Just added to the Mac Users Giveaway — Smile Software has provided a copy of PDFpen Pro and TextExpander for some lucky recipients!

Enter the Mac Users Giveaway between now and October 15th for a chance to receive one of many awesome prizes, including scanners, iTunes gift cards, books and eBooks, and great Mac software!

Smile Software has helped us begin the final week of the Mac Users Giveaway in style by generously donating 1 copy of PDFpen Pro (US$100) and 1 copy of TextExpander (US$35) to the prize pool! I’ve relied upon each of these programs for years and I’m thrilled to give you a chance to win your own copy.

About the Apps

In case you’re not familiar with it already, PDFpen is an app for advanced editing of PDF files. It lets you work with the text and images in a PDF, make all sorts of adjustments and annotations to the file, helps you scan and OCR new documents, and even save PDFs directly to Evernote.

But this isn’t the basic version of PDFpen that we’re giving away — it’s the PRO version! PDFpen Pro can also convert websites to multi-page PDF documents, create and edit cross-platform fillable PDF forms, and document Table of Contents.

TextExpander is… I’m not sure if the folks at Smile will appreciate this analogy, but I think of TextExpander as a sort of “gateway drug” to automating your work on a Mac. When you show it to someone for the first time, their eyes pop open after seeing huge blocks of text appear out of nowhere. When you show them how fast they can add whole paragraphs of stuff that they’re probably laboriously cutting-and-pasting into emails or documents, they’re totally hooked on the idea of automating repetitive tasks.

Both TextExpander and PDFpen are a great examples of how to design quality apps for OS X — Easy to use for people just getting started, but also featuring support of advanced scripting which, as you can imagine, warms the heart of many, many Mac people.

Win a copy of PDFpen Pro or TextExpander

All you have to do is go to the Mac Users Giveaway and fill out a short survey for a chance to win one of these great programs.

Good Luck!

Enter the Mac Users Giveaway through Oct. 15, 2012 for a chance at prizes like a scanner, iTunes gift cards, books, Mac software, and Alfred’s Powerpack!

Enter the Mac Users Giveaway between now and October 15th for a chance to receive one of many awesome prizes, including scanners, iTunes gift cards, books and eBooks, and great Mac software!

Alfred Logo
You probably know I’m a fan of Alfred — an app which lets you use keyboard shortcuts to accelerate and automate tasks on your Mac.

The free version of Alfred lets you launch apps with shortcuts, get quick access to web searches and bookmarks, and perform actions with music, email, and files/folders with a simple pop-up display. I think it’s a massively useful addition to any Mac user’s life and I’ve found that the husband and wife development team behind Alfred are engaged and responsive to their users, actively acting on their feedback and suggestions.1

The Powerpack

But the deeper power of Alfred to change how you work isn’t unleashed until you purchase the Powerpack. The Powerpack adds a whole host of cool stuff into the mix (look here for a partial list) but, no surprise I’m sure, the coolest parts to me are the scripting and hotkey related functions.

Where Alfred really distinguishes itself, though, is how makes easy it make it to share these recipes with other people. Over the long haul, I think that it’s critical to helping people get up to speed with the whole concept of “Keyboard Launcher Apps” and that why I’ve begun building Alfred Extensions that people can download.

Win a Powerpack

Running with Crayons, the developers of Alfred, have generously donated a Powerpack (normally £15 / about US$25) to the prize pool so that one lucky winner can see what I’m talking about for themselves! Go to the Mac Users Giveaway and fill out a short survey to begin!

  1. May not matter to some but, in a small attempt to make this world more of a meritocracy, I choose to give my money to people like the Pepperrells. [↩]

Just added to the prize pool — A ScanSnap S1100 Portable Document Scanner and some great DocumentSnap.com guides that show you how to use it!

In case you missed yesterday’s launch of the Giveaway for Mac Users, here are a few new prizes which might catch your eye…

ScanSnap S1100 Portable USB Document Scanner

First up, a ScanSnap S1100. Thanks to the kind folks at Fujitsu / ScanSnap, I’ve just added a ScanSnap S1100 to the prize pool (MSRP of this scanner is USD$200!). The S1100 is light, portable, and cloud-savvy enough to send your documents directly to services like Evernote. Speaking of Evernote — A quick reminder: If you buy any ScanSnap between now and November 1st, you’ll get a year of Evernote Premium free (and if it’s the S1100, you can get a free carrying case as well!)

And to sweeten the deal even further, the lucky winner of the scanner will also receive a copy of “The Unofficial ScanSnap Setup Guide” written by Brooks Duncan, the expert on all things ScanSnap who runs DocumentSnap.com.

The DocumentSnap “Paperless Document Organization Guide”

Now that you have an awesome scanner and a great guide to set it up, the challenge becomes: “How do I organize my documents so that I can find them when I need them?”

