an alternative to simplenote+notetote
there’s an app that just hit the mac app store called notetote, which adds remote download capability to your mac via simplenote. which is all well and good if you use simplenote, but i don’t. i figured there was probably a way to achieve something roughly similar on my own, and there is. the rest of this assumes that you have hazel, though i’m sure something similar could be rigged up using folder actions. this solution isn’t quite as sophisticated as notetote, mostly because it’s not smart enough to allow for multiple files to be added in a queue-like fashion, but if you really need to download that many things while on the go then i figure the $5 is money well spent. that said, here’s what i’ve rigged with what i’ve got.
i use plaintext as my mobile text editor of choice, which syncs to a folder in my dropbox (full disclosure: that’s a referral link) account. i’ve created a file in here called ‘Download List’, but thet name isn’t important. i’ve set up the following hazel rule to monitor the folder that i have plaintext syncing to:
basically, when hazel notices that the ‘Download List’ file has been modified, it fires off the following automator workflow:
hazel will automatically use the file that matched the rule as the input for the workflow, which is why the workflow starts by immediately opening the document. from there, it just grabs the content of the document and, assuming that it’s a URL, downloads it to the desktop. simple. it can really only handle one file at a time, but that’s not a huge deal for me.
if you’d like, feel free to download the hazel rule and the automator workflow.
