ScreenCastsOnline

Don McAllister’s site is my find of the week. I’m often buying software for a particular purpose without ever gettting a chance to explore the functionality available within it. A recent example is Speed Download which is a very powerful and flexible tool, but was only being used as a faster download mechanism for Safari.

I happened upon ScreenCastsOnline through the Yazsoft Speed Download site who have sponsored the development of two tutorials on their product. Don’s easy tone and comprehensive examples brought the product to life in a way that a manual or website could never do. From there I have browsed through a number of tutorials on a wide array of topics, though many related to productivity tools and techniques, and have been impressed by the clarity, presentation quality and humour with which these presentations have been developed.

The presentations, hosted by Don, deal comprehensively with products and concepts starting with download and install through to explanations of some of the more obtuse features included within packages.

The site is a subscription service (of the order of $35 for 6 months access). A late initiative is the ability to purchase copies of individual tutorials (in the order of $4 plus tax). There are a large number of episodes in abridged or lower resolution versions at no charge available through the website or via podcast from iTunes.

I could only find one more site that offered a comparable service (AtomicLearning.com) which also includes some high quality, polished product (~$80/pa) but focused on more mainstream software packages. I guess a choice between the two would come down to personal preference, but Don’s laid back approach and the level at which the material was pitched appealed to me.

Yojimbo - Like no other

This product aims to be a repository for a wide variety of information. I suppose it is the hotkey version of a dictaphone. Ever been working away at your machine and thought of something that you should follow up on? Well this product provides the repository for these thoughts.

The key to this product is the ease with which these ideas, or nuggets of information, can be captured. I’ve used the default function key to call up the app and enter details though this is configurable. A “Drop Dock” is also available, though I have disabled this as it adds clutter to my desktop.

One feature that I have used is the ability to print a PDF document into the Yojimbo repository, handy in my case for tracking software receipts received online.

I have yet to purchase the software ($39), I’m still using the Demo version. The functionality available in the tool is certainly available in a range of tools that I already own, however its beauty is that it a central repository, accessible through hotkey from anywhere. I’ll let you know if I do find that value that warrants the investment...

TextExpander - Ultimate timesaving tool?

The latest episode of the

MacBreak

podcast features a very handy tool if you spend a lot of time typing text at your Mac. The team run through the features of the product, which principally allows you to shortcut pieces of text into a document (email, Word doc etc) by means of a shortcode.

Ever found yourself typing the same piece of text over and over, perhaps email responses to technical queries? With a small number of keystrokes you can drop in a preformatted response.

Technical writer? You can use the tool to drop in standard code and have the cursor locate to the logical position within the code in order to continue with the context relevant entry.

Configuration is via a Systems Preference panel, which includes a number of examples, such as time and date fillers.

The application can be downloaded from Smile on my mac and costs £16.22.