Automators

This week David and Rose come to us live from PodCon with a very enthusiastic audience where they take the opportunity to dive into some of their travel automation setups. Once back in the studio they then go through some of the great feedback they've received recently. This episode of Automators is sponsored by: ExpressVPN: High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service. Get 3 months free with a 1-year package. Links and Show Notes: Support Automators with a Relay FM Membership TripIt - Travel Itinerary - Trip Planner Append to BearA shortcut to help you append to Bear notes for David's home grown TripIt solution. Packing List ShortcutRose's crazy packing list shortcut Scanner App for iPhone and iPad | Best Scanning App | Scanner Pro Automators #5: Project Templates - Relay FM Here I Am - David's Location Shortcut Automators Talk - the official forums iBeacon Recommendations - iOS - Automators Talk Estimote, Inc. — indoor location with bluetooth beacons and meshThese are the iBeacons Rose and David are using. Automators #9: Scriptable with Simon Støvring - Relay FM Car plate identification script - iOS / Scriptable - Automators Talk Scriptable Forums - Automators Talk Pearl Compact Makeup Mirror USB Battery Pack with LED Ring Light - HyperShop.comThis is Rose's crazy battery pack So Many Tools but which one to choose - macOS - Automators TalkAutomator, Alfred, AppleScript, Hazel - which solution? Keyboard Maestro Forums Apple contacts to document? Beginner looking for help - macOS - Automators TalkThis could potentially be solved with a mail merge. List all of the Applications on your Mac - Burk (Micro.Blog) Launch Center Pro Shop – ContrastYou can purchase Launch Center Pro NFC Stickers here Automators (@automatorsfm) / Twitter Short: Airport TravelA shortcut to help Rose quickly enter her travel to the airport

Myke Hurley is relatively new to automation but found many ways to simplify his day via automation. In this episode, Myke share several simple to implement, yet crazy useful automations. This episode of Automators is sponsored by: TextExpander, from Smile: Recall your best words. Instantly, repeatedly. Get 20% off your first year. Guest Starring: Myke Hurley Links and Show Notes Support Automators with a Relay FM Membership Stack Overflow - Where Developers Learn, Share, & Build Careers Liss is More Noodlesoft – Noodlesoft – Simply Useful Software Workflow — Powerful automation made simple. Use Siri Shortcuts - Apple Support Discover IFTTT and Applets - IFTTT Zapier | The easiest way to automate your work TextExpander | Communicate Smarter Receipt Bank | Automated Bookkeeping and Data Entry - Receipt Bank The best email client for iPhone, iPad and Mac | Spark Todoist – The Best To Do List App & Task Manager ‎Daily Yoga - Workout & Fitness on the App Store Automators #15: Automated Time Tracking - Relay FM OmniFocus - task management for Mac, iPad, and iPhone - The Omni Group Upgrade - Relay FM Invoice and Accounting Software for Small Businesses | FreshBooks Where work happens | Slack Sales CRM & Pipeline Management Software | Pipedrive Trello Airtable Pushover: Simple Notifications for Android, iOS, and Desktop About Tim Stringer - Learn OmniFocus The Pen Addict - Relay FM Do more with iRobot - IFTTT iRobot Vacuum Cleaning, Mopping & Outdoor Maintenance Braava® Mopping Robot | iRobot Shows - Relay FM Cortex - Relay FM Mac Power Users - Relay FM Timing: the best automatic Mac time tracker for productive professionals and freelancers Home | Automators Home | Rosemary Orchard MacSparky

In this episode Rose and David dive into time tracking, including the why, the how, and then most importantly - how to automate it! This episode of Automators is sponsored by: ExpressVPN: High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service. Get 3 months free with a 1-year package. Links and Show Notes Support Automators with a Relay FM Membership Cortex #44: Existential Time Tracking - Relay FM Screen Time for iPhone and iPad: Everything you need to know! | iMore RescueTime : Time management software for staying productive and happy in the modern workplace Timing: the best automatic Mac time tracker for productive professionals and freelancers Toggl - Free Time Tracking SoftwareThe app isn't available yet, and doesn't really have a website, but keep an eye on it! Omnifocus Toggl Automation Scripts Timery: the alternative Toggl app in beta Time Tracking Shortcuts – MacStoriesAll of Federico's Shortcuts for time tracking are available here. Toggl Time Tracking on Android - CortexA Cortex listener created a way to automate time tracking on Android with Toggl and Tasker. Life Cycle - Track Your Time by Sleep Cycle Screencast: Shortcuts for Time TrackingThis screencast shows you how you can integrate time tracking with other Shortcuts allowing you to track time without thinking about it.

