Last year, I posted about things that improve my life. These were largely material items and goods that make my life better.
I spend a lot of time on the computer. Some would say too much. Below I’ve gathered some of the pieces of software that are essential to my various processes.
I run Windows, and, except where noted, these are Windows tools which may not be compatible in other environments.
Auto Hot Key
I will post a longer blog post here eventually, with detailed instructions to duplicate my setup. Some of the various things I have enabled include:
- Keyboard shortcuts (@@ for my personal email, @@@ for my professional; ## for my phone number, \addr for my mailing address, and so on). I never misspell my own email, nor waste time typing it out.
- Symbols like —, ¢, °, and more
- Default rejection letter with \rej to reply to recruiters.
- ctrl+alt+v to TYPE OUT the text currently on my clipboard, circumventing villainous websites that disable copy/paste.
- Windows + scroll wheel for volume up/down. I use this countless times each day.
- Shift+ctrl+C / Shift+ctrl+v for a second clipboard, for those times where I’m pasting two alternate sets of information on repeat.
- Ctrl+Spacebar to toggle “Always on top” mode, useful for “pinning” a notepad document or website atop another (or when remoting in to various machines)
- Win+N for an empty notepad document
- Ctrl+click to drag a document from its middle (or anywhere). Useful when the title bar is offscreen.
- And much, much more.
Sunset Screen
This is a blue light filter. I used to use F.Lux, but they got really persnickety about not letting users set their own times for dimming, so I switched.
I understand that Windows (and most devices now) have night mode built in by default. Consider this a habit; it may not apply to you.
I use Twilight on my phone for the same reason.
Pushbullet
There are many tools to send links and information between devices, or to answer texts from a web browser or computer. Pushbullet is the most seamless.
I always have persistent notifications on my phone with todos or things to remember for the day. I’ve used many competitors, they are all worse in one way or another.
I’m always sending myself notes — usually from my phone to my phone, but occasionally from my computer to my phone, or a photo from my phone to my computer. It’s essential to my daily workflow.
Google calendar
I am scheduling events months into the future, as well as reminders. The todo functionality is nice, but not perfectly functional yet. I have yet to find a better way to organize my life. It syncs across devices, and just works, though I do have nitpicks.
For YEARS, I was using a version of Google Calendar from 2014, as they issued a boneheaded update in the fall of that year that removed week view. They re-instated it quickly, but once bitten and all that.
I was finally persuaded to upgrade (largely due to breaking changes) in the winter of 2023, and I have been satisfied with the experience since.
Drawboard
Once upon a time, someone made the perfect PDF app, and it’s called Drawboard.
Unfortunately, they later ruined it, and moved as many of the features as possible to a subscription.
I use an old version, installed before the subscription, though it constantly begs me to update.
What makes it great? Aside from the inking, Drawboard remembers all the documents I have open, and displays previews in the side panel. The modern redesign instead only shows the title of each open PDF listed at the top like a web browser. Way less useful!
I have tried dozens of PDF readers and found all (except perhaps those from Adobe, which require a subscription) lacking.
Dropbox PDF (Android)
I don’t use Dropbox a lot these days, not the way it’s intended. But it’s among the first applications I install on every Android device I own.
Why? Because it has the best PDF reader I’ve found on mobile. (note: I have not yet checked out Moon Reader +, which has been recommended to me).
Dropbox PDF handles large PDFs, doesn’t show me ads, and is a seamless experience. Everything a PDF reader should be!
Scrivener
I write daily. When I’m writing fiction or radio plays, I go to Scrivener. It has a generous free trial (30 nonconsecutive days), and is an incredible tool to facilitate writing.
Scrivener separates your format from your writing, and gives you tools to compare multiple scenes at once, to focus, and to rearrange things as needed.
I use it for outlining, and for filling in those outlines in a way that results in finished stories.
If you want to write more, get a tool like Scrivener.
Fontbase
Sometimes I design things. Things like Christmas cards, roleplaying games, board game supplements or reference cards. Fontbase is a font manager. I can activate fonts as I need them, and only as I need them. It lets me compare multiple fonts, and sort them into folders (sci-fi, favorites, handwriting, long descenders, etc).
Caveat: If you ever pay for the subscription, you are cursed for the rest of time to see a red “EXPIRED” label on the app. If you remain free, the label never appears.
Notepad++
I use notepad all the time, for quick notes.
I use Notepad++ more often.
It has text shortcuts (cut line, shift line up or down), regex search and replace, extensions for markdown preview and shortcuts, and a whole bunch of other features I love. I keep todo lists in Notepad (many of which are unsaved, as it backs up all my tabs for me), and use a comment shortcut to style them in a struckthrough gray.
Some people use VSCode, but I find that requires too much struture for what I want: a loose collection of text documents on various topics that I can navigate with keyboard shortcuts.
ClipCube
ClipCube is a clipboard manager, letting me see the last 500 things I’ve copied. Since I’ve been using this, Windows has rolled out a native clipboard manager (win+v) which also does pictures, but it’s disabled by default.
Mostly I stick with ClipCube because I can have favorites, as well as habit.
WinSCP
I have a website, and I need to update it. Whenever I need to transfer files from one computer to a server, I use WinSCP. I’ve used other services (hello, Filezilla), but this is the best.
Beyond Compare
Beyond Compare is the best diffing tool I have ever used. If I need to see what has changed between two documents, I slap them into BC and see what’s up.
This is another paid choice, but it also has a generous free trial (30 non-consecutive days), and is worth the price. Most other differs have inscrutable user interfaces.
Revo Uninstaller
Revo! You know when you want to uninstall a program and you want to make sure you get ALL of it? That’s when I launch Revo.
Aside from its deep scan, Revo is also great for having a “hunter tool” which you can drag onto a window and it will identify the parent process and allow you to uninstall it from there. Kapow!
TreeSize
My C drive is full? Of what? I wish there was an easy way to tell what’s taking up all this room!
There are many tools that do that. Some of them are slow, some of them are ugly. TreeSize is neither. It scans your drive, shows you what’s taking up space, and makes it easy to clear it out.
Everything
Man, I love Everything. It’s a search that works. It indexes your computer and allows you to easily find any file you want. It has a shortcut for quick search, which is fine, but it’s worth setting up a shortcut for full search, as that’s usually what I’m after.
I used this not 20 minutes ago because I know I have photos from my trip to Belgium in 2019, but I have no idea where they are on my computer. Within seconds, I had them all.
RSS
What if I could see all of the websites I follow in one place, and tell at a glance if they have any updates?
Webcomics, blogs, deal sites, newsletters, and more. I don’t want substack in my EMAIL. I want to check it on demand!
I wrote a longer piece on why I love RSS, and why you might too.
Personally, I use TheOldReader.