The current status of my Menu Bar

I am pretty crazy about apps that I can easily access right from the menu bar and, as you can see from my current menu bar, I am definitely an adept of the more the merrier kind as it comes to the number of these little gems running on the menu bar. They are very useful, always running, and they have pretty icons to look at. So here it is:

  • Xmarks - This is great to keep bookmarks synchronized between different machines and also to keep them backed up in the cloud.
  • Quicksilver - Fantastic app to do more with less work. Recently it has seen new life, it is rock solid on SnowLeopard. It has a lot of goodies (like triggers, plugins) and pretty soon you’ll be a keyboard ninja operating your Mac.
  • Dropbox - Just Wow!
  • TextExpander - This is one of those must have apps. Great to create form letters, emails, etc… TypeitForMe is also a great substitute, I have both of them and they are equally good.
  • BetterTouchTool - It’s like TouchPad Pro for your Mac. Expands the multitouch capabilities of the touchpad. Really useful.
  • QuickCal - I learn’d about this little gem on MacMenuBars. Lovely little app that allows me to check my calendars and todo’s and with a quick shortcut key allows to enter events in plain language. Really useful. Works well with BusyCal because it shares the iCal database, but the developer is working on a better integration with BusyCal.
  • ClipMenu - ⌘-C ⌘-V for the Pro’s.
  • LittleSnapper - ScreenShot utility with powerful sharing and editing features.
  • QuickCursor - A quick way to launch my favorite no distractions text editor (WriteRoom) from any app.
  • Hazel - Another must have little gem. It automates a lot of folder cleaning and organizing stuff.
  • BusyCal - It is often described as iCal Pro, and in effect it is. The way it syncs with Gmail is alone worth it.
  • Bluetooth, Airport utility, Sound and Battery Status, all stock Apple items.
  • FuzzyClock - FuzzyClock is great. It gives you the time but in a more human reading form.

The Twitter for Mac black icon

In case you haven´t notice, the Twitter for Mac icon has gone thru quite a few changes in a very short time, check this link for a nice overview of the twitter icon saga.

It happens that I prefer the black icon, so if you are like me (nerd) then here is a quick guide to change your twitter for mac back in black:

  1. Go to your Applications folder.
  2. Right click (or ctrl click) the twitter for mac icon and select get info.
  3. Click on the little lock on the bottom right and authenticate.
  4. Change the Sharing & Permissions to Read & Write.
  5. Now Right click again on the twitter app and select show package contents.
  6. Navigate to the folder Contents and then Resources.
  7. Drag and copy the file “Icon2.icns” to your desktop and rename this file to “icon.icns” (you might want to backup the originals before you do this)
  8. Drag the just newly renamed file from your desktop to the Resources folder.
  9. Done.

This worked for me, but there is another guide here that you might want to try.

Twitter black icon

Whats in my menu bar?

What´s on my menu bar

This is what currently is running in my menu bar. It´s a bunch of lovely and practical apps that I highly recommend.

There is a larger flickr photo here: http://flic.kr/p/9fxjRX

Links to the apps below.

  • Skitch - for screen grabs and share them over the internets.
  • The amazing Dropbox.
  • Google notifier - It tells you have new email and calendar events.
  • Typeit4Me - Your fingers will thank you.
  • Twitter for Mac - nuff said
  • QuickCursor - works great with WriteRoom a simple and clutter free text editor.
  • Evernote - for keeping notes, lists, to-do´s, etc.
  • Growl - for system and app notifications.

Easily email pdf´s from any Finder window.

Since i switched to Mac i´ve been amazed how clean and powerful OS X is and how easy it is to someone with very little programming knowledge, pretty much like myself, to be able to customize and create powerful little applications and tweaks to make the OS work the way you would like it to work.

In this post i´m going to talk about “Services” and how i easily created one service that simplified my work flow regarding emailing pdf files. I work a lot with pdf files and i often have to email those pdf files to friends and colleagues. By creating a convenient and contextual service i can with a couple of clicks auto create an email with the pdf enclosed as an attachment.

Services are not new (they are to me!) in Snow Leopard but they have been completely reinvented. You can find out and learn more about services at http://www.macosxautomation.com/ They have tutorials and resources that will help you to get to grips with this powerful automation tool.

Here´s the how to:

  • Go to the applications folder and launch Automator (screenshot)
  • Then click the Service icon to create a new service from a template (screenshot)
  • In the “Services receives selected” box choose “PDF files” (screenshot)
  • Then look in the Actions Library select “Mail”, then select and drag to the right pane “New Mail Message” (screenshot)
  • Finally go to the file menu and select Save As “Email Pdf” to save your new service.
  • You are done and good to go.

Now in any finder window you can select a pdf file and in the services menu there will be an associated service to create a new email with the selected pdf file as an attachment (screenshot).

Easy peasy. Go ahead, create your own services to make your work flow simpler and don´t forget to share them with me. Have fun!