Rose and David tackle the challenge of journaling and how to use automation to make it easier. This episode of Automators is sponsored by: PDFpen, from Smile: The ultimate tool for editing PDFs and go paperless. Links and Show Notes Automators 14 - Automated Journaling Get out your artistically crafted paper notebook and favorite fountain pen as we talk about journaling in Automators episode 14. Actually, forget that stuff. Our intrepid hosts are nerds so while the focus of this episode is journalling, it’s really about automating the process so you can get more efficient at your navel-gazing. Much Love for Day One Rose and David start out talking about the idea of journaling and why automation can help. The first app they recommend is Day One. Last year David bought a year subscription to Day One, and he’s digging it. Both David and Rose approve of Day One’s Automation tools with things like IFTTT along with several built-in features (like the activity feed) that ease the process of journal entry creation so you can focus on your precious words. Day One can integrate with third-party apps, like Instagram and Swarm. David also feels inferior about the way he says the word “banana”. Day One is friends with Siri Shortcuts which opens you up to lots of potential automation, although David would like more. This leads to the discussion of automating Day One entries in a “prompt style” with a new journal entry generated out of Siri Shortcuts and used to create a Day One entry. David created a sample shortcut and screencasted it for this episode on a meditation journal. You can watch it in the Automators course at Learn.MacSparky or on YouTube. Rosemary goes a step further by using Launch Center Pro to launch her Siri Shortcut to launch her journaling prompts. This lets her present different prompts on different days of the week. Clever. We’ve shared a link to Rose’s shortcut in the show notes. David explains audio transcription in Day One, that works much better than you think it would be. If This Then That (IFTTT) can also create a Day One entry, pulling data from other web services. Think about that one for a moment. Simple things, like a Google Calendar event, can be enough to trigger a new Day One entry. Rose has a cool automation that helps her log and journal television consumption using automation between trakt.tv and Day One. Another way to automate journal creation is through text automation. You could use tools like Drafts or Text Expander to give you prompts to easily create journal entries. Other Options Then our hosts talk about journaling solutions outside of Day One. Using third-party applications like Ulysses or even just a plain text file, you can use many of the above referenced prompt-based journal automation to create new entries. There can be some challenges with things like photos and other media, but it can work. David even at one point suggests using Pages, which would work better than you think if you want media in your journal. Next, our hosts discuss automating public journals with services like micro.blog. Fancy Pens and Paper Finally, David breaks out the pens and paper. Just because you have a fancy pen and paper, doesn’t mean you can’t bring some technology to the table. Use ScanBot or Scanner Pro to grab an image for a digital backup. If you like the idea of us a pen but not paper, there are some great iPad-based digital alternatives like GoodNotes and Notability. It’s January and a great time to develop a journaling habit. Why don’t you use some automation to make it easier? Support Automators with a Relay FM Membership The Automators Seattle Meetup on January 19 PodCon 2Join Rose and David in Seattle! Day One | The award-winning journal app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Screencast – Meditation JournalDavid built a meditation journal automation and screencasted it. Download Link for Meditation Journal Siri ShortcutDownload David's Meditation Journal Shortcut to your iPhone or iPad Prompted Entry Siri ShortcutDownload Rose's Prompted Entry journal Siri Shortcut to your iPhone or iPad. Activity Feed | Day One Help Do more with Day One - IFTTT Swarm | Remember everywhere. Instagram Track.tv Automatically track TV & movies you're watching - Trakt.tv Ulysses Drafts. Where Text Starts. | Drafts Pages - Apple Paper - Dropbox Google Docs: Free Online Documents for Personal Use Micro.blog The Commonplace Book as a Thinker’s Journal – Critical Margins ‎Scanner Pro on the App Store ‎Scanbot Scanner App - Scan PDF on the App Store GoodNotes Homepage | A new take on note-taking Notability by Ginger Labs STREAKS. The to-do list that helps you form good habits. For iPhone. Due: The Superfast Reminder App for iPhone & iPad Home | Automators Automators Talk Home | Rosemary Orchard MacSparky

