Go Beyond Keyboard Shortcuts by Using Contextual Menus On Your Mac
Using assigned keyboard shortcuts is all well and good, but advanced Mac users know about the power of contextual menus when getting things done in OS X.
How To Create An Automated PC Health Reporting System
You're out having lunch as your mobile alerts you to an important text. The SMS reads: "Home Computer Alert: 3 hacking attempts." This is not fiction! Let us show you how to do this!
Using VBA to Automate Internet Explorer Sessions From an Excel Spreadsheet
Its integration with Windows allows control of Internet Explorer in a number of surprising ways using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) script from any application that supports it, such as Word, Outlook or Excel.
How To Automate Your iPhone To Adapt To Your Routine
iPhone automation is not as robust as desktop operating systems, but there are some iPhone features and apps that can help you in your daily routine if you take the time to set them up.
5 Unusual IFTTT Recipes You May Not Have Thought Of
You've got the folks at IFTTT who make web automation look like childs play. It's quite impressive. I decided to finally start digging through IFTTT to see if I could come up with a few more creative ways to mix and match services in unique ways. In this article, I'm going to offer you 5 creative ways to build IFTTT recipes that you're going to find so useful, you'll keep using them every day.
Put Your iPhone To Work With IFTTT
IFTTT is an acronym for "If This, Then That" and it's pronounced like the latter part of the word "gift". The service promises to put the web to work for you, using a system of triggers and actions to automate a huge range of actions. Finally, IFTTT has released an iPhone app along with some iOS-only channels. The iPhone app marks the first mobile outing for the platform, a result of our increasing eagerness to be able to control everything using our phones.
How To Program NFC Tags & Automate Windows Phone 8
There’s a black sticker on my desk, which is remarkably useful. Thanks to the magic of NFC, it enables me to activate my Nokia Lumia 920’s wireless networking with a single touch. NFC, or near field communication, has been around for a few years now, and is an increasingly popular feature in smartphones. Intended to facilitate data transfer, contactless transactions in stores and even simplify the setup of things like WiFi connections, NFC can also be used to program NFC tags, usually sticky labels like the one on my desk.
7 Tips For Automating Your Mac With TextExpander
If you haven't gotten on the Mac automation spaceship by now, you're missing out. Applications like Keyboard Maestro, Hazel, and TextExpander can speed up your workflow and save you lots of clicking, copying, pasting and even the need to remember keyboard shortcuts. I routinely incorporate at least 20 or more TextExpander snippets in every MakeUseOf article I write, and in this article I will provide some advanced tips for getting more out of TextExpander.
Automate Your Mac From Morning to Night With These Apps & Tips [Mac OS X]
If you're spending most of your day working at your Mac, you should try to automate as many tasks as possible. Without knowing a single word of code, we Mac non-developers can practically automate any redundant task on our computers. From launching most-used websites nd typing regularly used words and phrases to cleaning up files and folders. Most of these tips can be accomplished using Keyboard Maestro or Automator, but if you'd rather not bother with creating macros and workflows, the following tips and applications only take a few minutes to set up and execute.
Control Any Application On Your Mac Or PC Using Actions for iPad [iOS]
If using keyboard shortcuts is not your forté but you spend a lot of time working in workhorse applications like Photoshop, GarageBand, Pages, Word or you simply want a faster way to execute menu items on your computer, you might want to check an app called Actions for iPad ($3.99). The app enables you to set up commands to control your Mac or Windows PC from your iPad, and today I'll be looking at how it integrates with OS X.
Automate Everything On Your Mac with Keyboard Maestro [Mac]
I've written several articles about Mac automation, including a MUO Automation Guide on how to get started with Apple's Automator and the built-in OS X features for creating smart folders, playlists, albums, and mailboxes. But next to the application called Hazel, which I also recently reviewed, the classic automation program Keyboard Maestro ($36.00) is my most used application for getting things done on my Mac. You can download it for a 30-day free trial.
Hazel - Performing Tasks On Your Mac So You Don't Have To
I have previously written an entire MUO guide about using Apple's smart folders and Automator program, but a classic third-party application called Hazel is one of my personal automation assistants that works in the background, requiring no keyboard shortcuts and mouse clicks on my part. Hazel is an automation program that essentially goes into action when files are added or changes are made to designated folders.
Schedule A Shutdown In OS X With These Tools [Mac]
Computers often pose a dilemma of power consumption. You'd like to do batch jobs like downloading, system repair or back-ups at night, when you aren't bothered by it. Then again, it seems a bit wasteful to keep your computer running all night long, especially if it should finish its work in an hour or three. Sure, it's easy that way, but it's also an incredible waste of energy.
The “Automation” Guide for Web [Part 2]
A wide variety of tools are dedicated to saving you time. From email to social media to your own website, you could be wasting time doing things free services could do for you, automatically.
Schedule Your Applications For Worry-Free Productivity
How many people really make good use of scheduling tasks? I used to be obsessed with finding different PC automation applications that could time the launch of all of my critical applications throughout the day, turning my computer into a self-fueled workhorse. In this article I want to walk you through some of the things that I do to automate my day and increase productivity.
Cuttlefish: Set Up Actions And Reactions To Automate Ubuntu
Automate things you're currently doing yourself. Cuttlefish is a new Ubuntu program that allows you to set simple rules that can save you time. It's kind of like ifttt, which automates your web apps, but works entirely on your Ubuntu desktop. It's actually very easy to use, and no programming skills are required to use this GUI-based tool.
How To Write A Windows Script To Change Network Settings On The Fly
In many offices or work environments, you might need to redefine your network settings to connect to different networks. I found myself in this situation often enough, and got so tired of browsing to the network card, opening up the IP settings and making those edits, that I decided it was high time to put together a VB script that would do it all in one or two clicks.
5 More Awesome IFTTT Recipes You Can Start Using Today
We introduced MakeUseOf readers to ifttt in September of last year. Since then, I've made a few posts regarding the web service. Those two articles introduce 18 one-click "recipes" that can supercharge your Internet experience. As ifttt continues to grow, users are contributing new and more useful ideas. Thanks to this web service, anyone and everyone can automate and simplify their most routine tasks, absolutely free.
Easily Automate Bulk Screen Captures With The Free KMPlayer
As the editor of several TV and movie-based websites, it often comes in handy to be able to grab images from video clips. Now of course there are many ways to do this (using VideoLan’s VLC Player is my favourite) but so far I’ve only found one method in which to grab tens, hundreds or even thousands of captures from a clip with a single mouse click. Fortunately, the results are spectacular.