In this tutorial, I wanted to share how I use TextMate to write and analyze lyrics, including tips for finding the perfect rhyme and spotlighting important ideas.

You may also be interested in a previous tutorial on finding lyrics for your MP3s.

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How To Write And Analyze Lyrics Using TextMate by Graham English
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How To Write And Analyze Lyrics Using TextMate by Graham English
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How To Write And Analyze Lyrics Using TextMate by Graham English

Thanks to the Circle Six Blog for the superior coding kung fu.

In TextMate, show the bundle editor and create two new commands:

Name: Determine Script Location
Save: Nothing
Command(s):

#!/usr/bin/env ruby -rjcode -Ku
%x{ osascript "#{ENV['TM_BUNDLE_SUPPORT']}/lib/blogselection.scpt" }

Input: None
Output: Insert as Text
Activation: Key Equivalent: ⌃⌥⌘5
Scope Selector: text.html

Name: Insert Quote from NetNewsWire
Save: Nothing
Command(s):

#!/usr/bin/env ruby -rjcode -Ku
print %{Place the file "blogselection.scpt" in #{ENV['TM_BUNDLE_SUPPORT']}/lib/ }

Input: None
Output: Show as HTML
Activation: Key Equivalent: ⌃⌥⌘5
Scope Selector: text.html

Now create and save the following Applescript. Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

Execute the first command to determine the script location. That’s all for the setup.

Now, whenever you find something in NetNewsWire that you want to quote, tab over to TextMate, open a new blog post (HTML), and run the command (⌃⌥⌘5).

Open TextMate and show the bundle editor (⌃⌥⌘B). Create a new command by clicking the plus sign on the bottom left of the bundle editor. Name the command “Add Quotes” or something to your liking. In the right-hand pane, leave the ‘Save’ drop-down menu to ‘Nothing’, Copy sed 's/^/${1:"}/' | sed 's/$/${2:"}/' into the Command area, leave ‘Input’ to ‘Selected Text or Document’ and change the ‘Output’ to ‘Insert as Snippet.’ If you like, you can create a key command like ⌃⌥⌘”.

Next, create an “Add Brackets” command exactly the same way except copy this code into the Command area: sed 's/^/${1:[}/' | sed 's/$/${2:]}/'

Now, whenever you are want to add quotes or brackets to your keyword list, copy your keywords into a TextMate document and select them, activate your key command, and voilà, your keyword list has been transformed.

One more thing. If you have a list of keywords that you want to transform into a negative keyword list, do everything above except copy this code into the Command area: sed 's/^/${1:-}/'

I’ve recently started using TextMate’s GTDAlt bundle for a number of reasons. While I’ve loved using Kinkless, I spend more time in TextMate. Using GTDAlt gives me the opportunity to really master this app. And GTDAlt imports Kinkless files so there’s no downtime. Plus, I’ve never really liked how I had to have OmniOutliner open to send things to my inbox. So while I patiently wait to give OmniFocus a try, I’m going to spend some time romancing TextMate.

This simple AppleScript takes the text I type and appends it to my GTD inbox. It also gives me a Growl notification when my inbox is appended. To use, you only need to change the path to the text file of your choice.

Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
– J.S. Bach

Now what I do is invoke Quicksilver, enter text mode and type my blog title, tab over to the action pane, type “Tex..” (for TextMate), and execute. TextMate creates a new file with the blog HTML template in my ‘Writing’ directory on my desktop and it automatically fills the blog header with the Title and the Excerpt tags. To make full use of the Excerpt tag, you’ll need to hack your blog xmlrpc.php and TextMate blogging bundle. Buy me a cup of coffee and I might teach you how. If you prefer to use Markdown, all you have to do is change the extension in the script from “.blog.html” to “.blog.markdown”.

Here’s the Quicksilver TextMate action script: Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

Here’s my entire @blogging context script: Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

Here’s my bare bones @blogging context for when I don’t know what to write yet. Save this script as an application and put it in your Applications folder, on your dock, or anywhere that Quicksilver can get to it: Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

Update: After a night of dreaming AppleScript, I came up with the be all and end all of my @blogging context. Like my full @blogging context script above, this script creates a blog post in TextMate and opens a couple of apps and a few URLs but with one major difference. Now you can type a pipe “|” after your blog title in Quicksilver and add keywords. These keywords will query Google and Technorati automatically. In Quicksilver, the text you would type would look something like this, “This Is My Post Title|intitle:keyword1 keyword2 -keyword3″. As you can see, you can add modifiers and keywords are space separated. And you don’t have to type the pipe or keywords. You’ll get an action similar to my previous @blogging context script.
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

Time is nature’s way of making sure that everything doesn’t happen at once.

Space is nature’s way of making sure that everything doesn’t happen to you.

And I can say the same with AppleScript. Anything I do repeatedly, I see if I can script it. And when I combine AppleScript with Quicksilver… I feel like I can save the cheerleader and save the world.

So right now I’m blogging this from Quicksilver using Applescript. I can even set categories now. With an auto excerpt plugin and the use of embedded tags, I’m all set.