David Barnard, creator of Launch Center Pro, discusses the app's history, evolution, and upcoming features. They talk about the benefits of using the app for automation, TestFlight for beta testing, usage of stickers, and using iBeacons as proximity sensors. They also highlight the convenience of retrieving information and automating tasks with Launch Center Pro. Finally, they express excitement about the app's return in the Dock and mention the new version of Omni Focus.

It's holiday time so what happens when you throw two automation nerds at things like holiday decorations, festive music, and ? Listen and find out. This episode of Automators is sponsored by: TextExpander, from Smile: Multiply your team’s productivity. Click here to learn more. Links and Show Notes The holidays are upon us, and Rosemary and David are ready to automate. Our trusty nerds start with simple things like wallpaper and voice-in-a-can technologies. Next, they get to holiday music. It’s great that you can automate music playback, but David wants to go deeper with Siri Shortcuts and automation around your music. David has a white whale concerning HomePod destination for audio, but we all need holiday wishes … right? Then our team talks about this episode’s sponsor, TextExpander, which they both love very much. Then they get into their favorite automation contraptions for automating holiday lights. David admits Thanksgiving is a mere speed bump to his holiday preparations. David even admits to creating his own little Disneyland Main Street, and it all runs on HomeKit. Open David’s front door and the magic starts happening. Rose takes it a level deeper by invoking homebridge, third-party software that lets you run non-HomeKit gear with HomeKit. Then the team talks about the best ways to automate holiday cards. It’s harder than you think. They aren’t done there, however, there is room in automation for present lists, grabbing multiple browser tabs via automation, Support Automators with a Relay FM Membership Automators #12: Automating Holidays Automators on the Web Automators Talk Automators on YouTube Rose on the Web Rose on Twitter David on Twitter Mac Power Users #409: Holiday Tech - Relay FM The Porg Holiday iPhone CaseWhy does David love this so much? BB8 Christmas Wallpaper Christmas Time!Here's a Siri Shortcut that lets you automate music playback. Eve Door & Window - Smart and wireless contact sensor for windows and doors, automatically trigger accessories and scenes, get notifications (open/closed status), Bluetooth Low Energy (Apple HomeKit) - - Amazon.com iHome ISP6X Wi-FI Smart Plug, Use your voice to control connected devices, Works with Alexa, Google Assistant and HomeKit enabled smart speakers - - Amazon.com David's Indoor Light Automation Homebridge OmniFocus Present ListA Siri Shortcut for adding list items to OmniFocus. The Things Present List The Pen Addict - Relay FM Grabbing a Safari Link with Keyboard Maestro — MacSparky Markdown Service Tools - BrettTerpstra.com Pixelmator Pro Warhol Inspired Christmas Card Gift Wrap Field Guide | MacSparky Field Guides

Explore the fad of Shortcuts home screens and their possibilities, advantages, and fun. Learn about managing tasks with OmniFocus 3 and a Siri shortcut for communication apps. Discover contextual shortcuts for efficient workflows, organizing communication shortcuts, and the limitations and benefits of Siri Shortcuts in Apple apps. Explore the power of shortcuts in automating tasks and streamlining workflows.

This week David and Rose dive into the popular web automation service Zapier and explain how you can automate your systems via the web. This episode of Automators is sponsored by: TextExpander, from Smile: Multiply your team’s productivity Links and Show Notes Today we venture into the brave new world of web automation, and we start with grand-daddy, Zapier. We begin comparing and contrasting Zapier with other web automation services, like IFTTT and Microsoft Flow. Did you know you can combine Zapier with Siri Shortcuts? We tell you how. Next Rose explains some of the Zapier recipes we use to automate the production of Automators. (Of course … we do that.) You can even download a clever PDF showing you exactly how we do that. This show is sponsored by TextExpander, which we both love very much. Next Sparky explains some basics about triggers and actions. We know this comes up often in automation, but Zapier has it’s own unique snowflake way of covering that, so we explain it. Eventually, we get to Zap organization, which makes Rose very happy. Sparky uses Zapier a lot on the legal side. He has a lot of web services and Zapier lets him tie them together, particularly with client on-boarding. There are a few caveats, but we are both subscribers and Zapier believers. Zapier makes you happier. Support Automators with a Relay FM Membership Automators.FMOur home on the web. Automators Talk Automators - YouTube Zapier PDF of the Automators Production ZapsHere is a PDF document with all of the Zaps we use to produce and publish Automators. IFTTT Microsoft Flow Airtable Quip Basecamp: Project Management & Team Communication Software Noodlesoft – Noodlesoft – Simply Useful Software Process Street | Checklist, Workflow and SOP Software Rose on the Web Rose on Twitter David on the Web David on Twitter

In this episode David and Rose get to talk to Simon Støvring, maker of Scriptable an app which allows you to control your iPhone with JavaScript. Simon shares some of the journey he experienced making the app, and what you can actually do with Scriptable. This episode of Automators is sponsored by: The Omni Group: Accomplish More Every Day Guest Starring: Simon Støvring Links and Show Notes Support Automators with a Relay FM Membership Simon Støvring's website Scriptable Website Scriptable Category - Automators Talk Pythonista for iOS Launch Center Pro JSON Introduction Intro to Programming in JavaScript | Codecademy Release notes for Scriptable - Automators Talk

Putting files in the right places is a pain in the neck. It's tedious and way too easy to make a mistake. Our intrepid automators are here to save the day on the Mac and iOS. This episode of Automators is sponsored by: TextExpander, from Smile: Communicate smarter. Use this link for 20% off your first year. Links and Show Notes What do you do with all of the files on your devices? David and Rose try to solve the problem of document filing. Since it’s something you can easily automate, Rose and David share their tips and tricks. Keeping them all on the desktop would be madness (or marital strife if you’re David). File location and file saving is busywork and inaccurate. It’s dumb work and none of us want to do it, says David. You could spend your time organizing your documents but wouldn’t you rather spend your precious time doing something else? Yeah! So let automation do the work for you. It’s easy. David teaches one of his favorite moves (pun intended): Command + C and then Option + Command + V. Rose reminds us to take a look at what we’ve got and to ask ourselves where we’re going with this. We need a good foundation so everything doesn’t fall down around us and save us from angst down the line. Rose and David agree that nested folders and a good naming system are key. When automating files on the Mac, Smart Folders, Hazel, and Keyboard Maestro will become your best friends. How? You gotta listen to find out. Support Automators with a Relay FM Membership The Episode Blog Post Home | Automators Automators Talk Automators Screencast: Keyboard Maestro to Rename Files with Patterns - YouTube Automators Screencast - File Automation with Siri Shortcuts and Hazel - YouTubeDavid screencasts his Siri Shortcut/Hazel automation to save and file PDFs from iPhone and iPad. ShortcutDavid's File Automation Siri Shortcut Best Note Taking App | Organize Your Notes with Evernote DEVONthink — Smart document management for Mac - DEVONtechnologies Noodlesoft – Noodlesoft – Simply Useful SoftwareThe holy grail of file automation tools Hazel Field Guide | MacSparky Field GuidesDavid's Field Guide on the holy grail of file automation. There is a discount at the end of this episode. Keyboard Maestro 8.2.4: Work Faster with Macros for macOS Scanner App for iPhone and iPad | Best Scanning App | Scanner Pro Scanbot | The PDF Scanner App for iPhone and Android Airmail - Lightning Fast Mail Client for Mac and iPhone Drafts. Where Text Starts. | Drafts Editorial for iOS Home | Zapier Discover IFTTT and Applets - IFTTT GoodReader MacStadium | Apple Mac Infrastructure & Private Clouds MacinCloud - Rent a Mac in the Cloud! - Mac in Cloud Mr. Belvedere Full Opening