LaunchBar Search

Easily Add Twitter and Google Photos search

Launch Bar is a great Macintosh productivity utility. It makes using the Macintosh so much easier.

One of the cool features is the ability to quickly enable a search action. With a couple of keystrokes, you can instantly open up your browser to whatever search results that you want to see. Potentially saving a lot of time doing it the old fashion way.

Use LaunchBar to Search

Here's a quick way to search for something on Twitter:

First you'll need to add a new Search Template. This is done by opening the LaunchBar Index, and selecting the Search Templates (UTF-8):

1. Trigger the LaunchBar Action (Command Shift)
2. Open the LaunchBar Index: Option-Command-I
3. Select the "Search Templates (UTF-8)" in the left panel
4. Click the '+' button at the bottom left of the main window.

Now Your Ready!

Now your ready to create your own search templates. The key thing to remember in a search template is to grab the URL from search results and replace the keywords that you used with a '*'.

A basic example:

If you had the following URL from a Bing Search for GusODog:

Your Search Template might look like this:

I filtered out some of the text in the URL that I didn't think was important.

Twitter Search

You can now search Twitter for what people are talking about:

For Twitter Templates:

Name: Twitter

Template URL:

Google Photos Search

If you have a lot of photos in Google Photos, now you can quickly search for the one you're looking for.

Name: Google Photos

Template URL:

Instant Search

Now when you want to search for something on twitter:

1. Command Space
2. Type: Twitter
3. Click Space
4. Type in your Search Term and then click the return

Advantage of Snagit 2020 over MonoSnap

Snagit is way better than MonoSnap

If your a frequent user of MonoSnap, you should consider upgrading to Snagit. It's a much more powerful application that offers a lot more capabilities. It's certainly a step up to making screen captures.

While MonoSnap might be an attractive solution because MonoSnap is free. For some, Snagit seems a "bit pricey" at $49.95 (one-time fee). However, when you see the overall features it becomes clear that Snagit is the screen capture for champions.

Editor Windows

MonoSnap Editor Window

Snagit 2020 Editor Window

Five Reasons to Upgrade to Snagit 2020

There are a lot of reasons to use Snagit. Here are just some of the ones that I have come up with:

Better Annotate Tools - A lot more annotate tools. MonoSnap has 11 tools, while Snagit has 19 - including Stamp, Step, Simplify, and more that are not in MonoSnap. The nice thing is that you can create your own theme. This means that you can create company color styles for any arrow or shape tool. In addition, you can share those themes with other Snagit users.

Advance Editor - Ability to combine screenshots, add effects and more. Basically the editor has everything you need to modify a screenshot so that you can communicate your message. You can even combine screenshots into a video and dictate over it.

Snagit Full page Capture with Chrome - Snagit makes it easy to capture a full page in Chrome. Simply click on the arrow for Scrolling Capture. If the scrolling capture doesn't work, you can always use the Panoramic Capture to capture full web pages, long documents and more.

Time Delay Captures - You can set the record to start whatever duration you want. In Monosnap you can only do a 10-second delay for full screens. Snagit allows you to set a delay in any capture type - Image, Video or Panoramic.

Advance Video Functions - You can record your WebCam and/or Microphone while recording videos. This makes it easy to talk over the video and explain more about what is going on.

Rotate Images in the Finder

Cool Keyboard Shortcut to rotate any image in the Finder

A cool hidden trick in the MacOS Finder is the ability to rotate an image or video without having to open up an application. There are 2 hidden keyboard shortcuts - rotate right and rotate left.

Simple Steps

1. Select any image or video.
2. Type in Command R to rotate the file 90-degrees to the right.
3. You can Command R several times to keep rotating the file.

Note: Using this method will change the modified date of the file, it won't change the Created date.

Installing legacy Font Suitcase files

You can still install old fonts in Font Suitcase in macOS Catalina

Do you have any old CDs/DVDs of old fonts? Wonder if it's still possible to use them? Are they in the legacy Font Suitcase format.

Good News! You can still use them in the latest version of macOS (macOS version 10.15.5). When you double click on the file it won't be discovered by any application in the system.

How to import Fonts in legacy Font Suitcase into your computer

1. Open the Font Book application
2. Go to File > Open
3. Find the file that you want to import
4. Select it and click Choose

That's it!

I have found that my Fontographer fonts work well in any application. I was able to use them in Affinity Designer, Swift Publisher and OmniGraffle.

Griffin iMic

Legacy USB Audio Tool still works on the latest iMac

One of the downsides of a new iMac is that it doesn???t come with an audio import. You can no longer connect audio devices as imports - such as microphones or cables connected to a radio.

A long time ago I purchased a Griffin iMic to record audio with my G3 Macintosh . So I thought I take it out and see if it still works for the 2019 iMac computer.

Product Description

Snagit 2020

Worth Getting the Upgrade to Snagit 2020

TechSmith release Snagit 2020 officially on October 22, 2019. There has been five updates since then with the latest update on May 12, 2020.

This week I have been playing around with Snagit 2020, and thought it would be interesting to see what changes were not announced from Snagit 2019.

Here are some of the new things I have found

Snagit Library

Right Clicking on images in the Snagit Library has 3 new options:

• New Share Options - Share Images to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Pages, Keynote, Messages, AirDrop, Add to Photos. Additional options are available if they are configured (DropBox, Box and Slack)
• Combine in Template - Users can now pick from layout options to showcase multiple images. Only the templates that match the number of images selected are displayed.
• Create Video from Images - You can now voice over screen shots so you can explain the error.

Output Settings

Snagit has a share feature that makes it easy to share a modified image within the application. In this release, they add a few new locations to easily share to Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Pages, Keynote, Box and Slack.

