Leaf Raker

I like most of the new features in Leopard (yes, I even like the translucent menu bar!), but there are as always small annoyances.

One of those annoyances is that the printer application stays open and in the dock after printing.

Fortunately there is an easy solution:
Next time you print something just right-click and select “Auto Quit” from the menu:

Voila - now the printer application will quit after the job is done.

Quicksilver’s iTunes plugin comes with several excellent scripts, one of them is to mute iTunes.

The only problem is, that you can still hear all the system sounds. Pretty annoying if you are in a meeting or sitting in a class.

My workaround was to write an Apple Script to control the system volume:

This script will mute the system volume, or set it back to 50% if it’s already muted (the value for “set volume” is a percentage value from 0 to 100).

That’s it, I created a keyboard trigger to execute this script (I used Shift-Ctrl-Command + M) and I can mute my system without having to use the mouse or trackpad.

Yesterday I wrote a post why I prefer to use plain text files for my ToDo-lists instead of some fancy software. Shortly after publishing the post I came across a brand new application from Hog Bay Software called TaskPaper that might just give a new spin on the things I said yesterday.

To summarize my opinion about TaskPaper:

If you want (almost) the flexibility of plain text files with just the right amount of user convenience,
TaskPaper might be the solution for you.

Here is a screenshot from TaskPaper, displaying a file similar to the one I used yesterday:

Even though Hog Bay Software had a different idea how to organize projects, I could still use it the way I prefer to do things. TaskPaper is not forcing me into a workflow that doesn’t work for me. A big round of applause for Hog Bay for not telling me how I have to organize my life!

Another big advantage is, in my opinion, that TaskPaper’s data file is just a plain text file. So I will always be able to access my data - even if TaskPaper is for some reason not available. So for example syncing the file to a PDA and edit it like a plain text file should not be a problem.

So - what kind of convenience does TaskPaper add to using a plain text file?

Adding what is called “Projects” in TaskPaper can be done by clicking one of the buttons at the top, or using a keyboard shortcut. Adding tags to your tasks works just the same way. In order to mark a task as “done” you can just click on the little “bubble” and the tag “@done” will be added, like in my task “Prepare papers for budget meeting” above.

The main disadvantage I see so far: It is not possible to “fold” sections of your data file like in BBEdit. So keeping the overview in a very long file might be a bit dicey. On the other hand, it is possible to jump between Projects with the click of a button, so navigation in a big file should not be a problem. This is similar to the menu in BBEdit to jump between headers, as shown in the following screenshots:

TaskPaper	BBEdit

TaskPaper is free to try for 15 days. Afterwards it’s $18.95 as an introductory offer, later probably something like $27.95.