I’m not giving up TextMate as my blog editor. Not even close. But it’s nice to have even less my blogging be even more frictionless.

I’ll be dreaming code tonight.

Consider this. Let’s say you have more than one blog that you have to moderate comment spam. If you use Akismet, it could take you two minutes a day to open your blog URLs, click Comments, click Akismet Spam, and hit Delete. But if you go directly to the Akismet URL and hit Delete, it could take you only 5 seconds per blog. If you have 5 blogs at 5 seconds of work a piece, then you’ve saved yourself around 80% of your time. That adds up to a huge chunk of time at the end of a year. If you blog 5 days a week, or 260 days a year, then the time saved adds up to around 390 minutes, or 6.5 hours! What if you can find 6 more tasks like this one, and I bet you can. You’ll have saved an entire 40 hour work week!

Well I’m going to do my best to give you a week’s vacation by sharing my top 5 AppleScript productivity hacks for WordPress bloggers and podcasters.

#1. Open URLs

This is a very simple script. It opens directly to the Akismet page of all your blogs. Any time you can batch your tasks and reduce the steps, you should. It’s this kind of simple workflow hacking that can turn into lots of extra hours.

Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

Spam comments and trackbacks will skew data for plugins like Popularity Contest. Run an AppleScript that will reset the counts automatically.

Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

The main point is to notice your path as you click around websites. If you notice a path you take regularly, see if you can get there directly. If so, AppleScript it and batch it with similar online tasks.

#2. Workspace Launcher: Launch Apps and URLs

Sure, Quicksilver makes launching apps a breeze. So why not save this script as an application so Quicksilver can launch your feed reader, blog editor, and browser all at once. Plus, you can toss in some URLs for linking, blog commenting, or writing inspiration.

This script opens NetNewsWire, TextMate, Safari, and opens Google and Technorati along with a couple prepared searches to get you started. It also does some slick GUI scripting to create a new TextMate HTML blog post.

Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

This AppleScript is for podcasting. It opens GarageBand, Audio Hijack Pro, Transmit, and Safari. It also opens Google news and Technorati WTF in case you need something to talk about. If you’ve got GarageBand set as Audio Hijack Pro’s audio source, you can add music, stingers, and all kinds of effects on the fly as you record.

Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

These scripts deal with work contexts. Define the purpose of your work and create special context workflows, e.g. @blogging, @podcasting, @surfing, @marketing, etc. This will focus your energy and streamline your time at the computer.

#3. Automatic WordPress Database Backup

If you use cpanel web hosting, it’s a breeze to download your WordPress MySQL backups using AppleScript. Login to your cpanel, go to Backups, and copy the URL to your MySQL database. If necessary, repeat for your other blogs. Just like the earlier Safari ‘open location’ AppleScripts, paste the URLs into the script.

Here’s the best part. If you save this script as an application, you can set it as an iCal alarm so it automatically runs at a specific time. In iCal, create a new event and name it. In the Alarm section of the Info pane, choose “Open file” and select the AppleScript application. Adjust the schedule using the lower pop-up menu. If you want iCal to trigger the script regularly, choose an interval from the “repeat” pop-up menu. Automatic backups!

Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

#4. Post to WordPress with Quicksilver

Not every blog post you will write needs all the bells and whistles of an app like TextMate or ecto. Whenever you feel like doing some quick-fire blogging, call up Quicksilver, type your post title and content separated by a colon, tab to the Action pane and type “QuickPress” (or as much of it as you need), and Execute. You might be able to blog faster, but I doubt it.

Did I mention this AppleScript has Growl support? That’s right. Growl notifies you of a successful post by returning the post ID number. Pretty sweet.

Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

#5. Automated Podcasting

This final AppleScript is my favorite. Podcasting can be time consuming. You have to record and convert your audio, tag it, upload it, and write and publish your blog post. If you’re not already AppleScripting your ftp, then that step alone can take 5 or 6 steps. But this script makes it downright simple to record, upload, and publish your podcasts.

Rather than tell you all about it, I’ll show you how you can create a frictionless podcasting environment.

Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

More Tips

You’ll want to save these scripts somewhere useful. Probably the best place is in your script library (/Library/Scripts/). If you open AppleScript Utility, you can check ‘Show Script Menu in menu bar’ and ‘Show Library scripts’ so that you are only a mouse-click away from saving time.

Many of these scripts, as I mentioned earlier, can be saved as applications. Like other apps, you can launch these scripts with Quicksilver. That puts them even closer to your fingertips. Or you can put them in your applications menu or on your dock for easy clicking.

A huge part of the GTD (Getting Things Done) mindset is setting up your system so you don’t have to think about it. That includes automating reminders so you’re not responsible for reminding yourself. Using iCal to schedule repetitive tasks frees up your mental energy for more important things. If you’re not afraid to get under the hood of your Mac, you can set up cron to run the script at specific times.

I hope you get a sense of the power you have and recognize the time you can save by using AppleScript to automate your most tedious tasks. You might want to check out my LifeHacks: Automation series for more tips and tricks. And about that week’s vacation I just gave you, where are we going?

Download all Top 5 AppleScript Productivity Hacks for WordPress Bloggers and Podcasters