:48 +0000

For a few weeks, I have been having an odd problem with iCal. The To: field in automatically generated iCal email reminders and invitations turns up empty, with the result that Mail.app can’t send them. Annoying.

A quick tour of Apple’s iCal discussions showed I was not the only one. And eventually I turned up the solution in a post by Declan Rieb.

The problem occurs when an third party app (often but not always GroupCal) breaks iCal’s internal iCal-to-Mail applescript. Opening two scripts in iCal’s Resources folder and recompiling them, restores the functionality and the problem disappears.

If this happens to you, you can find full instructions for the fix in Declan’s post.ical, invitiations, reminders, addressee, empty to field, tipsSimilar Posts: