Productivity Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Productivity Tip: Read the manual, or take a class

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Apr 2nd, 2013)

There was a time when Mac owners scoffed at their PC-loving counterparts, who had to pore over paper manuals to grok the essentials of a software program before they tried to use it. When graphical user interfaces were introduced, a lot of focus was on making software intuitive and easy to use. ...

Talking to Siri: Remote-controlling your Mac by voice with Siri Listener

by Steven Sande (Mar 27th, 2013)

In this episode of "Stupid Siri Tricks," I make my iOS devices control a remote Mac. How remote? Well, it should work anywhere on the planet (or off, if you happen to be on the International Space Station) with Wi-Fi or a cellular data connection. If you can take a note with Siri, you can make ...

AppleScripting Mail > Announce New Emails By Voice

by Ben Waldie (Mar 25th, 2013)

You're in the kitchen cooking dinner, or sitting down watching TV, or exercising. Ding! You have a new email. Quickly, run to your Mac to see who it's from. Meh, spam. Ding! Meh, a message from your boss. Ding! Meh. Sure would be nice if Mail could announce who's emailing you. That way, you could ...

Origin Stories: Dunno

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Mar 22nd, 2013)

Dunno is an odd little free app that allows you to take a note about something and have Dunno "research" the topic for you. After typing in a few words, perhaps about a car model or a book or author, or maybe something esoteric like the meaning of life, Dunno performs a search in the ...

Triggering AppleScripts from Calendar Alerts in Mountain Lion

by Ben Waldie (Mar 18th, 2013)

AppleScripts are great tools for increasing your daily productivity. They're even better when they can be set to run unattended, at night, on weekends or during downtime. In Lion, iCal included a handy option for attaching a script to a calendar event. Just create an event, add a Run Script alarm, ...

Enter to win MacUpdate's Spring Bundle

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Mar 16th, 2013)

I bought the MacUpdate Spring Bundle last week and it includes some great software (listed below). As usual, bundles are a great way to quickly grab a group of applications for an ultra-low price. In this case, the full bundle costs as much as just one of these pieces of software -- ...

More Tips for Troubleshooting Automator Workflows

by Ben Waldie (Mar 11th, 2013)

In my last post, I shared some useful tips for troubleshooting Automator workflow problems. I didn't cover everything, though. There are lots of other ways you can troubleshoot your workflow. Here are some more tips to help. 1. Use Get Selected Finder Items Wisely Automator workflows are ...

DEVONThink 2.5 brings database sync out of beta and more

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 28th, 2013)

DEVONThink, the productivity app for Mac that stores all your documents, PDFs, bookmarks and information in one easy-to-find place, has been updated to version 2.5. According to the Devonian Times, the update now officially supports database synchronization between "multiple computers and ...

Meet CARROT: the game-ified to do list

by Erica Sadun (Feb 27th, 2013)

CARROT (US$0.99) is essentially a game with delusions of productivity. In fact, it was initially pitched to me as a utility app with "personality." That's problematic because it's not really all that useful. What it is, though, is silly fun with occasional side benefits of getting things ...

AppleScript Productivity > Create OmniFocus Followups from Contacts

by Ben Waldie (Feb 25th, 2013)

As an OmniFocus for Mac user, it's important that I can quickly create tasks at any time, in any app. OmniFocus makes this pretty easy, by providing integration with OS X Mail, a keyboard shortcut for clipping content in apps such as Safari, a system-wide Quick Entry window and a Services menu ...

AppleScripting OmniFocus > Send Completed Task Report to Evernote

by Ben Waldie (Feb 18th, 2013)

I've mentioned before that OmniFocus is my task manager of choice. Each morning, I pull up a list of scheduled tasks for the day, and focus on getting them done. In OmniFocus, I've set up Perspectives (saved window states) for both Due tasks and Completed tasks. What I really want, however, is ...

Wunderlist 2 lands on the iPad as a universal app

by Kelly Hodgkins (Feb 14th, 2013)

Wunderlist launched version 2 of its popular iPhone and Mac task manager late last year and has stepped up to the plate again to launch a fresh, new version that adds support for the iPad. The new iPad version of Wunderlist 2 is formatted for the Retina tablet screen and is not a ...

Mac 101: Schedule event details in the event title with Calendar

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 12th, 2013)

More Mac 101, tips and tricks for novice Mac users. Let's say you've just got off the phone with a friend. You've arranged to meet later for coffee, but you don't want to forget, so you go to Calendar on your Mac to schedule the event. You double click the date you're going to meet, enter a ...

AppleScripting Notification Center > Scheduling Do Not Disturb

by Ben Waldie (Feb 4th, 2013)

Mountain Lion's Notification Center is great for keeping you in the loop, but it can be a huge distraction when you need to get stuff done. Sometimes, a little peace and quiet is all you need to stay productive. As you may know, iOS 6 includes a handy Do Not Disturb feature, which can be turned ...

Omni Group leads hands-on talks leading up to OmniFocus 2 announcement

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Jan 31st, 2013)

One of the biggest compliments that OmniFocus receives is its high degree of customization. However, one of the biggest criticisms of OmniFocus is the steep learning curve -- something I've fallen victim to repeatedly since I purchased it in 2007. I had a chance to sit down with Omni Group's ...