Wouldn’t you know that Brooks wrote an eBook about this, too? The ScanSnap winner will also receive a copy of DocumentSnap’s “Paperless Document Organization Guide”. In it, Brooks lays out his strategies for using folders, tags, and various apps to organize your scanned documents.

But why should the ScanSnap winner be the only one to receive these guides, right? I couldn’t agree more — so I’m giving away 3 more copies of each guide.

Enter Now

To enter, just go to the main Giveaway page and complete a short survey (Seriously — it’s just six questions and your contact info). You’ll also find out ways to get extra entries to boost your chances of winning!

Thanks again to ScanSnap and DocumentSnap.com for generously donating these prizes… and keep your eyes open for more great additions to the prize pool in the days ahead!

Veritrope’s Mac User Giveaway gives you a chance to win great Mac/ Productivity-related prizes for completing a survey and/or sharing your favorite tools.

Enter The Mac Giveaway Below!

For years, Veritrope.com has been the personal-but-public notebook of things I’m interested in, as well as a glimpse at some of the “Advanced Mac-Fu” I’ve designed on behalf of my workflow clients.1

Month after month, I’ve watched the number of Veritrope’s visitors growing. Usually at some point in every day, I find myself a bit staggered by how many people I see sharing, reading, and downloading the stuff that I’ve published here — or by who I discover reading and using my stuff. Amazing.

I’m very grateful. And I’ve also decided to take things up a notch.

The Why and the What of the Mac User Giveaway

I’m in the process of relaunching Veritrope as a place where technologists and creative professionals from all over the world can meet, learn from one another, and share their tools and inspiration. Right now, most of what you’ll find here is written for people who like to use their Macs in powerful, customized ways. That content will remain — and be expanded upon — in the new Veritrope.

In fact because I want to make sure that people continue to find excellent tools here, my first giveaway this month is aimed at all you Mac über-users. In exchange for filling out a short survey and/or sharing your own tools in the Code Library — you can win a bunch of great Mac-related prizes!

For example:

  • Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 Portable USB Scanner and DocumentSnap.com Guides. Not only can you win this lightweight, cloud-savvy scanner (normally $200), but also some great guides from Brooks Duncan at DocumentSnap.com that’ll show you how to make great use of it!
  • $100 of iTunes Gift Certificates. I’m giving away five $20 gift certificates that can be used at the iTunes or Mac App Stores.
  • Mac Productivity eBooks. I’m also giving away some great eBooks by David Sparks and Brett Kelly. If you want to use your Mac to help get rid of all the paper in your life, you’ll want to own these!
  • AppleScript and Automator Guides. Ben Waldie has generously donated several copies of his guide to using Automator, and I’m also giving away my own, personal copies of a number of AppleScript programming guides (some of which you’ll find on the AppleScript Resources list). You’ll see my folded pages, coffee rings, and occasionally teardrops and notes of desperation written in the margins. I mean what I say about Veritrope being a global resource so, no matter where you live, I’ll ship these books to winners anywhere in the world!
  • Software. Do you like writing in Markdown? Brett Terpstra’s Marked is an app you won’t want to be without!

Oh — and be sure to check back here regularly, as I may have a few more surprises to throw in…2

GIVEAWAY ENTRY FORM

The widget below is the entry form: Scroll past all the prizes to the tab at the bottom that says “Enter to Win” to get started.

During the giveaway period, you get 25 entries for completing a very short survey and 10 entries for each AppleScript, Automator Workflow, Alfred Extension, TextExpander snippet, and the like that you submit to the Code Library (Limit One Per Day). If you like, you can also get an extra entry for following Veritrope on Twitter, App.Net, or leaving a comment below. Note: Be sure to do it via the entry form below so you get proper credit for doing so.

Here’s the full prize list and entry form — just follow the instructions below. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

  1. I am now declaring that “Mac-Fu” is an actual thing. Ki-yaaa! [↩]
  2. Cough, Cough… Hint, Hint [↩]

A few Alfred extensions for use with Safari, Google Chrome, and Evernote

Alfred Logo
Knowing how to use keyboard shortcuts is one of the best ways to improve your productivity on a computer – and even more so when you use them to trigger “recipes” of commonly repeated but complex tasks.

One of my favorite programs to help you use these shortcuts is Alfred (the “Powerpack Edition”, naturally). I was planning on waiting for the relaunch of Veritrope to start sharing some Alfred extensions, but it seems that I just can’t help myself!

Here are a few that I’ve recently added to some scripts in the Code Library:

Does anyone want to see more Alfred / Keyboard Maestro / Text Expander stuff around here? Let me know in the comments — or send me a note on Twitter or on App.Net.