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Ten Tiny Apps That I'm Thankful For

Written by: Guy Kawasaki

Article Overview: This is Thanksgiving, so I’d like to show some gratitude for ten tiny apps that I use almost every day. If you’re a writer, blogger, speaker, or entrepreneur who uses a Macintosh, please give them a look because they will make you more productive.

Ten Tiny Apps That I'm Thankful For

This is Thanksgiving, so I’d like to show some gratitude for ten tiny apps that I use almost every day. If you’re a writer, blogger, speaker, or entrepreneur who uses a Macintosh, please give them a look because they will make you more productive.

1.



Adjix. Adjix is the best way that I’ve found to post links to web pages on Twitter. It shortens the URL of the page, enables you to edit the tweet, shows you the ever-important character count, and renders a preview of the page you’re linking to so that you can be sure of what you’re tweeting. Price: Free.
2.



BBEdit. BBEdit is admittedly overkill for the HTML editing that I do. However, it does a great job of formatting text into XHTML, and it houses the SmartPants UNIX filter that I use to smarten quotes and dashes (see below). Generally speaking, if BBEdit can’t do what you want to text, it probably can’t be done. Price: $125.
3.



Foxmarks. I use Firefox on three different Macintoshes, so I need to synchronize your bookmarks across them all. Foxmarks enables you to do this as well as create a backup of them. I wish other programs did synching so cleanly. Price: Free.
4.



MarsEdit. I use MarsEdit to write my blog postings for my blog, the Alltop blog, and the American Express OPEN Forum. I compose in MarsEdit because of the built-in HTML markup features and then finish the writing in BBEdit. What would make me even more thankful: MobileMe synchronization of drafts. Price: $29.95.
5.



Preview. Preview is simple application to open up graphics and text files. I use it to resize screenshots and to annotate them with circles and comments. It can also send your photos to iPhoto for storage. Skitch is another application that does this if Preview doesn’t have enough power for you. Price: Free.
6.



SmartyPants. I hate dumb apostrophes, quotes, and dashes but replacing them is not simple because HMTL links must contain dumb quotation marks—for example, href=”http://daringfireball.net/projects/smartypants/”. However, in regular text, I want replace a dumb quotes with smart ones. SmartyPants knows that HTML links should not be smartened while apostrophes, quotes, and dashes should. Price: Free.
7.



TextExpander. This is a utility that expands abbreviations to full text. For example, it expands “gk” to “Guy Kawasaki.” I use about ninety of these abbreviations. I’d be even more thankful if it didn’t sometimes paste the clipboard not the desired abbreviation. Incidentally, I love a competitive product called TypeIt4me, but it cannot synchochronize my abbreviations across multiple Macintoshes via MobileMe like TextExpander can. Price: $29.95.
8.



Tweetdeck. This is a front-end application to Twitter. I have to stay on top of many terms in Twitter such as “Guykawasaki,” “Guy Kawasaki,” and “Alltop” as well as private and public messages to me. It is the best way to use Twitter that I have found. Price: voluntary donation, so I sent $50.
9.



Twittelator Pro. I use this iPhone application to access Twitter. In a sense, for me it’s Tweetdeck on a phone. I’d be more thankful if I could customize the menus structure, but it’s still the best iPhone application for Twitter that I’ve found. Price: $4.99.
10.



Yojimbo. This is my catch-all for things like passwords, invoices, travel confirmations, and bills—basically all the stuff you know you’ll need someday but don’t know how to store. You “print to Yojimbo,” and this creates a PDF of the document and stores it in the application. Then you can do a freeform search for any text to find the information later. Price: $39.

Update: Several readers told me to look at Evernote, and they are right. This is a cross-platform application and service that enables you to synch information across Macintosh, Windows, and iPhone. I’ve been using it for a four days, and it’s very good. You should check it out.

There you have it: my favorite tiny applications that make me more productive on a Macintosh. As you can see, a few bucks goes a long way these days! My heartfelt thanks to the men and women who created and support them. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Article Tags: american express, apps, bbedit, character count, circles, dashes, foxmarks, gratitude, html editing, macintoshes, markup features, marsedit, open forum, preview preview, skitch, smartypants, synchronization, tweet, twitter, unix filter



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Re: Poll: How many search results do you analyze of competitors - Greeting to all, Excellent response on this from everyone. You need to examine a minimum of the top 30 results (but because of Personalization, you'll do better if you examine the top 100 results. Remember that someone who is visible at position #75 can easily move to position number 3 for the most readers, (if they discover those tiny changes that are keeping them apart.) The idea is to accurately recognize the best opportunities (while sometimes) you need to be aware of the threats too. Tiny changes can make a huge difference in your visibility.
Re: Making Money in 2010 - What's Next? - I hear a lot about Apps. I'm not even sure what they are, but I guess there's a lot of money in selling them because everyone is pushing them. Can anyone explain to me what they really are? Sorry for being so "out of the electronic loop".
Re: Just a simple comparison & contrast of our truths in crisis. - I I totally agree you have to be extremely grateful. I am extremely grateful because I have all my body parts complete, look all the people that don't. Look at all those soldiers that honoring their country go to war get killed. Believing in their cause not only now but threw out history that never left no children. We all must be Thankful for those that helped our loved ones the old ancestors that were so wise in been abundant and fruitful that left us a body to live in. Man and how blessed are we can you imagine how many people never had children or couldn’t and we are the lucky descendants of the ones that could. Come on now bless be the Lord Almighty King and Lord of heaven. By just existing you should be humbled and eternally meek for such success. A sacred quote from a very wise woman If that is not enough, look at all the sperms that fought for your place and you’re the winner. I wish I could have reached that Billionaire with this or any person thinking that it is a great shame and people should mourn and be sensitive to that evil that won and prevent it from happening again. A person in that position or any alive would have influence allot more people before going. But unfortunately you do not know what you have until you don’t have it. That’s why it is wise to be close to your creator the founder while you can.


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