Technology – Page 3 – Jeffrey W. Cox

Clipmate – Technology You Need To Be Using

Let me set the scene….

You are a Windows user. You need to copy someone’s name, company, street address, city, state, zip from one app to another (say your contact list to an order form). You open one app, copy, switch to the other, and paste, and back to copy, and forth to paste, and back and forth. 🙁

Or, here’s another fun one – you are working on a proposal. You cut a paragraph to your Windows clipboard with the intention to paste it elsewhere. You then get distracted by another “shiny object;” you see something else you want to move and you cut that. D’oh! You lost that first clip.

Enter Clipmate….

I have been using Clipmate FOREVER – like since I think 1998? It’s one of those pieces of technology I live in everyday. Clipmate captures everything you copy or cut to your Windows Clipboard. So, now, that “D’oh” moment? You just pop open Clipmate (either from the task bar or a hotkey shortcut), arrow down to that clip, and wah-lah; it’s now on your clipboard ready for paste – just flip back to your app.

That address?

Go into your contact list and just copy, copy, copy the name, company, street address, etc. Go into Clipmate and set it in “Power Paste!” mode. Now go into the Order Form and just Paste, Paste, Paste – the clips will go on to the Window’s clipboard in sequence, ready for pasting after you click in your next field and paste. It’s awesome.

Are you a coder? Want that piece of code or SQL Statement from yesterday? It will be there in Clipmate, which is fully searchable.

Passwords? You can set up collections in Clipmate. I keep one for such so I can quickly get to my most critical ones. I have another collection called “Templates” that have my return address, Spanish phrases I like to use, but can never get that “~” in the right place – whatever you need to frequently put into a document / code / query.

It does a ton more also. Chris Thorton has done an amazing job with the software.

Get rid of the “D’oh!” moments; get Clipmate at www.Clipmate.com

Clarity Keyboard – Technology You Need To Be Using

I love Android. The biggest reason? Because you can make it work the way you work, or want to work. Don’t like the background color, you change it? Critical you see the weather in Laguna Beach? Add it to your desktop. You type differently than others? Pick the keyboard that works for you.

When I was in middle school, I took typing. Probably the best class I ever took in Middle School (next to Ms. Edwards 8th Grade English) because it gave me a skill that has carried me forward over the years. Anyway, this class truly taught me to touch type; never look at the keys; always at the “paper.” So, then came along the Smartphone. I so want to “look at the paper,” but that’s not the way it works. You really have to look at the keys. So finding the right keyboard is critical.

I’ve used Swiftkey for years now. Its prediction technology is amazing. It really knows what word you need next most of the time. I was intrigued by their new neural network keyboard. It takes prediction technology to a whole new level. The original Swiftkey’s predictions where always good. But now they are great. Alas, it’s beta, so it’s missing the Swiftkey features of “learn from your Evernote account, Gmail and text.” I hope they can add that. (Also, for what it’s worth, I guess because it is beta, it’s a hair fuzzy, graphically, and only has two themes.) If they bring it to market, I’d consider switching for sure. But, with this keyboard, you are still having to look around – at the Keyboard; at the Predictions. So, then I saw their other beta, Clarity.

No “predictions” here. Well, that’s not 100% true. Their goal with this keyboard is to let you “just write.” So, that’s what you do. You keep your eyes on the keyboard and just type. It does its predictions in line with your typing; multi word – auto-magically (thanks Blake) correcting as you go along. When you do look up, your writing is pretty darn accurate. It lets you focus, and focusing is important to productivity.

Looking to “just write” on your Android and have focus. Give Clarity a try.

Epilogue: In my introduction post to this series, I said “no iOS.” Well, I somewhat fibbed. Swiftkey is available for iOS also. Give it a whirl.

Technology You Need To Be Using

(Photo Credit: Jeremy Brooks)

I’ve wanted to write something like this for a long time.

Today is the day I’ve decided to stop procrastenating.

I’m going to write about some pieces of technology , mainly software for Windows or Android, that I find really help with productivity. (Sorry, no iOS here – except Evernote. And, hey, I’m open to guest posts.)

I use some tools every day that just make me fly on these devices and I want to share the magic with you.

Have any requests or suggestions, let me know.