For Slack and Box, you will need to configure your account options in the Preferences panel. Slack integration will require permissions from the App Manager before installing it.

Callout Shape

There is a new Callout Arrow shape. This means you can have a text box with an arrow pointing to a place on the image. It's a simple feature that I can see using a lot. It saves the trouble of having two objects - an arrow and a text box.

You can have the arrow be a separate color than the text box.

Visual Guides

Visual Guide Templates are an exciting feature in this release. Basically they allow you to combine images to tell the story of your bug/feature.

In this release there are 13 different templates. You can download the additional template as part of the TechSmith Assets for Snagit for an annual fee of $49.

One template that I think will be useful is the Meme one. Now it will be easy to create Memes and instantly share in Slack.

Better than 2020?

I would recommend getting Snagit 2020, just for the templates and the new callout. I don't use the Shared Library feature much. Most of the time I drag images out of the library to the desktop.

The slack integration is cool, but I'll need to have an administrator enable that. For me, it's just as easy to drag/drop the image to the Slack window.

AirFoil

Cool MacOS app to connect sound to any OS device.

Have you ever wanted to play audio on your Mac to your iPhone? You can't simply connect the phone as a Bluetooth device.

You need AirFoil

Things I Have Learned Using AirFoil

AirFoil is not the best tool for video playback. The sound will always be out of sync to the video clip, even if you use the audio delays.

The iPhone and Mac have to be on the same wireless network. If you don't see your iPhone in the device window it's most likely because it's not on the same WiFi network.

In addition, your iPhone has to have the iOS Satelite app open in order to be discovered.

You can pick the sound source to be from a specific application to the System Audio. The application is neat because you can play music from iTunes to an external device while keeping the local system sounds to the computer.

AirFoil allows users to adjust the sound volume on the device on the computer, so you can play music on the Apple TV on the other side of the house and control the volume.

Griffin PowerMate

PowerMate is a new USB accessory to control your computer

Griffin PowerMate is a programable USB Multimedia Controller. Its a neat tech toy that makes it easy to adjust the volume no matter what application you are in.

Griffin PowerMate has a LED light that can be turned off

Four Things I Have Learned

1. Released in 2001 as a UBS device, an upgrade wireless version came out in 2014. The entire product line was discontinued in 2018. You can still buy them on eBay for around $25.00
2. My USB PowerMate still works fine in macOS Catalina (version 10.15.4)
3. Griffin PowerMate Support website is still available with links to the latest User Guide.
4. When I add a Keyboard Shortcut it appears to not to save.

Device Actions Available

1. Rotate Left
2. Rotate Right
3. Press
4. Long Press
5. Rotate Left While Pressed
6. Rotate Right While Pressed

Types of Commands Available

1. None
2. Keyboard Shortcut - Speed up actions by adding application specific shortcuts.
3. Scrolling - Scroll through webpages quicker.
4. System Event - Available Events: Volume Up, Volume Down, Mute, Play/Pause, Next Track, Previous Track, Power, Eject, Show Desktop, Application Switcher.
5. AppleScript - Select an AppleScript file.

Satechi USC-Clamp Hub

Cool Hub that puts makes key ports available

Last Fall, I installed a Satechi USC-Clamp Hub on my new iMac Computer. This is a cool mini-hub that puts a bunch of ports on the front of your iMac.

Satechi USC-Clamp Hub connected to my iMac.

You get:

• 3 USB 3.0 Ports
• Micro Card Reader
• SD Card Reader
• USB-C Port

Plug and Play

It was easy to attach this to the computer and easy to remove if needed. There's no software to install, simply connect the USB-C cable and then tighten the clamp to secure the hub.

Things I Learned

• Quick Install, really easy to do. Once installed you don't have to worry about it. I have moved my computer around plenty of times in the past 6-months and the clamp has never come off.
• Very handy to connect/disconnect thumb drives
• When inserting a Micro Card the card has to be upside down, which seems weird.
• There's a small light to let you know it's connected. It's very tiny and doesn't distract me when I am working with the lights down low.
• I don't have many USC-C devices, so I haven't had the need to use that port. The nice thing is that you don't lose the port on the back since it's in the front.
• The look and feel seems very natural - doesn't look out of place.

Want One?

It cost $49.99 on Amazon.com. (Non-Affiliate Link!) According to Camel Camel Camel that's been the same price for about a year. For some unknown reason, it dropped to $34.87 for a day last July.

I would recommend anyone getting this for their computer. This also makes a great gift for that Macintosh User who seems to have everything. Note: It only works on the latest iMacs.

Unarchiver

Cool Utility to uncompress anything you have

If you have any ZIP, Tar or Stuffit archives in your collection. The best application to uncompress these is the Unarchiver by MacPaw Inc.

Product Description

Four Great Reasons to Use Unarchiver

1. Its there when you need it. You don't need to remember the name or where the application is. Simply double click on an archive collection, and Unarchiver goes to work. Install it once and let it work it's magic
2. It works fast. In my test the application works way faster than Archive Utility (Apple's unarchive application.)
3. Supports a lot of different Archive formats, Zip, Rar, 7-Zip, Lha, Zipx, Stuffit, Binhex, MacBinary, AppleSingle, GZip, GZip Tar, Bzip2, X2, Tar, ISO, CDI, NRG, MDF, GNU Tar, Unix Compress, Unix Tar and so much more..
4. It's free and is updated frequently.

Useful Tip

In the Application Preferences Extraction, set the "Extract archives to:" to the Desktop. That way when you extract content from flash drives and CDs you don't get prompt that there isn't enough disk space or the space is write-protected. It's a simple step now that will save you trouble later.